Guide to mooncakes

For mooncake diehards, there’s the traditional baked Cantonese mooncake, a classic version made with a nicely browned, glossy pastry. Fillings range from the traditional red bean paste (tau sar) to unique ones like the creamy milk tea paste, or even options like chocolate-whisky. The key lies in the freshness of the mooncake. Cut yourself a tiny slice, pour a cup of gently steaming tie guan yin and dig right in.

This particular mooncake is differentiated by a pale golden, rounded pastry shell that’s usually baked with a slightly crackly crust, topped with crunchy lotus seeds. The buttery, flaky and lightly salted crust contrasts well with traditional sweet and creamy fillings. As such, the Shanghai style mooncake is usually available in classic options such as white lotus paste, pandan and yam, some also with one single salted yolk in the centre for textural variety. Pair them with flower teas.

Inspired by mochi and Vietnamese mooncake (banh deo), Tai Pan bakery in Hong Kong first came up with the snow skin mooncake in 1989. Born out of a demand for less oily (as the logic goes, hence healthier) versions of this mid-autumn dessert, the non-bake snow skin mooncake has a delicate ‘snow skin’ made with glutinous rice flour (somewhat resembling a giant mochi) encasing the filling. Since then, the snow skin has spurred mooncake makers to greater heights with an incredible variety of flavours and ingredients. Think champagne, passion fruit, aloe vera, osmanthus, and our favourite local represent – the Musang King.