Lama Cake 喇嘛糕

Lama Cake (喇嘛糕) is a traditional baked pastry of the Mongol people, presented by the county government as a food speciality of Fuxin Mongol Autonomous County (阜新蒙古族自治县), in north-western Liaoning under the administration of Fuxin (阜新) city. It heads the county's list of 'lama foods' (喇嘛食品), a group that also takes in lama stewed pork (喇嘛炖肉) and lama meat congee (喇嘛肉粥).

Ingredients

The base of Lama Cake is refined wheat flour, white sugar and eggs. Melon-seed kernels, red and green candied shreds (青红丝) and osmanthus flowers (桂花) go in as secondary ingredients, and the cakes are baked in an oven.

Flavour and texture

The county government describes the finished cake as white as snow, fragrant and sweet, with a soft crumb that springs back when pressed, and presents it as a food suited to both children and older people.

Where it comes from

The 'lama' in the name places the cake in Fuxin's group of lama foods. In explaining the related lama stewed pork, the same county text notes that lama Buddhism (喇嘛教) was once widespread in the Fuxin area, with more than 360 lama temples at its height, and that Ruiying Temple (瑞应寺) alone was said to have 'three thousand six hundred named lamas, and nameless lamas beyond counting'.