Sticky Rice Cake Pops

Happiness after Chinese New Year

After every Chinese New Year, there is a sweet little something that I look forward to, it's a rice cake (年糕) that is made of glutinous rice flour and sugar. 

The folklore has it that it's sweet so that the Kitchen God (like Santa without presents) that visits during the Spring Festival will only report sweet nothings to Heaven or perhaps the stickiness is to glue his mouth from tattle tales! 

Well I don't actually have the recipe for this rice cake, it's terribly tedious, an authentic one takes 12 hours to complete! There is a shortcut (20-minute version) from Little Corner of Mine if you're interested :) I just want to share my mum's way of savouring it, which is also fairly common in Southeast Asia

Something sticky, sweet and nutty :)

 Ingredients

• 1 sticky rice cake
• 1 cup fresh coconut shreds
• ¼ tsp salt
• 10 wooden popsicle sticks (or chopsticks)
  

Directions

1. Peel off the banana leaf (or any container that came with it) and slice it half an inch thick
2. Place the pieces in a ramekin and steam it for approximately 15-20 minutes
3. When ready, it should be completely soft and sticky
4.  Mix salt to the coconut shreds and pour over the rice cake
5. Insert a wooden popsicle stick (or chopstick) into the bottom of the ramekin and roll a good amount of rice cake onto the stick 
6. Dip the stick with more coconut shreds and serve as rice cake pops :)

It's sticky alright!