Did you know Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days?

A very traditional and must-have dish eaten during this time is this savory daikon cake, also called lo bak go.

In Chinese, go means cake which also sounds like high or tall. So, eating this cake means growing and increasing in your success, prosperity, and opportunities.

This daikon cake is steamed and full of umami from the dried shrimp and Chinese sausage.

It’s also commonly offered at most dim sum restaurants all year round. You can find this savory cake at most Chinese grocery stores, like T&T Supermarket, during Lunar New Year. I find that the store-bought options don’t have enough filling and is mostly rice flour, so I’ll show you how to easily make this at home with a good amount of filling!

I also like my recipe because it uses the entire 400g of rice flour, so there’s no need to have half opened bags of rice flour laying around and no need to re-measure it for the recipe.

My recipe just uses 4 core ingredients, rice flour, dried shrimp, daikon, and Chinese sausage. Chinese sausage and dried shrimp give a lot of umami.

You can buy these ingredients at most Chinese grocery stores.

Chicken and pork sausages are usually leaner and lower in calorie than regular pork sausages. I used pork sausage in my recipe because that was the only option available (they were selling like hot cakes during CNY!).

Salt, sugar, and white pepper is added to enhance the flavor.

My recipe makes 2 cakes- perfect for gifting or for leftovers.  And it only takes 20 minutes to steam!

It perfectly fits into 2 x 9″ pie plates (I think many of us own these Pyrex plates).

I like to cook pieces of radish cake dipped in egg and then pan-fried- this is the best way!

If you’re lazy like me, you can also air fry it. Spray it with some oil and air fry at 400 for 8-10 mins, I also shook it halfway.

At dim sum, they would just pan fry it with oil and sometimes add bean sprouts.

AND…I like to dip it in hot sauce for an extra kick!  

Enjoy it with sweet Chinese New Year cake, or nian gao for the ultimate New Year experience!

Check out my easy, low sugar nian gao recipe to learn how to make it.

I put pre-cut radish cake and sweet Chinese New Year cake in containers for easy storage and cooking.  

Easy, Chinese Lo Bak Go Recipe (Radish Cake)

Ingredients:
1/4c Dried Shrimp

4 Chinese Sausages

1 bag (400g) Rice Flour

650ml Water

2lb Daikon Radish

1 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp White Pepper

Instructions

1. Soak dried shrimp in hot water.

2. Dice Chinese sausages. Remove shrimp from water and chop into small pieces.

3. Peel skin off daikon and grate. I used my food processor to quickly grate the daikon. You can also grate by hand. 

4. Mix rice flour and water. Blend until smooth. I used a hand blender. 

5. Heat oil over wok or large saucepan. Add Chinese sausage and dried shrimp. Sauté on medium-high until fragrant, about 3 min. 

6. Add daikon. Cook until daikon softens and water is released, about 5-6 minutes. 

Turn off heat. Pour in rice flour mixture. Stir in sugar, salt, and white pepper.

7.  Lightly grease two 9″ pie plates with a brush or spray oil.

Divide batter evenly between the two plates. 

8. Add water and a steamer rack to your work. Steam each cake for 20 mins or until center comes clean with a chopstick.

The cake will appear very wet- this is normal! The water will evaporate as it settles. 

Let cool completely and enjoy pan fried, air fried, steamed, or microwaved. 

Complement it with the sweet Chinese New Year nian gao- get the easy recipe here!