Welcome to this edition of China Lifestyle Journeys, the series that brings you chats, discussions and insights on all aspects of Chinese living. We will cover festivals, food, traditions, customs and much, much more. I’m your host Jocelyn … and I’m Mat, just an English guy with lots of questions.

So, Mat, what’s your big question today?

(Mat)

Hello and welcome back to another episode. And today we are talking about one of life's sweetest pleasures - cake! So, Jocelyn I’m sure you have something to say, what are your thoughts on Chinese cakes?

(Jocelyn) 

Well, if I’m totally honest, I think Chinese cakes are definitely better than English cakes. They are often lighter, less sweet, and have more diverse flavours than English cakes. For example, we have mooncakes, which are traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. You must know them, and they are those round cakes with a pattern on top, and have a thin, soft crust with a sweet filling made of lotus seed paste or red bean paste, actually you can get all kinds of fillings.  

(Mat)

Let me stop you there for a moment … mooncakes, I can’t really get my head around the idea of mooncakes. I don’t really understand the concept. I mean, beans … beans in a cake. I’m English, so putting beans in a cake just doesn't seem right to me. When I think of cakes, I think of sweet, indulgent treats like chocolate cake or Victoria sponge, lots of sugar and butter, cream, not something savoury like beans. Beans belong on a plate, at breakfast time, with eggs and bacon and things like that.

(Jocelyn) 

Well, I think I understand your point of view, but you have to try mooncakes to appreciate them. They are not just cakes, they are actually a symbol of family reunion and good luck in Chinese culture. And the filling can be really delicious, it’s not always beans, you can have fillings like lotus seed paste, which is sweet and fragrant. You can get green tea fillings and nowadays you can even find mooncakes with chocolate fillings. So actually mooncakes are more diverse than you think. Plus, the crust, the outer layer is often made with butter and sometimes it’s sweet, so it's not always savoury like you think.

(Mat)

I see, well, I’m still not sure about the beans in a cake, but I’d love to try a chocolate mooncake. Now there’s another cake, one that is quite popular in England and in China. In China you call it egg tart but in England we call it custard tart, now these are almost the same thing. So it seems that we have one cake in common. So why are all our other cakes so different? I mean Chinese cakes are light and delicate and English cakes are really heavy and kind of seriously indulgent, almost like a complete meal, really filling.

(Jocelyn) 

I think that Chinese cakes are often lighter and more delicate because they tend to use less butter, sugar, and cream than English cakes. Instead, they use ingredients like rice flour, sweet potato starch, and bean paste, which give the cakes a more subtle and nuanced delicate flavour. Also, with Chinese cakes the focus is often on subtle balance and harmony of the softer flavours, rather than the overwhelming sweetness and richness that you get with many English cakes.  

(Mat)

Yeah I think you’re right, and I remember reading something else too, the climate and the ingredients available in England historically meant that preserving cakes for long periods of time was important, which led to the development of those really heavy fruitcakes and other cakes that could last for weeks or months, some English fruitcakes are so rich and heavy that they can last for up to a year. So I guess that probably influences our taste and the way that we expect a cake to taste.

(Jocelyn)

So, I know you like cakes Mat, so is there one Chinese cake that you’ve tried that has left an impression on you?

(Mat) 

I was waiting for this question, I remember, many years ago, I was in a restaurant in South China, I think it was in Guangzhou or somewhere, and I had something called gui hua gao(桂花糕), I don’t even know the English name. Actually it was longer than that, it was like yezi gui hua gao(椰子桂花糕). Don’t ask me to translate it – it was something like a coconut flower cake. Now, I must say it didn’t look like a cake at all, it looked like a … kind of a square, a square of jelly. But the flavour, wow. It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever eaten. It was soft and chewy. It tasted of coconut and flowers in a way that I can’t really explain, like at the same time. It was like coconut one second, flowers the next second. It was like something I’ve never tried before in my life, not like a cake, something quite unique, but kind of similar to a cake.

(Jocelyn)

That’s great, you have found a Chinese cake that you love, and you know what that means? You should keep trying more Chinese cakes because there are probably others out there that you’ll love. And that's the beauty of food, we can appreciate the unique qualities of both Chinese and English cakes. It's all about diversity and expanding our culinary horizons.

Well, that’s it for today. We hope you enjoyed this episode, thanks for listening. We hope to see you again next time. Until then, goodbye. Stay wise.

好看的外形、喷香的味道、独特的口感，独具魅力的中式糕点已经传承和发展了千余年。在悠久的发展过程中，中式糕点逐渐形成了具有地域特色的点心流派，“京派重油轻糖，苏派精致浪漫，闽派嗜甜如命”相对准确地总结了中式糕点界三大派系的特点。

其中，京派喜欢把糕点称作“饽饽”，老字号糕点铺也叫饽饽铺。“稻香村”便是我们现在熟知的老字号饽饽铺之一。相较而言，苏式糕点种类丰富，工艺也相对复杂，更讲究时令与新鲜，一度严格遵循着春饼、夏糕、秋酥、冬糖的规律。而广式糕点与广东的饮茶文化密不可分，点心小巧精致、造型各异，口味清新多样、甜咸皆备。

其实，无论是哪种派别，中式糕点的诞生与流行，都与文化、礼仪和习俗息息相关。例如：饺子、年糕、元宵，是春节的传统食品；青团是清明时节的风味小吃；端午节吃粽子寓意祛祸避害；重阳节吃重阳糕有“重阳吃糕，百事俱高”之说等。

西式糕点的主要发源地是欧洲。据史料记载，古代埃及、希腊和罗马已经开始了最早的面包和蛋糕制作，西点制作在英国、法国、德国、意大利、奥地利、俄罗斯等国已有相当长的历史，并在发展中取得了显著的成就。

西式面点用料讲究。无论是什么点心品种，其面坯、馅心、装饰、点缀、等用料都有各自选料标准，各种原料之间都有适当的比例，而且大多数原料要求称量准确。

西点不仅营养丰富，造型美观，而且还具有品种变化多、应用范围广、口味清香、口感甜咸酥松等特点。在西点制品中，无论冷点心还是热点心，甜点心还是咸点心，都具有味道清香的特点，是由西点的原材料决定的。

摘自《吃点心，中国人有何讲究》《中式面点与西式面点有什么区别》