Chinese Sticky Cake

I am back to the west! Miss home and blog very much. Haven't been able to work at all because we had been busy cooking, eating and catching up with each other. The eve and first day of New Year was spent at my in-laws house. On the second day we drive back to my mom's place for dinner and visited couple of my relatives. Ops, not to forget barbeque in hot and humid weather.

In my previous post, I shared about tradition or believe during Spring Festival. These are only a few which is popular. Another tradition that I would like to share is about the Kitchen God. According to legend, one week before the Spring Festival begins, the Kitchen God returns to heaven to report on a family's behavior during the previous year. A negative report by the Kitchen God means a family will suffer from bad luck during the year to come.

To ensure a favourable report from Kitchen God, the custom evolved of feeding him Sticky Cake. This bribe is to make sure that the Kitchen God's mouth was too stick or too sweet to report unfavourable comment about the family. Traditionally, Sticky Cake is made with brown sugar (to make it sweet) and glutinous rice flour (to make it sticky).

What You Need

3/4 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cups glutinous rice flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup chopped dates (preserved plums, jujubes or candied orange peel can be used instead)

What You Do

1. In a small pan, boil water.
2. In a mixing bowl, add brown sugar and stir in boiling water to make a syrup. Let cool.
3. Add flour, egg and milk and stir to blend.
4. Knead the dough until smooth, then mix in chopped sweets.
5. Pour batter into a lightly greased 7" shallow cake pan.
6. Steam for about 45 minutes, or until edges move away from the pan.
7. Let cool before unmolding.

I am not a Sticky Cake lover but my in-law and mom will remind me to bring home a couple to put it in the kitchen till the 15th day of the Spring Festival. After the Kitchen God had its feast, I would normally fried it with egg and flour and served it as fritters. Hope that I will get an excellent appraisal this year :-)

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