Moon cake (月饼) is a Chinese bakery item traditionally eaten through the Mid-autumn Festival which usually falls in mid or late September according to Gregorian calendar. Although Chinese grocery retailers sell moon cakes in the course of the weeks surrounding the Mid Autumn Festival, I usually discovered the store-bought cake filling to be too sweet or also artificially colored red for my liking. Yunnan -style mooncake: Also identified as t’ to the residents, its distinctive feature is the mixture of numerous flours for the dough, and consists of rice flour , wheat flour , and buckwheat flour. That means far more than 1.three billion moon cakes will be eaten throughout the week of Moon Festival every single year.
The moon cake is not just a sort of food, but much more of a cultural element deeply penetrated into Chinese people’s hearts, symbolizing family members reunion and embodying spiritual feelings. I was extremely glad to read that several bakeries in Taiwan this year start off to produce Healthful Moon Cakes”, which are low in sugar and oil and higher in fiber. I purchased 1 of those wooden molds in Taiwan but I have yet to try it. My family never ever created moon cakes at household, and I seriously want to learn this tradition.
I vaguely don’t forget seeing a Moon festival in China Town as a small girl..I still have the paper lantern 🙂 Oh..also, your images are beautiful! Chewy mooncake crusts are created working with a combination of thick sugar syrup, lye water (枧水, sodium carbonate (碱面 Na2CO3), flour, and oil, hence giving this crust its rich taste and a chewy but tender texture. It is possible that lanterns reflect the brightness of the moon while one more origin can be from guessing the riddles that are written on lanterns (cai1 deng1 mi2 猜灯谜). Then only i realized that I did not wait for the half cooked mooncake to cool down then only apply egg wash.
The straightforward round cakes of the past have because evolved into the present-day moon cakes with diverse shapes and sizes, and a wide variety of fillings with different flavors. As with most Chinese festivals, there is always a story behind it which is passed down from 1 generation to the next. Ingenira, it really is wonderful to know that you are celebrating Mooncake Festival each year. Lit lanterns can also be used to guide spirits or to contrast the brightness of the moon.
I never knew the folklore behind the mooncake festival, but your Hub explains it beautifully. A perfect evening for the festival is if it is a quiet night devoid of a silk of cloud and with a tiny mild breeze from the sea. Apart from, consuming this super moon cake may well even make my nose bleed!Hahaha, effectively, thanks goodness that this year, my family did not really need to have to purchase any moon cakes.
