How to Make Taiwanese Sun Cakes

Soft crumbly crust and a yummy maltose filling that lingers on your taste buds, the Tai Yang Bing or Sun Cake has delighted Taiwanese pastry lovers since 1855. First introduced at a famed bakery in Taichung, and later modified to its thick round-disc shape. They sold as hot cakes did, and quickly became a darling. Soon, other bakeries began to make their own Sun Cakes as well. Today, it’s a Taichung specialty, often sold as a souvenir packed in beautiful designer boxes.

For Taichung locals, the Sun Cake is a popular breakfast. Savoured with tea, dipped in warm almond milk, or dissolved in hot water into a sweet porridge. Use of pork lard to make the crust gives it a subtle savoury aroma. Sweet, buttery maltose oozes in every bite.

Want to taste it? Follow this step-by-step guide to make yours warm and fresh at home!

The Filling

1. Pinch and stretch the butter and maltose to mix them.

2. Put the mixture into a bowl with cake flour, tapioca flour, salt, icing sugar and evaporated milk. Stir and mix with a spatula until it forms a dough. Wrap and set aside.

The Oil Dough

3. Mix cake flour and pork lard until it thickens, then shape it into a dough. Wrap and set aside.

The Water Dough

4. Make a flour ‘well’ in your bowl’s centre, and put in pork lard and icing sugar. Then blend them all together with hot water.

5. Shape the mixture into a dough and wrap it.

Making the Outer Crust

6. Let the 3 doughs rest for 30 minutes. Then remove the wrap and divide each dough into 10 portions, by shaping them into balls. Make sure you know which is which. Keep them separate and covered to avoid drying.

7. Flatten the water dough balls in your palm, and wrap an oil dough ball into each of them.

8. Coat each completed ball with a little flour. Flatten with your fingers, then your rolling pin.

9. Roll the flattened dough into tubes.

10. Flatten the tubes.

11. Roll them up again. This process ‘loosens’ the dough, which will give the cake’s outer crust its crumbly soft texture.

Complete with Filling

12. Take each dough roll and press down the centre with your finger.

13. Fold the roll into a ball. Flip it upside down, and flatten it into a disc.

14. Wrap a filling dough ball with the disc.

15. Shape it into a cone.

16. Press the cone down gently to make a ball.

17. Flatten the ball into a disc. Repeat the process for all the rest.

18. Preheat your oven to 190°C, and bake the discs for 12 minutes. Watch them rise into Sun Cakes. Switch off and let them sit in the oven for about 8 minutes, then remove and cool off.

Enjoy your Sun Cakes! Be sure to grab our detailed recipe too.