Want to make flower cakes yourself? Let me teach you how to make Yunnan's unique flower pastry

Flower cake is a pastry unique to Yunnan made with edible roses and flour. It is a representative of classic Yunnan pastries and one of the representatives of Yunnan-style mooncakes. Another representative of Yunnan-style mooncakes is ham mooncake. According to historical records, flower cakes were already made by masters as early as more than 300 years ago in the Qing Dynasty. In the late Qing Dynasty, the "Yanjing Suishi Lu" mentioned that "those made with roses in the fourth month are called rose cakes. Those made with wisteria flowers are called wisteria cakes." During the Qing Dynasty, rose flower cakes were deeply loved by Emperor Qianlong and were designated by imperial order as pastries exclusively for sacrifices.

The roses used in rose flower cakes are edible roses, which belong to the Rosaceae family and are produced in most areas of our country. However, the roses used in Yunnan flower cakes are grown locally in Yunnan. Because of Yunnan's favorable climate conditions and sunshine conditions, as well as its unique geographical location, it provides good raw material resources for making rose flower cakes, and it is for this reason that flower cakes are widely known and have become a pastry specialty unique to Yunnan.

Flower cakes have a unique taste, with a floral fragrance, and are sweet but not greasy, crisp, soft and refreshing, with a rich floral aroma. Since one of the ingredients is fresh flowers, flower cakes also have beauty and skincare benefits. Yunnan flower cakes include rose flower cakes, magnolia flower cakes, and chrysanthemum flower cakes. Their main ingredients include roses, magnolia flowers, chrysanthemums, as well as flour, rock sugar, white sugar, sesame, peanuts, walnuts, lard, and more.

So how are flower cakes made? Let me guide you through it

The general method for flower cakes: Make rose petals (or other magnolia or chrysanthemum petals) into flower filling, then bake it with flour, sesame oil, white sugar, honey and other auxiliary ingredients.

Ingredients needed for making:

1 kg flour, 1 egg, 350 g lard, water, honey, white sugar, roses

Method steps

1. Filling (rose sugar) preparation: Mix rose sugar (sugar + honey + roses) with steamed flour and stir well

2. Flaky pastry: Mix 500 g flour and 250 g lard well, knead into dough, and divide into several equal portions.

3. Oil dough: Mix 500 g flour, 100 g lard and water well, knead into dough, and also divide into equal portions.

4. Take one piece each of the flaky pastry and the oil dough, place the flaky pastry on top of the oil dough, and wrap the flaky pastry with the oil dough just like making baozi. Roll out the wrapped oil dough into a sheet, roll it up, and divide it into dough portions.

5. Divide the filling into several equal portions, place on the dough, wrap well, and shape into balls.

6. Crack one egg into a bowl, and brush the egg wash on top of the wrapped dough.

7. Preheat the oven and bake at 150°C on the middle rack for 30 minutes.

Save this quickly and make it yourself in your spare time.