潮州軟糕 (Teochew Soft Cake)

This is a childhood snack of mine – the Teochew soft cake, or what one would call ‘neng go’ (soft cake) in Teochew. These ‘cakes’ can be commonly found in local bakeries and traditional Teochew pastry shops, available throughout the year as a snack.

The Teochew soft cake is, literally, very soft in texture. It is also very chewy and very sweet, sometimes too sweet for my liking. Being able to make this snack at home by myself allows me to control the level of sweetness. Am also able to better appreciate the snack more as I get to understand the skills and challenges in the making of this delicate cake.

Ingredients:

  • Glutinous rice flour (uncooked): 150g + 30g
  • Wheat starch: 40g
  • Tapioca flour: 15g
  • Icing sugar: 100g
  • Water: 200g
  • Red colouring: 3 drops + 2 tbsp water

Method:

  1. Sift 150g glutinous rice flour, and all of the wheat starch, tapioca flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl.
  2. Mix water into flour mixture. Whisk to form a thick batter.
  3. Grease an 8″ tray with oil. Pour batter into tray and steam for 15min on high heat.
  4. Brush on colouring mixture onto top of rice cake immediately after steaming.
  5. Leave to cool down for 15min.
  6. In the meantime, toast 30g of glutinous rice flour in oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10min.
  7. Coat your fingers with a little of the toasted glutinous rice flour. Then roll the cake lengthwise into a cylinder.
  8. Place cake onto tray of cooked rice flour to coat evenly.
  9. Coat a knife with oil before slicing the cake to serve.

Disclaimers:

  • This recipe was kindly adapted from Anncoo Journal’s ‘Steamed Soft Cake Roll (QQ Cake)‘. She used pandan water (boiled water with pandan leaves left to cool) for the flour mix and I skipped this step out of convenience.
  • Feel free to try out other colours for the roll, such as green, blue or yellow. Red, I feel, has the best effect and gives it the most appetising appearance to tempt the tastebuds.

Serving:
About 10 slices (5 persons)

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