╳ The ‘Mooncake’ tradition, part of the Mid-Autumn Festival, has been celebrated in Asia for centuries and is one of the most important festivals in the Chinese Lunar calendar. The ‘Moon Festival’, as it is known, celebrates the moon and the end of the farmers’ summer harvest. It is also a time when friends and family exchange gifts of symbolic ‘Mooncakes’.
╳ Whilst you might think these confections are delicately crescent shaped, in fact, it’s quite the opposite: they are positively ‘dumpy’ and very sticky. And, in some cases an acquired taste. These round, or rectangular shaped pastries are conventionally filled with pure lotus seed paste surrounded by a relatively thin crust and often contain the yolk from salted duck eggs that symbolise the full moon. Eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea, it is customary for businessmen to present them to clients as gifts, thus fueling a demand for ‘high-end’ mooncakes, thankfully usually devoid of the salty yokes.
╳ The moulds used to prepare these pastries are equally as beautiful and usually hand carved from wood, and as recently as the 1960s many Chinese families owned their own. Unfortunately though, these kinds are few and far between and have become collector’s items. Nowadays, metal and plastic are the materials du jour used to create mooncake moulds, however whilst not as authentic, they too have an intrinsic material beauty and the semi-transparent properties afforded by silicone are quite beautiful, and in some cases more delicious than the cake!
