Chinese New Year Sweet Rice Cake (Nian Gao 年糕) |Vegan-Friendly
Chinese (Lunar) New Year is almost upon us and I thought I’d share this baked Sweet Rice Cake (Nian Gao 年糕) recipe. The traditional nian gao 年糕is typically steamed, but the baked version is much easier and potluck friendly! Although this delicious dessert is eaten all year round, it’s a must-have for Chinese New Year as it brings good luck!
Nian gao 年糕 is literally translated to “year cake”, but the second character, “糕 (gao)” is a homonym for “高 (gao)”, making the entire phrase: “year high”. This symbolize that the next year with be “higher” or “better” than the previous year. Therefore nian gao is considered a must-eat for Chinese New Year to bring good luck for the coming year.
This nian gao 年糕 recipe is very similar to the Hawaiian butter mochi recipe, but with a slightly healthier twist. Nian gao has less oil/fat and less sugar and is generally more appropriate to the traditional Chinese palette. The biggest compliment that I get from my family regarding desserts is “It’s not too sweet!”
Ingredients for Chinese new year nian gao 年糕
The main ingredient in this dish is glutinous rice flour or sweet rice flour. I use either (I use Erawan or Mochiko), which you can find online or at your local Asian grocery store.
I also recommend using coconut milk for this recipe for the taste. However, if you’re not a big fan of coconut, you can substitute with regular milk, or any other plant-based milk.
The rest of the ingredients are your standard baking ingredients!
How to make Chinese New Year Sweet Rice Cake (Nian Gao 年糕)
Preheat oven to 375°F and prepare a 13 x 9 baking dish by either lining it with parchment paper or spread with oil to prevent the sweet rice cake (年糕) from sticking when baking.
Combine glutinous rice flour and baking powder together. Mix well and sift once.
Combine all other ingredients (sugar, coconut milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract) in a blender and mix until well incorporated. If you don’t have a blender, do not fret — just mix by hand!
Add the glutinous rice flour and baking powder to the blender a bit at a time until well incorporated.
Pour well-mixed mixture into the prepared baking dish, moving the dish around side to side to ensure even spreading.
Optionally, add any optional toppings to the top of the mixture right before putting it in the oven. I chose shredded coconut this time!
Bake the mixture for 45 minutes or until golden brown at the top. You can stick a toothpick or chopstick in to test for doneness. If there are bits of mixture stuck to the toothpick or chopstick, bake for an additional 5 minutes. Repeat until it comes out clean.
Once done, take the sweet rice cake (年糕) out of the oven and let cool at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it, although I recommend waiting until it’s fully cooled to room temperature, about 2 – 3 hours.
Enjoy! This won’t last long 🙂
P.S. ours lasted about 5 hours (including resting time).
Chinese New Year Baked Sweet Rice Cake 年糕 Vegan-Friendly
Equipment
- 13 x 9 baking dish
- Large bowl and whisk or blender
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 16 oz glutinous rice flour or mochiko do not substitute with regular rice flour, it won't yield the same result!
- 125 g granulated sugar (about 1/2 c)
- 7 g baking powder (about 2 tsp)
- 4 eggs for a vegan version, omit the egg and add 200 ml more of coconut milk
- 400 ml coconut milk (or any other plant-based or dairy milk) (about 2 and 1/2 cups)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil, butter or coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract optional
- chopped nuts (like pecans) or coconut flakes optional toppings
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Prepare a 13 x 9 baking dish by either lining it with parchment paper or spread with oil to prevent the sweet rice cake (年糕) from sticking when baking.
- Combine glutinous rice flour and baking powder together. Mix well and sift once.
- Recommended: Combine all other ingredients (sugar, coconut milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract) in a blender and mix until well incorporated. Add the glutinous rice flour and baking powder to the blender a bit at a time until well incorporated.
- If you don't have a blender, first combine the glutinous rice flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl. Mix well! Next, add in your wet ingredients (coconut milk, oil, eggs and vanilla extract) into the glutinous rice flour mixture a bit at a time. Mixing and whisking constantly until everything is incorporated. The mixture should be smooth and there should be no lumps.
- Pour well-mixed mixture into the prepared baking dish, moving the dish around side to side to ensure even spreading.
- Optional step: add any optional toppings (such as chopped nuts or coconut flakes) to the top of the mixture right before putting it in the oven.
- Bake the mixture for 45 minutes or until golden brown at the top. You can stick a toothpick or chopstick in to test for doneness. If there are bits of mixture stuck to the toothpick or chopstick, bake for an additional 5 minutes. Repeat until it comes out clean.
- Once done, take the sweet rice cake (年糕) out of the oven and let cool at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it, although I recommend waiting until it's fully cooled to room temperature, about 2 – 3 hours.
Notes
- Do not substitute the glutinous rice flour (I use Erawan or Mochiko) with rice flour — they are not the same thing and it will not yield the same result!
- This recipe is not very sweet. For a sweeter treat, add in another 1/4 cup of sugar.
Like all recipes on this blog, this new recipe is absolutely amazing and outstanding! It’s a good dessert for Chinese New Year and also just anytime you feel up to something fairly sweet and easy to make. It’s simple yet very very very delicious! I think this is a great dessert for kids to practice their baking skills and for them to cook themselves. Before this recipe came along, I would always eat my sweet rice cake (年糕 or nian gao) prepared by my dad just plain, no toppings. But I love the coconut flakes! They’re very flaky and are a perfect addition to the nian gao. I also love to put chopped pecans on the top of my nian gao. This is a very satisfying recipe and the pictures are great!