It's that time of year again - the days are getting shorter, the leaves are turning red, and if you are in the UK you must give up all wishful thinking of a summer.
Good thing then, that we have the Autumn festival (中秋節) - which by the Lunar calendar is always August 15th, but in the Gregorian calendar varies year to year - either late September or early October. In China and Taiwan it is a big public holiday. We obviously don't get a day off here but we celebrate anyway and make mooncakes! (月餅)
My genius mum is the head chef and with her help I was able to sell some at work to raise enough funds for my Great North run!
Mooncakes are only made for this one occassion and compared to western cakes are much more dense and rich. Usually each one contains a sweet filling and a salted duck egg yolk (that symbolises the moon) encased in a thin pastry. Traditional fillings include lotus paste, red bean, soy bean or taro but you can have others like coffee and ice cream! You can also have mooncakes that are non baked and are served chilled. These are aptly named ice moon cakes (冰月餅) where the pastry is made of glutinous rice flour.
To make the traditional ones at home with the flower pattern on top you need cake moulds like this:
Enjoy!
Good thing then, that we have the Autumn festival (中秋節) - which by the Lunar calendar is always August 15th, but in the Gregorian calendar varies year to year - either late September or early October. In China and Taiwan it is a big public holiday. We obviously don't get a day off here but we celebrate anyway and make mooncakes! (月餅)
Lots of mooncakes!
My genius mum is the head chef and with her help I was able to sell some at work to raise enough funds for my Great North run!
Mooncakes are only made for this one occassion and compared to western cakes are much more dense and rich. Usually each one contains a sweet filling and a salted duck egg yolk (that symbolises the moon) encased in a thin pastry. Traditional fillings include lotus paste, red bean, soy bean or taro but you can have others like coffee and ice cream! You can also have mooncakes that are non baked and are served chilled. These are aptly named ice moon cakes (冰月餅) where the pastry is made of glutinous rice flour.
Beautiful colours
Of the coffee kind!
More lovely colours - the green is from pandan leaf extract.
With ice cream!
To make the traditional ones at home with the flower pattern on top you need cake moulds like this:
Or you can be really inventive!
Enjoy!
