mooncake

A tray of mooncakes.

A mooncake sliced open to reveal its lotus seed paste filling.

From moon +‎ cake, a calque of Mandarin 月餅／月饼 (yuèbíng, “mooncake”), from 月 (yuè, “moon”) + 餅／饼 (bíng, “pastry; biscuit, cookie”),[1] probably because the pastry’s traditional round shape resembles the full moon visible during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmuːnkeɪk/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmunkeɪk/
• Hyphenation: moon‧cake

mooncake (plural mooncakes)

1. A rich, dense Chinese pastry traditionally filled with lotus seed paste and nowadays with a variety of other fillings, usually eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar; early September to early October). [from late 17th c.]
   • 1688, Gabriel Magaillans [i.e., Gabriel de Magalhães], “Of Several Other Palaces, and Some Temples Erected within the Same Enclosures”, in [anonymous], transl., A New History of China, Containing a Description of the Most Considerable Particulars of that Vast Empire. […], London: […] Thomas Newborough, […], →OCLC, page 318:

     The fifteenth Day of the eighth Moon, is ſolemniz'd by the Chineſes with great feaſting and rejoycing. […] To this purpoſe, the preceding Days they ſend to one another Preſents of little Loaves and Sugar-Cakes, which they call Yue Pim, or Moon-Cakes. They are round, but the biggeſt, which are about two hands breadth in diameter, and repreſent the Full Moon, have every one a Hare in the middle made of a Paſt of Walnuts, Almonds, Pine-Apple-Kernels and other Indgredients. Theſe they eat by the Light of the moon; the Richer ſort having their Muſick alſo playing about 'em, which is very good.

   • 1819, R[obert] Morrison, “瑰 [guī]”, in A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, […], part II, volume I, Macao: […] East India Company’s Press, by P[eter] P[erring] Thoms, →OCLC, entry number 6772, page 507, column 3:

     Mei-kwei 玫丨 [i.e., 玫瑰] name of a pearl; also of a round cake, called the moon-cake, eaten at the harvest moon; […]

   • 1870 December, F. H. Ewer, “Some Account of Festivals in Canton”, in Justus Doolittle, editor, The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, volume 3, number 7, Foochow, Fukien, China: Rozario, Marcal & Co., published 1871, →OCLC, paragraph VII, page 187, column 2:

     The 15th day of the 8th moon is the 中秋 mid autumn feast. […] The cake shops are cleared of other stock, and nothing is to be bought in them for many days but the moon cakes. The moon cake—I am afraid I cannot convey an idea in words, of the delicacy of this exquisite morceau. I merely give its composition, and leave the rest to the imagination of the reader. A small pie in shape of a pork pie, with a crust not quite so tough as well tanned leather, filled with lumps of pork fat mixed with sugar, almonds, chopped walnuts, sesamum, and other varieties of seed.

   • 1890 February, Yan Phou Lee, “The Boys and Girls of China”, in Mary Mapes Dodge, editor, St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks, volume XVII, part I, number 4, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 362, column 2:

     [M]aybe his mother has promised him a mango or a moon-cake if he would be good; […]

   • 1893 April, Don Seitz, “A Celestial Farm on Long Island”, in Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, volume XXXV, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Frank Leslie’s Publishing House, […], →OCLC, page 495, column 2:

     The emblematical pastry of the period, the moon cake, has for its ingredients a little bit of everything grown during all the seasons of the year. […] Indeed, it is the nearest thing to pie the Chinese cookery affords. Bits of pork, cabbage, pumpkin, figs, fruit and fowl baked together in a cast-iron crust, seasoned with pork fat, may not be appetizing to the Caucasian taste, but they tickle the palate of a Chinaman into epicurean laughter and make him believe he is enlarging his mind proportionately with his waist.

   • 1989, Amy Tan, “Ying-Ying St. Clair: The Moon Lady”, in The Joy Luck Club, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 73:

     The servants had already packed and loaded a rickshaw with the day's basic provisions: […] sweaty earthen jars of preserved meats and vegetables; stacks of red boxes lined with four mooncakes each; and of course, sleeping mats for our afternoon map.

   • 1989, K. S. Tom, “Celebrations and Festivals”, in Echoes from Old China: Life, Legends and Lore of the Middle Kingdom, Honolulu, Hi.: Hawaii Chinese History Center, published 2000, →ISBN, page 40, column 2:

     The round moon cakes, measuring about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruit cakes in taste and consistency. These cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels, and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg was placed at the center of each cake, and the golden brown crust was decorated with symbols of the festival. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled into a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year"—that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.

   • 1994, Claire Chiang, “Female Migrants in Singapore: Towards a Strategy of Pragmatism and Coping”, in Maria Jaschok, Suzanne Miers, editors, Women and Chinese Patriarchy: Submission, Servitude and Escape, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; London: Zed Books, →ISBN, part III (Social Remedies and Avenues of Escape), page 245:

     During the year we gathered together in the coolie room a few times to celebrate certain festive occasions, like the Ghost Month or the Mooncake Festival. If you had money to spare, you would buy some food, for example mooncakes to celebrate with your sisters.

   • 1997, Hwee Hwee Tan, Foreign Bodies […], 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Pocket Books, published January 2000, →ISBN, page 149:

     [S]he just said, 'The mooncake, if don't eat, must throw away. But like that waste money, very gek sim.' I didn't want to hurt her heart, so I ate the cake. My mother watched me eat the mooncake. 'Do you like it?'

   • 2007, Dean Brettschneider, “Pastries”, in Global Baker: Inspirational Breads, Cakes, Pastries and Desserts with International Influences, new edition, Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, published 2020, →ISBN, page 120:

     Fruit mince moon cakes […] Over the years, the Chinese moon cake has evolved into a variety of treats with different fillings. To cater to the health-conscious, many bakeries also offer miniature moon cakes and sugar-free moon cakes. I have used a fruit mince filling to make these moon cakes a little more familiar to the European palate, but you do need a moon cake mould to make these.

   • 2008, Chin Woon Ping, “Mooncakes and the Moon”, in Hakka Soul: Memories, Migrations, and Meals, Singapore: NUS Press, →ISBN, page 29:

     Remember the overthrow of the Manchus, when messages hidden in moon cakes roused the people to bring arms to the meeting place.

   • 2012, Tan Twan Eng, chapter 10, in The Garden of Evening Mists, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Myrmidon Books, →ISBN, page 143:

     Tea and moon-cakes were served after dinner. The cakes came in square, octagonal and round shapes, each one about two inches thick and covered in a soft, brown skin. Emily cut them into quarter slices and handed them round.

• moon cake, moon-cake

• moon pie (“chocolate covered snack”)

• mooncake on Wikipedia.Wikipedia