Tie Guan Yin Sun Cake

It's a new year, and I thought I would try to pick up with new posts again, but lowering the barrier this time by not expecting myself to type so much for each post. I think from now on I will stick to simple descriptions as far as possible, so I won't feel like it's a burden to post.

Today, I'm featuring the first in a series of interestingly-flavoured sun cakes by Ru Yi Tang (如邑堂) in Taiwan. And I guess them being called sun cakes vaguely relates to the theme of the new year, as the sunrise signals a new beginning. I ordered a box of 5 flavours - original, tie guan yin (a type of processed oolong tea), rose, honey and cheese. 

In general, the original had pure ingredients - butter and milk, no margarine or shortening. But the flavoured ones seem to have some type of vegetable-based shortening based on the taste and the Chinese ingredient list (植物性酥油), which I didn't like because of the waxy taste and increased risk it poses to cardiovascular health. So I mostly didn't eat the pastry for the flavoured ones, although I did for the original and that was great.

The tie guan yin sun cake was darker than the original (you can see the original to the right in the picture below, which is lighter and yellowish). It was strongly flavoured with tie guan yin fragrance and taste, to the point that it was even bitter. I mostly noticed the flavour in the filling, which is darkly tea-coloured, and did not notice the pastry to be flavoured, so that could have been some added colouring. It went really nicely with an afternoon milk tea, and if not for the shortening, I would highly recommend it as a tea time snack.

It's a pity though that these flavoured versions had shortening, otherwise I might have ordered more of them. Nonetheless, it's worth trying at least once.

Found this pastry interesting? Check out other unusual pastries here!