Snow Skin Moon Cake

First of all, thank you to my friend Juliana Chan that made the content of this post possible.  Meaning: she supplied the food, I ate it... and now writing about it.

When there was the super moon during early September, it is no coincident that it is also Autumn Mood Festival.  Other incarnations of the festivals are Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Festival, Lantern Festival, or Harvest Moon.  During the festival, the families will gather together and enjoy the moon over the meals they've prepared and play with lantern they've made.  

One thing that is always featured, is the mooncake.  So named because it's round, to shape like the moon.  Later on, people put the cake into a mold and make very pretty patterns on the cake themselves.  Growing up, it is sweet inside but it's always how many yolks to see how fancy that cake is, supposedly the more yolks the more rich to your family.  Frankly, I'm not a fan of the yolks, because it's savory wrapped around a bunch of sweet lotus paste and with the delicious baked skin.  

So, the new incarnation of the mooncake is the Snow Skinned Mooncake.  Basically instead of the skin being baked, it is now made with glutenous rice.  The texture is really like a mochi but with cake inside.  And they do need to be frozen instead of the baked ones which can last longer.  The flavors are also very different, instead of the traditional lotus seed paste, inside was chocolate with rice krispy.  So it is crunchy from the inside.    The package is also very different.  Back in the day, they sell them in a tin with 4 inside, lately people are much more health conscience and downsized to 2 and put them in a paper box with cool design, this one came with a reusable bag; as opposed to the old ones that came with a gift bag of the moon, which everyone knows where that came from.

This new renovation in baking is very interesting to me because growing up, I hear people would work in mooncake bakeries and begin making them several months in advance in preparation for the demand during the Autumn Moon Festival.  Now, this new way, you can easily make it yourself at home, and since it has a short shelf life you can make it and eat it right away.  With the cool and healthy way to approach tradition, it can only be healthy, right?  Nah!  It's best enjoyed with your family.

These recipes are ones that I've seen and liked (not mine), take a look see:
Snow Skin Mooncake recipe here.

Traditional Mooncake recipe here.