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Mid-Autumn Festival Moon Cake

Moon cake history

During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy to live under foreign rule.  They decided to coordinate a rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Inside each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. Because it's a Han (the main clan before the Mongolian took over) cake, the Mongolian people are not interested.  On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend.

What's moon cake like?  

Traditional moon cakes are round pastries filled with lotus seed paste with one to four egg yolks, weight about 180 grams each.  In the old days, you can buy mooncake one by one though shops always sell their mooncakes in a tin box of 4. 

Modern moon cakes - modern bakers are trying to be different.  In Hong Kong, you can find dozens varieties of moon cake with nuts or ham, with white lotus seed paste, red bean paste, green bean paste, fruit or coffee flavor.  About 10 years ago, a baker called Tai Pan introduced a new white stretchy pastry for their moon cake.  They called it "Snowy moon cake" which is very different from the traditional baked, slightly crumbly pastry.  It's certainly more popular with the younger generation, though the older generation will look at it and say, "It's not cricket!".

Packaging - Besides new ingredients in the moon cakes, you have more choices of sizes and packaging these days.  There are mini-mooncakes for those who would like to watch their weight but still want to be traditional and have a moon cake on the Mid-Autumn Festival day.  Mini-moon-cake often comes in a tin box or cardboard box of 6 or 8.  Other layout like "7-star around the moon" which means 7 mini or full size moon cakes surrounding a standard full size moon cake in the middle in a round tin.  It's ideal as gift for your mother-in-law but it costs a lot more (8 mooncakes!)

How much are the moon cakes?

I must say moon cakes are unreasonably expensive because:

• you have no choice if you want to be traditional or

• you HAVE-TO because you have very traditional parents-in-laws or relatives AND

• it's the bakers' once a year's chance to make some money

Q: ok.. so how much is it?
A: it's almost HK$50 each, that is about US$6 each.  However, you can have lotus seed paste steam bun in a Chinese dim-sum restaurant for something like HK$12 (US$1.5) for 3!  ok.. they are not exactly the same but it has lotus seed paste and a bit of egg yolk.  Moon cakes are bigger and use more lotus seed paste but it doesn't cost that much!

Installment for moon-cakes 

As I said, if you love to eat mooncakes or you have lots and lots of relatives, you will need a lot of moon cakes.  I remember when I was a kid, some major moon cake bakers have already launched the moon-cake installment plan.  Basically, you choose how many boxes you want and you start to pay the baker one year in advance month-by-month.  The baker will also throw in goodies like Chinese preserved meat sausages.

Is it too late to visit Hong Kong to see the Moon Festival?  Check it out!

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