Zi Cake

Public reference · Home adaptation The zi cake is one of the two sweet cakes among the twelve, placed in the wei position right after the rice paste and the soups, by which time the table is well past halfway. Small and round, it takes a name from the 'seed' shape, like the wei position takes its name from a branch — both are about roundness and smallness. There is a practical reason too: a cake has to rise and steam, and it will not collapse once cold, so however late it goes to the table it holds up — the most reliable sweet in a country banquet. The menu source is the Xuancheng municipal government's 'Maolin twelve bowls banquet', which records dish names and serving order only (wei-zi cake) and no method, and does not say whether it is sweet or savoury. **The source records only the dish name and its place; this version's technique comes from a published rice-cake (blooming rice cake) method and has no correspondence to the Maolin twelve-bowls kitchen. It is not a historical original.** The reference states: wash the rice and soak it more than two hours; put the soaked rice in a blender with 220 g water and blend three times on the fruit-and-vegetable setting, adding the sugar on the last pass (the amount to your taste); pour the slurry into a bowl, add flour and yeast and stir (the page notes some say to sieve it, but a firm stir is enough); cover and let it double in volume (about half an hour in summer, or about thirty minutes over warm water in winter); stir the risen batter to knock out the bubbles as far as you can; pour it into moulds nine-tenths full — pudding bowls or cupcake cases or any mould; add osmanthus, cranberries, raisins or whatever dried fruit you like, though not too much heavy fruit or nuts or it will not bloom; **there is no second rise — put it straight on over a hard boil and steam twenty minutes at high heat (blooming needs the water already boiling and high heat), turning it down after ten minutes, then rest three minutes before turning out.** **This version follows the sweet leaning of the twelve bowls and keeps the sugar, and uses small round moulds so the pieces are 'like small seeds'; the reference is a blooming rice cake whose bloom depends on a high water ratio and hard-boil steaming, and this version follows its 'straight on over a hard boil at high heat' instruction; the reference's dried-fruit step is kept as optional here.** Fermentation and steaming times are the reference's; heat level and the endpoint are editorial settings and this has not been kitchen-tested. Corroboration: an article published by the Jing County government records a 'zi-cake soup, fresh enough to make your eyebrows fall off' on a Jing County banquet table, so the cake can also go into soup, and this version adds that as a second serving. Vegetarian: no meat, egg, milk or shellfish. Contains wheat (flour) and yeast; yeast is a live culture, so avoid it if you are severely immunocompromised or allergic to yeast. Fairly high in sugar, so reduce it if you are managing blood sugar. AI-generated illustration, not a photograph of a kitchen-tested dish. 茂林十二碗宴席（宣城市人民政府，2023-02-13，信息来源：市文旅局） — Menu basis: it lists 'wei-zi cake' in serving order, states that most of the twelve bowls lean sweet, and that 'the fire is strictly controlled so that young and old alike are suited'. It records dish names and order only, with no methods and no statement of sweet or savoury. https://www.xuancheng.gov.cn/News/show/634526.html 皖美宝藏小城丨食遇泾县（泾县人民政府·泾县文化旅游） — Corroboration: it mentions 'plump fresh meatballs, and a zi-cake soup, fresh enough to make your eyebrows fall off' among the Maolin twelve bowls, showing that Jing County tables have both fresh meatballs and zi cake in soup; it also records Jing County pastries such as yunpian and wanzi cakes as sweetings for the reunion table, and Yunling rice crisps baked on wood stoves. It records no method for zi cake. https://www.ahjx.gov.cn/News/show/1698460.html 下厨房：开花米糕 — The method: 250 g rice, 220 g water, 60 g sugar, 3.5 g yeast and 60 g plain flour. Wash the rice and soak it more than two hours; blend the soaked rice with 220 g water on the fruit-and-vegetable setting three passes, adding the sugar on the last pass, the amount adjusted to taste; pour the slurry into a bowl, add the flour and yeast and stir — some say sieve it, but a firm thirty seconds of stirring is enough; cover and let it double (about half an hour in summer, or around thirty minutes over 36°C water or in the oven's prove setting in winter); stir the risen batter down to remove bubbles as far as possible; pour into moulds nine-tenths full — pudding bowls, cupcake cases or any mould; add osmanthus, cranberries, raisins or other dried fruit, though not too much heavy fruit or nuts or it will not bloom; there is no second rise — once the water boils go straight on and steam twenty minutes at high heat (blooming needs boiling water and high heat), turning down after ten minutes, then rest three minutes and turn out. https://m.xiachufang.com/recipe/106864256/

Source: WorldBite · public-reference adaptation · Source-attributed editorial adaptation; AI illustration; not an authenticated original recipe.