Mooncake Mooncake Lectures on Faith Category="Cakes"Category="Chinese cuisine"[image] The mooncake (Simplified Chinese: 月饼; Traditional Chinese: 月餅; Pinyin: yuèbĭng) is a Chinese confection that is traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, although they can be eaten at other times of the year as well. The festival is intricately linked to the legends of Chang E, the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality.

Typical mooncakes are often, but not always, round or rectangular, measuring about 10 cm in diameter, and 4-5 cm thick, and are very dense, especially when compared to Western cakes. The traditional pastry has a flaky skin with a lotus seed paste, and a whole egg yolk in the center to symbolize the moon. When the cake is cut into quarters, as is traditional custom, the yolk looks like a round moon, and it balances out the sweet filling with a salty taste.

[image] Lotus seed, however, is very expensive, so another paste, such as mung paste, Black bean paste, yellow bean paste, or Red bean paste is often substituted. The red bean paste is quite labor intensive, taking several days to make, so typically, these mooncakes are purchased at Asian markets and bakeries. But in recent years, such ingredients as Coffee, Chocolate, nuts (walnuts, mixed nuts, etc), fruits (prunes, pineapples, melons, etc), vegetables (sweet potatoes, etc), ham, and even lychees have been added to give a modern twist to the traditional recipes. Each cake has an imprint on top - either the characters for Longevity or Harmony; a moon; a woman on the moon; a flower; or even a rabbit. Mooncakes are expensive, are considered a delicacy, and go best with oolong or jasmine tea.

But despite its central role in the Mid-Autumn festival, the popularity of mooncakes has declined in recent years. Part of the reason is that people are becoming more health-conscious. Traditional mooncakes are made with Lard, and a lot of sugar. Another reason for the decline in popularity is that the Moon Festival has become increasingly commercialized. People are focusing more on the exchange of gifts, and less on the traditional celebrations, such that its Symbolism has eroded. Many mooncakes are bought by businessmen who give them to their clients as presents.

Traditional types of mooncakes

Mooncakes are usually baked, although they can be steamed, baked, or fried. Many regional variants have evolved over time. Its development was governed by the availability of resources, economic environment, and regional taste preferences. The most widely-known types are:

Modern variants

[image] [image] In early 1990, mooncakes made with a Glutinous rice skin, colloquially called, "snow-skin", appeared on the market. These non-baked, chilled mooncakes were initially very traditional, and filled with the usual lotus seed, red Mung bean or Yam pastes. All changed in 1994, when Raffles Hotel, Singapore launched a snow-skin mooncake filled with champagne Truffle. Häagen Dazs followed on from this Innovation, and were one of the first to create an ice-cream mooncake, with a choice of either the "traditional" snow-skin or Belgian white, milk and dark chocolate crusts.

Following this bit of Lateral thinking, it was obvious these non-baked mooncakes could be filled with pretty much anything that could be made into a paste. An explosion of new flavours appeared and spanned the range from:

To adapt to today’s health conscious and Westernized lifestyle, many bakeries offer miniature mooncakes and fat-free mooncakes. Some are made of yogurt, Jelly and fat-free ice-cream. Even high fibre, low-sugar mooncakes have made their appearance. To be competitive, bakers boast about how little sugar and oil they use in their mooncakes. Customers can pick and choose the size and filling that suits their taste and diet. For added hygiene, each cake is often wrapped in airtight plastic, accompanied by a tiny food preserver packet. The new version is well-accepted among young people in China.

See also

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