What's a cake?

There are Beijing-style snacks. The most common traditional snacks are "eight big pieces" and "eight small pieces".

The names of eight different cakes

The big eight pieces are: 1. Rice cat cake, 2. Large rolls of crispy skin, 3. Big cake, 4. Butterfly paper, 5. The picture is crisp, 6. Chicken oil cake, 7. Zhuangyuan cake, 8. Seven-star password

The small eight pieces are one size smaller than the big eight pieces: one, fruit pie, two, small roll crisp, three, DOG crisp, four, chicken oil cake, five, small screw crisp, six, salted preserves, seven, jujube flowers, eight, pit noodles. The last four are the most popular among children. Especially jujube flowers, twisted into petals with jujube paste, are very beautiful.

supplement

In the old days, Beijingers should bring gifts when visiting relatives and friends, and pay attention to giving "eight Beijing pieces", namely "big eight pieces" and "small eight pieces". This was originally an essential gift and decoration for the wedding and funeral ceremony and daily life of the royal family in the Qing Dynasty. Later, the formula was spread from the royal chef to the people. Its main ingredients are refined white flour, sugar, lard, honey and various fruit seeds. The so-called "eight pieces", that is, eight kinds of snacks, generally have sesame cakes, jujube flowers, rolled cakes, and some are engraved with different words such as blessing, luck, longevity and happiness. There are round, peach, square and so on. They are packed in a rectangular cardboard box. "Small eight pieces" in duplicate, sixteen pieces packed in a carton. In the past, when my daughter went back to her parents' home to pay a New Year call to her elders, I always went to the pastry shop to buy a box of eight big ones in my hand, which was generous and beautiful.