Sweet Sauce for Yam Cake

Yam cake is my all time favourite Chinese traditional snack. I can't resist the temptation of getting some of it if I stumble upon them. Yam cake is serve with a type of sweet sauce, usually homemade during my childhood time. Nowadays, this sweet sauce has been commercialize, many of the food hawker or cafe purchase this sauce from pre-packed supplier, which didn't taste as good as the homemade sauce.

I made this yam cake for few times and I just love this recipe which is "zero failure" with satisfying texture. Hop over to my previous post on this yam cake here. Last week, I made this yam cake again (see note) and was craving for the sweet sauce that serve together with the yam cake. It is definitely a good companion if I can have the homemade yam cake with homemade sweet sauce. Agreed?

Thus, I googled for the sweet sauce recipe but leads me to no where. I can't get a perfect recipe that makes a simple and traditional sweet sauce for yam cake. Hence, from all the information I have gathered, I put on my thinking hat and some information that I recalled from my late grandma, I began to experiment. Started with mixing, blending, adding, stirring, testing and repeat the process again until I achieved the taste and consistency that fit my requirement.

The sweet sauce came out to be quite close to those homemade sauce selling by the food hawkers. I have never imagine it is so easy and simple to make this sauce at home. All of us enjoyed the yam cake with this sweet sauce and finished the whole tray of yam cake. *wink*


This sweet sauce is made from simple ingredients which you can find them easily. The combination of beans paste 豆酱 (doujiang - in Chinese language), sugar, water, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and corn flour give you a delicious homemade sweet sauce whenever you need it. This sweet sauce also suitable for dim sum, steamed radish cake, steamed/fried dumplings, fried radish cake, chee cheong fun or yong tau foo (stuffed vegetable with fish paste). If you too want some homemade sweet sauce for any dessert or snack next time, give this recipe a try! You may adjust the ingredients in this recipe to suits your own preference and taste.

RECIPE FOR SWEET SAUCE This recipe is based on my own preference. The sauce is sufficient for 8" round tray of yam cake. Ingredients: 2 tbsp Taucheo (fermented soy beans paste / 豆酱) 300ml of water 1/2 cup White Sugar 4 tsp Cornflour + 4 tbsp water (mix well) 1 tbsp Premium Light Soy Sauce 3 tbsp Premium Dark Soy Sauce Method: 1. Put Taucheo with water in a food proccessor. Blend well. 2. Pour Taucheo paste in a sauce pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce to low fire. 3. Add in sugar, stir and mix well under low fire about 10 mins. 4. Add in cornflour mixture and stir well. Add in dark soy sauce and light soy sauce. 5. Simmer under low fire and stir occasionally until the sauce is thicken. Note: • This time I didn't add in the pre-fried dried shrimp and fried shallot into the yam cake, instead I used them for topping. • You may use either smooth or chunky bean paste. I used smooth version. • Adjust the amount of corn flour to achieve the desired thickness. • Adjust the amount of sugar according to your taste. You may substitute white sugar with brown sugar. • Simmer under low fire, stir occasionally until sauce is thicken. • The sauce shouldn't be too watery nor too thick. Check the consistancy of the sauce from time to time. Info on Bean Paste - from WISEGEEK