Keeping Moon Cake Traditions Alive

Looking like works of art yet solid feeling like a hockey puck, moon cakes are a conundrum to those who are unfamiliar with them. Cut into small wedges to be nibbled on along with sips of tea, the Chinese sweet is a must-have for the Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival), which in Vietnamese is called Tet Trung Thu. In the East Asian calendar, the holiday is one of the most important. It’s a harvest festival – when the moon is extra big and bright and people reflect on their life blessings. It's a time filled with gratitude. With moon cakes available weeks before and after the holiday (it’s September 10 in 2022), people celebrate during the days leading up to and following the holiday.

Moon cakes have ancient, mythical beginnings, and the cakes themselves have evolved over time. Aside from differences that range from taste to region, yue bing (the Mandarin Chinese name) may now include “lava” fillings with oozy centers. You may encounter fillings range from homey, smooth sweetened red bean and ultra-special mixed nuts and meats to modern green tea and ube (purple sweet potato).

There are different doughs too -- wheat or rice based. Some are baked while others employ pre-cooked dough. Roughly between 2.5 and 4 inches wide and 1 to 1.25 inches tall, each diminutive moon cake offers intense flavor and textures. Some people love them, some people shun them (I’ve heard them described as like the fruitcake of East Asia). I enjoy bánh Trung Thu (moon cakes in Vietnamese) in all its splendors because it's a wondrous Asian treat. However, homemade ones are what I grew up on. This year, they took on meaning beyond being a mere holiday treat.

My Family’s Moon Cake Legacy

My mom has been making bánh Trung Thu (also called bánh nướng, “baked cake” in Vietnamese) since the 1970s. I’ve shared the charming story of how Mom and 50 friends hustled to learn moon cake making from renowned teacher Mrs. Quoc Viet. When we came to America, she and my dad took to making banh Trung Thu as soon as possible, sourcing wooden molds and all the ingredient that go into our complex, varied filling. Containing about a dozen ingredients, from nuts and seeds to roasted meats and liquor, our homemade bánh Trung Thu thập cẩm moon cakes are a feat to make. They are prized moon cake to make, eat, and gift. I developed and reproduced the lengthy recipe in detail in my first cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.

Mom and dad used to make batches of six or seven dozen (72 to 84) moon cakes, freezing their excess. We’d eat moon cakes for dessert all year long and serve them to special guests too. They are a marvel to make but time consuming. Moon cakes – the way I learned from my mom, is extreme project cooking. She and I traded off making them (I only make 10 to 12 per batch) but I haven’t made them for the past 8 years. I didn’t have time. She priority mailed me the molds.

Wobbly Restart

With my dad’s passing in 2021, my mom no longer has her moon cake buddy. Her frozen stash of banh Trung Thu was gone too. About a month ago, I recommitted to fitting moon cakes into busy schedule. I salted a bunch of eggs so that I may have a salted egg yolk at the center of each cake. The yolk’s glow resembles a moon and also offers a savory, rich treasure-like treat. My mom was excited that I was again taking up the family’s moon cake mantle. The day before I made the cakes, she called to wish me luck.

Trouble is, when you’ve not ridden a bicycle for a while, the initial pedaling motions are wobbly. My digital scale was low on batteries and I ended up flubbing the sugar syrup that goes into the dough. Instead of making ten cakes, I could only manage two (2!) before worrying that my dough was off kilter and too wet to architecturally hold up to the rigors of moon cake making. The filling is encased in a very thin layer of dough that’s soft enough to take the mold impressions well and yet firm enough to not puff up or become misshapen during prolonged baking. I sent a photo of the two cakes to Mom and called her to report my slow progress. “You made two beautiful cakes. Throw that sugar syrup away and start over,” she said.

Moon Cake Making Secrets Revealed and Reinforced

Undoubtedly, I needed a sugar syrup do over, but can I keep moon cake filling over night? “Of course! How did you think your father and I managed to make all those cakes? We didn’t do in one day. I froze the filling,” she revealed. “Make moon cakes when you feel like it. But throw that syrup away!”

I felt like such a fool thinking that my parents magically and tirelessly made enormous batches of moon cakes at home. They are practical people. Mom’s advance prep tip on the filling was a gift of time, a gift that helped me sail through the remaining cakes. I got back into the moon cake groove. As I progressed during the week in fits and start amidst record heat (102F!), I emailed my mom photos and we chatted about the labor involved, including cleaning the molds, which I do with a toothpick and a hard toothbrush that my mom mailed. “It’s so much work to make moon cakes,” she said. “I’m impressed that you’re doing it alone.”

Homemade Moon Cake Highlight Video

In case you wonder, this is how I make our family's moon cakes in my kitchen. There's lots of time in between getting the ingredients together to eating the cake. But it's a tradition that gives me lots of pleasure, despite the challenges.

(If you have an ad blocker, you may need to turn it off for this site to watch the video. Sorry! I use the revenue to keep this site running.)

Store-bought Moon Cake Option

I don’t know if I can keep up the annual project. You can buy moon cakes easily and it’s customary for people to gift them. For example, our recent houseguests, designers Chan Luu and Jane Tran, gifted us a sumptuous box of Koi Palace moon cakes. And, while I was making moon cakes, Stacey Liu, co-owner of Shun Feng restaurant (my go-to Chinese spot in Santa Cruz), dropped by with a box of moon cakes. It so happens that I had my homemade banh Trung Thu this year and could offer her some. I hesitated because I was still unsure about my moon cake skills. But Stacey took one nibble and said, “I like this. Yours is good, like what my family enjoys. Moon cakes are so hard to make. I have tried.”

I felt suddenly uplifted. I showed her my wood molds. “Yes, those are the old way! It is hard to do all the tapping,” Stacey said. She uses modern, spring-loaded plastic molds. But even so, it could be difficult. Stacy followed an online recipe to make the trendy lava filling, a carefully calibrated combo of cheese and egg yolk that’s frozen before being used to make the filling; she gave up after making one batch of yue bing. She buys moon cakes and gladly received my homemade gift.

Are Plastic Molds Mom Approved?

When my mom heard about Stacy using the newish plastic molds, she shared that my cousin used them and our family recipe to make moon cakes, albeit my cousin’s cakes were somewhat smaller. My mom had looked online for big plastic moon cake molds but to no avail. I took a chance and ordered a set from Amazon. The plastic molds did well in my initial experiments – with minimal cleaning required. “Really? How very interesting!” Mom said. Maybe at 88 years old, she hadn’t yet fully delegated moon cake making to me. Unsure, I nudged her.

“Queen Elizabeth lived till 96. Two years ago, she was still riding a horse,” I said. “I think you still have a few years of making moon cakes left, especially with the plastic molds. Maybe we can make them together to experiment?”

Perhaps, Mom said, laughing. She's still in the moon cake game.

Final Note: Microwaving Moon Cakes

After being made, moon cakes age and soften for 1 to 2 days in an airtight container before they are eaten. Purchased moon cakes come with silica packets to absorb moisture. That said, store-bought and homemade moon cakes often benefit from being warmed up a tiny bit so the flavors and textures bloom. They are easier to cut into small wedges if they are hard and firm but can be dry. I generally microwave a moon cake via 10-second blasts before or after cutting, just until it feels slightly warm. Cutting one that’s been microwaved is harder, but you get to experience the fragrance wafting from the cake as you cut. It’s no big deal but remember that you can use the microwave to help a moon cake express itself well. Enjoy the holiday and lots of moon cakes -- whether you buy them or make them!