I woke up yesterday morning to find an interesting goody bag left behind by a friend at the security desk – mooncakes from Shangri-la Manila – individually packed in a nice box and matching paper bag.

At this time of the year, this ‘revered’ pastry called mooncakes are as big in China as are candy canes at Christmastime in the western world; just about every business and household distributes them to employees and family members.

Mooncake is a Chinese confection that is traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival. Historically, it was a harvest type festival for farmers which fall on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, but traditionally, womenfolk worshipped Chang-Er, the moon goddess. Mooncakes can also be eaten at other times of the year as well.

Explanations about how the moon festival started are almost as varied as the varieties of moon cakes. An ancient Chinese tale has it that a Chinese emperor’s lost love, who died tragically, became the goddess of the moon. Others say that the Chinese, looking at the dark side of the moon, saw a rabbit that was able to make a potion for immortality, so the festival became a celebration of the rabbit’s birthday, too! Thus the rabbit image has become one of the most common decorative imprints on top mooncakes apart from the emperor’s delicate patterns, flowers, clouds, or a woman on moon.

Typical mooncakes are either round or rectangular puck-shaped pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. They have a relatively thin crust [2-3 mm], which surrounds a thick, sweet pasty filling that may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are typically rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. It is usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.

Depending on regional customs, cakes might be filled with red-bean paste, lotus seed paste, prunes with walnuts, mixed nuts, or pineapple. Fillings also vary depending on the country where a mooncake is made. Among the Chinese, a popular feature is a glistening steamed salted duck egg yolk, sometimes two, in the center of the cake. When the cake is cut into quarters, as is traditional custom, the yolk looks like a round moon. The yolk balances out the sweet filling with its salty taste.

Our Chinese pastry chef at The Empire Hotel in Brunei explained the makings of a marvelous mooncake: the crust should be as light and thin as possible, and moist; the paste should not be too sweet and not dry. A mediocre or bad cake has dry filling and a doughy thick crust. The egg yolk should have a thin sheen of oil and should be shiny golden yellow.

Finally, these cakes, offered in infinite variations designed throughout Asia and all over the world, are also believed to bring in good luck.