Celebrating New Year with “Sticky Cake”
In America homonyms are language oddities that spark interest only as intellectual curiosities. But in Chinese culture they play a very large role in everyday and holiday symbols. Perhaps this is because there are so many homonyms in the Chinese language. So it is that many food traditions during Chinese New Year are connected to play on homonyms. One such food symbol is the Chinese New Year cake known as “nian gao” (年糕) in Mandarin.
To understand the significance of “nian gao” one must first understand the characters involved. The Chinese characters for sticky (黏) and year (年) are both pronounced as “nian.” Hence “nian gao” can refer to “sticky cake” (黏糕) or “New Year cake” (年糕) depending on the character used. Furthermore the characters for cake (糕) and high (高) are both pronounced as “gao.” Now consider the expression of “nian nian gao” (年年高), which literally means “year, year high” and is commonly used to describe “prosperity every year.” You can see why these homonyms are irresistible for the Chinese to use “New Year cake” as a symbol for prosperity.
This is how many sticky food items came to be known as New Year cakes. Just like many Chinese dishes, New Year cakes developed regional variations over time. But two main types of sticky cakes are common and they are plain and sweet. The plain New Year cake is popular around the Yangtze River delta region, and is generally made into a hard dry cake. It is commonly sliced into thin pieces like pasta before being stir-fried with meat and vegetables, or made into soup. The sweet variety on the other hand is consumed all over the country. However they are generally made with white sugar in the north and brown sugar in the south.
To create the stickiness all New Year cakes are made with glutinous rice flour as the main ingredient. Although sometime regular rice flour is added to reduce the stickiness. I like mine sticky so I usually only use glutinous rice flour. The recipe I want to share with you today is for a sweet New Year cake with brown sugar. I like to use Chinese brown sugar that is like rock sugar. It has a very pleasant slightly caramelized flavor. However, you can always substitute regular brown sugar.
The sweet New Year cake is most commonly served fried in a light egg batter, making it slightly crunchy on the outside and very sticky inside. I’d suggest serving it with a cup of good hot Chinese tea to help counteract the stickiness. Happy New Year!
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Sweet New Year Cake (甜年糕)
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- Preparation time: 20 minutes
- Slow cooking time: 45 minutes
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- 1 lb. glutinous rice flour (糯米粉)
- 2 cups water
- 3/4 lb. Chinese brown sugar (or dark brown sugar)
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- Toasted white sesame seeds for garnish
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- Melt the brown sugar in the water over low heat. Cool the syrup for about 15 minutes. Add the glutinous rice flour and vegetable oil to the syrup and mix well. Make sure there are no lumps in the mixture. Note that this is a very thick batter.
- Line the bottom of a 9-inch cake tin with waxed paper. Grease the paper and the side of the tin liberally with vegetable oil. Pour the glutinous rice mixture into the cake tin. Steam the cake on a rack over boiling water in a wok. Steam for about 45 minutes.
- Remove the cake tin from the wok when the cake is done and sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds. Cool on a rack till about room temperature. Refrigerate the cake for about an hour before trying to unmold. This will make the process easier. When unmolding the cake you may want to grease the entire cake surface with vegetable oil so the cake will not stick to your hands. When cooled keep the cake in the refrigerator.
- This cake is usually covered in egg batter and deep-fried before serving. Slice the cake into about quarter inch thick slices. Make an egg batter by mixing one egg and one teaspoon of cornstarch. Coat the cake slices with a think layer of cornstarch, and then dip in the egg batter. Deep-fry the cake in very hot oil until the batter turns brown.
January 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Thank you so much for this! Hope you have a happy and wonderful new year!
+Jessie
a.k.a. The Hungry Mouse
January 24th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Very interesting about the homonyms. This cake looks and sounds delicious; crunchy and sticky? mmm!
January 25th, 2009 at 12:48 am
This version used to be available in Canada during Chinese New Year, but I have never been able to find it in Sichuan (maybe I should go out and look again today!) Had no idea it was so easy to make, thanks! We usually just fried it in oil.
January 25th, 2009 at 4:29 am
As Chinese as I am, I never did like the nian gao because of its stickiness. Only occasionally will I try the deep fried ones. Still, great recipe.
~Foong~
January 25th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Thanks for this little lesson, I enjoyed it very much. And my language-nut of a boyfriend loved it too. Happy New Year!
January 25th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
A happy Chinese new year to you! Never tried this, but would love to.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:23 am
Pepper, This cake is easy to make at home now with the availability of glutinous rice flour. I remember our family servant used to mill the glutinous rice in the stone mill at home. Then collect the slurry to make the cake. Those were the times when making this cake was very time consuming.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Kian-
Happy ‘Niu’ Year! It is my first visit to your blog and have already bookmarked it. I am most excited to find a blog by a trained chef on traditional Chinese dishes using ingredients in America. I’m looking forward to learning lots from your blog!
Once my mother made such a sticky new year cake that it would not set up. We wound chunks of it on chopsticks and ate it like fair food on a stick.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Where do you get your glutinous flour? I’m in NYC as well.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Tina, you can get glutinous rice flour in most grocery stores in Chinatown. Look in the flour/starch section of a dry goods store.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
An aunt of mine used to make a steamed cake that was a light creamy yellow in color and steamed in layers so you could peel off the layers when you ate it. It’s similar to the nian gao, but was for any ordinary day, not for a special occasion. I wish I knew how to make that. Anyone familiar with anything like that?
Kian – thanks for the blog. I’ve been trying to find out how to make some of my childhood favorites, and it looks like you’re the answer.
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Hi, I wonder if you also have a recipe for making pumpkin nian gao? Can you please share with me. Tks!
February 5th, 2010 at 12:05 am
I do not have a pumpkin nian gao recipe handy at the moment. I’ve been planning a pumpkin cake (nan gua bing) recipe post and hope to complete soon.