Moon Cake Recipe | How to bake Mooncake at Home

You haven’t probably heard of mooncake. Have you? Even if you haven’t, this article will tell you all about mooncake from its origin to its recipe. Mooncake is fundamentally a very famous Chinese dessert pastry or snack that can be filled with something savory or sweet. Mostly, it’s round in shape as a representation of the moon but can also be square-shaped. Cantonese-style mooncakes or traditional mooncakes are molded, golden-brown and baked. They are stamped on the top.

Mooncake Fillings

Some of the traditional mooncake fillings include lotus seed paste, sweet bean paste, or Jujube (red date) paste. But people have now started experimenting with the dish and now also fill the cake with chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, lotus, and, coffee syrup, etc. The savory filling includes minced meat, sausages, etc. Some traditional Chinese restaurants also offer mooncakes filled with nuts and dried fruit. What makes mooncake different is that it has an outside layer that is made of dough of cake flour.

Mooncake tools

Mooncake Moulds

Mooncake moulds come in various shapes and sizes. The most common shape is round followed by the second most common shape square. But I have seen pictures of flower and animal-shaped cakes online as well. Authentic mooncakes are made of wood moulds but now plastic moulds are becoming widely famous because of their easy availability and a huge range of designs. Mooncakes can be made in different sizes varying from 50 grams to 150 grams but I generally prefer the smaller ones because: 1) They are extremely cute. 2) Read point 1.

Mooncakes can be moulded with hands too but if you ask me, don’t try that. It’s very time-consuming.  

Pastry Brush

You will need a pastry brush to brush the top of mooncakes with egg wash. I’d recommend that you get a brush that has soft bristles as it’s much easier to control the amount that way. Too much egg on the mooncake will ruin the beauty of the cake thus, it’s important for you to be careful.

Mooncakes are extremely expensive, and here’s why!

Mooncakes don’t really cost a lot in the making process so the question arises: Why are they so expensive? The answer is time. They take a lot of time in the cooking process and are often delicately packed making them extremely expensive. Another reason why they are so expensive is that people are willing to spend this amount on mooncakes. Bakeries also sell them at a very high price thus setting the norm that mooncakes are extremely expensive. Packaging can be as extravagant as a heavy wooden box where each mooncake is individually wrapped in a round metal container. You can always make your own although they are a bit time-consuming. They aren’t difficult to make, I REPEAT, just time-consuming,