frauke at large

Well, happy might not be the appropriate term here, particularly when someone sticks a hard boiled egg in the middle of what might otherwise have been a rather delicious, funky looking Chinese desert.

Yes, you have guessed it: it’s moon cake time again – yay! And guess what – we’ve been given masses of moon cake again. Mid-autumn festival in China, as you might remember, is a harvest festival that dates back over 3000 years to the Shang dynasty and coincides (more or less) with the annual summer equinox. It’s also the time when people believe the moon to be at its fullest and roundest according to the lunar calendar – hence the salty egg in the middle of most moon cakes.

Anyway, the ones we were given last year had chocolate and fudge inside them. This year: it looks like the ‘egg yolk’ is made of apricots or something similar, rather oily (I’m hoping that it is not an actual egg yolk … as it looks rather under cooked … and doesn’t smell anything like egg yolk) and the other filling around this is some kind of weird gelatinous marzipan type stuff. The outside is definitely coloured, meticulously layered puff pastry. An intriguing cake indeed and I would love to report on the actual taste of these moon cakes, but unfortunately I am yet to find a poor, unsuspecting victim who is willing to try them for me.

No, hang on: found one. And I was wrong – it is actual real egg yolk … and it’s salty … urrgh. As for the outside … Rob’s comment: die schmecken wie die komischen Reformhausteile mit der Backoblate oben drauf. I.e. compressed dried fruit paste, with salty egg yolk filling and puff pastry … mmmmmm … delicious!

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