Betty showed us how to make Chinese New Year Cake, the baked version. The baked version takes much lesser time than the steamed version. Betty made two different flavours of the baked Chinese New Year Cake.
She made one with red bean soup and another just plain. You can make it in coconut milk flavour too.
This is the coconut milk flavour I made at home. The crust seemed to be thicker as I used two smaller pans to bake it and I forgot to reduce the baking time.
Ingredients
- 1 package of glutinous rice flour (400g)
- 3 eggs (medium)
- 1 1/2 cups water or milk or coconut milk or red bean soup
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar (use 1 cup if red bean soup has been sweetened)
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375F.
 Beat the eggs into a large bowl.
Add the brown sugar. |
 Add the red bean soup (just the soup, leave the red bean till the end). Mix well. |
 Add the flour little by little while mixing to prevent lumps. This is why we do not want to add the red bean first as it’s hard to different any lumps of flour from the red bean. Add in the red bean after you have a smooth batter. To make it easier, use a hand mixer to blend the mixture to get a smooth batter. |
 Grease a pie plate. Pour the batter into the greased pan.
Bake at a preheated 375F oven for 50 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. |
 It will be sticky when you slice into the cake.We find that the cake made with red bean soup is firmer than the plain one. Perhaps it is due to there is lesser liquid in the red bean soup version. I also find that the texture of this cake is slightly different from the steamed version. I will try to make this for Ben and see if he can differentiate the difference.
Betty, thank you so much for sharing this recipe. |
Wow, I hve never seen the baked version before. I never even knew there was one. Very cool. I need to tell my mom about this. She is Cantonese, second-generation. She makes this with a microwave recipe; it is like the steamed, but softer (and easier).
This is a lot like the Filipino cake I make every so often called Bibingka, except I don’t use red bean soup or coconut milk or eggs, it just calls for regular milk. I’ve made Butter Mochi (a Hawaiian dessert that is similar) before and it calls for eggs and coconut milk and it’s a lot richer than the Bibingka is.
I’m a bit fascinated with cakes made from glutinous rice flour!
Thanks for the recipe. I tried making this over the weekend and I think using the entire package of glutinous rice flour might have been too much because my edges were super tough. Do you think it’s because I used a cake round versus a foil one like you used? Also, I tried it with the red bean soup instead of the coconut milk. When you wrote in the recipe a cup and a half of the soup, is that a cup and a half of just the liquid or does that include the beans too because my batter was more of a dough versus silky smooth like yours. Help. My family liked the flavor, but it didn’t look as pretty as yours and I think I’d like to try and make it again for next year’s New Year. Lastly, we didn’t cut into it till a few hours later versus just right out of the oven. Is your picture above just after it’s out of the oven? Because mine shrunk to be about 3/4 of an inch in height after cooling. Sorry for the bajillion questions. Thanks!
Hi Jamie, I think it should be 1 1/2 cups of soup alone because the one we made with 1 1/2 cups including the beans was also firmer than the plain one. Yes, we have to cut it right away due to time constraint.
Thanks Suanne, You’re always so great about responding quickly. I’ll make a note about using the soup only on my next attempt. I love your website…I check it daily!!!!
Hi Suanne,
Would it be possible to substitute regular all-purpose flour for rice flour in this recipe?
thanks very much,
Dandel
Hi Dandel, I dont think you can substitute all purpose flour for this recipe as it will not give the chewiness to the cake as glutinous rice flour does.
Hi Suanne,
thanks for the very quick answer to my question. I was able to get rice flour for the cake. However, I made the mistake of substituting 2/3 of the brown sugar with molasses. All the other ingredients remained the same. I am afraid to report that the molasses overpowered everything else that went into the cake.
Dandel
Well, I’ve made this for the first time this afternoon, and it is so good! I’m trying to stop myself from eating the whole thing right here, right now.
I made the plain version and followed your recipe to the dot. It has just the right amount of sweetness and is neither too soft nor too firm.
Thank you for sharing the recipe!
yummy~! i baked this cake cause i had about 3/4 of a cup of coconut milk that i needed to either use up or throw away, and boy do i not regret it =]
i dont like nian gao (chinese new year cake), but this baked version worked for me
cant get enough of that crunchy crust, not to mention the creamy chewy center (i used half coconut milk and half fresh milk).. delicious
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I only have gluten-free rice flour. Can I use that instead of glutinous rice flour?
Hi Sally, I have never used gluten-free flour before. I do not know it’s effect on recipes. I’m sorry that I cant really help. But it’s no harm trying.