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This steamed tapioca thousand layer cake holds a particular place in my coronary heart as a result of it’s a regional dish that you’ll find in Toisan (台山, Taishan in pinyin), a rural area of southern China the place my household was from. In Toisanese, this cake is named 菱粉糍 (pronounced lan foon tay), which accurately means tapioca flour cake. Generally, this cake known as 千層糕 (pronounced ceen ceng go in Cantonese), which interprets to “thousand layer cake.” There are numerous totally different types of 千層糕 in Cantonese delicacies that use numerous combos of flours for the batter. As a result of the Toisan model of the cake makes use of tapioca flour solely, I made a decision to translate it into “tapioca thousand layer cake.” (Notice: I’ve realized that folks from Hoiping (開平, Kaiping in pinyin) additionally make 菱粉糍. Hoiping is a county-level metropolis simply north of Toisan.)
Mama Lin all the time cooks a tapioca thousand layer cake for Lunar New Yr, together with a 年糕 (neen go, new yr’s cake). Apart from Lunar New Yr, my mother would steam this cake for events. It’s an ideal palette cleanser as a result of the cake has a light candy taste and it’s moist.
It’s taken me some time, however I’ve lastly gotten the hold of cooking my mother’s tapioca thousand layer cake! My mother even accredited the batch that I made for her! I’m excited to companion with Bob’s Red Mill to point out you make a treasured household recipe.
HOW TO MAKE STEAMED TAPIOCA THOUSAND LAYER CAKE
INGREDIENTS OVERVIEW
The tapioca thousand layer cake makes use of only a few substances: tapioca flour (often known as tapioca starch), brown sugar, water, and kansui (which is non-compulsory).
TAPIOCA FLOUR
Tapioca flour offers the cake its attribute chewiness. When held up towards the sunshine, the cake will look translucent! When it comes to texture, this cake is much like tapioca or boba pearls (that are additionally made with tapioca flour). Due to the excessive water content material of the batter, this tapioca thousand layer cake is barely softer than tapioca pearls.
Right here, I’m utilizing Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour, which might be discovered of their on-line retailer or at your native grocery shops. This finely floor tapioca flour may be very versatile. It’s nice for gluten-free baking as a result of the gelatinous high quality of tapioca flour makes it a great binder. (See my recipe for Oat & Corn Flour Banana Chocolate Muffins). You can too use Bob’s Purple Mill’s tapioca flour to make numerous dim sum dishes, like my gluten-free crystal dumplings or mushroom cheung fun (rice noodle rolls). The tapioca flour additionally helps make the meat tender in my pork and cabbage potstickers recipe.
BROWN SUGAR SLABS
To taste the cake, my mother typically makes use of gentle brown sugar slabs or bricks, which you’ll find in Asian supermarkets (sometimes Chinese language or Southeast Asian markets). Mama Lin claims that the sweetness of the sugar slabs is extra pristine (清甜) in comparison with typical brown sugar that we discover in grocery shops. The pictures of the completed tapioca thousand layer cake you see on this submit had been made with brown sugar slabs. The sugar slabs are likely to make the cake look extra fantastically golden.
That stated, you should use gentle brown sugar as a substitute of the sugar slabs. As a matter of truth, one in every of my sisters most well-liked the model I made with gentle brown sugar. I don’t advocate utilizing darkish brown sugar for the cake although. As you see within the take a look at batch photographed beneath, the cake regarded too darkish and I discovered the molasses notes within the sugar to be too sturdy.
Once I was recipe testing, I feared that the cake would appear too plain for the viewers as the one flavoring comes from brown sugar. I examined variations of the cake with added floor ginger and vanilla bean paste. It grew to become clear to me that my efforts had been in useless as the extra flavorings made the cake style off. I made a decision to stay to the recipe my mother gave me and to cease tweaking a recipe that was already good.
KANSUI (LYE WATER)
Mama Lin likes including a teaspoon of kansui (鹼水) within the batter for 2 causes: 1) it enhances the golden shade of the cake; and a couple of) the kansui makes the cake much less sticky as you’re consuming it. You could find kansui in Asian supermarkets (sometimes Chinese language or Southeast Asian markets). Nevertheless, you may omit the kansui in the event you can’t supply it simply.
MAKE BATTER
Snap the brown sugar slabs in half and add them to the saucepan, together with 2 1/2 cups of water. For those who’re utilizing gentle brown sugar, add the sugar and water to a saucepan. Convey the water to boil and simmer till the sugar dissolves fully. Mild brown sugar often dissolves because the water reaches the boiling level.
Add the tapioca flour and 1 1/2 cups of room temperature water to a mixing bowl. Attempt to stir the flour and water collectively. The flour on the backside of the bowl will really feel very stiff and that’s okay. Cease stirring if it feels just like the flour is caught.
As soon as the brown sugar has dissolved, flip off the warmth. Pour 1/3 of the new sugar liquid into the bowl with the tapioca flour slurry and blend. The batter needs to be a lot simpler to stir now. Pour the rest of the brown sugar liquid into the bowl and blend once more. Ensure that to make use of your wood spoon or spatula to scrape the underside of the blending bowl to make sure that there are not any clumps of flour caught there.
By the best way, the feel of the batter received’t be fairly proper in the event you use solely room temperature or chilly water to make it. You do want some sizzling liquid in there.
STEAMING SETUP
Add a steaming rack to a big wok. Fill the wok with water, till there’s a few 1/2-inch hole between the water stage and the highest of the steaming rack (see photograph beneath). Cowl the wok and produce the water to boil.
You’ll additionally want a pan that may fill 6 to 7 cups of liquid. I’m utilizing a round pan that my mother purchased for me from Chinese language kitchen retailers (see photograph beneath). You can too use a sq. or rectangular pan, so long as it may well fill 6 cups of liquid. For those who don’t have a big sufficient pan, you may really make smaller truffles with the pans you’ve. Flippantly grease the pan with a impartial flavored oil (like vegetable oil) and set the pan apart.
STEAM TAPIOCA THOUSAND LAYER CAKE
As soon as the water within the wok boils, rigorously place the greased pan over the steaming rack.
Give the cake batter a stir as a result of the tapioca flour sinks to the underside of the bowl, inflicting separation (see photograph above). Pour 2/3 cup of batter into the pan. The batter ought to cowl the underside of the pan fully. If it doesn’t, pour extra batter into the pan. Cowl the wok with a lid and steam for 4 minutes over medium warmth.
Uncover the pan. Ensure that the layer is totally translucent and you’ll see the underside of the pan. This is a sign that the batter is absolutely cooked. Tapioca starch, as soon as it gelatinizes, turns translucent, which is why the layers of those truffles are see-through. Normally, the underside layer cooks very simply. Pour one other 2/3 cup of batter into the pan, cowl the wok with a lid, and steam for one more 4 minutes.
Proceed steaming the cake layer by layer, giving the batter a stir earlier than including 2/3 cup of it into the pan. The batter ought to cowl the complete floor of the pan. If it doesn’t, add extra. When it comes to the cooking time for every layer, the primary 2 layers ought to take 4 minutes to steam. Layers 3 to five will take about 5 minutes to steam, and layers 7 to 9 will take about 6 minutes. Because the cake will get thicker, the latter layers will take longer to show translucent. Ensure that to additionally replenish the water within the wok while you get to about layer 5, because the water evaporates.
TROUBLESHOOTING STEAMING PROCESS
WHEN A LAYER DOESN’T LOOK FULLY COOKED
The photograph illustrates what a layer appears like when it’s not cooked sufficient. Discover how the middle of the cake appears opaque and light-weight brown, however the outer ring appears translucent. If this occurs to you, steam the cake for a couple of extra minutes, till it turns translucent.
For those who add extra batter to the cake when a earlier layer hasn’t turned translucent but, that opaque layer will stay opaque regardless of how lengthy you prepare dinner the cake. Within the photograph above, I purposely undercooked the decrease layers as an example what I imply. Discover how the underside layers fail to show translucent though they’ve been steaming for longer than the highest layers? The feel of the opaque layers will likely be stiffer than the translucent layers.
Let’s say you’ve already steamed the cake for 10 minutes and the layer nonetheless appears opaque within the heart. In that case, enhance the warmth barely. It could possibly be that there isn’t sufficient sizzling steam within the wok. One other factor you are able to do is add extra water to the underside of the wok. When the water stage is low, you may’t generate sufficient steam to prepare dinner the cake.
WHY DOES MY CAKE LOOK WRINKLED?
If the floor of your cake appears wrinkled, it typically implies that warmth generated from the steam contained in the wok was too intense. Sadly, as soon as a single layer wrinkles, all subsequent layers will likely be wrinkled as properly.
That’s why I like to recommend cooking the cake on medium warmth and leaving a half inch hole between the water stage and the highest of the steaming rack. The cake will crater if boiling water touches the underside of the pan. I additionally seen that my truffles are likely to wrinkle once I prepare dinner them on the ability burner, even on medium warmth. My tapioca thousand layer truffles are likely to look higher once I prepare dinner them on a smaller burner.
The wrinkled high is mostly a beauty challenge and the cake will style wonderful. You’ll be able to all the time cowl up the wrinkles with coconut and sesame seeds.
FINISH THE CAKE
As soon as all of the layers have been steamed, flip off the warmth. I usually discover a whole lot of water excessive layer, which is because of the condensation that develops contained in the wok. I often maintain onto the pan with oven mitts and thoroughly drain the water from the pan. Strive to not tip the pan an excessive amount of while you do that because the cake can slide.
Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and Bob’s Red Mill Shredded Coconut excessive of the cake for garnish. It’s higher to sprinkle the toppings whereas the cake continues to be heat to make sure that they stick onto the cake. Furthermore, don’t overload the cake with toppings.
For one in every of my take a look at batches, I made a decision to toast a bunch of shredded coconut and unfold it all around the high of the cake. I believed this is able to make the cake look visually interesting, nevertheless it turned out to be the unsuitable transfer once more. The toasting was pointless as a result of the moisture from the cake softened the coconut anyway. Furthermore, I loaded a lot coconut on the cake that almost all of it didn’t even stick on the highest. Consequently, the coconut saved spilling over in every single place as I used to be slicing into the cake.
Let the cake cool fully earlier than slicing and serving.
SLICING THE CAKE
This cake may be very squishy, so it may be tough to chop the cake and get sharp edges however that’s okay. The simplest factor to do is to run a silicone spatula alongside the sting of the pan to loosen the cake. Then, use kitchen scissors to chop the cake into items.
Alternatively, you may minimize the cake on a chopping board. Don’t minimize the cake over a wood or bamboo board, because the cake will persist with the board and be tough to pry off. I sometimes grease a marble slab and minimize the cake over that. You can too use a grease silicone chopping mat. Ensure that to grease the knife with oil regularly. Apparently, I discovered that you simply don’t must grease the kitchen scissors when slicing the cake.
STORING THE TAPIOCA THOUSAND LAYER CAKE
My mother often leaves the cake out on the counter in a single day, coated. The cake often retains properly, offered that your kitchen isn’t sizzling and humid. For those who’re storing it for greater than a day, you’ll wish to refrigerate the cake. You’ll be able to reheat the cake once more by steaming it for a number of minutes or microwaving it till the cake softens.
Eat the cake inside 3 or 4 days as a result of mildew will begin to kind on the cake. You’ll be able to freeze the cake for longer storage and steam the cake to reheat.
MORE RECIPES USING TAPIOCA FLOUR
Servings: 10
Tapioca Thousand Layer Cake (菱粉糍/千層糕)
This tapioca thousand layer cake is a traditional southern Chinese language dish. Recognized for its lovely layers, this steamed cake is calmly candy, chewy, and moist. Serve it as a snack or dessert!
Elements
Steaming Gear
- round pan with a 6 to 7 cup capability, can use a sq. or rectangular pan (see notice 2)
- oil for greasing pan
- steaming rack
- giant wok for steaming
Directions
Make Batter
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Snap the brown sugar slabs in half and add them to a saucepan. Pour 2 1/2 cups of water over the sugar slabs and produce the water to boil. Proceed simmering the liquid till the sugar slabs dissolve fully. For those who’re utilizing gentle brown sugar, add it to the saucepan, together with 2 1/2 cups of water. Convey the water to boil and switch off the warmth. The sugar ought to dissolve as soon as the water boils.
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Snap the brown sugar slabs in half and add them to the saucepan, together with 2 1/2 cups of water. For those who’re utilizing gentle brown sugar, add the sugar and water to a saucepan. Convey the water to boil and simmer till the sugar dissolves fully.
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Add the tapioca flour and 1 1/2 cups of room temperature water to a mixing bowl. Attempt to stir the flour and water collectively. The flour on the backside of the bowl will really feel very stiff and that’s okay. Cease stirring if it feels just like the flour is caught.
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As soon as the brown sugar has dissolved, flip off the warmth. Pour 1/3 of the new sugar liquid into the bowl with the tapioca flour slurry and stir. The batter needs to be a lot simpler to combine now. Pour the rest of the brown sugar liquid into the bowl and blend once more. Ensure that to make use of your wood spoon or spatula to scrape the underside of the blending bowl to make sure that there are not any clumps of flour caught there.
Set Up Steaming Station
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Add a steaming rack into the middle of a giant wok. Fill the wok with water, till there’s a few 1/2-inch hole between the water stage and the highest of the steaming rack. Cowl the wok and produce the water to boil.
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Flippantly grease the pan with any impartial oil (akin to vegetable oil). As soon as the water boils, rigorously place the greased pan over the steaming rack. Cut back the warmth to medium.
Steam Cake
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Give the batter a stir as a result of the tapioca flour sinks to the underside of the bowl inside minutes. Pour 2/3 cup of batter into the pan. The batter ought to cowl the underside of the pan fully. If it doesn’t, pour extra batter into the pan. Cowl the wok with a lid and steam for 4 minutes over medium warmth.
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Uncover the pan. Ensure that the layer is totally translucent and you’ll see the underside of the pan. This is a sign that the batter is absolutely cooked. Pour one other 2/3 cup of batter into the pan, cowl the wok with a lid, and steam for one more 4 minutes.
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Proceed steaming the cake layer by layer, giving the batter a stir earlier than including 2/3 cup of it into the pan. Once more, the batter ought to cowl the complete floor of the pan. If it doesn’t, add extra. Layers 3 to five will take about 5 minutes to steam, and layers 7 to 9 will take about 6 minutes. Because the cake will get thicker, the latter layers will take longer to show translucent. If at any level, the cake appears opaque, don’t add extra batter to the pan. Ensure that the layer turns translucent fully. In any other case, the opaque layer will keep that manner even in the event you proceed steaming the cake. (See weblog submit for extra in-depth rationalization.) Replenish the water within the wok while you get to about layer 5, because the water evaporates over time.
End Cake
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As soon as all of the layers have been steamed, flip off the warmth. There’ll probably be a whole lot of water excessive layer, which is because of the condensation that develops contained in the wok. Holding on to the pan with towels or oven mitts, rigorously tip the pan and drain the water. Watch out as a result of the cake can slide round.
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Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and coconut excessive of the cake for garnish. It’s higher to sprinkle the toppings whereas the cake continues to be heat to make sure that they stick onto the cake.
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Let the cake cool fully earlier than slicing and serving.
Slicing Cake
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There are a number of methods to chop into the cake. The simplest factor to do is to run a silicone spatula alongside the sting of the pan to loosen the cake. Then, use kitchen scissors to chop the cake into items.
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Alternatively, you may minimize the cake on a chopping board. Don’t minimize the cake over a wood or bamboo board, because the cake will persist with the board and be tough to pry off. I sometimes grease a marble slab and minimize the cake over that. You can too use a grease silicone chopping mat. Ensure that to grease the knife with oil regularly. Apparently, you don’t must grease the kitchen scissors when slicing the cake.
Storing Cake
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You’ll be able to depart the cake in your counter, coated, in a single day. The cake often retains properly, offered that your kitchen isn’t sizzling and humid. For those who’re storing it for greater than a day, you’ll wish to refrigerate the cake. You’ll be able to reheat the cake once more by steaming it for a number of minutes or microwaving it till the cake softens.
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Eat the cake inside 3 or 4 days as a result of mildew will begin to kind on the cake. You’ll be able to freeze the cake for longer storage and steam the cake to reheat.
Notes
I discovered gentle brown sugar to be sweeter than the brown sugar slabs, in order that’s why I like to recommend utilizing 12 ounces of sunshine brown sugar. Brown sugar slabs might be paler or darker brown, relying on which model you purchase. I desire the paler one for this cake, nevertheless it doesn’t actually matter an excessive amount of. Don’t get the black brown sugar slabs for this recipe because the sugar is simply too dard.
For those who don’t have a big sufficient pan, you can also make smaller truffles with the pans you’ve.
Diet
Serving: 1serving | Energy: 176kcal | Carbohydrates: 43.9g | Fats: 0.5g | Saturated Fats: 0.1g | Sodium: 9.5mg | Sugar: 33g
Disclosure: This submit was sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill! To be taught extra about their merchandise and to get extra recipe inspiration, follow them on Instagram or Facebook.
