What Are Moon Cakes, The Most Beautiful Cakes in All of China

In China, during the month of September, there is a beautiful celebration: the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival. It is one of the most important celebrations in the Chinese calendar, along with New Year's Eve. While there is a very long and complex menu for the New Year, the typical food for this holiday is a beautiful and exquisite dessert: moon cake, also called Chinese moon cake. These are pastries with a thick and creamy filling, traditionally made of anko or lotus seed paste. The crust is thin and can also contain marinated duck egg yolks. This variant is found especially in cities less frequented by tourist routes. Moon cakes always have a tea to accompany them, usually a product grown in the area where you are. A very important characteristic is that moon cakes are not bought for oneself: they are bought to give to family and loved ones. Let's see together what they are and, above all, what they taste like.

What Are Moon Cakes and What is The Mid-Autumn Festival?

Moon cakes are a traditional dessert originating in China. They have long been associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival, a celebration held on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which usually falls in September or October in the Gregorian calendar. Last year, it fell on Tuesday, September 17th, while this year it'll fall on Monday, October 6th.

The celebrations are enchanting: there are lanterns, incense, candles, many different dances. Millenary traditions that have accompanied the nation since time immemorial. It is such an important and historical celebration that there are national versions transmuted based on local celebrations. There is a mid-autumn celebration in Korea, there is one in Vietnam, in Taiwan and in Mongolia. They all fall more or less in this same period but have different traditions and are linked to different moments in the history of the individual states. In China it is so important that it is even associated with the Chinese Republic Day.

A symbol of this very important holiday is the mooncake, so much so that in the homeland many refer to this celebration as "Mooncake Festival". These pastries immediately invoke celebrations, also because they are simply beautiful: on the surface they have a splendid design that traces (at least in the vast majority of cases) logograms that indicate the origin of the dessert. Usually, important words for the local culture are printed on them, messages of good wishes that the pastry shop sends to those who buy them and that those who buy them send to those who receive them. A chain of sweetness and good manners.

The Legend of Moon Cakes

There is no official history of this dessert. There are many legends and different myths. After all, the festival itself is linked to local legends. The Mid-Autumn Festival is connected to the cult and legends of Chang'e, the mythological lunar goddess of immortality. The first mentions are found in the "Li Ji", one of the Five Classics of the Confucian canon. This is the text that collects the ceremonial uses and customs of 1000 years ago. Consider that this festival is really very ancient: the official canonization has been around since 420 AD. but it is even older.

According to these legends, moon cakes have a very important role in Chinese history: we do not know where they come from but we know that, according to this story, the overthrow of the Mongol government of the Yuan was facilitated by the opportunity to pass secret messages through moon cakes. A secret means of communication to distribute letters to the revolutionaries of the Ming dynasty during the espionage aimed at overthrowing the foreign government of the Yuan dynasty in China. This legend is very well detailed and in fact we even know the authors of this ingenious idea: Zhu Yuanzhang (emperor of China from 23 January 1368 to 24 June 1398) and his advisor Liu Bowen. The two protagonists are said to have spread rumors about a deadly epidemic and the only way to avoid it: eat lots of moon cakes. This would have led to the rapid trade of the sweets which in reality would have served to hide secret messages that were supposed to be coordinated by the Han Chinese during the revolt of the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month.

According to this legend, there would also be another way in which the two politicians would have spread messages, this one much more brain-twisting: four cakes packaged together with a puzzle or a mosaic on the surface instead of a word. The cakes would then have to be cut into 4 parts until there were 16 pieces of cake to recompose like a puzzle to read the message. Obviously, once the code is deciphered, the only way to eliminate the evidence is to eat all the pieces of moon cake.

How Moon Cakes Are Made And What Do They Taste Like?

Moon cakes can vary in size and ingredients depending on the region where they are prepared so it is impossible to have a unique recipe, however traditional moon cakes have some common characteristics. They are all shaped like a small cake with an outer part made of a thin, golden dough, often made with flour, sugar and seed oil: it is similar to shortcrust pastry with oil in taste and consistency but it is obviously a different preparation. The casing is decorated with traditional motifs and can be slightly crunchy. Very popular are the Chinese characters that stand for "longevity" or "happiness".

The filling is usually made of sweet red bean paste, lotus paste, lotus seeds, walnuts, duck eggs or, more rarely, pork. Each type of filling has a distinct flavor and some can be very sweet, while others are more salty. The common thing is the density of the filling, the concentration of product: if you have the chance to find a moon cake in the area where you live you will immediately notice the specific weight of such a small cake. It looks like a dumbbell from the gym and it is surprising because you would never say so by looking at it.

Making moon cakes is very complicated. The process is laborious and expensive, which is why most people buy them in pastry shops: making them in series allows you to cut costs, so it's an advantage for everyone.