Name: Kitten Snow Skin Mooncake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients: 50g glutinous rice flour; 45g rice flour; 30g corn starch; 50g sugar; 180g milk; 20g oil; 240g (8.5 oz) boiled and peeled orange sweet potatoes; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; 1 tbsp glutinous rice flour (optional)

Snow skin mooncakes, also called snow skin mooncakes or ice skin mooncakes, are a kind of classic Asian dessert usually savored during the Mid-Autumn Festival. These mooncakes stand apart from the usual baked ones because they have a soft, chewy outer layer instead of a baked wrapper. Additionally, they are more adaptable for crafting diverse shapes compared to traditional mooncakes, which are typically imprinted with basic patterns. With sweet potato, glutinous rice flour, rice flour, milk…let’s learn how to make snow skin mooncake and shape them into adorable kittens.

Distinguish between Mochi and Snow Skin Mooncake

I used to receive a question about the difference between Mochi and Snow Skin mooncake. Mochi and snow skin mooncake are both popular Asian desserts, and also quite similar in the appearance if we don’t use mooncake press to shape snow skin mooncakes. In fact, they are distinct in terms of their cultural origins and the wrapper. Here’s how you can distinguish between the two:

The Wrapper:

Mochi: Mochi’s wrapper is made from glutinous rice flour, which gives them a chewy, dough-like texture. It is soft, chewy and and stretchy because of the glutinous rice flour.
Snow Skin Mooncakes: Snow skin mooncake is made from a mixture of glutinous rice flour (similar to mochi), rice flour and a type of starch such as rice starch, corn starch or wheat starch. This combination gives the skin a soft, slightly chewy texture, but it is not as sticky or stretchy as traditional mochi. Snow skin mooncakes are often known for their pastel-colored, translucent appearance.

Both types of wrappers are cooked by steaming, and can be easily dyed by food colorings. I usually use natural food colorings such as beetroot juice (pink), matcha powder or pandan extract (green), curcumin powder (yellow), cacao powder (brown), etc.

Cultural Origins:

Mochi: Mochi has its origin in Japanese cuisine but have become popular in other Asian countries, including China and Taiwan.
Snow Skin Mooncakes: Snow skin mooncakes are more closely associated with Chinese and Cantonese cuisine and are often enjoyed during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Appearance:

Mochi: Because the wrapper of mochi is very soft, chewy and sticky, it’s quite hard to shape it into various form. It may be round or rectangular in shape, and the outer layer is often plain or lightly dusted with flour to prevent it from being sticky.
Snow Skin Mooncake: The wrapper of snow skin mooncake is less chewy and sticky. It’s also a bit harder, so you can easily shape it into flowers, kittens, or simply press a mooncake mold on it.

In short, the main difference between mochi and snow skin mooncake is the wrappers. It leads to the difference in texture, as well as appearance: mochi is usually round in shape, while snow skin mooncake gives you chances to be creative in shaping and decorating.

Ingredients

You need to prepare the filling and the wrapper to make kitten snow skin mooncake. For the filling, I made orange sweet potato paste. You can also try mung bean paste, lotus seed paste, and many other types of fillings. Orange sweet potato is sweet already, so you can cut down the amount of sugar intake in your dessert.

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

To form the kittens, you simply need a toothpick and a bit skill. Let’s do it!

How to make Kitten Snow Skin Mooncake

Step 1. Making the filling

Making orange sweet potato is simple: boil the sweet potatoes, mash them, and cook on stove with cooking oil and glutinous rice flour until thickened to get the paste. Detail guide: Orange Sweet Potato Paste Recipe.
After that, roll the paste into fillings. Each filling usually weights 50-75g. With sweet potato paste, you should use plastic wrap to roll the fillings because it’s quite sticky. Cover them with plastic wrap and set aside.

Step 2. Making the wrapper

In deed, you can proceed step 2 in parallel with step 1 to save your time.

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 times, then cover it with plastic wrap.

Step 3. Coloring the wrapper & prepare coating flour

Let’s add natural food coloring to the dough to shape more lovely kitten snow skin mooncakes. Dye the dough pink with beetroot juice. You can dye 50% of the dough pink and let the rest 50% 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 Kitten Snow Skin Mooncake

First, mix a bit white and a bit pink dough together in a creative way you like, as long as it weights 1.5-1.7 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. Roll it to get a round beautiful ball.
Use your thumb and index finger to pull out a little dough, creating cat ear. Make it twice to finish 2 small, cute ears.

Shape the nose and mouth of the cat: Take 2 tiny pieces of white dough and 1 tiny piece of pink dough, roll them into 3 separate tiny balls and stick them together to make kitten’s nose and mouth. Stick them on lower half of your kitten’s face, in the middle (image below). Then, add the eyes by 2 black sesame seeds. After that, brush the kitten with roasted glutinous rice flour. Don’t reverse the order of steps, because it’s hard for you to stick the detail after brushing to prevent sticking.
Draw kitten’s whiskers: Use a toothpick to gently press on the kitten’s face, on the left and the right side of the nose and mouth.

That’s it, now you have edible, lovely small kittens on the plate. Besides, you can refer my flower snow skin mooncake here.

Storing Kitten Snow Skin Mooncake

Normally, people can store snow skin mooncake at room temperature in 1-2 weeks. However, it’s the commercial mooncake with higher requirement of hygiene and food safety, and contains preservatives. For homemade snow skin mooncake, I recommend keeping them in fridge and consume within 1 week.

Kitten Snow Skin Mooncake

Yield: 5 mooncakes

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

With sweet potato, glutinous rice flour, rice flour, milk...let's learn how to make snow skin mooncake and shape it into an adorable kitten.

Ingredients

Wrapper

50g glutinous rice flour
45g rice flour
30g corn starch
50g sugar
180g milk
20g oil

Sweet Potato Paste Filling

240g (8.5 oz) boiled and peeled orange sweet potatoes
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp glutinous rice flour (optional)

Instructions

Step 1. Making the filling

Making orange sweet potato is simple: boil the sweet potatoes, mash them, and cook on stove with cooking oil and glutinous rice flour until thickened to get the paste. Detail guide: Orange Sweet Potato Paste Recipe.
After that, roll the paste into fillings. Each filling usually weights 50-75g. With sweet potato paste, you should use plastic wrap to roll the fillings because it’s quite sticky. Cover them with plastic wrap and set aside.

Step 2. Making the wrapper

In deed, you can proceed step 2 in parallel with step 1 to save your time.

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 times, then cover it with plastic wrap.

Step 3. Coloring the wrapper & prepare coating flour

Let’s add natural food coloring to the dough to shape more lovely kitten snow skin mooncakes. Dye the dough pink with beetroot juice. You can dye 20% of the dough pink and let the rest 80% 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.Roasting glutinous rice flour

Step 4. Shaping Kitten Snow Skin Mooncake

First, mix a bit white and a bit pink dough together in a creative way you like, as long as it weights 1.5 times of the filling. Flatten the dough to get a wrapper.
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. Roll it to get a round beautiful ball.
Use your thumb and index finger to pull out a little dough, creating cat ear. Make it twice to finish 2 small, cute ears.

Shape the nose and mouth of the cat: Take 2 tiny pieces of white dough and 1 tiny piece of pink dough, roll them into 3 separate tiny balls and stick them together to make kitten’s nose and mouth. Stick them on lower half of your kitten’s face, in the middle (image below). Then, add the eyes by 2 black sesame seeds.
After that, brush the kitten with roasted glutinous rice flour. Draw kitten’s whiskers: Use a toothpick to gently press on the kitten’s face, on the left and the right side of the nose and mouth.
Repeat until you finish all the doughs and fillings.