Fukuregashi Brown Sugar Steamed Cake

Name: Fukuregashi Brown Sugar Steamed Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: all-purpose flour 120 g; baking soda 5 g; powdered brown sugar 140 g; egg 1 piece; rice vinegar 5 ml; honey 10 g; water 80 ml

Quick answer

Total time: 60 min
Level: Easy
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients: 7

About this dish

Baking soda and vinegar react in the batter and push this thick brown sugar cake high in its cloth-lined colander.

In Kagoshima it is also called soda-gashi or fukurakan for that soda rise. It grew out of the Satsuma domain's Edo-period control of sugarcane and brown sugar, and was once eaten at harvest festivals and as a snack during farm work. Warm from the steamer it is fluffy; once cool it turns chewy.

Ingredients

servings

IngredientAmount

egg1 piece

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Instructions

5 steps

1

Sift 120g flour and 5g baking soda together twice.

Line an 18cm small colander with damp cloth and bring ample water to a boil in the steamer.
2

Beat 1 egg fully, then add 140g powdered brown sugar, 5ml rice vinegar, 10g honey, and 80ml water.

Whisk 2 minutes until large sugar lumps disappear.
3

Add sifted flour in three additions, lifting from the bottom with a whisk.

Stop as soon as no dry flour or lumps remain so the baking-soda reaction is not lost.
4

Pour batter into the lined colander and level once.

Wrap the steamer lid in dry cloth to stop droplets, then steam over medium-high heat for 40 minutes after strong steam is rising.
5

Insert a long skewer in the center; remove when no wet batter clings and the center is at least 95°C.

Cool with the cloth on a rack for 20 minutes, unwrap, and cut into 8 pieces.