Mooncake

A rich Chinese pastry with a thin crust and a dense sweet filling, often pressed in a decorative mold, eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mooncake: Round golden mooncakes with intricate molded patterns on top, one cut in half showing lotus paste and a salted egg yolk center
  • Cakes, cookies, pastries and baked goods
  • People's Republic of China, Taiwan

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is full. Families share mooncakes while admiring the moon. The best-known Cantonese style has a tender, glossy crust and a filling of lotus seed paste or red bean paste, sometimes with a salted egg yolk in the center to represent the moon.

The pastry is pressed in carved molds that leave patterns and characters on top. Other styles include flaky Suzhou mooncakes and chilled snow skin mooncakes made with glutinous rice flour.

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Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. Mid-Autumn Festival, Roots.sg (National Heritage Board Singapore), Intangible Cultural Heritage inventory