Steamed green cakes are popular seasonal snacks in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. [Photo/WeChat account: zsqdly]

A saying in Zhoushan goes that one bite of a steamed green cake will give you a taste of spring. With the spring season arriving, Zhoushan natives have been busy making the snack.

Steamed green cakes are popular seasonal snacks in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Although they are available all-year-round, the snacks made around April are considered to be the most delicious.

Chinese mugwort leaves, an edible wild herb, are essential to the snacks. The first step to make steamed green cakes is to chop the Chinese mugwort leaves after they have been blanched in boiling water.

Put the chopped leaves and glutinous rice in a steaming bucket and leave them steamed for a while, during which the fragrance of Chinese mugwort leaves and rice permeates the entire room.

The well-steamed mixture is then put into a dough-kneading machine and green dough will be produced from the machine. This dough is then made into different shapes with different moulds, with round steamed green cakes being the most common.

A layer of soybean meal is usually sprayed over the snack to avoid adhesion from each other.

In addition to the original flavor, the steamed green cakes can be stuffed with different fillings, including sesame paste and sweetened bean paste.

Chinese mugwort leaves, an edible wild herb, are essential to making steamed green cakes. [Photo/WeChat account: zsqdly]

This dough is made into round shapes with a mould. [Photo/WeChat account: zsqdly]

Steamed green cakes are stuffed with different fillings, including sesame paste and sweetened bean paste. [Photo/WeChat account: zsqdly]