The sponge cakes made by Quzhou-based Zhejiang Good Steamed Fang Food Co are on sale at a local supermarket. [Photo/qz96811.com]

"The three production lines are capable of producing 10,000 steamers of sponge cakes each day," said Huang Xuemei, director of Quzhou-based Zhejiang Good Steamed Fang Food Co, during a recent interview.

It took them 10 years to develop the automatic production equipment to put the provincial intangible cultural heritage to the production line, according to Huang.

Huang's husband Lan Jinguo is the representative inheritor of sponge cake making techniques in Longyou, a county in Quzhou and in addition to Good Steamed Fang, the couple also manages Zhejiang Dehui Food Co.

In 1993, they established Dehui Food Co to produce flaky pastries and sponge cakes. However, in order to better promote hometown's intangible cultural heritage, the Longyou couple set up the Good Steamed Fang and sponge cake is the company's only product.

Considering that there is no off-the-shelf facility in the market to make sponge cakes and manual skills of kneading and waking up doughs for sponge cake making is quite unique, Huang and her husband decided to develop an automatic production equipment in collaboration with a Jiangsu university and a Taiwan machinery manufacturing company.

Huang said that the automatic facility can complete the whole production process from dough kneading to packaging, which saves a lot of costs for the company.

In the future, the Quzhou company also plans to explore industrial tourism in their hometown with the help of sponge cakes' traditional cultural value.