Make sure you have a wok and lid big enough to accommodate a 22 to 23 centimetre round cake tin. Place a cooling rack in the wok to sit the baking tin on. Fill with enough water so there's about two ...

Edited version of a story first published Dec. 15, 2009: This old-fashioned charmer is from Heirloom Cooking with the Brass Sisters by Marilynn Brass & Sheila Brass (Black Dog & Leventhal, $29.95).

This cake from chef-owner Kathy Fang of Fang, a modern Chinese restaurant in San Francisco’s SoMa district, is one of her family’s favorite desserts during Lunar New Year celebrations, which fall on ...