白糖糕 Bai Tang Gao - Steamed Rice Cake

Rice flour, sugar, and yeast are the only ingredients you need to make bai tang gao (白糖糕), or Chinese steamed rice cake.

It must have been more than a decade since I last sink my teeth into a piece of 白糖糕 bai tang gao - steamed rice cake . Since both sets of my grandparents are Cantonese, I grew up eating tons of this soft and chewy cake.

It looks so simple, but believe me, getting that just right texture can be super tricky. Case in point, no one in my family ever attempts this cake and just buy some from the neighborhood shop when the craving hits.

Of course, living halfway across the globe means I have no access to the said trusty shop. But at last, I have managed to recreate this favorite childhood cake of mine :)

To prepare the bai tang gao batter: (1) Mix rice flour with water and stir into clumps; (2) Add hot boiling water and sugar liquid, whisk into a smooth batter; (3) Wait until the batter cools to 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit); (4) Add instant yeast, whisk, cover the bowl and rest in 75 Celsius (170 Fahrenheit) oven for 40 minutes.

What you need to prepare bai tang gao (Chinese steamed rice cake)

Turns out, you only need three ingredients to make a bai tang gao:

• rice flour (Note: I always use the one from Erawan brand, if you use another brand, proceed at your own risk)
• sugar
• instant yeast, you can use active yeast too but instant is easier

Note the many air bubbles in the batter if the yeast is properly activated at the end of the resting time.

How to prepare the batter for bai tang gao (Chinese steamed rice cake)

I have a detailed step-by-step photo that I hope is sufficient to show the visuals of what you can expect the bai tang gao batter should look like.

1. First, mix 250 gram of rice flour with 150 ml room temperature water into clumps.
2. Boil 150 gram sugar with 370 ml water in a small saucepot. Once all the sugar dissolves, pour this to the clumpy rice flour mix from step 1. Whisk into a smooth batter.
3. Wait for the batter to cool until only warm to touch. If you want to be precise like me, you can use a thermometer and it should read 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit). Also, you want to preheat the oven to 75 Celsius (170 Fahrenheit) at this point.
4. Add the instant yeast to the batter and whisk to mix. Cover the mixing bowl with a saran wrap, then rest in the preheated oven. Immediately turn off the oven heat, and rest the batter for 40 minutes.

At the end of the resting time, you should see that the batter has many air bubbles, which indicates that the yeast is doing its job and we should be getting the desired cake texture. If you don’t see the air bubbles, your yeast is either dead or expired, and unfortunately, there is no point to continue cooking the cake since it will 100% fail.

Bai tang gao (Chinese steamed rice cake), just out from the steamer.

Can I use active dry yeast instead of instant yeast?

If all you have in your pantry is active dry yeast, you can use that too. But we will need to modify some of our steps above.

• Step 1: no change.
• Step 2: instead of boiling 150 gram sugar with 370 ml water, use only 150 gram water with 350 ml water.
• Step 3: no change.
• Step 4: mix 20 ml warm water (38 Celsius/100 Fahrenheit) with the active dry yeast and wait until foamy (usually about 5-10 minutes). Then add to the warm batter (not hot! preferably the batter is also 38 Celsius/100 Fahrenheit), and mix. The rest of the step is the same.

Same as the case with using instant yeast, your batter should have many air bubbles at the end of the resting period. From my own experience, when I use active dry yeast if at step 4 I don’t see any foam after 5-10 minutes from the time I mix the yeast with warm water, it is 100% guaranteed that my yeast has already expired and is completely useless.

Bai tang gao (Chinese steamed rice cake).

Prepping the cake pan

Once your batter has finish resting and has produced many tiny air bubbles, let’s prep our cake pan. I use an 8”x2” round cake pan.

For a successful bai tang gao, you need to pour the batter into a hot pan, so be sure to preheat the pan. It doesn’t need to be scalding hot, but definitely hot enough so it won’t be comfortable to grab it with bare hands.

Brush the hot pan with oil, give the cake batter a final stir so everything is well mixed, then pour the cake batter, and steam.

Bai tang gao (Chinese steamed rice cake).

Steamer pot and tips for a successful steamed rice cake

I hope you do realize before this step that you need a steamer to complete this recipe. After all, we are making a steamed cake, and it even says so in the title.

You can use any kind of steamer as long as it can fit an 8”x2” round cake pan. I prefer a stainless steel steamer for hygiene reasons. But you can use a bamboo steamer too, and you are more likely to get a better result with a bamboo steamer.

Create a makeshift steamer

There is no need to rush out and buy a steamer if you currently don’t have one at home. Instead, you can use this guide from Food52 to create a makeshift steamer.

Fill a large pot with about half an inch of boiling water. Use aluminum foil to make three balls of roughly equal size. Once we are ready to steam, rest the cake pan on top of the foil balls. Cover the pot and steam the cake. Of course, you need to make sure the pot is large enough to accommodate the aluminum foil balls and the cake pan.

Make sure to prevent water droplets fall onto the cake surface

Please make sure that there are no water droplets drop onto the surface of the cake. The steam that rises during the steaming process can condense and turn into water droplets that may fall onto the cake surface. If this happens, your cake may turn sticky and pudding-like instead of light and fluffy.

If you steam with a bamboo steamer and a bamboo cover, you shouldn’t encounter this problem. If your cover is made from metal or glass, please wrap with a piece of kitchen cloth so the cloth will trap the steam and prevent any water droplets from falling onto the cake surface.

And that’s all the tips that I have to prepare a successful bai tang gao (Chinese steamed cake). Enjoy!