Taiwanese Brown Sugar Cake

5 from 2 votes

Taiwanese brown sugar cake is unlike your typical cake: though tender and moist, it's also satisfyingly springy and chewy. Try it today!

Prep Time15

Cook Time25

Total Time40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Asian, Taiwanese

Servings: servings

Calories: 240kcal

Author: Edwina

Put brown sugar in a small sauce pan, measure 320g of water in a cup and scoop out 2 tablespoons of water from the cup to add into the sauce pan. Swirl the pan to mix and cook it over medium heat, swirling occasionally (don't stir) through the whole cooking process. Once the sugar mixture starts bubbling, lower the heat to medium low and continue to cook for another 30 seconds.
Pour a bit of water into the sauce pan and swirl the pan a few more times before adding the rest of the water. Turn off the heat and let it cool down a little.
Meanwhile, line a 9" cake pan with parchment paper and set it aside.

When the brown sugar mixture cools down to near body temperature, stir in tapioca flour and mix well.
In a mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder and baking soda, mix them all together with a clean whisk to eliminate the lumps.
Add half of the flour mix into the wet bowl and mix well before adding the rest of the flour mixture. Stir in the motion of writing "Z" and "N" to eliminate the lumps.
Add honey, oil and salt. mix well and let it sit for 10 minutes.

While the cake batter is resting, prepare the steamer pot by placing a steamer rack in a wok or a big pot, add 3 cups of water and bring it to a boil.
Place the cake pan on the steamer rack and pour the cake batter into the pan. Cover and steam over medium to medium high heat for 20 minutes. During the steaming process, you should see a good amount of steam coming out from the the steamer, if not, adjust the heat. If the heat is not high enough, you will end up with a denser cake.
When it's done cooking, open the lid and quickly sprinkle toasted white sesame on the top of the cake. Cover, turn off the heat and let it sit for another 5 minutes.

Remove the cake from the cake pan, peel the parchment paper on the side and let it cool on a cooling rack for 15 minutes.
To serve, cut the cake into cubes and enjoy it with tea or milk.

Brown sugar cake tastes the best when it's fresh. Once it cools, store the leftovers in a ziploc bag and try your best to squeeze out the air, this will allow the cake to stay fresh until the next day.
The cake may become less chewy the next day. If so, steam it for 15 minutes to bring back the chewiness. To reheat, you can steam even in something like an Instant pot.

Boiling sugar helps bring out the smokey aroma of the brown sugar; however, if you are not comfortable doing it, simply mix all the water and brown sugar together in the sauce pan, heat up and stir until the brown sugar is dissolved.
When boiling brown sugar and water, swirl the sauce pan instead of stirring the sugar mixture with spoon or spatula.
I use a 12" wok to steam my brown sugar cake, but if you don't have a pot/pan that's big enough, you can try making half of the amount of this recipe and use a smaller tray that can fit in your pot/pan.
Taiwanese brown sugar cake tastes the best when it's fresh, feel free to make the half amount of the recipe in a smaller tray if a 9" cake is too big for you.
You can store it in a freezer bag as soon as the cake cools and freeze it for up to 2 months. Thaw and enjoy directly or steam for 15 minutes if it became less chewy.