I fondly remember eating My Mom’s Coconut Sticky Rice Cake growing up. It’s the perfect ending to a Chinese meal – not too sweet and full of coconut flavor.
Recently, my mom gave me a copy of all her treasured recipes she’s been collecting over the years. Some of the recipes are original recipes she came up with, some are recipes my dad specializes in, some are recipes my mom got from friends, and others are recipes my mom modified to make them her own. Some recipes have multiple variations from different sources, which I believe are recipes my mom wanted to perfect.
My dad had meticulously scanned every one of the recipes so I have an electronic copy. I finally got around to printing them all out and organizing them. Now, I’m in the process of trying a bunch of the recipes, photographing them, and editing the recipes. My hope is to try to get all the recipes in good form so we have a cookbook with all of my mom’s recipes as a keepsake. I’ve already shipped off samples of a few of the recipes I’ve tried to my parents for them to taste test, including this Coconut Sticky Rice Cake, one of my mom’s personal favorites.
As I sorted through all the recipes, I noticed there was a disproportionate amount of sticky rice recipes. I asked my mom about it, and apparently, she just loves sticky rice. Who knew.
Chinese New Year happens to start this Thursday, and sticky rice is considered good luck for Chinese New Year. It’s symbolic of family cohesiveness. Although my mom’s sticky rice cake is not the traditional nian gao (which also means sticky cake), it is a form of sticky rice cake, which in Chinese sounds like “getting higher with each year,” implying prosperity in business, better grades, and promotions.
Sticky rice is is labeled “sweet rice” or “glutinous rice” although there is no gluten in it. It can be found at Asian markets. It needs to be soaked first before cooking. My mom’s recipe is based on her memory of a coconut sticky rice cake she enjoyed as a child living in  Manila. I fondly remember eating this growing up, and am glad to have this in my recipe collection as well now.
The Chinese New Year celebration starts on Thursday, February 19th this year and ends on March 5th. It’s the year of the sheep, goat, or ram. The reason it’s the year of the sheep, goat or ram is because the Chinese character is “yang” which translates into any of these three animals. You’re a sheep, goat or ram if you’re born in the year 2015 (2/19/15-2/7/16), 2003 (2/1/03-1/21/04), 1991 (2/15/91-2/3/92), 1979 (1/28/79-2/15/80), 1967 (2/9/67-1/29/68), or 1955 (1/24/55-2/1/56).
If you’re born in the year of the sheep, goats and rams, here are some of the characteristics you’re supposed to have: religious (because they kneel when they drink), creative, shy, elegant, emphatic and wise.
There are lots of traditions in the Chinese culture for Chinese New Year (read this old post to learn about some of the traditions). When my kids were young, I used to go into their classrooms and do a whole Chinese New Year gig. I’d read Chinese fairy tales, make a Chinese New Year themed craft with the kids, talk about Chinese New Year traditions, make fried rice in the classroom, bring homemade Chinese noodles in for the teachers…I even made fortune cookies for all the kids with fortunes they wrote out (albeit fortune cookies aren’t really Chinese, but they are fun!). When my in-laws were alive (they lived with us for a number of years), our kids used to pay their respects in return for receiving hung-bao, a red envelope filled with money.
For Chinese New Year, I’d make an auspiciously lucky dinner for my family, replete with Chinese dumplings (symbolizing wealth since they resemble the shape of gold ingots), noodles (long life), chicken (a whole chicken symbolizes family unity), and other “good luck” foods.
I have to admit I haven’t been doing much to celebrate Chinese New Year the last couple of years, so I’m glad I made this Coconut Sticky Rice Cake. At least I’ll have a little good luck in the New Year ;).
Were you born in the year of the sheep, goat or ram? If so, what do you think? Do you have any of the characteristics of the characteristics listed above?
For more Chinese New Year recipes, check out these posts:
16+ Lunar and Chinese New Year recipes
Chinese New Year Recipes: What To Eat If You Want A Raise, Steamy Kitchen
Good Luck Foods for Chinese New Year – Hip Foodie Mom
30 Lunar and Chinese New Year Recipes, Life Made Sweeter
Favorite Chinese New Year Dishes – Appetite for China
Chinese New Year Recipes – Rasa Malaysia
Chinese New Year Menu – The Woks of Life
Chinese New Year Recipes – Noob Cook
Mom's Coconut Sticky Rice Cake
Ingredients
- 1 can coconut milk 13.5 ounces, divided
- 4 cups glutinous rice sometimes labeled as sweet rice, soaked in water 3 hours to overnight
- 1 cup organic sugar
- 3 1/2 cups water
- coconut flakes for garnish, optional
Sweet Coconut Glaze
- 5 tablespoons organic sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
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Stir coconut milk well and set aside 3/4 cup for the Sweet Glaze. Drain soaked glutinous rice and place in rice cooker; add 3 1/2 cups water, sugar and remaining coconut milk. Stir well, and cook on regular white rice setting.
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Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
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Transfer cooked rice to two 9-inch round cake pans that have been lined with aluminum foil or lightly oiled. Pat down top to flatten surface of rice cake.
Sweet Coconut Glaze
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In a small pot, combine 3/4 cup reserved coconut milk, 5 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 cup water. In a small bowl, mix together cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water. Bring coconut milk mixture to a boil, then add cornstarch slurry and cook briefly, stirring constantly, until thickened; remove from heat.
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Spread Coconut Sweet Glaze on top of coconut rice cakes. Sprinkle with coconut flakes if desired. Bake for 15-20 minutes until coconut flakes are toasted.
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This cake can be served warm or cold.
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I have never had a coconut sticky rice cake..now I am tempted to give it a try too as I LOVE coconut.
Happy Chinese New Year to you, Jeanette!
Happy New Year Angie! Coconut sticky rice is really good – I hope you try it.
I was born in the year of pig and so was my mom actually! Thus we love pigs 😉
Really enjoyed reading all about Chinese traditions..while there are many that we share, there are some that are a bit different. One thing is for sure – dumplings, and sticky rice (in some form) are musts! I wish my mom had recipes written down to share..if only I can get her to start measuring. Happy early New Year!!
Happy New Year Min – so fun that you and your mom are both pigs! Yes, dumplings and sticky rice are favorite New Year foods. You’ll have to get your mom to measure a few of her favorite recipes so you can recreate them.
YUM – I’ll all about coconut desserts that aren’t too overly sweet and this would sounds divine. How cool to have all of those recipes from your mom and be able to use them for inspiration for your blog, too. Love reading about Chinese New Year’s traditions – I happily participate in all the wonderful food traditions 🙂
Thanks Deanna – I’ve been having fun looking through all the recipes and deciding which ones to try.
How wonderful that your mum handed all of those treasured recipes to you…what a gift! I have never tried a sticky rice cake, but it looks wonderful. And honestly, I can never resist anything with coconut.
Dara – it is really nice to have my mom’s treasured recipes all in one place. I’m hoping to make many of them and turn them into a book for her.
I love, love, love coconut sticky rice! <3 I don't get to be home this year either for Chinese New Year, but I think I'm gonna attempt to find some glutinous rice so I can at least make this to celebrate on my own! 😛 I wish I had family recipes to try out! :[ My parents don't really cook, and I was unfortunately uninterested in learning to cook when my grandma was still around. ._. (That's basically why everything I make is somewhat of an experiment, haha. 😡 )
Happy almost-Chinese New Year to you! <3
Happy New Year Farrah – you’ll have to make some for yourself. I actually quartered the recipe for myself.
Thanks Jeanette. Sounds delicious. Have a great week.
Thanks Liz! Have a wonderful week!
I so want to try this! It looks so good and SWEET!
Jeanette! I love this!! yeah, I’m working on a round-up post for Chinese New Year so have been studying all the “lucky” foods! 😛 love this sticky rice cake!!!!
Thanks Alice – can’t wait to see your Chinese New Year recipe roundup!
I love treasured family recipes! This sounds delicious…can’t wait to try it 😀
Thanks Jenny – I couldn’t agree more – there’s something so special about favorite family recipes that are handed down from generation to generation.
That’s so sweet that your dad scanned all of your mom’s recipes for you. My mom adores sweet sticky rice too especially the glutinous rice balls. This coconut rice cake looks delicious! Happy almost CNY!
It was a ton of work for my dad to scan every single page, but I’m so glad he did. Technology definitely has its advantages! You’ll have to make this for your mom – I bet she’d be really impressed with your sticky rice cake!
Thus looks wonderful, my year is that of the sheep! Do you use sweetened or unsweetened coconut milk? What about the coconut flakes as well? Thank you for this wonderful and cherished recipe!
Wonderful Lena – Happy “Sheep Birthday” this year! I used unsweetened coconut milk and unsweetened coconut flakes (although I think my mom uses sweetened coconut flakes).
What lovely family memories/traditions! It’s so wonderful that you are compiling your mom’s recipes; such a great idea!
Love reading your traditions Jeanette- Our celebrations got cancelled this year and my sister and I had already planned what to use our red packets on….red packets we won’t be getting.
Sticky rice is something I’m yet to try but it looks delicious!
Hi Jeanette, Thank you for sharing your yummy looking Mom’s Sticky Rice Cake recipe. I used to love our British Rice Pudding made with cows milk. Since discovering I was dairy intolerant I have not been able to eat it. So this recipe would be a great alternative for me!
As I don’t have a rice cooker how would it best to cook the rice to get the same results?
thanks Gill
Gill – you can cook the rice on the stovetop – I haven’t tried it this way, but I’m guessing it will take about 20-25 minutes if you soak the rice overnight. Check at 20 minutes as it will probably start to stick to pot.
OOh yum! This rice looks wonderful Jeanette – so creamy!
Hi there! Looking forward to making this – the recipe doesn’t say how long to bake it for, so could you let me know? Thank you!
Hi Kate – I baked this for 45 minutes. Enjoy!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I was wondering if I can use black (forbidden) rice?
The rice should have a sticky quality when cooked so I don’t think black forbidden rice will work the same way; however, black sweet rice might be a suitable substitute (although I don’t think it is quite as sticky as regular white sticky rice).