But no worries if you don’t have time to make a mountain trip, eating the cake counts, too. We may as well make Double Ninth cakes ourselves this Double Ninth Festival. The recipe is as follows. I’m no Michelin chef but someone who knows how authentic Chinese cuisine should taste like. Double Ninth cake is also known as flower cake, chrysanthemum cake and five color cake. Double Ninth may have originated as a day to drive away danger, but like the Chinese New Year, over time it became a day of celebration. By the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), on the Double Ninth Festival, royalty in the imperial palace would eat cakes to celebrate, and the emperor himself would climb the Longevity Hill. Held on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, Double Ninth Festival is also called Chongyang Festival. Other ingredients: red and green fine long shreds (200g for each), and glutinous rice wine (200g). To enable Verizon Media and our partners to process your personal data select 'I agree', or select 'Manage settings' for more information and to manage your choices. People do so just to hope progress in everything they are engaged in. Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. Today, people usually send chrysanthemum wine and Double Ninth Cakes to those elder people, to wish for them to live longer and healthier.

Double Ninth Festival has unique cakes for each region Although these pastries have been around for thousands of years, Double Ninth Cake may be much more difficult to locate outside of China, which is a perfectly good reason to make it yourself. Showing respect to the seniors, climbing mountains, eating Chongyang cakes, drinking wine, enjoying chrysanthemum, sticking chrysanthemum and inserting Zhuyu are main customs of the double ninth festival.

Just like the French eat galette des rois at Épiphanie, Chinese people eat Double Ninth Cake, drink liquor made from chrsanthemum flower, head to the mountains to pass the day as tradition. Real Chinese cuisine is mastering selections of fresh ingredients, seasonings, various cooking methods to deliver genuine taste of food that wow your taste buds. Other activities include flying kites, making flower cakes, and welcoming married daughters back home for visiting. With sweet azuki bean paste and azuki beans filling, a bite of the cake is heavenly when you eat it freshly out of steamer! After it is cooler, cut it into angular shapes, and the Double Ninth cakes are done. Some people place a small red flag on the top of cake and light candles. Welcome to my dinning table and enjoy the real Chinese food. It is very fun. From then on, the court and the people had celebrated it with various activities. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Double Ninth Festival was designated as a formal festival. Second, dilute the sweetened bean paste with hot water, melt white sugar (300g) with hot water, and mince the red and green fine long shreds. We may as well make Double Ninth cakes … This custom was passed down to … Do not press firm the flour to allow hot steam passing through when the cake is being steamed. There is no fixed ways for the Double Ninth Cake, but super cakes will have as many as nine layers, looking like a tower.

It falls into three classes: crude flower cake, fine flower cake, and gold ingot-like flower cake. Then sift the flour mixture gently in order to blend in more air. Add in sweet azuki bean paste that formed into a doughnut shape, sprinkle some cooked azuki beans here and there on the layer, then sprinkle the rest of the wet flour. There is no fixed method of making it.

HuffPost is part of Verizon Media. The ninth day of the ninth month is the day that has two Yang numbers, and 'chong' in Chinese means double which is how the name Chongyang was created. Double Ninth cake is also known as flower cake, chrysanthemum cake and five color cake. Wok fried, heavy seasoned with soy sauce and MSG, cornstarch thickened at all time is not authentic Chinese cooking. The special food of the Double Ninth Festival is a cake called Double Ninth cake, or chrysanthemum cake, or flower cake. There is no fixed method of making it. In Chinese, nine is regarded as the number of Yang (which means masculine as opposed to Yin which is feminine). Add the right portion of water to rice flour and sticky rice (glutinous rice) flours, carefully mix the moisturized content with your fingers in light actions, making sure there is no any small lumps or dried flours left inside. On its top should be two sheep made from flour. The cake should be very fluffy and moist, almost like a soufflé, but sticky rice flour also creates a bit soft yet chewy mouthfeel. On the Double Ninth Festival, people will eat Double Ninth Gao (or Cake). Traveling around the world, I’ve seen how those Chinese take out mislead people’s perception about Chinese food. The cakes are typically … Enjoy Chrysanthemum and Drink Chrysanthemum Wine. Each area of China has its own version of cakes … This step is very important to create the cake’s light texture. What’s so special about the Double Ninth Cake is its fluffy, snow-like texture that requires a gentle hand to create.

These rice-cakes are called “gao” – which is a homophone for “height,” linking them to the practice of climbing mountains: ascending to great “heights.” The preparation of Double Ninth cake is a tradition that dates back to the Zhou Dynasty. First, put the flour into a basin, add warm water and the glutinous rice wine, mix them, and let it ferment; when honeycomb-like things appear, add white sugar (200g) and mix it together with chopsticks. Third, spread the lard at the bottom of a steamer, spread 1/3 of the flour paste prepared in the first procedure at the bottom of a steamer, brush the top of the flour paste with melted white sugar and diluted bean paste; spread another 1/3 of the flour paste on the first 1/3, brush the top of it with melted white sugar and diluted bean paste; and spread the last 1/3, cover the steamer and steam it. Just like the French eat galette des rois at Épiphanie, Chinese people eat Double Ninth Cake, drink liquor made from chrsanthemum flower, head …

Double Ninth cakes are made not only for families, but also as a gift for relatives and friends and a treat for married daughters coming home. We and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Double Ninth cakes are made not only for families, but also as a gift for relatives and friends and a treat for married daughters coming home. As September has the clear sky and fresh air, it is a very good time to climb the mountain.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. Condiments: Sweetened bean paste (300g), white sugar (500g) and lard (200g). In contemporary times it is an occasion for hiking and chrysanthemum appreciation. Steam with low heat for 15 minutes. Black Sesame Fagao (Steamed Rice Cake with Black Sesame Flavor). In Chinese, gao (cake) has the same pronunciation with gao (height). The Double Ninth Festival is a traditional Chinese festival. It is a day for people to eat Chongyang …

It is on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, thus the name. Sifting the flour mixture can take some time, but the best reward is when you have your first bite on the freshly steamed cake! It falls into three classes: crude flower cake, fine flower cake, and gold ingot-like flower cake. The first person who purportedly enjoyed chrysanthemum and drank chrysanthemum wine on the Chongyang Festival was … The Double Ninth Festival is a golden time of the year.

When all the flour content is sifted, start with putting a layer of the powder snow-like wet flour in a cake mould.

. The Chongyang cake is a nine-layer cake shaped like a tower. After it is steamed, brush it with melted white sugar, and scatter the red and green shreds on the top.