Last time Roger came to visit me in Ann Arbor over Thanksgiving, I decided to make him some nian gao.  I guess I didn't whip the egg foamy enough and they turned out to be not so good... I gave Haya half of them and the other half was never even finished.  Usually when momma makes them Rog eats them non-stop (like this past Christmas break!)
Here are the ingredients to my mom's yummy nian gao (written by Roger):

Stir 3 eggs. add .5-.75 cup sugar. Add .5 cup canola oil. Add 1 tspn baking powder. Add 1 tspn vanilla extract. Stir a lot. (Preheat oven 350degrees) add 2.5 cups milk. add 1 pound glutinous rice flour. Stir a lot. optional 2 medium size spoons of sesame seeds. Optional 1 cup coconut flakes. Stir. Put aluminum foil in pan and then Grease the top and put some flour over it. pour big mixture into pan. Heat for 45 min.


Though I didn't take a picture of the actual one I made, here is a picture of what it looked like: 

It was okay right out of the oven, but then it was just too dry and dense!!

Maybe next time.