Another culinary tool acquisition as a result of the frenzy purchases made in the preceding two weeks – mooncake piglet moulds in three different shapes and sizes!
These traditional Chinese wooden baking moulds are used specifically for baking piglet mooncake cookies, to celebrate the Chinese mid-autumn festival (a.k.a. lantern festival). Sadly, these moulds are not easily available locally – be it in the neigbourhood supermarkets or in Chinatown. The only place where I could find one this year (utmost left of the picture below) was at Phoon Huat (‘奋发‘), at Bencoolen Street. The other two moulds beside it were purchased online and delivered all the way from China.
The craftsmanship of all three moulds seems comparable at first glance. On closer inspection, the two moulds from China were not just bigger; they have smoother and more precise engravings than the one from Phoon Huat too.
Let’s see how well each one of them fairs in the real challenge of piglet mooncake cookie baking next weekend!
Tips for online purchase: Visit 淘宝网 and key in either ‘猪仔饼模’ or ‘月饼印模具’ to search for the above items. You can get these items delivered to your doorstep (Singapore only) by signing up for an account at the Peeka website, and then copying and pasting the hyperlinks of the items from 淘宝网 into your order form at the Peeka website.
