A round white porcelain plate holds a round steamed rice-flour cake flavored with banana extract, with alternating cream and brown layers visible in the cake, with a pair of wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
Climbing heights and admiring chrysanthemums on the ninth of the ninth month, now also the Day for the Elderly
Chong yang gao is a steamed rice-flour cake eaten at the Double Ninth Festival, on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, also called hua gao, ju gao and wu se gao. The Double Ninth chapter in volume 8 of the Song-dynasty Dongjing Menghua Lu by Meng Yuanlao records steamed rice-flour cakes exchanged before the festival, with small colored flags, pomegranate seeds, chestnuts, ginkgo nuts, pine nuts and a lion-barbarian figure on top; a 2025 report says the book does not mention the cake, so the accounts differ. The 2 recipes feature a layered cake and a Hakka 9-layer cake from Taiwan, the latter without bean filling.
What
Chong yang gao is a steamed rice-flour cake eaten at the Double Ninth Festival, also called hua gao, ju gao and wu se gao. It has a glutinous rice base topped with red and green candied strips and jujubes, and is also built as a 9-tier pagoda.4
When
The Double Ninth falls on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. The Double Ninth chapter in volume 8 of the Song-dynasty Dongjing Menghua Lu by Meng Yuanlao records steamed rice-flour cakes exchanged 1 to 2 days before the festival, with small colored paper flags, pomegranate seeds, chestnuts, ginkgo nuts, pine nuts and a lion-barbarian figure on top. The consulted text gives no year and conflicts with a 2025 report saying the book does not mention the cake; this entry follows volume 8 and gives no year.1,2,4
Where
The cake varies from place to place, with no fixed recipe; the available material does not tie it to one particular place.3
How
The 2 recipes use different methods. One kneads 300 g of glutinous rice flour, 200 g of rice flour, 200 ml of water and 100 g of sugar into dough, builds layers with optional red bean or lotus paste, steams each layer about 15 minutes, adds chestnuts, jujubes, dried fruit and sesame, steams 20 minutes more, then cools and slices it. The other, a Hakka 9-layer cake from Taiwan, mixes rice flour and water into thin batter, alternates white-sugar and brown-sugar batters, steams each layer about 2 minutes up to 9 layers, then steams 15 minutes more.5,6
Why
The cake originally celebrated the autumn harvest (a Peking University professor’s explanation in 2025). Gao, cake, sounds like gao, high; 2 sheep placed on top play on chong yang, the Double Ninth, which sounds like “double sheep.”2
Impact and influence
A Hakka-style 9-layer cake from Taiwan also appears in a recipe as a Double Ninth cake.6
Legend has it that a man named Huan Jing was told by his teacher to take his family up a mountain on the ninth day of the ninth month, with dogwood and chrysanthemum wine, to escape a plague. When they came home, they found their livestock dead. The tale explains the customs of the festival in general and is not tied to the cake.
Told in: A legend retold in a popular article on Double Ninth foods, which gives it as the source of the festival’s customs and does not connect it with the cake.
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the Double Ninth cake I make at home, and it is a regional version: a Hakka-style nine-layer cake from Taiwan, with the amounts and steaming times following a signed recipe. It uses just indica rice flour, water and two kinds of sugar, with no bean filling and no jujubes or chestnuts. The other recipe comes from a food company’s blog and names no author; it is a layered cake of glutinous rice flour and rice flour that can be filled with red bean or lotus paste, topped with chestnuts, jujubes, dried fruit and sesame, and steamed about 15 minutes per layer. I did not follow it. I measure by the cup as the recipe does. How done a layer is, I judge by pressing it lightly with a finger; that is my own way.
Ingredients
Indica rice flour 2 1/2 cups
Cool water 2 1/2 cups
White sugar 6 tablespoons
Banana extract (optional) 1/4 teaspoon
Dark brown sugar 1/2 cup
Vegetable oil, for oiling the pan a little (my own amount)
Steps
Mix the rice flour and cool water into a thin batter in a large bowl.
Scoop out 1 1/2 cups of the batter and stir in the white sugar and the banana extract (you may leave it out). This is the white batter.
Stir the dark brown sugar into the rest of the batter. This is the brown batter.
Line and oil an 8- to 9-inch pan (about 20 to 23 cm), set it in the steamer and turn the heat to high.
Pour in 1/2 cup of the brown batter and steam it for about 2 minutes, until set.
Pour 6 tablespoons of the white batter on top and steam about 2 minutes. Keep alternating brown and white until there are nine layers. Before each new layer I press the one below lightly with a finger and pour just when its surface has set and no longer runs.
When all nine layers are in, steam over medium-high heat for 15 more minutes, let the cake cool, unmold it and cut it into diamonds.
Tips
I let the water come to a full boil and make plenty of steam before I pour in the bottom layer; this is my own habit.
This is a regional version with no bean filling. The toppings in the food company’s recipe include sesame and chestnuts, which mine does not have, so take care with that one if you avoid sesame.
