Chinese New Year Cake – Neen Go
Pan Fried Chinese New Year Cake
Growing up, the Neen Go (Chinese New Year Cake) is pretty much one of the many star items on the dining room table. I was never attracted to the look and the taste of the cake. For such a simple and dull looking cake, as a child, I simply could not fathom why it was such an important item to have before the starting of the lunar new year. There are so many other delicious cakes, like the prosperity cupcakes, but none of them are as important as this neen go.
Neen go, which literally translated in Cantonese, “Year High” or in another words, highly prosperous year, is one of the many items offered the day before New Year’s to the Kitchen God. Yes the Kitchen God and this is the widespread belief. The new year cannot kick off to a fresh new and prosperous start without this cake. And so, a week before the new year, I decided that I would like to make this cake. I did come across with a few snafus, recipe problems not the user’s fault, and then I found the light at the end of the tunnel with the help of my dear co-worker Mei-Ling who offered me a foolproof recipe. The attempt to take on the responsibility of making this VIP cake has befuddled my sweet mother. She could not take me seriously and decided that it is better to use her inexperience hands over mine to make the cake.
Now here is the now infamous recipe from Mei Ling:
Chinese New Year Cake – Neen Go
What you will need:
- A conversion scale (English->Metric Units)
- 1-8″ round aluminum pan
- A pressure cooker to steam the cake
- A trip to a Chinese market
Ingredients:
- 5 sticks of brown candy (Peen Tong) + 500g of water
- 480g of glutinous rice flour (green bag) + 40g of rice flour (red bag) + 40g wheat flour + 40g corn starch
- 120g of coconut milk (can)
- 2 tablespoons of oil
- White sesame for garnish
- 1-date soaked in water for 1/2 hr
Instructions:
Grease your pan with oil and start boiling a big pot of water.
- In a pot, boil the water and melt the sugar and let it cool in room temperature.
- In a mixing bowl, sift the second part and slowly stir in the coconut milk.
- Pour in the melted sugar into the flour mixture slowly while stirring. Make sure it doesn’t get too stiff otherwise it means that it is too dried. In that case, just add enough coconut milk to get it moist with a nice thick mixture. It should not be too watery or too thick; it should have a nice consistency.
- Pour mixture in the pan and steam for 10 minutes. Insert the date in the middle of the cake and continue steaming for 50 minutes.
- Stick a toothpick in the cake. If it comes out clear, then it is ready. Let the cake cool down and you will see that the color will become darker.
- Cut the cake into squares. Beat an egg and dip the squares into the egg wash and pan fry it.
- Enjoy!
Check out the above video. It will give you a much better sense of what ingredients to use and the techniques used.
Good luck and enjoy!
Chinese New Year Cake
I made the mistake of putting the lid on the cake too early. When that happens, the water from the steam will drip onto the cake, therefore discoloring it which is very unattractive. So please me mindful of that.
Until next time,
<3 FCG
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2 Responses to “Chinese New Year Cake – Neen Go”
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This looks wonderful! The cut and color of fried neen go looks perfect and it probably covered the water spots.
Wow chiefy, you even have a video, very fancy. This cake looks awesome.
Thanks for sharing, lol – Just jk (or may be not).