White sugar sponge cake

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Chinese:

白糖糕

Hanyu Pinyin:

bái táng gāo

Cantonese Jyutping:

baak6 tong4 gou1

Literal meaning:

white sugar cake

Transliterations
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin:	bái táng gāo
Yue (Cantonese)
- Jyutping:	baak6 tong4 gou1

White sugar sponge cake (also called white sugar cake and white sugar pastry) is a type of Chinese pastry. It is one of the most standard pastries in Hong Kong. Though overseas, it is much more rare in Chinatown bakery shops.

It is made from rice flour, white sugar, water, yeast, and baking powder.

While it is called a "cake," it is never served as a circular round cake. It is usually purchased as an individual triangular piece. The cake is spongy and soft, and sometimes has a slightly sour taste due to the fermentation of the batter before cooking. If left exposed to the air, it hardens quickly. It is usually kept under some cover to be kept moist. The cake is essentially sugar baked into a pastry formation.

A Vietnamese version of the cake, called bánh bò, differs from the Chinese version in that it often uses coconut milk as an ingredient, and does not have the sourness that often typifies the Chinese version.

The cake is also found widely sold in Tainan, Taiwan.