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Snow skin mooncakes, also known as snowskin mooncakes or ice skin mooncakes, are a type of traditional Asian pastry typically enjoyed during the Mid-Autumn Festival. These mooncakes differ from the more common baked mooncakes, as they have a soft, chewy, and slightly translucent skin rather than a traditional baked crust. Moreover, it’s also easier to form into various interesting shape beside using a common mooncake press with several basic patterns. Let’s make traditional Chinese snow skin mooncake with lotus seed paste filling and shape it into a beautiful flower.

Difference from Vietnamese Mooncake and Chinese Mooncake

Although Vietnamese snow skin mooncake and Chinese snow skin mooncake are similar in shape and fillings, the big difference is at the wrapper. The wrapper of Vietnamese snow skin mooncake is made of roasted glutinous rice flour. Glutinous rice is roasted until popping, and then grind into fine flour. What if we roast the glutinous rice flour? I tried, but it was failed. The texture and stickiness while mixing with sugar syrup isn’t similar with Vietnamese roasted glutinous flour.

However, the wrapper of Chinese snow skin mooncake is not that complicated. Instead of using roasted glutinous rice flour, they mix the ordinary glutinous rice flour with rice flour, corn starch, milk, sugar, and oil then steam the mixture. The cooked dough is then kneaded a little bit to become snow skin mooncake’s wrapper.

How about the taste? After tasting both versions, I found it not too much different. The Chinese wrapper seems to be more flavorful as it contains milk. The Vietnamese snow skin mooncake has a stronger flavor of glutinous rice.

Due to the fact that I couldn’t find roasted glutinous rice flour in my region, I decided to be creative with Chinese-styled snow skin mooncake and formed pretty edible flower snow skin mooncakes. Let’s make it.

Ingredients

To make a snow skin mooncake, you’ll need to prepare the filling and the wrapper. For the filling, I selected traditional filling from lotus seed paste. You can also try mung bean paste, sweet potato paste, and many other types of fillings.

For the wrapper, this is the combination of rice flour, glutinous rice flour, corn starch/wheat starch and sugar with vegetable oil and milk. So, let prepare these. These are very typical ingredients what you can find in every Asian Food Store.

To form the flower, you simply need a toothpick and a little ingenuity. Let’s do it!

How to make Flower Snow Skin Mooncake

Step 1. Making the filling

To make lotus seed paste, firstly, soak the seeds in boiling water for at least 2 hours, then boil it for 30-45 minutes. You can refer my post about how to make lotus seed paste.
After that, roll the paste into fillings. Each filling usually weighs 50-75g. Cover them with plastic wrap and set aside.

Step 2. Making the wrapper

Actually, you can proceed step 2 in parallel with step 1 to save your time, keep an eye on boiling lotus seeds and another eye on steaming the wrapper.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Then, add oil and milk in and whisk until combined and there is not any lump left. The batter should be smooth and has ivory white color.
Boil water to prepare for steaming. When the water is boil, place the bowl in the steamer and cover it with a plate to prevent water from dropping into the batter. Steam on medium heat.
After steaming in 15-20 minutes, remove the plate to check the dough. You can check with a toothpick: insert a toothpick or skewer into the center of the plate. If it comes out clean, the dough is well cooked.
Use a spatula to spread the dough in its bowl for 2-3 minutes.
Once it cools down, remove it from the bowl and start to knead it on a silicone baking mat or a clean surface in 2-3 minutes, then cover it with plastic wrap.

Step 3. Coloring the wrapper & prepare coating flour

To make flower snow skin mooncake, you should add food coloring to the dough. Dye the dough pink with beetroot juice and green with matcha powder or pandan extract. You can dye 50% of the dough pink and 10% of the dough green and let the rest white.
Knead the dough with natural food colorings in a few minutes to get an even, beautiful pink and green dough. Cover them with plastic wrap.
For coating flour: Roast 2 tbsp of glutinous rice flour on low heat in 5 minutes. Use it to prevent the mooncake from sticking.

Step 4. Shaping flower snow skin mooncake

First, mix a bit white and a bit pink dough together in a creative way you like, as long as it weighs 1.5 times of the filling. Flatten the dough to get a wrapper and place a filling ball in the middle.
Wrap the filling carefully so the wrapper can cover all the filling balls. Place the snow skin mooncake ball on a surface with more beautiful side up. Flatten the ball a little bit by pressing it with your palm.
Take a bit of green dough and shape it into a leaf. Put the leaf below the snow skin ball. After that, brush them with roasted glutinous rice flour.
Shape the flower: use a toothpick to form flower petal, by placing the toothpick on the surface of the cake and gently press. You can make 6 or 8 petals.
Add a bit more details: the pistils, the stamens, etc. Your flower snow skin mooncake is done!

So you are done an edible flower after a few steps. Beside making these adorable flowers, you can also try making kitten snow skin mooncake or traditional snow skin mooncake using a mooncake press.

Flower Snow Skin Mooncake

Let's make traditional Chinese snow skin mooncake with lotus seeds paste filling and shape it into a beautiful flower.

5 from 4 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: flower snow skin mooncake

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 1 30

Total Time: 1 45

Servings: cakes

Calories: 450kcal

Author: Mia Pham

Equipment

Ingredients

Wrapper

50 g glutinous rice flour 1.76 oz
45 g rice flour 1.6 oz
30 g corn starch 1 oz
50 g sugar 1.76 oz
180 g milk 6.35 oz
20 g oil 0.7 oz

Natural Food Coloring

Pink: 3-4 drops of beetroot juice
Green: A pinch of matcha powder

Filling

100 g dried lotus seeds 3.5 oz
2-3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp oil

Instructions

Step 1. Making the filling

To make lotus seed paste, firstly, soak the seeds in boiling water for at least 2 hours, then boil it for 30-45 minutes. You can refer my post about how to make lotus seed paste.
After that, roll the paste into fillings. Each filling usually weighs 50-75g. Cover them with plastic wrap and set aside.
In case you would like to make other types of filling, refer: sweet potato paste, mung bean paste, matcha & mung bean paste.

Step 2. Making the wrapper

Actually, you can proceed step 2 in parallel with step 1 to save your time, keep an eye on boiling lotus seeds and another eye on steaming the wrapper.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Then, add oil and milk in and whisk until combined and there is not any lump left. The batter should be smooth and has ivory white color.
Boil water to prepare for steaming. When the water is boil, place the bowl in the steamer and cover it with a plate to prevent water from dropping into the batter. Steam on medium heat.
After steaming in 15-20 minutes, remove the plate to check the dough. You can check with a toothpick: insert a toothpick or skewer into the center of the plate. If it comes out clean, the dough is well cooked.
Use a spatula to spread the dough in its bowl for 2-3 minutes.
Once it cools down, remove it from the bowl and start to knead it on a silicone baking mat or a clean surface in 2-3 minutes.
Once done, cover it with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying.

Step 3. Coloring the wrapper & prepare coating flour

To make flower snow skin mooncake, you should add coloring to the dough. Dye the dough pink with beetroot juice and green with matcha powder or pandan extract. You can dye 50% of the dough pink and 10% of the dough green and let the rest white.
Knead the dough with natural food colorings in a few minutes to get an even, beautiful pink and green dough. Cover them with plastic wrap.
For coating flour: Roast 2 tbsp of glutinous rice flour on low heat in 5 minutes. Use it to prevent the mooncake from sticking.

Step 4. Shaping flowers

First, mix a bit white and a bit pink dough together in a creative way you like, as long as the amount of dough weighs 1.5 times of the filling.
Flatten the dough to get a wrapper and place a filling ball in the middle. Wrap the filling carefully so the wrapper can cover all the filling balls.
Place the snow skin mooncake ball on a surface with more beautiful side up. Flatten the ball a little bit by pressing it with your palm. Take a bit of green dough, shape it into a leaf and stick it below the snow skin ball. After that, brush them with roasted glutinous rice flour.
Shape the flower: use a toothpick to form flower petal, by placing the toothpick on the surface of the cake and gently press. You can make 6 or 8 petals.
Add a bit more details: the pistils, the stamens, etc.
Your flower snow skin mooncake is done! Enjoy it within 4 days.

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 140g | Calories: 450kcal

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