Laiyuan Sticky Cake

Laiyuan Sticky Cake

　　One region nurtures its people in its own way. Laiyuan’s loess soil, sandy land, and cool climate are perfect for growing millet. The grains produced here are not only large but also golden in color, hence called yellow millet. This type of millet is highly glutinous. The ancestors of Laiyuan used yellow millet as their main ingredient, refining coarse grains into fine food, and invented many delicious and tasty sticky cake varieties. Through long-term development, these sticky cakes have acquired profound cultural meanings, allowing people to not only enjoy various flavors of sticky cakes but also witness the simplicity, honesty, and creativity of the mountain folk.

　　Spring flowers and autumn fruits — as autumn arrives, crops gradually ripen. Farmers, having toiled all year, harvest their millet. Partly to celebrate the harvest and partly to eagerly taste the aroma of fresh grain, they can’t wait to dry and hull the millet. Instead, they grind it into flour while still wet, husk and all. Though the resulting sticky cake is no longer golden but rather a dull yellow, the unique fragrance of freshly harvested grain wafts from the steamer along with the steam, making mouths water. This kind of cake, made with a more rustic method, is called “hairy cake.” It is also known as “field-opening cake.” Since millet ripens earliest, threshing it marks the first use of the threshing ground in the year. People eat field-opening cake to celebrate the harvest and also to pray and hope for an abundant yield from their own threshing grounds.

　　Building a house in the countryside is a major event. In the old days, constructing a home didn’t involve hiring a professional construction team — no matter who was building, they would ask relatives and fellow villagers for help. No wages were given, but the host family had to provide meals. There were no refined grains in the mountains, so white cake was eaten. What locals call white cake is actually yellow cake — it is made by hulling millet, grinding it into yellow millet flour, then steaming it into sticky cake and kneading it hot by hand. This cake is meant to be eaten with a dipping sauce, typically potato strips stewed with tofu. If conditions allow, it might be served with vermicelli, Chinese cabbage, and braised pork; if not, fried tofu dregs or unstrained tofu (made directly with residue and soy milk) might be stir-fried, called lazy tofu. Nowadays, white cake and lazy tofu are considered delicacies for the common folk of Laiyuan. To ensure the house is built solidly, wealthier families prepare five big bowls of meat and side dishes, and also make fried sticky cakes for the helpers. White cake is especially filling and gives great energy for hard work.

　　The ancients said that the greatest joys in life are four: rain after a long drought, meeting an old friend in a distant land, the wedding night, and passing the imperial examination. No matter what, marriage is a major milestone in one's life, and people are accustomed to celebrating it in a big way. In Laiyuan, holding a wedding is referred to as “eating cake,” meaning that the term “eating cake” is a daily expression carrying a specific meaning. In Laiyuan, weddings do not feature hairy cake or white cake, but rather fried cake. Making fried cake is quite particular. Typically, white cake is used as the wrapper, filled with stuffing, and then deep-fried. The wrapper, seared by scalding oil, forms a layer of golden bubbles, while the inside remains soft and tender — crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, fragrant and delicious. There's a lot of technique to making fried cake, especially in its shape, which follows conventional patterns. Without asking, you can tell the filling just by looking at the form. Ones shaped like dumplings definitely contain red bean paste; those with both ends folded back and joined like rings are filled with tofu dregs; and those that are round with no edges usually hold either chive and egg or chive and tofu fillings. Worth mentioning is that fried cake never contains meat filling, as meat paired with sticky cake is too greasy and lacks a refreshing taste.

　　Since it’s a happy occasion, there’s bound to be playful mischief. Young people of the same generation love to play pranks in the bridal chamber, while grandmothers and young wives pull tricks with the cakes. In larger households with many relatives, grandmothers and young wives from the family rise in the middle of the night to make the cakes. Everyone gathers around, chatting and laughing as they shape the dough — a truly heartwarming scene. When no one is paying attention, the young wives play mischievous tricks: some stuff chili peppers into the cake filling, others shape the white cake like dumplings or balls but leave them hollow, deliberately producing fake or subpar cakes to trick unsuspecting guests.

　　Birth, aging, sickness, and death are inevitable natural laws. For funerals in Laiyuan, cake is also eaten — specifically bean cake. With loved ones having passed away, the family is overwhelmed with grief and in no mood for elaborate cooking. So they take out yellow millet flour, small red beans, snap peas, and other ingredients, set up a steamer, place a steaming rack, sprinkle a layer of flour, then a layer of beans, steam until cooked, and cut it into squares like tofu. Normally, people in Laiyuan don’t eat bean cake because it’s considered an inauspicious food. But during festivals, Laiyuan people also eat cake — though now with additional preparation steps and ingredients. Everyone makes jujube cloud cake. As the name suggests, the cake is made to look like clouds. Authentic jujube cloud cake is rolled by bringing both sides to the center, and when sliced, it forms “ruyi rolls,” symbolizing good fortune and happiness. But with today’s faster-paced life and laziness, most people roll it in one direction, forming snail-shaped rolls. Currently, jujube cloud cake, as the representative of Laiyuan sticky cakes, has become the top specialty dish favored by outsiders.

　　Even when there’s no wedding, funeral, or festival, and you’re just killing time, you still can’t go without cake. The people of Laiyuan are constantly innovating with how they make cake. Here are two examples: one is bean flour cake. Roast soybeans until done, grind them into very fine bean flour, mix in white sugar, slice off a piece of freshly steamed soft and warm white cake, roll it in the bean flour, then fold and stretch it like noodles, repeating the process several times until there are layers of bean flour and cake, stacked like Beijing’s donkey rolling cake. Bite into it while hot, and the bean flour bursts into your nose, aromatic and sweet, with an indescribable delight. Another is sieve flour cake. Place a steaming tray over boiling water, put yellow millet flour in a sieve, and sift it layer by layer into the tray. It cooks as it’s sifted. Once it reaches a certain thickness, cover with a lid and steam a bit longer. Uncover, slice, and eat — it’s fluffy, crisp, and fragrant, refreshing like a mung bean cake. There are many other ways to prepare sticky cake, such as steamed yellow millet dumplings, fried cake strips...

　　Pure cake is made solely with yellow millet. Due to its limited yield and relatively high price, cake isn’t always purely made. To stretch limited yellow millet into more cake, the people of Laiyuan came up with a solution — mixing in some corn, called “jiami” (literally “saving rice”), which implies conserving yellow millet. When only a little jiami is mixed in, the sticky cake remains glutinous without being greasy — just right. But too much jiami makes the cake unusually hard, losing its chewy, smooth quality, and naturally, it doesn’t taste as good. As living standards improve, fewer people mix jiami into sticky cake nowadays.

　　From tiny millet and golden yellow millet, the people of Laiyuan have created a wide variety of foods, encapsulating their joys, sorrows, and reflections of the broader social landscape.