yam cake

Calque from Chinese 芋頭糕／芋头糕 (yùtougāo).

• IPA^(key): /ˈjæm keɪk/

yam cake (countable and uncountable, plural yam cakes)

1. (Malaysia, Singapore) Taro cake.
   • 1995 April 11, Seetoh Wai Keong, “What’s ‘Yam cake’”, in rec.food.veg‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Let me hazard a guess: Yam cakes are made from yam, something that grows underground like a potato.

   • 2010 September 4, “The best Nonya kuehs in KL”, in The Straits Times, Singapore:

     Many regulars also come for his delicious chwee kueh (steamed rice cakes topped with preserved radish), here sold in generous bowl-sized portions rather than our usual dainty morsels, and steamed yam cake topped with golden fried shallots, chopped spring onions and sliced chillies.

   • 2012, Christopher Tan, Amy Van, Chinese Heritage Cooking (Singapore Heritage Cookbooks), Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, →ISBN, page 68:

     This recipe can be adapted to make yam cake. Replace the daikon with 300 g (11 oz) peeled taro. Skip Step 4 and instead steam the taro unitil just soft, then break it roughly into chunks and small bits while it is still hot. Stir it into the batter with the sausages and dried prawn mixture in step 5 and proceed with the recipe as above.

   • 2014, Ng Lip Kah, edited by Audrey Yow, Dim Sum: A Step-by-step Cookbook (Cooking Classics), Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, page 75:

     The defining features of this yam cake are its garnishing and sauce, which are always part of the dish.