Moon Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calender. It is popularly known as the Moon Festival, Zhongquijie in chinese (中秋節), Lantern Festival or Mooncake festival. Chinese the world over celebrate this important festival. Some enjoy the bright silver moon, others drink wine to celebrate their happy life and children enjoy the festival by carrying lanterns.

Having never made mooncakes before, I read a book on mooncake recipes and duly went ahead to buy the ingredients. However the first time I did the snowskin mooncake, I felt that it was too 'flourey' and not smooth at all as a snowskin mooncake should be. I then realised that the fried glutinous rice flour should be just that. What I had done was buy some glutinous rice flour and fried it myself. So if you are a first-timer making such snowskin moon cakes, make sure you buy the fried glutinous rice flour also known as 'kou fen'. You can get them from bakery shops such as Phoon Huat.

Here's a picture of my first attempt at snowskin mooncakes using the correct flour, i.e. fried glutinous rice flour. Love making them as it is not only easy to make, but my whole family loves them! :)


Pandan Snowskin Mooncake

Look out for the snowskin moon cake recipe that I shall be updating this blog with.



Bookmark & Share

Festival Mooncake

Moon Festival - Chinese Mooncake

Festival Mooncake, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival (Chung Chiu) or Lantern Festival or Moon Festival is the third major festival of the Chinese calendar. It is celebrated on the 15^th day of the eighth month and is one of the three most important festivals. The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is one of the most celebrated Chinese holidays where Chinese families celebrate the end of the harvest season with a big feast.

This year, the Chinese mooncake festival falls on October 3^rd, 2009. On this day, the moon is full and round and this is when the Chinese people gather to view the moon. The round shape signifies family reunion. Sons and daughters will bring their family members back to their parents' house for a reunion. Sometimes people who have already settled overseas will come back to visit their parents on that day. Where possible, all the family members will get together.

For the Moon Festival, mooncake foods are prevalent. Mooncakes are a kind of Chinese delicacy which friends and relatives send to each other as a way of giving thanks. A relatively thin crust with heavy and dense filling that is usually made from lotus seed paste, these mooncakes come in various varieties. Some may contain yolks from salted duck eggs, others may boast of nuts, yet others may have ham. The range is endless due to the popularity of mooncakes and the creativity of the manufacturers.

The sinful high cholesterol mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges and accompanies by Chinese tea. Today there are the traditional baked mooncakes, the snowskin mooncakes, the mooncakes with crispy pastry and so on.

Every year, on the mid-autumn festival, children light lanterns and carry them around.

Lanterns

And more lanterns

Here are some pictures of mooncakes and you can see the great varieties as well as each high end establishment coming up with various ways of packing these mooncakes.

Crispy skin mooncake

Durian mooncake

Snowskin mooncakes

More snowskin mooncakes

Red Date Snowskin mooncakes

Check out these packaging



Traditional Baked Mooncakes

Bookmark & Share