Have a homemade sweet treat with a spongy soft brown sugar ma lai gao. It is a steamed Chinese cake dessert made with pantry-friendly ingredients, including sugar, yeast, flour, and tapioca starch.
Get a sweet tooth fix with its fluffy goodness and sweet caramel taste. You don’t need to bake it, just steam!
What Is Brown Sugar Ma Lai Gao?
Ma lai gao, or Cantonese sponge cake, also known as Malay sponge cake or Malay cake, is a popular dim sum snack commonly served at teahouses. This dessert is believed to have originated in Guangdong in China and is also famous in Hong Kong. Traditionally, ma lai gao is made with levain, white sugar, flour, and eggs.
In my recipe, I only use brown sugar, white sugar, yeast powder, flour, and tapioca starch. You don’t need eggs to make it, so it’s also the perfect sweet dessert for vegans. Some variations use dark brown sugar, coconut milk, and honey, while some omit yeast from the recipe ingredients.
What you’ll love about this recipe is that you don’t need to knead or bake the cake. All you need to do is steam it using a regular steamer or a bamboo steamer basket for a taste of tradition. This dessert is best served while hot and fresh to enjoy its moist and springy texture!
However, you can always keep it in the fridge in an airtight container if you decide to eat it for later. It should last for up to three days in the fridge. Re-steam the cake for a few minutes to bring back its moist and fluffy texture.
Main Ingredients Of Brown Sugar Ma Lai Gao
Here’s what you need to know about each ingredient and how it helps in making the perfect ma lai gao:
Brown And White Sugar
- I mixed brown sugar with white sugar for a lovely light brown color. You can use white, brown, dark brown, or any type of sugar you prefer. Whichever sugar you choose, the cake will take its color.
- Sugar is needed not only for flavor and color but also to activate the yeast. For your information, the sugar ferments with the yeast and helps ferment it faster. The yeast feeds on sugar and turns it into carbon dioxide and ethanol, which are two elements needed to make the cake rise.
Warm Water
- You will need warm water to mix with brown and white sugar. It helps melt the sugars before mixing in the yeast.
- After mixing the sugar and warm water, you have to let it cool to about 40°C or 104°F. This is the ideal temperature that will not kill the yeast.
Yeast
- One thing to know about yeast is that it is a single-celled living microorganism, which means it is alive. You need the yeast alive to activate the fermentation process and make the cake rise. If the yeast is killed, the cake will not rise.
- Mixing the yeast with hot water at a temperature of 120°F to 140°F or higher will kill it. That is why it is important to allow the sugar and warm water mixture to cool down first before adding the yeast.
- Alternatively, eliminating yeast from the recipe is perfectly acceptable as long as you replace it with baking powder and baking soda. Baking soda is a chemical leavener that reacts with an acid to produce bubbles to make cakes rise, while baking powder does not need acidic ingredients to create air bubbles. You can also add eggs to act as a binder to make the batter more stable and thick.
Flour
- Any flour works well with the recipe, but I personally prefer all-purpose flour or regular white flour for the cakey texture.
- Use low-protein flour such as cake flour or pastry flour for a lighter and fluffier texture. Generally, the more protein there is, the more gluten it has, which makes the cake too firm and chewy. So, if the flour has less gluten, the cake is softer and fluffier.
Tapioca Starch
- Tapioca starch is a gluten-free ingredient that acts as a thickener. It is mixed with flour to give the batter a yogurt-like consistency. Moreover, it helps give the cake a slightly sticky texture.
- If you don’t have tapioca starch, you can use cornstarch or potato starch with minimal difference in outcome.
Key Notes When Making Brown Sugar Ma Lai Gao
In order to achieve the best results, I listed a few helpful tips and tricks worth noting. Read these key notes before proceeding with the recipe instructions. In this way, you’ll know what to do when you face an unlikely scenario when making ma lai gao.
- Use kitchen tools for accuracy: I highly recommend having a kitchen weighing scale and thermometer to help with your pastry needs. When it comes to making pastries, it is important to use accurate ingredient measurements. Sometimes, even the slightest difference in measurements will produce different results. Since you want to be careful not to kill the yeast, use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water.
- Sift the flour and tapioca starch: We tend to skip this step to do the work faster. However, sifting is also essential in breaking lumps in the flour mixture for a more accurate measurement. Moreover, it aerates the ingredients to produce a lighter and fluffier result.
- Use a regular steamer or bamboo steamer basket: If you want to do it in the traditional way, I suggest using a bamboo steamer basket. In my opinion, it does a good job in steaming and adds a hint of woody scent to the cake. Alternatively, a regular steamer works fine. If you don’t have a steaming appliance, follow my guide on how to steam without a steamer.
- Adjust the flour and water as needed: Sometimes, you may end up with a watery or stiff dough despite following the ingredient measurements carefully. The results may vary depending on the quality of the flour or sugar used. So, if you have a watery dough, gradually add flour to thicken it. If you have a stiff dough, add a bit of water to loosen it.
- Proof at room temperature:Proofing the dough too long or too short can affect the quality of the cake. It can crumble when proofed too long or fall flat when proofed too short. Generally, proofing is done until the dough doubles in size. In addition, it should be proofed in a warm place or at room temperature. If the environment is too cold, it will take longer to proof. So, if you want to proof it in a warm environment during cold weather, you can place the dough in a microwave or oven beside a cup of boiled water.
Things You Need To Make Brown Sugar Ma Lai Gao
Prepare your chosen cake mold for the cake to take its shape. You’ll need a mixing bowl and stirrer to combine the dough ingredients. Then, fill a steamer with water to steam the cake.
Kitchen Items
- Mixing bowl
- Stirrer or whisk
- Plastic wrap
- Your chosen cake mold
- Oil brush
- Steamer with cover
Ingredients
- 50g brown sugar
- 5g white sugar
- 180ml warm water
- 2g yeast powder
- 100g flour
- 100g tapioca starch
- 8g oil
How To Make Brown Sugar Ma Lai Gao
Making ma lai gao is pretty simple. It just requires mixing the dough and pouring it into the cake mold. Then, pop it in the steamer and wait 30 minutes until it is ready.
That’s it! It is super easy to do since you don’t need to knead, cook, or bake. Here’s a quick tutorial video on how to do the recipe on Instagram and Tiktok.
In a mixing bowl, mix brown sugar, white sugar, and warm water. Stir well until the sugar melts.
Allow it to cool to around 40°C or 104°F. You can use a kitchen thermometer to measure the temperature.
Once it cools, add the yeast powder and mix well.
Then, add flour and tapioca starch.
Mix the batter until it becomes yogurt-like. It should be smooth and syrupy.
To help you know if it doubles, you can place a marker on the bowl before covering it with plastic wrap. The marker should be above the dough line, which is the expected height when the current dough’s size doubles.
Next, cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let it proof in a warm place until it doubles in size.
After doubling in size, add oil and mix thoroughly.
While mixing, make sure you release as much air as possible. Afterward, get your cake molds and brush them with oil.
Place the molds in the steamer basket. Then, pour the batter into the molds and let it rest for 10 minutes in the steamer.
After 10 minutes, boil cold water on medium heat for 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the cake to sit for 5 minutes in the heat.
Remove the cover while making sure no moisture drips onto the cake. Lastly, enjoy a warm and fluffy homemade ma lai gao!
Soft and Sweet Brown Sugar Ma Lai Gao
Equipment
- Stirrer or whisk
- Your chosen cake mold
- Oil brush
- Steamer with cover
Ingredients
- 50 g brown sugar
- 5 g white sugar
- 180 ml warm water
- 2 g yeast powder
- 100 g flour
- 100 g tapioca starch
- 8 g oil
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, mix brown sugar, white sugar, and warm water.
- Stir well until the sugar melts.
- Allow it to cool to around 40°C or 104°F. You can use a kitchen thermometer to measure the temperature.
- Once it cools, add the yeast powder and mix well.
- Then, add flour and tapioca starch.
- Mix the batter until it becomes yogurt-like. It should be smooth and syrupy.
- To help you know if it doubles, you can place a marker on the bowl before covering it with plastic wrap. The marker should be above the dough line, which is the expected height when the current dough's size doubles.
- Next, cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
- Let it proof in a warm place until it doubles in size.
- After doubling in size, add oil and mix thoroughly.
- While mixing, make sure you release as much air as possible.
- Afterward, get your cake molds and brush them with oil.
- Place the molds in the steamer basket.
- Then, pour the batter into the molds and let it rest for 10 minutes in the steamer.
- After 10 minutes, boil cold water on medium heat for 25 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and leave the cake to sit for 5 minutes in the heat.
- Remove the cover while making sure no moisture drips onto the cake.
- Lastly, enjoy a warm and fluffy homemade ma lai gao!
