The dish is only available in the springtime (February and March of the lunar calendar) because that is when black ants reproduce.

The Tay people make ant’s egg cakes.

To make this cake, glutionous rice is soaked in water for hours and then ground into into a powder. The powder is kneaded into small balls and filled with a mixture of ant eggs, minced onion,peppers and a little bit salt.

Next, the dumpling are wrapped in ‘ngoa’ leaves (a kind of fig leaves). Once wrapped, the cakes are steamed during 30 minutes.

When eating ant egg cake, diners should eat the whole layer of 'ngoa' leaves ouside the cake. The fragrant of glutinous rice mixed with the slightly acrid taste of the 'ngoa' leaves and greasy taste of ant eggs, makes the cake more special.

Currently, ant's egg cake has become a unique tourist product of the Tay people in Tuyen Quang.