THE history of mooncakes dates back to the days of the legends of Chang E, the mythical Moon Goddess, of messages being smuggled in mooncakes during the Ming Dynasty to overthrow the Mongols.
Even if many say the stories are mere folk tales, the love of the Chinese pastry had never ceased and remains a popular item during each Mid-Autumn Festival.
However, flavours and styles of mooncakes today have changed, moving away the usual lotus paste with salted egg yolk filling to those of Green Tea, Chocolate, Ice-cream or Liquor.
Some of the hotels in the city even have different themes and fillings that attract the younger crowd. At Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur, their Dim Sum chef Tan Tiong Guan and his culinary team at Li Yen restaurant created the Moët & Chandon Champagne Mini Ping Pei while in PJ Hilton, the mini mooncakes in different flavours symbolising the four seasons take centre stage.
At Starbucks Coffee, they mixed the coffee with chunky roasted hazelnuts to make the Hazelnut Latte mooncake which allows consumers to taste their favourite beverage in a pastry.
For ice-cream lovers, Häagen-Dazs brings another year of its delightful ice cream mooncakes in two classic flavours of creamy chocolate and velvety vanilla.
If you are looking for traditional mooncakes, worry not as almost all restaurants and hotels that are offering mooncakes for the festival still prepare them as part of the tradition.
A growing trend among homemakers is to prepare such mooncakes at home where they could alter the ingredients to suit their taste buds.
It is also not difficult to bake it, as Dennis Wong bakes these mooncakes at night and on weekends for his family and friends.
Wong, 27, an order processing specialist by profession, said it all started with him baking festive cookies and cakes for Chinese New Year.
“My mother got me started with baking after she bought me an oven during my school days and I never looked back since,” said Wong who does not intend to commercialise his pastries.
Wong, who had never attended any cooking schools, sought his recipes from cookbooks and have since made more than 300 pieces for the festival this year.
With the assistance of his younger sister Wong Yee Ching, 19, the duo bake the mooncakes over for the past one month to cater to orders they received.
During a visit recently to their home in Bukit Jalil, Wong showed us how he prepares one of his mooncake recipes, the Coconut Cherry Snow Skin (Ping Pei) Mooncake in just five simple steps.
Step 1 : Mould the ingredients for the filling together to form a ball and make sure they all weigh the same, about 100 - 110gm.
Step 2 : Roll the Snow Skin (Ping Pei) Skin till thin.
Step 3 : Cover the ball with a thin layer of Snow Skin (Ping Pei) skin.
Step 4: Fit the ball into the Mooncake mould.
Step 5 : Press the mould down and voila, you have made your very own mooncake!
Wong then packs the Snow Skin (Ping Pei) mooncakes into boxes and stores them in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
“You can use any recipe for the fillings which you can get from books or Internet sites just like how I did for mine, “ said Wong who then alters the sweetness and added melon seeds according to preference.
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