Ma Lai Gao (Chinese Dim Sum Cake)

Name: Ma Lai Gao (Chinese Dim Sum Cake)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 165 min
Ingredients: 1 large egg; 2 egg yolk; 100 g sugar (½ cup); 180 g warm water (¾ cup, a little bit warmer than your body temperature. ); ½ tsp instant yeast; 60 g bread flour (a bit less than ½ cup); 130 g cake flour (1 cup); 10 g milk powder (around 1 tbsp); 10 g sweet rice flour (around 1 tbsp ); ⅛ tsp baking soda; 1½ tbsp chicken fat (melted); 1 pinch salt; 1 tsp vanilla extract

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The ideal Ma lai gao should be the perfect combination of fluffy, tender, moist and springy. After lots of experimenting in the past few years, I'm excited to bring you this recipe that checks all those boxes.

Chinese steamed cake on a plate lined with parchment paper.

My husband loves eating ma lai gao, I still remember it's one of the first things he asked me to make for him after we got married. After trying many different recipes, I couldn't find one that I was fully satisfied with.

Last year, I happened to find a recipe that looked promising and I decided to give it one more try. The results were pretty good! After few adjustments, I finally developed this ma lai gao recipe that I'm very happy with - fluffy, tender, moist, springy and fragrant. If you've ever wanted to make your own ma lai gao, I believe you'll want to try this recipe!

Why You Should Try This Recipe

You will be able to make the best tasting ma lai gao from your own home!
You won't need custard powder like in most other recipes.
This ma lai gao stays soft and moist even when it's cold.

Ingredients You'll Need

Egg - I use one whole egg with two egg yolks because this gives the cake a soft and moist texture even with very little oil in the cake. Additionally, this also gives the cake a richer flavor without the unwanted eggy taste.
Sugar - I use regular cane sugar, but you can also use brown sugar or dark brown sugar if you prefer.
Yeast - I prefer the texture and taste of using yeast as the leavening agent over baking powder/soda (and it's closer to the traditional method). Don't worry if you don't have experience working with yeast, the only difference is that you will need to wait for two hours before steaming the cake, and all other steps are the same as if you would use baking powder/soda.
Flour - I use a combination of bread flour and cake flour since that's what I learned from the original recipe. I like the resulting texture so I just kept that part of the recipe.
Sweet rice flour - This is my secret ingredient! Adding a little bit of sweet rice flour helps the cake to achieve a tender and springy texture.
Milk powder - Milk powder gives the cake a hint of milky aroma, you can omit this if you don't have it on hand and the cake will still taste good.
Baking soda - A small amount of baking soda will help neutralize any potential sourness that may develop from proofing.
Chicken fat - This is probably the most surprising ingredient, but trust me, this will make your ma lai gao taste amazing! See "Tips and Tricks" section for how I get chicken fat.
Salt
Vanilla extract

How to Make This Recipe

Step 1 - Prepare the batter

In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs, half of recipe's sugar together before mixing in warm water and yeast.

Sift flour, milk powder and sweet rice flour into the wet ingredients and stir until it's smooth. I usually stir in a circular motion a few times until the dry ingredients are roughly incorporated, and then switch to stirring in the motion of writing "Z" and "N" to eliminate the lumps (this helps reduce the development of gluten).

Step 2 - Proof the batter

Cover and let it sit in a warm place for 2 hours. When it's done proofing, the batter will be filled with air bubbles and will almost double in volume.

Step 3 - Finish up the batter

In a small bowl, stir baking soda with a splash of water before adding the mixture into the batter. Add the rest of the sugar, chicken fat, salt, vanilla extract and stir everything together with a whisk in a "Z" or "N" motion. The batter should shrink down to the original volume.

Pour the batter into a lined cake pan. You can use any container that will fit in your steamer.

Step 4 - Steam the cake

Boil 5 cups of water in a pot that you are going to use for steaming the cake.

When the water is boiling, set your steamer over the pot and steam for 35 minutes over medium high heat.

When the cake is done steaming, remove the cake from the cake pan and parchment paper, let it cool down for 10 minutes before slicing.

If you like dim sum, make sure you also try my Taiwanese turnip cake and pearl meatball with pork, shrimp and tofu.

Tips and Tricks

For the chicken fat, you can get it store bought in a jar, but I usually just render it from 2-3 pieces of chicken skin and trimmed fat since we only need 1.5 tablespoons of it. Check the recipe box of my Taiwanese chicken rice post for how to render chicken fat. If you can not get enough for 1.5 tablespoons, substitute the rest with vegetable oil.
Adding all the sugar at once will make it harder for the batter to proof properly, adding it in two batches will solve this problem.
I use a 6" cake pan for this recipe, but you can also use other size of pan you have. If you use a wider and shallower pan (like 8" or 9"), you can cut down the steaming time by 5-10 minutes. Don't use glass or any material that has low heat conductivity.
If you don't have a steamer, you can set a vegetable steamer in a wok or big pot and place the cake pan on top of it, like how I make steamed egg with minced pork.
During the steaming process, you should see a good amount of steam coming out from the the steamer. If the heat is not high enough, you will end up with a denser cake.
The texture of the cake will be a bit sticky when it's hot, so give it some time to cool down and allow the extra moisture to come out.

Four slices of ma lai gao in small plates with two cups of tea.

Recipe FAQs

Can I replace all the flour with all purpose flour instead?

You can if you really can't find bread flour and cake flour, but the texture of your ma lai gao won't be as fluffy and tender.

Can I use butter or other kinds of oil instead of chicken fat?

I highly recommend using chicken fat as it works the best for this recipe. All you need to do it save some chicken skin and trimmed fat, pat them dry and render in a small skillet. but if you really don't want to use it, then use a neutral vegetable oil instead. Don't use butter as the resulting cake won't be as fluffy.

Can I replace water with milk if don't have milk powder?

I tried using milk, but I found that using water and milk powder gives the cake a fluffier and softer texture that I personally find to be better. If you really can't find milk powder, you can replace it with a tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk or just don't use it; the cake will still be tasty.

Can I steam ma lai gao in my instant pot?

I wouldn't recommend doing this, since you will need to bring the water to a boil first and continue to steam it over medium high heat. Instant pot doesn't have enough heat so you will get a denser ma lai gao if steaming in your Instant pot.

How do I store ma lai gao?

When it's completely cooled, store it in an airtight container in room temperature for up to three days. The cake will become a little bit dryer after the second day. You can steam it a bit to restore the texture if you want, but our family usually finishes it within a day so I never need to do that.

Don't Forget to Try

I would like to hear from you! If you make this recipe, please consider leaving a star rating and comment in the section further down the page. Stay in touch by following my Instagram and Pinterest!