Hanoi baker turns traditional mooncakes into floral masterpieces

A Traditional Craft Gets A Sweet New Twist

A Hanoi baker has turned Vietnam’s traditional art of ‘to he’ rice-dough figurines into elaborate edible flower arrangements, combining the craft with mooncakes ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Footage filmed on Tuesday shows porcelain-like mooncake vases topped with intricate flowers, all made from edible ingredients. Artisan Nguyen Thi Thuy Duong and her team are seen shaping petals, assembling flowers and adding colour by hand.

The collection features three designs inspired by lotus, lily and banana flowers. The mooncake vases stand around 20 to 30 centimetres tall, with the completed arrangements reaching up to 60 centimetres.

The bases are baked mooncakes filled with savoury mung bean and salted egg yolk, while the flowers are shaped from a modified version of traditional ‘to he’ rice dough.

“I’ve been researching the materials used in making traditional Vietnamese rice-dough figurines (‘to he’), and I really wanted to combine mooncakes with ‘to he’. So, I came up with the idea of combining these two elements to create a very Vietnamese-style flower vase mooncake,” Thuy Duong explained.

Three Months Of Trial And Error

Developing the technique took more than three months, with the team repeatedly testing how to stop the mooncake vases cracking or losing their shape during baking.

The delicate rice-dough flowers presented another challenge, with petals individually rolled, cut, dried and assembled by hand.

“Rice flour used for making clay figurines is a very famous ingredient, a heritage of Vietnamese culture, yet it hasn’t been widely used in this baking craft. Therefore, through these products, I hope this ingredient will become more widely known and used,” Thuy Duong said.

Edible Creations Leave Viewers Amazed

The finished creations have surprised viewers with their resemblance to real flower arrangements.

“When I looked at it, I was amazed at how it could look so real .Each Mid-Autumn Festival brings innovations in the way it’s made, and achieving such innovation is truly a labour of love,” one said.

Images of the edible arrangements have also attracted attention on social media, where many initially mistook them for conventional flower displays.

The creations are intended for display rather than sale, with Thuy Duong saying the project is designed to celebrate traditional Vietnamese culture through a modern take on mooncakes.

Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, with mooncakes among the foods traditionally associated with the celebration.

Article by Viory: