Interesting 'hand made' moon cakes

(Baonghean.vn) - This year's Mid-Autumn Festival, in addition to moon cakes from famous cake brands, Vinh City consumers have another option with handmade "hand made" moon cakes.

From a hobby...

The moon cake making movement in Nghe An has only appeared in the past few years, stemming from the need for housewives who are passionate about culinary arts to make their own cakes for their families.

To have a delicious moon cake, the most important thing is to ensure the quality of the ingredients.

The process of preparing the cake is not too complicated. The tools you need are just a small oven and a plastic cake mold. The ingredients are more diverse, you can make the filling with green beans, red beans, salted eggs... or more elaborately, a mixed filling.

Currently in Vinh City there are many stores specializing in providing baking tools and ingredients so buyers can easily find the ingredients they like.

Talking about the joy of making moon cakes, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh (Le Mao Ward) shared: "At first, I didn't think I could make moon cakes. However, after watching clips shared on Youtube and going to online forums, I boldly did it and found it not too difficult. My family members also really enjoy this job."

The most popular is mixed filling. However, dieters prefer simple fillings such as green beans and green tea.

Professional bakers also share: "Making moon cakes is not too difficult, but to have delicious cakes, you must have your own "secret". For example, if you want the cake to be fragrant, after baking, you must spray a light layer of wine on the cake. If you want the cake to be beautiful and evenly golden, after each baking, you must spread sugar water all over the surface of the cake. The cake flour must also be carefully selected, otherwise the cake will be hard...".

Electronic scales will help ensure the proportioning of cake ingredients.

It is also important to note that if you are passionate and love making moon cakes yourself, it will help families save a lot of money. For example, a moon cake on the market costs between 50,000 and 70,000 VND. However, when you make it yourself, the cost is only about 20,000 VND per cake.

This year, the market also sells a lot of pre-made mooncake wrapping paper and boxes. Therefore, in addition to making them for family use, people can still carefully package them themselves like the company's products to give as gifts. The price of each box ranges from 20,000 to 40,000 VND depending on the size and material. In addition, those who are picky can also order their own cake molds.

...to the "left-handed" profession

Not only making cakes for their families, to meet consumer demand, many housewives have taken this opportunity to sell moon cakes as a side job.

Like Ms. Thuy Hien (Trung Do Ward), although she works at a medical unit, she is passionate about baking. At first, she mainly made cakes for her children, but after sharing on her personal page for a while and being encouraged by everyone, she considered this as her second job. This year, to prepare for the Mid-Autumn Festival, she prepared quite early and from mid-July, she started to have customers ordering cakes.

Ms. Hien shared that because she was new to making moon cakes, she had to learn and gain experience from the feedback of customers. What encouraged her was the increasing number of customers, and on the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival alone, over 300 customers ordered cakes.

After baking, the moon cakes will be brushed with a layer of sugar water to color the cake.

The cakes are made with Japanese bamboo charcoal and are decorated with every detail like a work of art.

For Ms. Thuy Hoa (Truong Thi ward), last year, even though it was just for fun, over 1,000 customers ordered cakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Now, not only on the Mid-Autumn Festival, but also on normal days, on the 1st and 15th of the month, customers also order quite a lot. To meet the demand, in addition to mobilizing several sisters in her family, she also hired students to help.

According to Ms. Hoa, customers come to "handmade" mooncakes mainly for food safety reasons. Therefore, she makes most of the ingredients herself. In particular, she orders salted eggs from relatives in Hung Hoa and personally salts them 2 months in advance. As for pork fat, she chooses the neck fat type, after buying it, she boils it and dries it in the sun to ensure it is clear and crispy...

Although the cakes are handmade, the packaging is also focused on. Currently, there are many pre-made cake boxes that can be used as gifts.

In terms of design, homemade moon cakes are also very diverse. In addition to traditional baked and soft cakes, many women have also created other types of cakes such as Japanese charcoal baked cakes, green tea moon cakes, and taro moon cakes. Many skillful people also make flowers and draw their own cake designs.

Customers can even request cakes made in the shape of funny animals to give to children. In particular, although the cakes are homemade, the price is quite low, depending on the type and size, the cakes will cost from 35-50 thousand VND.

Many diverse cake designs, demonstrating the skill, passion and creativity of the baker.

Handmade mooncakes after being completed and packaged

The sophistication and meticulousness have also created diversity for the moon cake market this year. On the customer side, with the appearance of more and more types of cakes, they have more opportunities to choose products to suit their preferences and budget.

My Ha