Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

INTRODUCTION

My kids loved Shanghai moon cakes not because of the egg yolk or filling, but the short crust pastry. At times, while I am not paying attention , they will “dig” out and throw away the filling and egg yolk  and eat the pastry only.. The same with my wife who is not a fan of moon cake at all. 

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

As a result, I have decided to prepare some moon cakes that are “thick skin” with minimum fillings.. But the recipe have been adjusted to the ratio of one filling to one skin (Skin: filling = 1:1).

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

I have a post on short crust pastry mooncake last year resembling the one sold by the famous bakery in Kluang. Locally, they called it the “mouse moon cake” and if you are interested, you can take read the post; Moon cake – Short Crust Pastry Moon Cake 

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

The colloquially so called Shanghai moon cake is characterized by its short crust pastry but it seems that Shanghai do not have such type of moon cake. It was not even listed in the Wikipedia’s listing of moon cake. The origin of it is rather doubtful..

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

Putting that aside, the Western style of short crust pastry definitely goes well the oriental moon cake fillings.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

This recipe is my recipe modified from the above post. I have used butter instead of vegetable shortening as what most other recipe have called for.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼) 

Preparation is not difficult at all. In fact, among all the moon cakes, this should be one of the easiest and failure rate is very low.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

The size of the moon cake will depends on your preference and if you like smaller sizes, you will need to get hold of more salted egg yolks as compared to 4 stated in the recipe.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)


WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: Prepare 4 Shanghai Moon cake

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

Short Crust Pastry

  • 80 grams of butter, chilled and cut into cubes and keep in the fridge waiting for later use
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 200 grams of self raising flour, sifted
  • 40 grams of sugar powder
  • 30 grams of custard powder
  • 20 grams of milk powder (not in picture)
  • 1-2 tablespoons of milk (not in picture)

Fillings

  • 4 salted egg yolks (pre-steamed for 5 minutes or microwave for15 seconds)
  • 50 grams of chopped walnuts
  • 350 grams of lotus seed paste

Egg washing

  • 1 egg yolk plus 1 tablespoon of milk plus a few drops of cooking oil, beat and sift

Others

  • Some melon seeds  for decoration
  • Some sesame seeds for decoration

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)


STEPS OF PREPARATION

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

  • Mix the chopped walnuts to the lotus seeds fillings, knead until well mixed. Divide into 4 balls (or your desired number of balls), wrap a salted egg yolk in each ball. Shape round and set aside for later use.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

  • Sift custard powder, self raising flour, icing sugar and milk powder in a bowl. Add the cold butter and use fingertips to rub the butter until it resembles some crumbs. Add the beaten egg yolk and cold milk, lightly knead until it forms a pliable dough. If the dough is too dry, add teaspoon by teaspoon of milk gradually.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

  • Divide the dough into 4 equal balls (or your desired number of balls). Take one ball, flatten the dough, wrap a ball of filling, seal the edges and transfer to the cupcake cups or a lightly greased tray.  Egg wash the dough as thoroughly as possible and baked in the oven for 10 minutes.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

  • After 10 minutes, egg wash for the second time and while it was wet, put the melon seeds and sprinkle with some sesame seeds. Send back to the oven and baked again for another 10-15 minutes. The baking time is for your reference and depends very much on the size of your moon cake. (Note: Alternatively, you can choose to egg wash once, but you have to put the melon seeds and sesame seeds once you do your first egg wash).

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)


CONCLUSION

This is the ratio of one filling to one skin (1:1) However, do make provisions for yourself and choose a ratio that you are most comfortable (possibly 1.2 skins : 1 filing) with and come out with a presentable moon cake. This dough can be rather dry, remember: Add cold milk TEASPOON BY TEASPOON until you are able to handle it. Handling shall be light and swift for the pastry.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

This recipe was included in Page 14-15 of the “Easy Mooncake Recipes E-book”. For more mooncake recipes, you can have a copy of Easy mooncake recipes  – A step by step guide” that was packed with 20 recipes, 45 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD4.00. The recipes covered various recipes from durian mooncake, traditional baked mooncake and also the less common Teochew mooncake . You can purchase by clicking the link above.You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

For this year, I have planned to prepare this moon cake as hand gifts to friends and relatives if there are additional images, I will upload in the post.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼)


  • For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 28 July 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.  

 


  1. Good morning,
    Thanks for sharing your recipe. Love reading your blog.

  2. Wow so nice n look so yummy! Going to make these baked mooncakes this year. Thanks so much for sharing 🙂

  3. Hi Ken, thanks for sharing your mooncake with Best Recipes,such a nice mooncake you made.
    By the way, hope you can display our Best Recipes batch in your post too,thanks in advance,and hope you can share much more great recipes with us too,have a a nice day^^

    • Thanks for dropping by. I did display the badge at the bottom or is there another one that I have to display? Hope you can eng lighten me

    • I am so sorry,just now the batch did not appeared ,please ignore it..haha
      Wishing you a Happy Mooncake Festival in advance too ^^

  4. Hi Kenneth, I haven’t attempted any mooncakes baking. But to support Fion, I have bought the pure lotus paste to try out some this weekend. Your steps in mooncake making really really helpful … thanks for sharing! Love those pictures too!

  5. Hi Kenneth, I baked these this morning. Haven’t tried it yet. I intend to bake these as giveaways this year. Perhaps, I can try this recipe too. Your mooncake looks good

  6. I’ve try it today but found out the salted eggs yolk was not cooked.
    Any advise?

    • This did not happen to me and I am sorry to hear that. Possibly you can try to microwave the mooncake for 10-15 seconds and it may get cooked. However, I have amended the post advise to precook the yolk by steaming of microwaving.

    • Noted, thanks for the advise

  7. can I prepare the filling and pastry the night before

  8. Wow, I been looking for the perfect recipe since 2 years ago when I tasted the Kluang version. I’m going to try it out after CNY, thanks for sharing.

  9. Hi Kenneth, I only have instant custard powder, can I use? what I can substitute for custard powder??

  10. Hi,
    I wish to confirm whether it should be 1 egg or 1 egg yolk (lightly beaten) to be added to the flour mixture? As it stated in the ingredients is 1 egg but under the method it mentioned 1 egg yolk.
    Hope to receive your reply soon. Thank you very much.

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