It is that time of year again, when we all celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival, or also known as the Mooncake Festival. Originating from the 14^th century, the festival was a way to celebrate the victory of the Chinese over the Mongol rulers. Traditionally filled with lotus bean paste, today there are many more different flavour combinations. We went around Singapore to feast our way through the festival season. Here are our findings.

1 Swissôtel

Famed for their creative sweets for many years, the Swissôtel offers both the traditional mooncake as well as modern creative combinations, including cranberries, chocolate ganache as well as champagne truffle. We went over to the hotel and secured a beautifully decorated mixed box of mooncakes, all coming in different colours.

First up was the white mooncake called Mini Snowskin Rum & Raisin Chocolate Truffle. Filled with a white chocolate ball, the mooncake has additional raisins in the mix. The Mini Snowskin Cranberry & White Lotus (purple) was positively surprising as it had real cranberry bits inside.

The Mini Snowskin Champagne Truffle & Chocolate Ganache is not only one of their best-sellers, but also my favourite from their collection, as the chocolate ganache is extremely creamy and very rich in flavour.

Last but not least was the pinkish mooncake called Mini Snowskin Yuzu Chocolate Crunchy Pearl. This one too has a white chocolate ball in the middle, offering soft white chocolate at its core. The Yuzu Chocolate Crunchy Pearl mooncake felt overall slightly more sophisticated, as it offered different textures.

2 Chocoelf

Specialising in sugar-free mooncakes, Chocoelf offers a healthier choice. Instead of sugar, the shop uses maltitol, which is extracted from wheat and corn. Offering a variety of different sweets, we combined one of their classic mooncakes, Lotus Paste & Intense Dark Truffle Yolk, with their latest creation, the Mixed Nuts Mooncake.

The latter was one of the best I had, tasting quite different. Instead of lotus paste, the mooncake is filled with a mixture of differently-sizes nuts, giving it a lot of texture. The other mooncake was quite balanced, even though the chocolate taste was strong and dominant.

3 Emicakes

Emicakes is a sweets shop which is represented with several outlets across Singapore, including Toa Payoh, Bukit Batok, and Woodlands. We conveniently passed the shop in Dhoby Ghaut, grabbing their durian mooncake along the way.

For a mere $5 for two pieces, it is quite an affordable snack and quite a must-have for all lovers of Singapore’s favourite fruit. Quite gently in smell and taste, the durian paste in the mooncake is not too sweet, making it a rather enjoyable experience – even for those who usually stay away from durian.

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