Steamed rice cakes with sweet stuffing (艾窝窝/Ai Wo Wo)

Ai Wo Wo, or steamed rice cakes with sweet stuffing, is made of glutinous rice or millet flour with sweet filling. It first appeared during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) and was a favorite of the imperial families of the Ming Dynasty. The cake, which has a sticky texture and is white as snow, tastes sweet and comes with a variety of stuffings, such as ground rock sugar, hawthorn, sesame, green plum fruit or mashed Chinese jujube. Traditionally, it is eaten from the Lunar New Year to the end of summer, but it is now sold throughout the year.