*Angel Cantonese-Style Mooncake Making Techniq...

100.*Angel Cantonese-Style Mooncake Making Technique

Nominating Unit: GuangDong Food Profession Union

Cantonese-Style Mooncake has its name from its main distribution in places where Cantonese live. It originated in the Tang Dynasty, formed in Ming and thrived in modern times. Popular in many regions like Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi, Cantonese-Style Mooncakes were exported to the overseas Chinese settlements in Southeast Asia, Europe and America in the Qing Dynasty. In the Chinese customs, mooncake symbolizes family reunion and is the seasonal food and gift carrying best wishes in Mid-Autumn Festival, which explains the long-time fl ourishing of Cantonese-Style Moocake production.

Angel Cantonese-Style Mooncakes can be divided into two categories: unmixed sweet mooncake and salt/sweet mooncake. There are various kinds of mooncakes, such as lotus seed paste mooncake, single-yolk lotus seed paste mooncake, double-yolk lotus seed paste mooncake, bean paste mooncake, fine bean mash mooncake, egg-yolk bean paste mooncake, egg-yolk fine bean mash mooncake, five kernel mooncake, barbecued pork with five kernel mooncake, seven-star ＆ the moon cake, etc. They are soft, smooth and mellow with thin wrapper, rich stuffing, and golden color. The body of the mooncake is unbreakable with delicate design, clear pattern and pleasant shape. Among all the Cantonese-Style Mooncakes, doubleyolk white lotus seed paste mooncake and double-yolk red lotus seed paste mooncake are the most famous both at home and abroad and have been awarded the title of “China Brand Mooncake”.(https://www.daowen.com)

The stuffing of Angel Cantonese-Style Mooncake adopts such raw materials like lotus seed paste, fine bean mash, salted egg yolk and kernel(the so-called“five kernel”: walnut, almond, peanut, shelled melon seed, sesame jen). The selection course is strict, for example, the Hunan-style lotus and the first class duck egg shall be produced in the same year as the making of the mooncake. The mooncake making consists of the following standardized procedures: wrapper making, stuffing making, stuffing wrapping, shaping, baking, freezing, packaging, etc. Special attention is paid to the dealing of syrup wrapper, crisp wrapper and snowy wrapper in wrapper making in order to gain different tastes of mooncake wrapper, which is an important feature of Cantonese-Style Mooncake. Stuffing making and stuffing wrapping should be strictly controlled according to recipe and quantity. The mooncake body, made by wrapping stuffing with mooncake wrapper, is molded and stamped by mooncake mold with different sizes and shapes. Baking comes after shaping. Generally, it is carried out in oven temperature of 200-220 degrees centigrade and in double bakings with “surface temperature” using charcoal and“bottom temperature” using dry wood. One also has to brush the mooncake surface with the beaten egg yolks so as to make it golden and shiny, which demands skilled baking technique. Cantonese-Style Mooncake Making Technique is famous for its delicateness, meticulousness and purity, noted for its perfect combination of color, aroma and taste.

Cantonese-Style Mooncake has a marketing period of only 2 months, but it becomes more and more popular. Its production takes up more than 80% of the national production with an annual production value of over 20 billion. It also occupies considerable marketing shares abroad. Thus an industry chain has been driven, including agriculture, material processing industry, designing and packaging industry. Cantonese-style Mooncake has a bright future. Angel Mooncake Making integrates traditional Cantonese-style mooncake making techniques inherited by the older generations in Guangzhou, such as Wu Shen (a state-level pastry cook), Han Fa (special-grade pastry cook), Feng Jinyan (advanced pastry cook). It also gains new development with the new products of low-sugar mooncake, low-fat mooncake, fruit mooncake, seafood mooncake, etc. Angel Cantonese-Style Mooncake Technique was enlisted in the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

Under the conditions of market economy, Cantonese-Style Mooncake is faced with fierce competition from the western cakes. It remains an important task to keep its traditional characteristics and further explore, protect as well as inherit its unique making technique.