Happy 11 Month Birthday Ellie!!!

Happy 11 Month Birthday!!!!

 

Here's the boys and "Yay-Yay" (Jamee) ready to celebrate Ellie's birthday...

Ellie's 11 month birthday fell on China's "Mid-Autumn Festival," so I thought I would do something a little extra fun to celebrate and start to carry out some of the traditions of her culture.

China's "Mid-Autumn Festival" is celebrated each year and is kind of considered China's "Thanksgiving." It is celebrated over a span of 3 days and each day is filled with different things to do. One of the main traditions is to celebrate by giving "Moon Cakes." Moon cakes are a cake like pastry filled usually filled with a special red bean paste.

Now... I would love to be able to carry out all the traditions she would have if she lived in her homeland, but I thought that since I didn't grow up in a Chinese home, there would be a slim chance that I could actually make a real Moon Cake and it taste even remotely decent...besides that, most of the ingredients found in a Moon Cake, are ones that aren't found at a local grocery store!!!

I decided to try my own take on a Moon Cake using traditional favorite autumn flavors... caramel and apples... yum!!! I want Ellie to know that she was well thought of on this special day--that we will continue to celebrate many of the traditions from her culture, and that I am excited to expand my horizons and perhaps try making a real Moon Cake with her in the future.

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to post my step by step instructions for my take on a "Mid-Autumn Festival Moon Cake:"

I started by chopping up an apple and adding cinnamon and a little lemon juice...

I rolled out 2 caramel candies and sandwiched the apples in between...

I rolled the caramel and apples into a ball (I saw pictures of the red bean paste rolled into a ball, so I thought I would try doing this with the caramel)

Instead of making the cake, I used a can of dinner biscuits. I placed it over the caramel ball and wrapped it up forming a large ball.

At this point, you are supposed to place your dough in a Moon press/mold, but since I didn't have one, I used a small flower candy mold. It didn't take to all the details of the flower, so I had to use a metal pointy thing (I'm not sure of the name of it...lol) to make some details.

Here they are, ready to go in the oven!!! I lightly brushed them with an egg wash so that they would have a shiny exterior like a traditional Moon Cake.

Just out of the oven...they smelled amazing!!

All put on a special plate to help celebrate China's Mid-Autumn Festival and Ellie's 11 month birthday!!

 

By the way...they tasted AMAZING!!! Definitely something I will make again!! A special thank you to Aunt Christele who helped brainstorm about the yummy way to make this moon cake!!