New Year Cake (烤年糕)

Growing up, the Lunar New Year was a time for family, mahjong, little to no privacy, and food. So much food. We've all grown up now and spread out across the country, so the traditions have mostly been reduced to wearing red and calling the family elders to pay our respects. Mostly. One tradition that I still cling to is the inclusion of new year cake, or 年糕. Made out of steamed glutinous rice flour, it's sticky and chewy and sweet and pairs perfectly with roasted meats or on its own. We usually bought ours from Chinatown in a rock hard cake that my mother would then flour and pan fry. After moving out of the house, I've developed a fondness for the baked variant, or 烤年糕.


I've tried a few recipes over the years. Most of them consist of dumping all of the ingredients into a bowl, mixing them, and pouring them into a greased pan. This year, I took the time to add ingredients separately as you would an actual cake. That meant letting everything come to room temperature before starting. The butter and sugar were mixed first. Lesson learned: since the butter separates when melted, the sugar won't dissolve completely. That's okay! They'll get emulsified once you add in the eggs. I also took the time to alternate adding the glutinous rice flour and the milk. The result was a new year cake with smooth texture and delightful springiness that were lacking from previous iterations.

You'll want to make sure that you purchase glutinous rice flour, also called sweet rice flour. It's not the same as plain rice flour. You'll also need sweetened red bean paste. The ones that I used this year have kernels, but you can get a finer paste as well. Both of these ingredients should be available at your local Asian grocer or online.

 

New Year Cake (烤年糕)

Ingredients:
4 T (1/2 stick)	butter, melted
1/2 cup	white sugar
3	eggs
1 tsp	vanilla extract
1 package (16 ounces)	sweet rice flour
1 tsp	baking powder
2 1/2 cups	milk

Directions:
1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 baking dish.
2.	Using the creamer attachment on your mixer, mix together sugar and melted butter on low.
3.	Turn the beater up to medium and add eggs one by one, followed by the vanilla extract. Turn the beater up to high until the liquid is homogeneous and smooth.
4.	With the beater on low speed, add in about 1/4 of the sweet rice flour, followed by the baking powder, then 1 cup of milk. Alternate adding sweet rice flour and milk, ending on the flour. Mix the batter until smooth between each addition.
5.	Pour about half of the batter into the greased pan. Bake for ~30 minutes, or until top is just set. Remove onto cooling rack.
6.	In a separate bowl, thin the red bean paste by mixing in 1/4 cup of batter. Spread over the top of the cake in the baking pan.
7.	Pour the rest of the batter over the red bean. Place the pan back in the oven and bake for another hour, or until the top is slightly golden and crusted. Remove onto cooling rack.
8.	While cake is still warm, cut into squares and serve.