Where can I get steamed cake?

August 17, 2012 1:02 AM

Where I can get "steamed cake"?

I once had it at a bakery somewhere south of Mendocino on the north coast of California and I can't remember or find the name of the place. It was so delicious - light, fluffy, moist, and tasty. I know some Asian restaurants make it, but as far as I know, not with traditional Western type cake flavors like chocolate. I would love to find some bakeries anywhere that make steamed cake with with Western cake type flavors!

posted by Dansaman to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Well, this is sort of a half answer, but it's very easy to make your own steamed cake. Just cobble together any cake recipe or use a box, and dump about half of the batter in a rice cooker. Hit "cook." Depending on the recipe, you may open it up when the steamer rings and decide it needs more time. That's OK, just hit "cook" again. It's really tough to overcook in a rice cooker, so you don't need to worry about setting a timer or anything. The challenge is in ensuring it cooked long enough. You'll know when it's done because it will have a texture that springs back at your touch.

Steamed cake is super moist and awesome-- you don't need or want to add frosting, and I like frosting. I suggest you do a batch of the same recipe where you steam half the batter and bake the other half-- I guarantee that the steamed cake will taste more luxurious.
posted by samthemander at 1:16 AM on August 17, 2012 [25 favorites]

Oh wow! I had no idea you could make that in a rice cooker, thank you!
posted by Doubleosix at 2:08 AM on August 17, 2012

You can get it at chinese dim sum. It's call ma lai gao.
posted by spec80 at 6:40 AM on August 17, 2012

Oh, I was just coming in to say what samthemander said! It works really well. You can even make a sort of upside-down cake by first, in the rice cooker, sauteeing fruit in butter, then adding brown sugar, letting it cook a little more, then adding your cake batter. If you search "rice cooker upside down cake" there are a bunch of recipes.
posted by HotToddy at 6:56 AM on August 17, 2012 [4 favorites]

British Isles/antipodean pudding is steamed cake.
posted by brujita at 7:03 AM on August 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Filipino version is called puto. It's traditionally made with rice flour, but my lolo (grandfather) used to make it with Bisquick - here's a recipe that might work. I've also seen puto box mix at the asian grocery store. I haven't had it, so I don't know how close it will come to the real thing.
posted by photovox at 8:31 AM on August 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

It'd be helpful if you said where you lived. Steamed cakes are available at a variety of Asian bakeries (including Japanese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong-style) and are often flavored with "Western" flavors like chocolate, vanilla, even a kind of cheese cake flavor, etc. Try using Yelp.com to look for "Hong Kong bakery" "Japanese bakery," etc. If you're near a major metro like Houston, etc., there should be several, but I live in California and I assume the chains I know won't be useful to you.
posted by wintersweet at 1:06 PM on August 17, 2012

Go to any 99 Ranch Supermarket or Sheng Kee Bakery.

Memail me if you want my go to recipe for rice cooker cake.
posted by Pocahontas at 5:19 PM on August 17, 2012