What is Moon Cake?

What is Moon Cake?

Eating moon cakes has become the favorite after dinner activity during the Mid-Autumn festival and these rich, elaborately packaged desert cakes are frequently exchanged as gifts to family, friends, and co-workers. In Chinese cities tons of them are sold each year.

Enjoying moon cake, for the westerner, is an acquired taste.

The traditional moon cake is about 1” thick and 4” wide, and comes four to a tin, which is inside a fancy box, packaged to be sold from the refrigerated section of the supermarket or in specialized cake stores. They will last a long time, like a fruit cake.

Moon cake is made with a flakey pastry layer on the outside, and a thick, soft pasty inside made of lotus seeds, and black or yellow beans, with plenty of sugar and many, many calories. Imagine the filling of an almond pie, slightly more firm. Buried in the very middle is a surprise, usually a whole egg yolk, hard boiled, or preserved. It can be a chicken egg or duck egg, (preferred). Other exotic flavors and fillings are available for the adventurous.

Umm, sounds so good I’m going to have one now.