Steamed Jujube Cake 枣介糕
Steamed Jujube Cake is featured among the local specialties of Shanxi.
Steamed Jujube Cake (枣介糕) is a steamed cake of yellow millet flour (黄米面) and red jujubes from Yangquan (阳泉), Shanxi. Shanxi Satellite TV (山西卫视) describes it as a dish that has to be on the table at New Year and at weddings.
How it is made
In the Shanxi Satellite TV description, the cake is built up in the steamer: a layer of yellow millet flour, then a layer of jujubes scattered over it, and so on. Steaming turns it yellow with red showing through. A 2025 People's Daily app feature on Shanxi, carried on the provincial government portal, calls yellow millet flour sticky and fragrant and says it is best made into sweet millet fried cakes (黄米油糕) and Steamed Jujube Cake.
Flavour and texture
The sweetness comes from the jujubes, set against the aroma of the millet.
How it is eaten
The name carries a wish. Shanxi Satellite TV explains that the name sounds like zaojie (早结, "an early union"), and that the cake stands for having a son soon and for a prosperous, sweet life. A 2017 episode of the CCTV-7 programme Xiangtu (乡土) on wedding customs in Yu County (盂县), Yangquan, looked at the folk meaning the cake has there, alongside the custom of a newly married daughter returning to her parents' home.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.