南瓜喜粄 .

I have never seen or tasted these cakes before in my life.  A few blogs that I follow make them year after year after year.  So they must be good right?   Apparently, these cakes hold a special, nostalgic memory for many, a few reminiscing the days when this cake was sold as a regular snack item at the night market, when enamel plates were the de rigueur tableware, and when mom and mother in law used to make them for special days, and maybe still do now.

A search online to find the English name lead me to : Hi pan, Xi pan ….. I’ll just translate it myself in this case, pairing the 2 main ingredients: Pumpkin and Glutinous Rice, with the cooking method: Steaming.

The proper way is to steam these cakes on banana leaves, then top with a red dot using food coloring to make it a lucky/festive cake.  Since this is a trial attempt, I’ll “prop” it nicely next time.:-)

I used this halved recipe that yields 12 pieces, original recipe yields 22 pieces.
And when I pick up more experience, I’ll like to try this in purple!

P.S. These steamed cakes bite more like nonya kueh, chewy and sticky, but in a lighter way.  Which was surprising to me, because based on all the photos I have seen online, the cakes’ texture looked like steamed egg cake 鸡蛋糕.  Even when I tear open one I made, it still looks like a cake texture at such close range (See 2nd photo above).  I am no Hakka descendent, and never tasted 喜粄 before.  Did I make it right?  Mmmm…