Banh deo - Snow skin Moon Cakes

I couldn't even remember the last time i celebrated this festival . I've seen my mom making a lot of moon cakes when i was little  but never thought of making ones myself until this year . This year ,i  wanted  to do something to  introduce my daughter one of a very special  traditional events for kids in September that i really loved when i was little  -the Autumn festival ,  and making the non baked cakes seemed to be a good idea .

These are not  like the baked traditional ones .The outer skin is soft ,sticky and a bit chewy and since its made from cooked wheat starch and cooking syrup ,  it tastes very sweet and sure that makes very special treats  for my little one  .
I got to move the work from the counter to the floor to make it easier for Adele to play with the dough , here you can see  how much she got crazy about being a part of the team :)

The fillings i made were green tea , taro  and.....fresh durian  ... aaarrrggg ... i hate its strong smell but hubby is the opposite , he is so fond of it  :-~  so with a mask on , i made it ! 

 I used 1 bag of cooked flour mixing with 5 1/2 cups cooking syrup ( i made my own syrup using organic sugar + water + 2 teaspoons lemon juice  ) to make about ...20 of 200gr sized cakes !  Had i known it turned out that many , i would have made only half of the flour .. 

Finally , we had a chance to use all the cake molds that my mom bought looooong time ago . I bet she would be happy to know .
Take 100gr of a dough and roll it flat  , put 100gr of filling right in the middle and gently wrap around  it .  Press it into the mold by using your fingers and gently remove it ...

tada....look at my little  cake . She looks pretty impressed herself ;-)

and  my 1st time cakes , aren't they lovely ? I put a little bit food color just enough to identify different fillings insides , yellow for durian , green for green tea and very light pink ( Adele's pick ) for taro paste .

It turned out not too bad for a first attempt  . I'm happy at least we dared to venture into using our hands to make them and the great thing about the homemade ones that you know what's in there : less sugar , no preservatives or " weird stuff " added like the store bought ones . Unlike the baked ones , these can be done in a shorter amount of time , you'd surprise how fun and easy it is to put together , especially when working with your loved ones .

Happy Moon Festival  ,everyone :)