Moon Festival, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important occasions in the Asian calendar.  It marks the end of the harvest season, a time of celebration and plenty.  It falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar when the moon is full and bright.  This year, Moon Festival falls on 12th September, 2011.

During this time it’s traditional to give and enjoy moon cakes.  They usually come in a colourful tin containing four moon cakes.  These cakes are round for Chinese and square for Vietnamese.  The outside is cakey, especially ornate and a woody brown, the inside is made up of lotus paste with egg yolks, fancier versions contain mixed nuts or even abalone.

moon cakes

They are especially sweet and I’d recommend slicing off small pieces washed down with tea.

casahana moon cakes

These days, the cakes come in much more contemporary packaging, like the Casahana brand above.  The modern take also includes the flavours as well, including red yeast Japanese sweet potato (below), charcoal bake yam, Jade custard, green tea, just to name a few.  The other modern thing about these cakes is that they’re less sweet, while you can’t claim they’re healthy, they’re certainly a lot healthier than the more traditional versions.

moon cake

In 2011, celebrate Moon Festival in Cabramatta on Sunday 4th September from 10am – 8pm.

These moon cakes were supplied by our friends at Amyson, for more information on their range of moon cakes, click here.