A return to tradition

In times past, the Mid-Autumn Festival was a cozy evening that saw families gathering together to enjoy the full moon and the holiday's staple food, moon cakes.

But as China has seen an increasing number of dessert options in recent years, the love for moon cakes has dwindled. This once celebrated holiday fare has become little more than a symbol, with store-bought moon cakes being given as gifts but rarely enjoyed. However, a growing number of Chinese are rediscovering this holiday tradition by making their own moon cakes at home.

Growing trend

"By making moon cakes at home, I can choose my favorite fillings and use the best ingredients. Plus, what I make will be unique," Xing Hang, who works as a web editor in Beijing, told the Global Times. She said that most moon cakes on the market today taste horrible, and that there are food safety issues with the fillings from time to time.

"It is a tradition to give moon cakes as gifts, and homemade cakes better express love," Xing added.

Cherry Chen, a baking enthusiast who lives in Beijing, recently made her first batch of moon cakes at home. "I never liked moon cakes before. But after making my own, I found they can taste really good. They were easy to make too."

"Most of my family members had never had homemade moon cakes. But upon the first bite, they were hooked," she told the Global Times. "We decided that this year we were not going to buy any moon cakes, and instead make our own."

In response to the many Chinese who are moving away from the less appealing store-bought moon cakes, many baking workshops have launched classes on making these holiday delights. "About a week after we announced the class online, around 40 people had signed up," Gao Lianjie, who runs a bakery workshop in Beijing's Dongcheng district, told the Global Times.

Gao said that classes on moon cakes have become wildly popular this year, adding that her courses on other baked goods generally attract only about 10 students.

At her workshop's moon cake classes, each student is given about 100 grams of her special flour mixture for the crust and offered a variety of fillings to choose from, like jujube paste, sweetened bean paste, and lotus paste.

Gao's workshop is focusing on snow skin moon cakes, which are popular this year. Named for their pale white shell, these cakes do not require baking, making them an ideal homemade holiday dessert since most Chinese do not have ovens.

Like many other such workshops, decorative boxes are available for those who want to give their handmade moon cakes to friends as gifts.

"The cost for the class is 55 yuan ($8.67) per person," Gao said.　

Creative shapes and flavors

For those who do not care for traditional flavors like red bean, shredded coconut and jujube paste, a variety of new fillings can be found these days, such as green tea, purple sweet potato, pumpkin, and red wine with strawberry. Popular online shopping websites taobao.com and paipai.com both offer an array of choices for moon cake fillings, which generally cost around 40 yuan per kilogram.

The possibilities for homemade moon cakes do not end with ingredients. Virtually every kind of moon cake mold is available online in a variety of sizes. Cakes can be round, square or even in the shape of a heart. More elaborate molds can yield moon cakes in the shape of Hello Kitty, Doraemon, or Mickey Mouse. For those who are more traditional, molds featuring flower designs or the Chinese characters for Zhongqiu (Mid-Autumn Festival) can be bought for 15 to 30 yuan with a click of a mouse. Holiday gift boxes and bags are also available online.

But before you set out to join the ranks of moon cake makers, be sure to decide what regional tradition to follow before going to the store, as fillings dictate what kind of crust you need to make. In Beijing, local-style moon cake fillings are typically sweet, while Suzhou-style moon cakes are often savory and served hot. Cantonese-style moon cake fillings have the widest variety of ingredients, such as lotus seed paste, nuts, and egg yolk. Follow the accompanying recipe for snow skin moon cakes, which are best with sweet fillings, or consult the Internet or your local grocer to get the right type of crust for your fillings.

Snow skin moon cakes

Ingredients:

450g snow skin moon cake flour (bingpi yuebing mianfen)*

540ml cold water or milk

60g softened butter

1.5 kilograms moon cake filling

Optional:

3-5 tablespoons green tea power for a pale green snow skin

3-5 tablespoons powdered sugar to taste for sweeter cakes

Steps:

1. Sift flour (and green tea powder if desired) into a large bowl and add cold water or milk. Stir with chopsticks until well mixed.

2. Make a well and cut in butter in small pieces. Add powdered sugar if desired. Mix with hands until uniform and neither too sticky nor too crumbly.

3. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in fridge for 30-40 minutes.

4. Divide dough into 40 equal pieces and roll into balls.

5. Flatten each ball with your hand and add a spoonful of filling in its center. Close the dough around the filling until completely sealed.

6. Place each ball, one at a time, into your moon cake mold, using your palm to gently press it into form. Invert mold on a flat table and press down firmly before removing the mold.

7. Refrigerate at least 4 hours. Serve.

Makes 40 5-cm moon cakes.

*You can also use a mixture of glutinous rice flour and wheat starch with a ratio of 1:2. Blend with milk or water as directed and heat on high in a double boiler, stirring once, for 20 minutes or until it turns slightly yellow. Let cool before adding butter.

Tip: Be sure to choose the right size mold before you begin the process. 450 g flour can make approximately 50 4.6-cm (50g) cakes, 40 5-cm (63g) cakes, 75 5.8-cm (34g) cakes, 25 6.5-cm (100g)cakes, or 20 7.2-cm (125g) cakes.