A traditional dessert for Chinese New Year with a chewy and sticky texture.
‘Gao’ has the same pronunciation as ‘high’. ‘Nian’ means ‘year’. So ‘nian gao’ is symbolic for ‘every year a greater success’. This puts ‘nian gao’ on the must-have list for Chinese New Year.
If you like it looking fancy, dust the cake with a mixture of peanuts, sesame seeds, sugar and desiccated coconut.
Ingredients
- 3 cups of glutinous rice flour (sticky rice flour), it is gluten free
- 1 cup of rice flour
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup of light coconut milk
- 1 cup of boiling water
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- 4 tsp maple syrup (optional)
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1 thinly sliced piece of ginger (optional)
- 3 cardamom, spited in half (optional)
Method
- Pour 1 cup of boiling water over salt, ginger, cardamom and brown sugar; stir until the sugar is fully dissolved; drain the liquid through a sieve, discard the solids.
- In a mixing bowl, mix glutinous flour, rice flour, coconut milk, sugar liquid, maple syrup, ground cinnamon; mix well.
- Line a cake tin with cling wrap; pour the batter into the tin.
- Steam in a steamer for 30-50 minutes depending on the thickness of the cake.
- Cool completely before cutting with a wet knife.
- Dust with a mixture of peanut, sesame seeds, sugar and coconut if desired.
Mixture of peanut, sesame seeds, sugar and coconut is made up of:
- 1/3 cup crushed peanuts, lightly toasted
- 1/3 cup sesame seeds, lightly toasted
- 1/3 cup caster sugar
- 2/3 cup desiccated coconut, lighted toasted





Trying this this weekend!
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It is Chinese New Year this weekend 🙂
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Yes! 🙂 I have two daughters adopted from China, and we celebrate every year. So fun!
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There are so many children in need around the world. I am so glad that you and your daughters found each other 🙂 You are so kind. Happy Chinese New Year to you too.
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