MANILA, Philippines — These round, almost bite-sized pastries with a flaky crust encasing classic lotus seed paste filling or red bean paste filling with an egg yolk in the center are fast becoming a popular alternative to traditional mooncake that Chinoys — and Pinoys — enjoy during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is also known as the Mooncake Festival.
If you look at the mooncakes, which sell like hotcakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, you will notice how these Egg Yolk Cakes are selling alongside mooncakes. A lot of people like them because they look and taste like mooncakes but are lighter. Mooncakes tend to be too dense and heavy to finish in one sitting.
Variations on the classics
While it sells traditional mooncakes, which are Cantonese type mooncakes with a soft crust filled with black bean cream or lotus cream and a single or double egg yolk, Le Delicieux Patisserie & Café makes its own Egg Yolk Cakes in Black Bean Cream with Egg Yolk, Black Bean Cream with Watermelon Seeds, Lotus Cream with Egg Yolk, and Lotus Cream with Watermelon Seeds.
A box of six provides three combinations: Combo 1, priced at P468, consists of three pieces each of Black Monggo with Watermelon Seeds and Lotus Cream with Watermelon Seeds; Combo 2, priced at P488, has the six pieces split equally into Black Monggo with Watermelon Seeds and Lotus Cream with Egg Yolk and Combo 3, priced at P528, has all six pieces in a special Lotus Cream with Pork Floss and Egg Yolk filling.
“Taiwan style Egg Yolk Cake is considered as a Taiwanese mooncake,” explained Susan Ong, owner of Le Delicieux Patisserie & Cafe.
Le Delicieux is located at 1763-G Paz Guazon St., Paco, Manila.
Contemporary flavors
Mooncakes in a new round shape. This is how Midnight Bakers, a cloud kitchen that sells lovely breads and pastries, likes its mooncakes to be. They present this whole new way of appreciating mooncakes by offering their own Egg Yolk Cakes. With a really flaky crust surrounding a salted egg yolk and filling, which comes in three flavors—Black Monggo, White Monggo, and Ube—the Egg Yolk Cakes are packaged in boxes of 6. Plain ones are priced at P450 per box of 6, while those with pork floss or nuts go for P510 per box. To order online, call 0917-6267211.