The Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival will be celebrated across Southeast Asia and among communities in Australia on Friday.
The festival, which is held on the 15th day of the 8th month on the Lunar Calendar in China and which celebrates gathering, thanksgiving and praying, is colloquially known as the Mooncake Festival for those who enjoy the delicacy.
What are mooncakes and why are they significant?
Mooncakes are pastries that are traditionally eaten during the festival, just as hot cross buns are eaten by Christians during Easter.
Across various regions of China, there are different ways to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Depending on which part you are in, you may end up putting up flower lanterns, seeing a fire-lion dance, or even playing lantern riddles.
But eating mooncakes under the bright moonlight are common for most who mark the day.
Mooncakes (sbs) Source: SBS
The time of the year in which the festival is held is said to be when the moon is at its brightest and fullest. It has been a tradition for countless generations of Chinese people to share mooncakes with all family members gathered around the same round table, gazing at the moon and enjoying a wonderful time with their cherished ones.
One common 'rule' about sharing the mooncakes is that they should be divided evenly for everyone in the family, indicating that all family members are equal.
If some of them are not present, the portion for them will still be cut and reserved, waiting for their return for the family reunion on Spring Festival.
Like being alone at Christmas, it is common for people to experience sadness during the festival if you are travelling solo.
A seventh-century Chinese poet once wrote, “As the bright moon shines over the sea, from far away you share this moment with me,” to express how much he was missing his family and hometown during the festival.
For many years this emotion on this special day hasn’t changed. It has resonance for the Chinese migrants living in Australia.
Enjoying the mooncakes has thus become the most prominent way of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, as this is the same thing that their other family members back in China will do.
Winterson is an overseas student from Shanghai, China. This year's Mid-Autumn Festival will be the second one that she spends on her own without family around.
Making mooncakes by herself and sharing them with friends is her way of making up for the isolation.
She recalls her fondest childhood memory. It is one of the to-do list items for all people in Shanghai—getting up early and queueing for a long time to get the warm and freshly-baked pork-filled mooncake.
Winterson was able to develop her own way of conveniently making the same mooncakes in her Melbourne home, and she gladly shares the recipe with us.
Winterson Source: SBS Mandarin/ Helen Chen
Mooncake recipe
Ingredients include 270 grams of plain flour, 130 grams of low-gluten flour, 165 grams of butter and 400 grams of pork mince.
“Oily skin”, as Winterson calls it, is the dough made from 270 grams of plain flour, 90 grams of melted butter, 100ml of water and a small amount of sugar
“Oily crispy” is the other smaller dough made of 130 grams of low-gluten flour, 75 grams of melted butter, water and sugar. Both doughs need to be covered with plastic wrap and left for 15 minutes. 
The two balls of dough then need to be cut into 24 portions respectively.
The Oily Skin dough is then squashed flat and then must envelop the Oily Crispy dough.
Winterson Source: SBS Mandarin/ Helen Chen
meat-filled mooncake Source: SBS Mandarin/ Helen Chen
This is a very important step, as explained by Winterson, because it can result in the many layers of mooncake’s exterior, providing a very rich and enjoyable texture.
The next step is to use a rolling pin to squash the 24 dough balls into the shape of an ox tongue.
The dough must then be wrapped around the pork mince to form a round ball. They must then be brushed with beaten egg yolk, and finally, baked for 25 minutes at 200 degrees.
The 24 mooncakes took her two and a half hours to make, and the ingredients cost her around $10 dollars.
meat-filled mooncake Source: SBS Mandarin/ Helen Chen
meat-filled mooncake Source: SBS Mandarin/ Helen Chen
meat-filled mooncake Source: SBS Mandarin/ Helen Chen
meat-filled mooncake Source: SBS Mandarin/ Helen Chen
meat-filled mooncake Source: SBS Mandarin/ Helen Chen
meat-filled mooncake Source: SBS Mandarin/ Helen Chen
“I’ll definitely make more delicious food for my parents when I’m back in Shanghai.”
The 24-year-old vlogger who is also a university student says her exams "do not stop me from experiencing great food”.
She visits different restaurants in Melbourne regularly and shares he reviews with tourists from China.
