Ma Lai Go Chinese Steamed Cake is a fluffy brown sugar sponge cake typically found on dim sum carts in Southern China and Hong Kong—the few places where you’ll find it done right, and where it’s quite popular.
What is Ma Lai Go?
But whether you call it ma lai go (Cantonese) or ma la gao (马拉糕, or sometimes 马来糕, Mandarin) the ma lai refers to “Malay,” as in Malaysia. The word Gao means cake so “Malaysia cake” is what we’re talking about here, even though it’s been adopted by Cantonese cooking. As the story goes, Ma Lai Go originated in Malaysia via British influence and made its way to Hong Kong where the recipe was modified into what it is today.
The real chefs in Hong Kong use a starter dough or levain to make Ma Lai Go. Making the fermented starter dough is a labor of love and quite the process, so most recipes—including this one—omit the starter dough and increase the baking powder and/or baking soda to get a similar leavening effect without the extra time for fermentation.
Ma Lai Go made with a starter dough has a streaky pattern of air pockets that’s caused by fermentation, so you can immediately tell if your cake was made with or without a fermented starter. The last time I was in Hong Kong, we enjoyed Ma Lai Go a few times at dim sum. All of the cakes were tasty and fluffy *but* without those air pockets. It would seem that it’s a reasonable tradeoff to forego the extra work for a tasty, easy-to-make version (albeit at the expense of a technically “authentic” Ma Lai Go, but what does authentic even mean these days, anyway?).
Maybe one of these days I will have the patience to make my own Ma Lai Go starter dough, but for now, a shortcut! And with the number of times I made this cake, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
For this Ma Lai Go recipe, use an electric mixer to get as much air into the cake as possible. Then let the leavening agents like the baking powder do the work to get a spongy and fluffy cake. Resting time for the batter is minimal, unlike recipes that use the levain starter dough—bonus!
What do I need to make Ma Lai Go steamed cake?
One other note is on flavoring agents. I’ve tried making this recipe with only vanilla, which works fine, but adding vanilla pudding mix—we used Bird’s Custard Powder—definitely makes for a tastier cake! If you can find it, it really adds that extra layer of flavor you get in restaurants and Chinese Bakeries.
Hope you enjoy this easy-to-make Ma Lai Go recipe!
Ma Lai Go Recipe Instructions
Add 3 large eggs, ¼ cup vegetable oil, and ¾ cup lightly packed dark brown sugar to a mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer, and beat on high for 5 minutes until well-combined and fluffy.
Scrape the bottom of the bowl and add 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract, ⅓ cup evaporated milk, and 1½ tablespoons custard powder.
Beat for 1 minute.
Sift 1 cup cake flour, ⅛ teaspoon salt, and 3½ teaspoons baking powder.
Fold into the batter gently until incorporated. Try to break up any large lumps, but don’t overwork the batter––some smaller lumps are okay!
Let the batter sit for 30 minutes. The dry ingredients absorb, and the baking powder has a chance to do its thing.
How to Steam Ma Lai Go cake
While the batter is resting, line a bamboo steamer basket (9 inch) with parchment paper. For more information on bamboo steamers, wee our post on How to Use a Bamboo Steamer.
You can also use a 9 inch cake pan greased with vegetable shortening or butter and lightly coated with all-purpose flour. Lightly buttering and flouring the metal cake pan is important step, even if it is non-stick!
Gently stir the batter again in a folding motion—just enough to ensure the batter is mixed uniformly, but not too much since air pockets have already started to form in the batter. You will also see that the batter has thickened and most lumps have disappeared.
Pour the batter into a bamboo steamer basket lined with parchment paper…
Or your prepared cake pan.
Let the batter sit and settle for another 10 minutes while you heat up your steamer.
Place the Ma Lai Go into your steamer setup of choice, and steam on medium high heat—for 30 minutes if using a bamboo steamer…
And 35 minutes if using a metal cake pan.
See our post on how to set up a steamer if you’re not familiar with steaming foods in Chinese cooking.
To find out if the cake is done, insert a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it come out clean, then it’s done. Transfer to a baking rack and slice once cooled slightly.
Ma Lai Go is delicious when it’s warm and fresh from the steamer, but I think I may like it even better after it has completely cooled. The texture seems to be a little spongier the next day, which I like!
Ma Lai Go Chinese Steamed Cake
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (60 ml)
- ¾ cup lightly packed dark brown sugar (120 g)
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract (8 ml)
- ⅓ cup evaporated milk (80 ml, at room temp)
- 1½ tablespoons vanilla pudding mix / custard powder (18 g - we used Bird’s Custard Powder)
- 1 cup cake flour (120 g)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt (1 g)
- 3½ teaspoons baking powder (14 g)
- 1 teaspoon softened butter or vegetable shortening for greasing cake pan, if using (5 g)
- A dusting of all purpose flour for cake pan if using
Instructions
- Add 3 large eggs, ¼ cup vegetable oil, and ¾ cup lightly packed dark brown sugar to a mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer, and beat on high for 5 minutes until well-combined and fluffy.
- Scrape the bottom of the bowl and add 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract, ⅓ cup evaporated milk, and 1½ tablespoons custard powder. Beat for 1 minute.
- Sift 1 cup cake flour, ⅛ teaspoon salt, and 3½ teaspoons baking powder. Fold into the batter gently until incorporated. Try to break up any large lumps, but don’t overwork the batter––some smaller lumps are okay!
- Let the batter sit for 30 minutes. The dry ingredients absorb, and the baking powder has a chance to do its thing. While the batter is resting, line a 9 inch bamboo steamer basket with parchment paper. You can also use a 9 inch cake pan greased with vegetable shortening or butter and lightly coated with all-purpose flour. Lightly buttering and flouring the metal cake pan is important step, even if it is non-stick!
- Gently stir the batter again in a folding motion—just enough to ensure the batter is mixed uniformly, but not too much since air pockets have already started to form in the batter. You will also see that the batter has thickened and most lumps have disappeared.
- Pour the batter into the bamboo steamer basket lined with parchment paper or your prepared cake pan. Let the batter sit and settle for another 10 minutes while you heat up your steamer.
- Place the Ma Lai Go into your steamer setup of choice, and steam on medium high heat—for 30 minutes if using a bamboo steamer, and 35 minutes if using a metal cake pan. To find out if the cake is done, insert a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it come out clean, then it’s done. Transfer to a baking rack and slice once cooled slightly.
nutrition facts
HI Bill,
I tried the Ma Lai Kao recipe just today and the outcome as good but the kao was very ‘short’. Maybe I’m using a pan that’s too wide? I used an steel pan that was 18.5 in diameter and 5cm high. In any case maybe it is the right size as a deeper pan may not cook the cake so well? Any advice?
Hi Karine, 18.5″ is way too big for this recipe, try a much smaller pan as mentioned in the post :-)
We’ve made this twice now. We cut the sugar down to 1/2 cup, and it’s still really good flavour. The top of the cake has come out smooth, rather than tiny bubbles as in the photo. I’m curious why, but I don’t think takes away from taste or enjoyment. We haven’t been out for proper dim sum in so long, so it’s lovely to be able to make this at home. Thanks for the recipe!
Meant to also say that I let rest for an hour each time, not intentionally. By doing so, how does that affect the result?
Hi S. lee, I think letting it rest gives time for the dry and wet ingredients to incorporate and let the leaveners work so it’s good!
you’re welcome S Lee!
Made this last night and love it! Super easy to whip up and steamed perfectly in my bamboo steamer. I think next time I’ll double the salt to enhance taste more. I’d love a WOL recipe for classic steamed sponge cake that cantonese bakeries sell. I’ve been trying to mimic sponge cake for years from my childhood, but they always come out squidgy or taste super bland. Maybe I can use this ma lai gao recipe as a base to work from because the fluffiness is lovely on this cake!
Hi Hannah, my mom used to make a great steamed sponge cake, but I never got the recipe. I’ll have to work on that.
Hi Bill,
recipe calls for baking powder however noticed that one of your recent readers used 2 tsp baking soda.
can we use baking soda instead of baking powder and if so how much to add ?
thanks
Hi Charlie, baking soda works best with some acidic ingredient (lemon juice, vinegar, buttermilk) added, so best to use baking powder where acidity is not required for leavening.
Omg! It worked on my first try! After reading people’s reviews, I made some minor changes. I cut the sugar (sugar cane) to 1/2 cup and only used 2 tsp of baking soda. The cake still doubled in size and was fluffy. Smells and tastes like Ma Lai Gao. Thanks fir the recipe:)
Hi Esmay, nice job!
Made this today and it worked really well! Taste was great just slightly bitter in parts from the baking powder perhaps. Thank you for bringing back the taste of my childhood!
Hi Zahra, glad you tried it!
Thank you for sharing this recipe and for the detailed instructions.
I did this with a few substitutions as per previous comments and recommendations. The texture came out really good, unfortunately i did not enjoy the strong sodium bicarbonate taste.
I used brown sugar with an added tbs of molasses, substituted custard powder with cornstarch, used additional half tsp of vanilla extract, and used Plain flour with cornstarch in place of cake flour. I did beat it for a lot longer than 5 minutes at the start on my hand mixer on medium speed to get to the “fluffy” texture. Steamed in an 8in pan with holes at the bottom. Done in 35 mins.
Thinking of trying this again with instant yeast as one commentator did (presumably with less sodium bicarb used?) but a little apprehensive that it won’t come out the same ..
Apologies, I meant “baking powder” not “sodium bicarb” :D i tend to use the terms interchangeably
Hi Lili, more authentic Ma lai go from restaurants do use some sort of levain. It’s still on my list to try.