How To Choose The Right Kind Of Mooncake To Gift Anyone

So many kinds of mooncakes, so many choices to make.

Credit: Freepik/Twitter

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The Mid-Autumn Festival (or fondly known as the Mooncake Festival for obvious reasons) is actually a day of reunion for families. The mooncakes are round to represent a reunion (团圆, where 圆 means round) or a family sitting around a round table together.

Mooncakes commercially sold in Malaysia can be roughly categorised into three popular kinds. If you’re not sure what kind of mooncake to get for yourself, or as gifts for your friends and family, then this guide is just for you!

The Classic

The classic mooncake has a shiny brown skin with traditional fillings. It is baked, and then served at room temperature.

Usually, you would find these mooncakes will fillings such as lotus seed paste, red bean, mung bean, mixed nuts, and salted egg yolk.

A traditional mooncake featuring a golden brown skin with lotus seed paste filling and salted egg yolk.
(Credit: TRP)

This kind of classic mooncake is a great for those who look for authenticity in their food choices and enjoy traditional tastes. The older generation will usually enjoy traditional mooncakes as it would remind them of the good ‘ol days.

However, nowadays there are more flavour options to choose from as well, such as various flavours of tea.

Perfect for: Your parents, older relatives, acquaintences, or those who like the taste of authentic foods.

The Cool

Snowskin mooncakes have also enjoyed great popularity over the years. These mooncakes boast a soft pale outer skin and must be kept in the fridge and served cold.

Snowskin mooncakes tend to have more colourful skins, which makes a very visually appealing gift.
(Credit: topntp26/Freepik)

Snowskin mooncakes are more versatile, often carrying traditional filling options as well as more unconventional filling options. You will be able to find anything from durian to blueberry to taro and more!

Perfect for: Your friends, younger relatives, business associates, people trying mooncake for the first time, those who eat desserts for the sake of eating desserts.

The Fun

Some have taken the dessert to the next level, breaking down the constraints of the desserts of skins and fillings.

Jelly mooncakes have proven that really, anything can capture the essence of reunion as long as it is mooncake-shaped.

Jelly mooncakes often feature pretty jelly art or various flavours that wouldn’t be possible as a traditional filling.
(Credit: @karmenlunarx/Twitter)

As a result, these mooncakes are bright, jiggly, and come in the widest possible variety of flavours and colours! Choose from mocha to red dragon fruit to pandan or even blue pea flower. As long as it can be made into a jelly, it can be made into a jelly mooncake.

Perfect for: Young children, people with no qualms about tradition, those who love jelly.

…And More!

There are way more options on the market now– much more than you can imagine.

We’ve seen everything from alcohol-infused mooncake to cake mooncake to ice cream mooncake to fruit mooncake.

Yes, if you wanted your mooncakes to be on the boozy side, it is most definitely possible.
(Credit: Hennessy/Facebook)

In fact, if you can imagine it, you can probably find it. Why not explore what mooncake options there are for yourself?

You can look on e-commerce platforms such as Lazada and Shopee, find home-bakers on Kravve, visit local bakeries near you, or ask in your local community groups for recommendations!

What’s your favourite kind of mooncake? Share your recommendations with us via TRP’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.