Corn Husk Cakes — The Best Way with Corn — Just Stir It Together
By Vivian
Why You'll Love It
Summer is corn season! But what do you do with corn besides boiling it? Sharing a heavenly way with fresh corn today — corn husk cakes!
Fresh corn ground to a slurry is full of corn sweetness and the green scent of the husks, and steamed it comes out soft and gently sweet.
Best of all it's simple: stir it together and it's done. No kneading, no failures even for a beginner, and with no oil or sugar it's perfect for summer. Whole grain that never feels heavy — adults and kids fight over them.
Corn is full of fiber and vitamins, and steaming it gives you something more fragrant and tender than boiled corn. Treating the whole grain carefully makes it better. If you have kids, try this — they love the texture.
Ingredients
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| 2 ears sweet corn | ⅔ cup (80 g) cornmeal |
| ⅔ cup (80 g) all-purpose flour | ½ tsp (1.6 g) instant yeast |
| a little sugar (optional) | |
Ingredient Notes
- Use sweet corn or fruit corn — waxy corn doesn't come out sweet enough.
- Boil the husks in water with a little baking soda for 1 minute; they stay green and won't tear.
- No blender? Grate the corn instead — coarser, but just as fragrant.
- For more whole grain, use all cornmeal, but add water since it's drier.
- Leave a handful of whole kernels in the batter, and they burst when you bite them.
Instructions
-
1
Peel off the husks and wash them — don't throw them away, they're useful here.
Cut the kernels off the cob. Choose sweet corn or fruit corn for a sweeter, better result.
-
2
Put the kernels in a blender and blitz to a fine corn slurry.
-
3
If you don't have a blender, grate the corn into a slurry with a grater. Slightly coarser, but just as good.
-
4
Add the yeast to the slurry, then the cornmeal and flour, and stir thoroughly with chopsticks. You can use all cornmeal if you want a more whole-grain result. Add a little sugar if you like them sweeter.
-
5
Stir until smooth and lump-free, cover, and let it rise somewhere warm for 30 minutes.
Once risen, you can fold in some whole kernels — they burst with juice when you eat them.
-
6
Put the washed husks in a pot with a little baking soda, bring to a boil, then take them out and drain.
The soda keeps the husks green and stops them tearing while steaming.
-
7
Spoon the fermented batter onto the husks, wrap them up, and set them in the steamer.
-
8
If wrapping feels like too much work, just spoon the batter onto an open husk and steam it flat — just as good. No husks? Steam it in a bowl.
-
9
Start with cold water and steam over high heat for 18 minutes. Turn off the heat and rest 5 minutes before opening.
-
10
Fresh out of the steamer they're piping hot and beautifully golden. Break one open and the soft, fine texture hits you, with whole kernels inside that burst when you chew.
-
11
Fermenting makes the cornmeal finer and softer, and its own grain sweetness is genuinely delicious. No oil, no sugar, low in fat, whole grain — nothing heavy about it in summer. With a glass of soy milk or milk, it's a perfect breakfast.
Recipe Notes
Corn Husk Cakes
fresh corn blended to a slurry, mixed with cornmeal and flour, fermented, wrapped in corn husks and steamed. No oil, no sugar, soft and naturally sweet.
Time Needed
Prep Ahead
- Grate the corn fresh if you can; if it sits a while it releases more juice and tastes sweeter.
- Brush a thin layer of oil on the steamer cloth before arranging the wrapped cakes, so they don't stick.
- 【Yield】2 ears of corn plus 1⅓ cups (160 g) total flour makes 8–10 small cakes.
- 【Key ratios】Corn slurry to cornmeal to all-purpose flour ≈ 1:1:1 (80 g each), with ½ tsp (1.6 g) yeast. Sugar optional.
- 【Heat】Start with cold water, steam over high heat 18 minutes, rest 5 minutes before opening.
- 【Rising】Ferment the batter 30 minutes, until bubbly and risen. Longer and it turns sour.
- 【Storage & reheating】Refrigerate 2 days, freeze 2 weeks, re-steam 8 minutes.
- 【Common problems】Firm cakes mean too much flour and too little slurry. Sourness means over-fermented or a room that was too warm.
Nutrition (per 100 g, estimated)
| Calories | about 214 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | about 5.5 g |
| Fat | about 4 g |
| Carbohydrates | about 39 g |
| of which sugars | about 6 g |
| Fiber | about 2.5 g |
| Sodium | about 45 mg |
Estimated from the ingredient amounts, not lab tested. One cake is about 2.3 oz (65 g), roughly 139 kcal, calculated at 4 / 9 / 4 kcal per g of protein / fat / carbs.