In Huanzhou county-level city, Maoming, there is a type of mooncake, known as a Tuoluo cake, which is famous for its crisp skin and soft, sweet filling. This snack carries the hopes of reunion and happy life for thousands of families across China.

In 2012, the Huazhou Tuoluo cake-making technique was selected as part of the fourth batch of Guangdong's intangible cultural heritage. In 2014, Chen Yanguang was selected as a provincial representative inheritor of this technique.

Chen is very familiar with the history of Tuoluo cakes and the process of making them, as they were part of Chen's childhood. Chen built a mooncake museum to vividly illustrate the history of traditional mooncakes and Tuoluo cake, along with the needed materials and their overall production processes.

Tuoluo cakes originated during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). They have a long history of more than a thousand years. Legend has it that a man called Luo Xing invented this coconut-flavored confection. The cake got its name because Luo would bang a gong to attract attention and indicate that more Tuoluo cakes were available.  

Compared with traditional Cantonese mooncakes, the production process of Tuoluo cakes is more complicated. The raw materials for the cakes are mainly flour, shredded coconut and nuts, and the cake's filling must undergo multiple processes such as soaking, washing, frying, cooling and mixing.

Chen has more than 30 years of experience in making cakes, and is generous in sharing how he makes delicious Tuoluo cakes. Chen explains that processing and frying the shredded coconut is the key to making a good Tuoluo cake.

Chen has two main goals for continuing the custom of making Tuoluo cakes: to build a moon cake and Tuoluo cake cultural industrial park, and to develop the Tuoluo cake into a provincial calling card with local characteristics.

Chen (R) introduces the Tuoluo cake making process to a woman. [Photo/Maoming Daily]