Piggy moon cakes 小猪公仔餅

中秋节快乐！

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

Lately, I was caught up with dad’s house renovation and I didn’t realize that Moon cake festival was just around the corner, which would fall on Sunday, 27th September.

This was a very last minute project. Only yesterday, I found I still had some left over golden syrup which I made 2 years ago. The color of the syrup was getting darker and it might not be good for another year. Hence, I decided to clear it off to make a small batch of moon cakes.
(You can refer to my previous moon cake making posts here.)

However, with only limited quantity of the syrup and time left, I opted to make this simple piggy moon cake cookies ( 公仔餅). I came across this recipe via Baking Taitai’s blog  originated from Joceline’s blog。

This recipe is unique compared to the traditional recipe. As opposed to usual filling such as lotus paste wrapped inside the moon cakes, the filling is combined with other ingredients to form the dough instead.

After reading the recipe, in the same afternoon, I rushed to my nearby bakery store to shop for the necessary ingredients.  I was in luck to get this very last plastic piggy mold in their store. I also got a small pineapple mold which resembled a fish, just nice to be used for this moon cake cookies project.

These piglets are so adorable, aren’t they? My piggy mold used around 55g of dough.


The moon cake cookies with the shapes of “fish” ( 30g) and flower from the old moon cake mold I had previously.



Freshly out from the oven. It would be nicer if I had black beans to be used as their eyes.


I have yet to taste these cookies as they need to be left for at least a day for it to go thru the process of “oil return”( 回油）before it is good to consume. Traditional moon cake cookies may need to be left for at least 3 days to a week.
Fingers crossed, it will taste good by tomorrow.

2nd October Updates:

Just wish to update on the texture of the moon cakes. The texture was slightly harder than I expected when consumed on the next day.

However, after resting in tight container for a week, the mooncakes were coated with nice golden color and tasted so much softer. Hence, I would advice to follow the traditional "oil return" duration before consuming these moon cakes.

Piggy moon cakes Ingredients: (make 20 pieces of 30g to 58g dough each according to the mold I used) 350g sieved plain flour (I used 170g plain flour and 180g cookies flour) 230g golden syrup (I used only 198g, the remaining golden syrup I had) 100g peanut oil (I used canola oil) 5 g/1tsp alkaline water 150g lotus seed paste (I used bean paste, click here for homemade bean paste method) Egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tbsp milk, mix well and strained. (I used 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp. milk) 1. In a mixing bowl, add in syrup, oil, alkaline water and lotus seed paste. Stir mix until well combined.   2. Add in sieved flour and knead to form dough. Cover the dough with cling wrap and let it rest for at least 2 - 3 hours.  ( For softer texture better leave the dough to rest longer than 3 hours to 6 hours.) 3. Divide the dough into portions that fit the mold that you are using. Roll each portion into a ball. Dust the moon cake mold with some flour. Press the dough into the mold. Tap to unmold. Arrange in a baking tray. (I omitted the dusting process as my dough was oily and could be easily detached from the mold after few knockings.) 4. Preheat oven at 160 degrees Celsius. Bake the moon cakes in the middle rack for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes before brushing the top with egg wash. Return to oven for another 15-20 minutes of baking or until golden brown. ( For smaller mold  (30g ), better adjust baking time to 10-15 minutes, to avoid over baked and texture of moon cakes turned harder) 5. After the moon cakes are completely cooled down , keep in airtight container and consume the next day. ( If after baking, moon cakes felt harder, I would advice to follow the traditional "oil return" duration, after 3-7 days only consume these moon cakes to have softer texture.) 小猪公仔餅 份量 ： 根据我用的模, 可做20个 , 25g – 58g 面团 材料： 面粉 350克（过筛备用） (我用170克中筋面粉和180克低筋面粉） 糖浆 230克 （我用198g糖浆） 花生油 100克 (我用菜籽油) 碱水 5克 原味纯莲蓉 150克  （我用豆蓉 ） 表层涂面：蛋黄1个  +  鲜奶 1汤匙或适量 ** 搅拌均匀后过滤 ** 做法： 1）把面粉过筛备用。 2）容器里加入糖浆、花生油、碱水和莲蓉一起搅拌均匀。 3）然后拌入面粉搅拌成均匀的面团。 4）把容器盖上。放置休息 2 - 3个小时至面团不粘手。 5）根据模具把面团分割成每份大约 25-58克，把面团搓圆，然后放入模里印出形状。 6）烤箱预热后，把烤盘放在中层。以160度烘烤大约10分钟。 然后把饼取出烤箱。待冷一会儿（大约15分钟后），才涂上一层的蛋液。 7）然后再送入烤箱继续烘烤大约15-20分钟至金黄色或熟即可。

Coca-cola Chicken Wings 可乐鸡翅

Recently, I took a break from my career and went back to hometown, Penang to help my dad to renovate our old house while spending some quality family time with him. With the old house under full renovation and not in livable condition, we temporarily moved to stay with my second brother and his family.

Other than an hour or two daily playing a Project Manager's role checking on the renovation status, I had a very relaxing schedule in Penang. With ample time to spare, I took over sister-in-law's kitchen to prepare dinner for the family to ease her busy working schedules.

Frankly, I have not been cooking for a long long time. In fact, ever since we moved back from Auckland and with Auntie Lan back to live with us and taking over my kitchen, I have not been using the wok spatula for quite some time already.

In the hope to prepare good meals for dad, I regained the passion to try out new dishes again. I found this simple and easy recipe via Facebook.

Coca-Cola Chicken Wings (可乐鸡翅). Yes, no kidding, this recipe only uses the famous Coca-Cola soft drink and soya sauce as main ingredients with no water added in. I also wish to clarify that this is not a Western cuisine, even though Coca-Cola is originated from the USA, Coca-Cola Chicken is one of the famous Chinese dishes in Southern China.


Well, this is another good example of the East meets West fusion.



The use of Coca-Cola with high sugar content easily caramelized and tenderized the chicken, leaving a sweet, sticky and glazed appearance on the chicken wings.


It might not be a top pick in a healthy menu list for dad but it was a sure winner for the kids and party menu. In fact, I must admit to a certain extent, it was tastier than the traditional soya sauce chicken.

Coca-cola Chicken Wings INGREDIENTS: 8-10 chicken wings ( cut into drummettes and wings, you can also use drumsticks ) 1 tin of Coca- Cola ( not recommended to use diet coke) 1-2 tbsp. Soya sauce ( to your own taste) 1tbsp. dark soya sauce ( to your own taste) 1 tbsp. Chinese   Shaoxing cooking wine ( optional) Spices 1-2 pieces of Star Anise, cinnamon sticks Few slices of ginger Few stalks of green onions, cut the white section into 2-3 cm long, the green leaves chopped MARINADE: (best more than half an hour ) 1 tsp. of salt 1 tsp of Sesame oil 1 tbsp of Shaoxing cooking wine (optional) Dash of pepper METHOD: Clean wings, pat dry with kitchen towels and score them symmetrically on both sides set aside. Place the cleaned chicken wings into a basin, and add the marinade seasoning and half of the green onion sections and ginger slices. Mix well, and leave to marinate for half an hour. Heat wok with some cooking oil, brown the chicken wings for a minute, dish up and set a side. Pour out the excess cooking oil leaving just one tbsp. of cooking  oil in the wok and sauté the left over sliced ginger, green onion and spices in the wok until fragrant. Add the browned chicken wings and stir well. Pour in 3/4 tin of Coke and 2 tbsp. of soya sauce and dark soya sauce and stir well. Cover it and simmer over medium heat for 25 minutes. When chicken is done and turned into caramel color and drying up, add a tbsp. of cooking wine and stir evenly. Turn off the heat,  transfer chicken wings to a serving platter and serve. 可乐鸡翅 材料 8-10只全鸡翅膀切成鸡翅中段和小腿（你也可以用鸡腿） 1罐可口可乐（不推荐使用健怡可乐） 1-2汤匙酱油（随自己的口味） 1汤匙黑酱油（随自己的口味） 1汤匙绍兴料酒（可选） 调味品1-2枚八角，肉桂棒 生姜几片 青葱，切白色部分为2-3厘米长，叶子切碎 腌料：（最好超过半小时） 1茶匙盐 1小勺香油 1汤匙绍兴料酒（可选）些许胡椒粉 方法： 将清洗过的鸡翅用厨房纸巾轻轻拍干，倒在盆里，加入腌料和一半的葱节和姜切片拌匀腌半小时。 炒锅烧热放一些食用油，把鸡翅炒匀煎黄一分钟，盛起备用。 倒出多余的食用油，剩下一汤匙油在炒锅，加入姜片，葱花和香料炒香。 待香味， 加入鸡翅炒匀。倒入3/4瓶可乐和调味料 2汤匙酱油和黑酱油炒匀试味。 加盖，中火煮25分钟，当鸡熟了，变成焦糖色并开始干起来添加一个汤匙料酒，搅拌均匀后，关火， 取出上碟。