MUZIChinese Matrix
Dim Sum · FFET10268
A golden, soft steamed sponge cake with a honeycomb crumb and a strong egg flavor, served in Guangdong and Hong Kong teahouses.
A small round white porcelain bowl holds a golden steamed sponge cake made with eggs and evaporated milk, its soft cut surface revealing the honeycomb crumb, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the bowl.
The small dishes served with tea in a tea house.
Ma lai gao is a golden, soft steamed sponge cake with a honeycomb crumb, made from a batter of eggs, sugar, oil, flour and custard powder and served warm in Cantonese teahouses in Guangdong and Hong Kong. Its origin is disputed and unverified; a February 2018 account tells of its arrival from British Malaya in Hong Kong without giving a year, and no dated origin text was found for this entry.
Ma lai gao is a tall, soft, golden steamed sponge cake with a honeycomb crumb, moist and eggy, served warm in Cantonese teahouses.1,2,3,4
Its origin is disputed and unverified, with no date found; an account published on February 8, 2018, also gives no year for its origin.1,2
Ma lai gao is served in teahouses in Guangdong and Hong Kong. It is thought to descend from a steamed cake of British Malaya, but its origin cannot be verified.1,2,3,4
A batter is made from eggs, sugar, oil, flour and custard powder. Teahouse bakers ferment it with a levain, and one professional recipe takes several days; home cooks mostly use baking powder, and another recipe uses yeast. It is steamed for 20 to 35 minutes.2,3,4
A 2018 article notes that ma lai gao has been called Hong Kong's national cake.2
The story goes that a Hong Kong chef of the colonial era tried to copy a Malaysian pandan sponge cake but could not find pandan leaves. He left them out and fermented the batter, and the steamed cake came out golden and soft with a pronounced egg flavor.
Told in: Told in Hong Kong, found in the Chinese Wikipedia entry on ma lai gao, which calls it a legend.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is my simplified home version of ma lai gao, raised with baking powder instead of a levain. The amounts of eggs, oil, sugar, flour and baking powder, and the steaming time, follow the former recipe, by a named author of a family food blog, who says home cooks use baking powder where teahouse bakers use a levain; the evaporated milk and custard powder are my own home choices, and the conversions are mine. Another recipe, by a named author of a baking blog, makes small cupcakes with yeast and coconut milk, which is a different style, and I did not follow it; the chef's recipe in the Michelin Guide article needs a levain built over several days, and I did not use that either. The way I check that it is done is my own.
Allergens: wheat, egg, milk
