A mooncake is a traditional Chinese baked good that is eaten during the mid-autumn festival. The festival is a chance to learn about the moon and look at it, and mooncakes are a special treat. People give mooncakes to their friends and family when they get together to celebrate the festival. Most people think that the Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four most important Chinese fairs. There are many different kinds of cheese mooncake that are eaten in China and in small Chinese communities outside of China. The most well-known type is the Cantonese mooncake. A regular Cantonese mooncake is a round pastry that is about 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 3–4 cm (1+14–1+12 in) thick.
The Cantonese mooncake has a rich, thick filling that is usually made of red bean paste or lotus seed paste. It has a thin, 2–3 mm (about 1/8 of an inch) crust and may have salted duck egg yolks in it. Most of the time, mooncakes are eaten in small pieces with tea. Today, it is common for business people and families to give mooncakes as gifts to their clients or family, which helps to keep up the demand for high-end mooncakes. In the same way that the mid-autumn festival is well-known in many parts of Asia because there are or have been Chinese communities there, mooncakes are also popular in many parts of Asia. cheese mooncake have also become a treat in the west. Most mooncakes have a thick, smooth pastry skin that wraps around a sweet, dense filling. They may also have one or more whole salted egg yolks in the middle to represent the full moon. Mooncakes are almost never served steamed or fried.
Traditional mooncakes have the Chinese characters for "sturdiness" or "concord" written on the top, along with the name of the bakery and the filling inside. For extra decoration, the characters can be surrounded by images of the moon, Lady Chang'e on the moon, plants, vines, or a rabbit that looks like the moon. Legends about Chang'e, the immortal moon goddess, have a lot to do with the festival. According to the liji, an old Chinese book that describes ceremonies and customs, the Chinese emperor must make sacrifices to the sun in the spring and the moon in the fall. The day known as "mid-autumn" is the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.
"Night of the moon" is also the name for the night of the 15th of the eighth lunar month. Because mooncakes are at the center of the mid-autumn festival, they have stayed popular even in recent years. For many people, mooncakes are the most important part of the mid-autumn competition. In fact, the competition is now usually called a "mooncake competition." Learn more now...