Huangqiao sesame cake facts for kids
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| Type | Bread |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | China |
| Region or state | Jiangsu |
| Main ingredients | Flour, salt, yeast, caramel, pork suet, onion, sesame, alkali, lard |
Huangqiao sesame cake is a yummy sesame seed cake from Huangqiao town in Taixing, Jiangsu, China. Many people think it's one of the oldest cakes in the Taizhou area of China! It's famous for its crispy outside and delicious fillings.
Contents
What is Huangqiao Sesame Cake?
Huangqiao sesame cakes come in many fun shapes. You might see them round, long, square, or even triangle-shaped! In shops, they are usually round or oval. You can find them in both sweet and savory flavors.
Main Ingredients
The basic ingredients for these cakes are flour, salt, yeast, and caramel. They also use pork suet, onion, sesame seeds, alkali, and lard. The many sesame seeds make the cake super crunchy and give it a beautiful golden color.
Delicious Fillings
Some Huangqiao sesame cakes have special fillings. These can include leaf lard, sugar, pork flakes, and even shrimp meat. Other tasty fillings are longhidou, sweet osmanthus, crab spawn, and jujube paste. Cakes with these fillings are often seen as extra special treats!
The History of Huangqiao Sesame Cake
Sesame cakes have been around for a very long time in China. One of the earliest mentions of a similar cake is in a book called Qi Min Yao Shu. This book was written during the Northern Wei dynasty by an early expert in agriculture, Jia Sixie. It even has a chapter about how to make cakes! Later, a book called Travels of Lao Can from the Qing dynasty also described these cakes.
A Magistrate's Favorite Snack
The exact start of the Huangqiao sesame cake is not fully known. But there are some cool stories about it! One story says that a local leader, a county magistrate, from Rugao County once visited Huangqiao. He tried the sesame cakes there and loved them so much! He couldn't stop thinking about the taste. Even though the two places were about 30 kilometers (18 miles) apart, he regularly sent people to buy a lot of these cakes for him.
A Writer's Praise
Many famous people from the Huangqiao area have written about how much they loved this snack. Zhang Lihui, who wrote the famous play Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, grew up eating Huangqiao sesame cakes. He loved them so much that he ate them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! He even said they were tastier than fish soup or any other food he had ever eaten.
A Cake of Victory
The Huangqiao sesame cake became really famous during the Chinese Civil War. In 1946, there was a big fight called the Battle of Rugao–Huangqiao. People say that the local villagers helped the soldiers win this battle by giving them lots of sesame cakes to eat. This important event was even turned into a song called the "Ode to Huangqiao Sesame Cake." This song was sung all over the country!
From Soldier's Food to Modern Snack
For a long time, these cakes were simple and used as food for soldiers. But over the past sixty years, they have changed a lot! Now, they are seen as a popular national snack. They used to be made mostly of flour with little oil and sesame. People only ate them on special days. Today, you can find Huangqiao sesame cakes in new shapes like rectangles and ovals. The fillings are also much fancier now! You can find them with floss, ham, shrimp, shallot, diced chicken, and even sausage. The cakes are also smaller now, making them perfect bite-sized snacks instead of just soldier's rations.
