Qingtian Sugar Cake 青田糖糕

How it is made

Home cooks usually steam the cake between the 20th and 29th days of the twelfth lunar month, and in years when the Beginning of Spring (立春) comes early they make it before that day, because Qingtian people believe cakes made with "winter water" keep longer. The day before, bamboo leaves (箬叶) are soaked for eight hours and simmered until soft and fragrant; the pale yellow cooking water is mixed with sugar to make the batter liquid. Glutinous rice flour, sugar and this leaf water are then stirred together until completely smooth, which often takes one to two hours.

Next morning the leaves are laid overlapping around the inside of the steamer, each covering two-thirds of the next. Batter is poured in to a quarter of the depth, then a layer of pork belly, then more batter, repeated until the steamer is three-quarters full, with red dates on top. Sesame, peanuts, red beans or dried tangerine peel can be added. Steaming takes 12 to 14 hours, with four hollow bamboo tubes set around the edge to carry steam from the pot into the steamer, and the batter turns from white to amber.

Flavour and texture

Fresh from the steamer the cake is soft but springy, sticky and fragrant with glutinous rice, sugar and bamboo leaf. A home-made cake lasts about a month. It is eaten re-steamed, cut cold into pieces and chewed, or pan-fried until crisp outside and soft inside.

Where it comes from

The Qingtian County Gazetteer (青田县志), as quoted by Tide News, credits the method to Ji Zha (季札) of the state of Wu in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, whose clan later moved into Qingtian. Local legend links the cake to Liu Bowen (刘伯温), a Qingtian native. It is also a betrothal gift at weddings, and vacuum-packed cakes now go to Qingtian emigrants overseas.