A mooncake is a dense, round pastry — a thin, golden-brown crust pressed into an ornate mold and filled with a thick, sweet paste, most traditionally lotus seed or red bean, often with a whole salted duck egg yolk at the center. The yolk is the moon. That is not metaphor — it is the […]

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The Joffre cake is a small, dense cylinder of chocolate — thin layers of buttermilk sponge alternating with chocolate ganache or buttercream, the whole thing enclosed in a dark chocolate glaze that sets smooth and firm. It is intensely chocolate, not especially sweet, and sized to be finished in a few bites. That last detail […]

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