Tianchang Ganlu Cake 天长甘露饼

How it is made

After the dough is mixed, kneaded and cut, flour is worked with oil, sugar and water and rolled into pastry "薄如明纸" (as thin as translucent paper). The sheet is folded into nine layers and shaped into a flower. The pieces are fried in lard at a moderate temperature, and the layers open in the pan; the Chuzhou Daily (滁州日报) compares them to a lotus rising from the water or a peony in bloom.

Once the fried bases have cooled, a "frost powder" (霜粉) of glutinous rice flour and fine white sugar is sifted evenly over them, and green plum and red shreds (青梅红丝) go on last. Makers spread the work over two days, bases on the first and frost powder on the second, which they say keeps the shape of a white peony. Everything is done by hand, and the maker profiled by the paper uses no additives, so the cakes keep only a short time.

Flavour and texture

The local description is "形如牡丹，白似冬雪" (shaped like a peony, white as winter snow). The cake is crisp, flaky and tender, and dissolves as soon as it is in the mouth.

Where it comes from

Local tradition holds that the Daoguang Emperor (道光) of the Qing dynasty praised the cake as if he had tasted sweet dew (甘露), gave it the name Ganlu, and made it a tribute to the court. Later it passed into ordinary homes as a festival pastry.

Ganlu cake making entered Anhui's fifth batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage items in 2017. The Tianchang city government lists it with Tianguan painting (天官画) and Tianchang filial-piety culture as the city's three provincial items. The cake has also been named several times as a quality traditional pastry of Anhui.

How it is eaten

Tianchang Ganlu Cake is tied to the New Year. In the twelfth lunar month customers crowd the Zhitao pastry shop (志桃糕点店) at Laoshikou (老市口) in Tianchang, most of them buying this cake, and one customer, who had just bought more than ten boxes, said she always buys some before the Spring Festival and posts boxes to relatives living elsewhere. The heritage maker Hu Xiaolin (胡晓林) makes it only around the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival, unless it is ordered in advance.