A history of mooncakes

Have you ever eaten a mooncake?

Mooncakes are generally eaten during Golden Week (1st-7th October), which celebrates the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Before coming to China, most foreigners don’t know about Golden Week or one of China’s most famous snacks; the mooncake. But as soon as you arrive in China and experience your first Golden Week, you don’t hear of much else. It is pretty much the equivalent of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday if we could compare it to anything similar to home.

Whether you love them or hate them, they are a huge part of this annual holiday in China.

When you first see a mooncake, you can’t not notice the beautiful patterns, which symbolise harmony, reunion and happiness. They are made of a thick, sweet pastry and there are various traditional fillings. Using vegetables and fruit, lotus seed or red bean paste, chocolate and green tea are just some of the flavors you can buy!

The mooncake is traditionally sliced and eaten with tea amongst families.

The mooncake – over 3000 years old

Shang and Zhou Dynasties (17th century BC – 256 BC)
The mooncake started off as the Taishi cake. They were made to honor Wenzhoung – who had been prime minister (or Taishi) of the last Shang emperor.

The imperial messenger named Zhang Qian (200-114 BC), introduced sesame and walnuts to the Western regions, which were two essential ingredients to this cake. The cake was then renamed “Hubing” or “Walnut Cake”.

Tang Dynasty (618-907)

More and more bakeries were making these cakes. Apparently at that time, Emperor Taizong did not like the name “Hubing”. One day, the emperor looked out of his window and blurted out “Yuebing!” (mooncake), and this is how the name came about.

Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127)

At this time, lard, egg, sugar and fruit were starting to be added to the cake. The mooncake was becoming more distinctive and not dissimilar to how it tastes today.

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

During this era, the imprints began appearing on the mooncakes. The designs became more and more intricate and involved incredible craftsmanship. The mooncake had finally been perfected!

Mooncakes today

Today, mooncakes mostly look fairly similar, however different regions have different flavors and styles. Here are just a few of the different styles.

Cantonese Style
Sweet and salty with thin crust.

Beijing Style
Sweet, with a more difficult process.

Shanghai Style
Salty, crispy crust, with a fresh pork filling

Hong Kong Style
Salty and sweet. Thin crust, intricate process, lotus seed paste and double egg yolk filling.

Yunnan Style
Sweet and a little salty, oily. The Yunnan speciality is a ham filling.

And there we have it! Hopefully you have learned a little something about the delicious cakes we eat every Golden Week we live in China!