烤紅豆年糕 Baked Sweet Rice Cake with Red bean paste

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year Eve (1/30/2014) and it is the year of horse.  I got this recipe from my Chorus friend Anne Chou last year and I made it many many times.  My friends and family love it.   It is a easy dessert for the Chinese New Year.  Try it yourself.

Ingredients:  

• 16  oz sweet rice power (green bag, see picture below)
• 3 eggs
• 2.5 cups milk
• 1/2 cup begetable oil
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cut chopped walnuts (optional)
• 10 oz sweet red bean paste (Sukina, or 小倉紅豆) (see picture below)

Steps:

 1. Preheat the over to 375 degree.

 2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, milk, sweet rice powder,  baking powder, vanilla extract and oil together.

 3. Use two 8 inch round baking pans, or one big 8x12 pan.  First line the baking pan with parchment paper.  Pour half of the batter to the baking pan.  Bake it for about 10 minutes until the surface is starting to set.  Take the baking pan out of the over, carefully drop the red bean paste on top of the surface a little at a time.  It is hard to spread it over the surface because the batter under the surface is still running, so just evenly drop the red bean paste to cover the entire surface.  You can add chopped walnuts at the same time.   Pour the rest of the batter on top to cover the red bean paste and put it back to the over.


4. Bake for anothre 40-45 minutes at 375 degree. Stick a chopstick into the center of the cake and make sure it comes out clean.  If the top is already brown but the center is not done yet, reduce the temperature to 350 degree.

5.  After it cools down, you can take out the entire cake with parchment paper.  Remove the parchment paper and cut them into small squares (use a sharp knife) and put them into little cupcake cups.  It will make a very nice party treat.

4.