John's birthday cake - a cultural experience

John’s birthday was Sept 11 & the ladies at work asked me the week before to please come in the afternoon for tea. I offered to bring something, but they said No, they were planning something special, a surprise for John & for me.

Karen left at 4:30 to go pick up the cake, everyone at the office was very excited about it. When it arrived we gathered in the conference room & the box was presented to John. He opened it up & there was a huge peach shaped cake, but it was really a big bun. The big bun was surrounded by small buns all decorated to look peaches. Peaches are symbols of longevity so birthday cakes are frequently in the shape of a peach. We each too a little bun to eat. It is a steamed bun that doesn’t really have a lot of flavor. Inside the bun there was lotus flower paste, which has a delicate sweet flavor to it. And in the very middle there was something slightly salty. I thought it was peanut butter, but I was told that it was just a little bit of duck egg yolk. Sounds terrible, but it was actually pretty good.

If you recall my blog from last year at this time, these little buns are very much like the moon cakes that are all over the place this time of year. We are getting ready for the mid-autumn festival which celebrates the autumn full-moon. The moon cakes are really expensive (like $25 for 4 of them) & they consist of a pastry outside shell, lotus flower paste & a not all the way cooked duck egg yolk. Most westerners find them disgusting, the egg yolk part anyway.

On with the birthday cake. John got ready to cut the cake with a knife & the ladies said, “No, no, you must use 2 forks to cut the big peach!” So John tore the top of the peach open with the forks & inside there were like 15 more little peach buns. The ladies just giggled & cheered at the surprise. It was like the thing was an alien & it was multiplying. It was very strange! I guess this is one of the most popular birthday cakes in China & is very traditional. They said the old people really like these kinds of cakes. I think it had to be very expensive. It was a lot of fun.

OK, yes, it does look like a human “buns” and the ladies said that kids always get themselves into trouble with these bun cakes, because the squeeze the insides out & make it look like poop! I was thinking it, but refrained from doing it, so I was glad to hear that the Chinese are just as sick minded as we are!

John had a very nice birthday. He got calls from all over the world. And we had a new cultural experience as well.