Twice-Steamed Rice Cake 双炊糕
Twice-Steamed Rice Cake is featured among the local specialties of Zhejiang.
Twice-Steamed Rice Cake (双炊糕) is a sweet glutinous-rice cake from Rui’an (瑞安), associated with the Li Datong (李大同) pastry shop. The tourism bureau of Wenzhou (温州) describes its texture as fine, soft, resilient and springy, with sweetness and fragrance.
How it is made
The Li Datong version uses fine glutinous rice flour mixed with white or brown sugar. The mixture is sifted, sprinkled with osmanthus, shaped and cut into blocks. It then undergoes two rounds of steaming, the process reflected in the cake’s name.
The Li Datong tradition
The tourism bureau credits pastry maker Li Ruiqing (李瑞庆) with creating the cake during the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty. His shop name expressed an ideal of public-mindedness and equality.
Production later stopped for a period. In 1982, Li Ruiqing’s descendants Li Dingbo (李定波) and Li Guancheng (李观成) resumed the family business and restored production of the cake.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-27. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.