Chinese Yellow Pea Cake Recipe (豌豆黄 Wāndòu Huáng)

Smooth, refreshing and not too sweet, Chinese yellow pea cake is officially a dessert fit for an empress.

Once a common person's dish, Chinese yellow pea cake (豌豆黄, 'wāndòu huáng') became a favourite snack of Empress Dowager Cixi. So much so that, after the first time she tried it for herself during a summer break outside of the Forbidden City in Beihai Park, she asked the street vendors who'd made it to work in the Forbidden City's imperial kitchen.

Any yellow pea cake recipe is a super simple one: all you need is yellow split peas, water and sugar. The trick is, after blending the ingredients into a 'smoothie', cooking the smoothie enough so that it thickens and will set when cold, but not so much that it becomes too thick and dry.

The making of Chinese yellow pea cake is quite easy, but do factor in an extra two days for making them as the dried split peas need to be soaked in water for at least four hours, and then the cooked cake needs to be chilled for at least four hours. For both steps I leave them overnight.

How much extra water you add when you blend the cooked peas also depends on your cooking method. I've used a rice cooker and simply boiling the peas on the hob, and I had to use more water for the latter because more evaporated off during the cooking process. If you own a pressure cooker you can also use it to cook your split peas – it'll take less time and also retain more water (however I don't currently own one).

You can also watch me make this on my YouTube channel, Tashcakes:

Ready? Let's go.

Ingredients:

250g dried split yellow peas
Water (for soaking)
600ml extra water
60g caster sugar

Method:

1. Rinse the dried split yellow peas, cover them in cold water and leave to soak overnight.

2. The next day, drain the soaked yellow peas (discarding the soaking water) and put them in a saucepan or rice cooker. Add the 600ml new water and cook until the peas start to go mushy (about two hours). Add a little more water if the water boils down so much that it's level with or below the level of the peas.

3. Leave to cool a little before pureeing in a blender, adding extra cold water if it's too thick (I added an extra 400ml in total). Pour into a large saucepan.

3. Add the sugar and stir continuously over a medium heat, until the mixture thickens enough to leave a ribbon that slowly sinks back into the mixture when you lift the spoon.

4. Pour into an 8x8" square cake tin and cover the top with clingfilm to prevent it from drying and cracking.

5. Leave to cool to room temperature before chilling in the fridge for at least four hours.

6. Turn out the now-set cake and cut into squares or rectangles before serving.

Enjoy, and have fun.