Sun cake

What it is

Sun cake (太陽餅, taiyang bing) is a round pastry with many very thin layers of crust around a thin disc of maltose filling. The crust shatters at the first bite and the filling is very sweet. Sizes vary, and people often split one into quarters before eating. The name was never trademarked, so any bakery can use it.

Where it came from

The sun cake grew out of the malt cakes (麥芽餅) made by a Lin family in Shekou, now part of Shengang District in Taichung. Flaky cakes of this kind were also given at betrothals and weddings. Once the north-south railway opened, vendors sold the cakes on trains and their fame spread across the island.

Who created the modern cake is disputed. The pastry chef Wei Ching-hai (魏清海), known as A-Ming Shih (阿明師), claimed to have invented it, and his grandson later branded a shop as the one true heir. Taiyang Tang (太陽堂), opened in 1953 by a member of the Lin clan, is credited with the name. One story links it to the red stamp in the middle of each cake, which looks like a sun.

From 2000 a large food company moved sun cakes into supermarkets, convenience stores, airports and motorway service areas, and began exporting them. A Taichung city official put the number of shops selling sun cakes and related pastries in the city at more than 500.

How it is made

The crust is a flour dough made with butter or, at Taiyang Tang, lard, and worked so that it bakes into many paper-thin layers. A-Ming Shih's shop claims about 120. The filling is maltose or honey and should stay soft inside a thin crust. Many cakes carry the shop's red stamp in the centre. Sun cakes should not go in the fridge, which hardens the filling.

How to eat it

Sun cake is a tea snack, eaten with strong tea or coffee, or with milk at breakfast. Some people put it in a bowl and pour on hot water, turning it into a sweet porridge. It is sold boxed as a souvenir.