Thousand-Layer Steamed Cake 千层油糕
Thousand-Layer Steamed Cake is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Thousand-Layer Steamed Cake (千层油糕) is a sweet pastry long made in Yangzhou (扬州), Jiangsu, where it forms a famous pair with emerald shaomai (翡翠烧卖).
How it is made
The cake is made from wheat flour, sugar and fat. The dough is fermented, built up in layers and then steamed rather than baked. Worked in the traditional way, the layering produces a structure of sixty-four layers. The finished cake shows clearly separated layers and has a semi-translucent look.
Where it comes from
The cake has been made in the Yangzhou area for a long time, and together with emerald shaomai it is called the "two supremes of Yangzhou" (扬州双绝).
It is one of the Huaiyang pastries of the Fuchun Teahouse (富春茶社), also known as the First House of Huaiyang (淮扬第一楼), which opened in 1885 in Deshengqiao Lane (得胜桥巷) in the centre of Yangzhou's old city. The teahouse's trio of sanding buns (三丁包), Thousand-Layer Steamed Cake and emerald shaomai won the Golden Tripod award for Chinese culinary art (中华厨艺金鼎奖) and was named a "Chinese famous snack" (中华名小吃).
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Suzhou's rice-flour sweets set beside a Yangzhou cake made from fermented wheat dough, layered and steamed.