Fat Goh (Fa Gao, 發糕, Chinese Prosperity Cake)

4.82 from 11 votes

Servings: 8 cakes

Author: Lisa Lin

Fat Goh (Fa Gao, 發糕, Chinese Prosperity Cake)

Fat goh (發糕), also known as fa gao, is a Chinese steamed cake that people often make to celebrate Lunar New Year. Loosely translated as “prosperity cake,” fat goh blossom once they are steamed, forming a flower-like top on the cake. This recipe makes about 8 cakes, but you can easily double the recipe to make a larger batch. I’ve added ginger and cardamom to give the fat goh more flavor, but feel free to use whatever spice blend you prefer. See note 1 for volume measurements of the flours.

Prep Time40

Cook Time40

Ingredients

4 oz (113g) Betty Crocker white cake mix, (see note 2)
4 oz (113g) all-purpose or cake flour, (see note 3)
1 oz (28g) glutinous rice flour, (see note 4)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom, preferably freshly ground from 5 to 6 cardamom pods
1 large egg
3/4 cup (175mL/175g) water, can sub with whole milk (see note 5)
5 tablespoons (62g) dark brown sugar, can sub with light brown sugar
1 tablespoon sunflower, coconut, or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Equipment

large wok
steaming rack
6-muffin pan, (see note 6 for alternative steaming setup)
muffin liner cups, (see note 7)
toothpick or bamboo skewer

Instructions

Make Batter

In a bowl, whisk together the cake mix, all-purpose flour (or cake flour), glutinous rice flour, ginger, and cardamom. Set the bowl aside.
In another bowl, lightly whisk the egg. Add the water (or milk) and give everything a quick whisk. Next, add the brown sugar and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Finally, add the oil and vanilla and whisk again.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in two additions. Using a wooden spoon, mix the wet and dry ingredients together, until you no longer see any streaks of dry flour and you get a relatively smooth batter. It’s okay if there are small lumps in the batter, but break apart any big ones.
In order for your fat goh to blossom nicely once it’s steamed, the batter needs to be relatively thick. To test if your batter is thick enough, use a toothpick or a skewer to draw a line on the batter. If the line floods over very quickly, it means your batter isn’t thick enough, and you should add about 2 tablespoons of flour (the cake mix or all-purpose flour). If the line remains well defined after 15 seconds, the batter is thick enough.

Steam Cakes

Place a tall steaming rack inside a large wok. Fill the wok with water, until there’s about a 1/2 to 3/4-inch gap between the top of the steaming rack and the water line. Bring the water to boil on high heat.
While the water is boiling, line the muffin pan with paper muffin liners. Fill each muffin cup until it’s about 80% full of batter. I like using a large ice cream scoop for this (you’ll need about 1 level scoop of batter).
Using a toothpick or a bamboo skewer, draw a large plus sign inside the center of the batter for each cake. Again, if your batter is thick enough, the lines that you draw into the batter should remain well defined for at least a few minutes.
Once the water boils, reduce the heat to medium high. Carefully place the muffin pan over the steaming rack, cover the wok with the lid, and steam the fat goh for 20 minutes.
Remove the muffin pan from the wok. Let the fat goh cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
The water in the wok likely will have evaporated slightly. Pour more water into the wok and steam the remaining fat goh.
Serve the fat goh slightly warm or at room temperature

Storage

You can store the fat goh in a tight container at room temperature for 1 to 2 days. If you live in a humid climate, you should probably refrigerate the fat goh after a day. The cakes will keep in a container in the refrigerator for about 4 to 5 days. You can heat up the cakes in the microwave for about 15 to 30 seconds.
The cakes also freeze well. To reheat the fat goh, steam the cakes at medium-high heat for 9 to 10 minutes.

Notes

Volume Measurements for Flours (use spoon-and-sweep method to measure flour into measuring cups): Betty Crocker cake mix: 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon; all-purpose flour: 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon; and glutinous rice flour: 1/4 cup minus 1 teaspoon
Cake Mix: My mom generally uses Betty Crocker cake mix to make her fat goh. She uses whatever flavor she can find, but I prefer using the white cake mix, as it has the least synthetic flavor in the cake mix. You can also try using cake mixes from other brands, such as Pillsbury.
Using All-Purpose or Cake Flour: My mom’s original recipe, and many fat goh recipes I’ve seen, use all-purpose flour in the flour blend. I actually prefer fat goh made with cake flour because the crumb is less chewy. By cake flour, I’m not referring to formulated cake mixes. Instead, I mean the plain, unflavored lower-protein flour that one uses to make cakes. During recipe testing, I used King Arthur cake flour.
Glutinous Rice Flour is not the same as white rice flour–the former turns sticky once it’s mixed with hot liquid. I use the Erawan brand that comes in plastic see-through bags with the green label. You can probably replace it with sweet rice flour (Bob’s Red Mill or Mochiko).
Water vs Milk: Mama Lin’s original recipe uses water for the batter. When testing this fat goh recipe, I found that the cakes made with milk had better flavor. The big downside is that the cakes don’t crack and blossom as nicely when it’s made with milk (see photos in blog post).
Alternate Steaming Directions: You can steam the fat goh in silicone muffin cups! Simply line a large pan, plate, or bamboo steamer with silicone cups and and pour batter into the cups. I noticed that the cakes were slightly chewier when I steamed the cakes in silicone muffin cups. I prefer a more cakey texture, which is why I opt for steaming the cakes in paper liners with a muffin tin. You can probably steam the cake in ramekins too, but I have not tested that method.
Muffin Liners: Don’t use colored paper liners because the color can transfer to the cake during the steaming process.

Nutrition

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