SunnyHills is famous for their pineapple cakes in Taiwan, which we first encountered during a visit to the iconic Tōkyō flagship store designed by Kengo Kuma. For the mid-Autumn festival in 2022, SunnyHills’ interpretation of the traditional mooncake combined their prized pineapple and apple ingredients to create mooncakes that ‘you will actually want to finish, with 65% less calories than a traditional mooncake’.
This Kougyoku Apple Mooncake was the second of two on offer and ‘uses a secret curing recipe developed by SunnyHills to retain the natural tangy flavour of Kougyoku Apples before embracing it with a rich velvety roasted sweet potato purée’.
The top of each mooncake featured an apple flower, which bears blessings of peace and well-being.
The mooncake had the sweet-salty aroma of traditional mooncakes. Cutting through, the exterior crust encased a layer of salted egg custard that in turn surrounded the apple and sweet potato interior. The pastry had a less crumbly texture than traditional mooncake with the interior avoiding any cloying sweetness as the cured apple chunks in the filling retained a delectable bite and gentle acidity that cut through the sweetness of the sweet potato. The sword bean base had a similar velvety texture to lotus paste yet was much lighter in mouthfeel.
We enjoyed the balance of the savoury pastry with the tangy apples and sweet potato, making this indeed a mooncake that we wanted to finish. Of the two, we preferred the pineapple custard version.
This Sunny Hills Kougyoku Apple Mooncake contained 84 g. It was produced in Taiwan and purchased in Sydney, Australia in 2022.