White Lotus Black Sesame Mooncake

Creating Vegan Mooncakes

The first two mooncake flavors I ever made were White Lotus Black Sesame and Pandan Lotus Salted Mung Bean.

Back in 2010, when we were the first vegan bakery around, it wasn't easy for customers to find eggless and dairy-free mooncakes in the market. My idea was to replace the egg yolk center with a vegan alternative to fill this glaring gap. 

Crafting the Perfect Bite

Traditional mooncakes are typically filled with lotus paste and salted egg yolk. They work so well because of their balanced flavors - the salty egg yolk complements the sweet lotus paste perfectly. 

So in my mind when I was creating my first two flavors, I knew that if I wanted to use white lotus, I needed another flavor that balanced with lotus paste as well as egg yolk. I was determined to use two lotus flavors: white lotus and pandan lotus. 

After experimenting with various flavors and pairings, I discovered that black sesame was perfect for white lotus. Its slightly nutty yet bitter taste balanced really well with the white lotus. 

From there, we began molding the black sesame into round balls, placing them in the center of the lotus paste, and wrapping it in our vegan pastry without any egg wash.

Over the years, we continued to refine our recipes based on our customers' feedback. One issue they mentioned and I could completely understand was that the filling was rather unevenly distributed. This meant that when they sliced the mooncakes, some slices had no filling while others had too much.

Since we handmake all our mooncakes at Delcie's, we couldn't position the black sesame filling right in the middle of the product. 

And, as we strive for perfection in every bite, we did extensive R&D. I finally found that by doubling the amount of black sesame - essentially double yolking - and using a layering technique, we could ensure that each slice of the mooncake consistently had black sesame in it.

White Lotus Black Sesame Mooncake

Our White Lotus Black Sesame Mooncake became one of our best-sellers. While we've experimented with different flavors, this classic combination remains an all-time favorite among our customers.

The blend of sweet lotus paste and nutty black sesame, wrapped in our vegan pastry, is something truly special.