Ma lai Ko ~ 马拉糕

Whenever we ‘yum cha’ in a Chinese dim sum restaurant we never fail to order and try their Ma Lai Ko, which is a brown sugar steamed fluffy sponge cake and what most kids would like to have.  I have been looking for a simple recipe to make this Ma Lai Ko.  Some recipes require a fermented starter dough which will result in streaky patterns in the Ma Lai Ko, some will just go with baking powder and sodium bicarbonate but I chance upon this recipe which requires yeast, baking powder and sodium bicarbonate.

I made this on a cool, windy, day and was praying that the batter will rest and proof with bubbles after 2  hours and thankfully it did.  I was very pleased when the cake looked good after I opened the lid of my steamer and the taste was superb, not overly sweet and the texture, nice, soft and moist.  I kept the remaining pieces of ‘ko’ in a container, at room temperature and they stayed nice and moist even on the third day, maybe because the weather was cool and not humid.

Ma lai Ko  ~   马拉糕   (adapted from  ‘here’ )

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 160 ml milk
• 3 Tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 180 gm plain flour
• 190 gm brown sugar
• 1 tsp dry yeast
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sodium bicarbonate
• 50 ml oil

No-Frills Recipes