mooncake
nounUK /ˈmuːnkeɪk/ · US /ˈmunkeɪk/
Etymology From moon + cake, a calque of Mandarin 月餅 /月饼 (yuèbíng, “mooncake”), from 月 (yuè, “moon”) + 餅 /饼 (bíng, “pastry; biscuit, cookie”), probably because the pastry’s traditional round shape resembles the full moon visible during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
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).
- 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.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:
- 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; […]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:
4 more examples
- 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.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:
- [M]aybe his mother has promised him a mango or a moon-cake if he would be good; […]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:
- 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.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 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, 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:
- Derived terms
- snow skin mooncake
- Related terms
- moon pie