11 Mooncakes You Can Order Online
Get your fix of the iconic Mid-Autumn Festival treat no matter where you are.
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The Mid-Autumn Festival is just weeks away, falling on September 29 this year, and that means one thing for our sweet tooths: mooncake. The rich pastries have already started to crop up at local Asian bakeries, grocery stores and even Costco, reminding us to grab a box, and fast, before they disappear as suddenly as they came.
If your local aisles aren’t stocked, though, or you just can’t get your hands on the treats in person, not to fret. No matter how far from fresh mooncake — or home — you might be, here’s where you can order the pastries online and get them shipped right to your door.
Founded in 1938 in Hong Kong, Kee Wah Bakery has withstood the test of time and become known for its mooncakes, Chinese bridal cakes and traditional Hong Kong-style pastries. Packed in an ornately illustrated, but sturdy, no-fuss metal tin, this gift box includes four popular flavors: Lotus Seed, Red Bean, Date and Mixed Nuts with Ham.
Lady M sure knows how to dazzle when it comes to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Every year, the shop drops an impressively packaged limited-edition set that goes far beyond the classic metal tin. For 2023, the Moonglow Gift Set features a trio of custard flavors (yuzu milk, matcha pandan and lychee rose) developed in collaboration with Kee Wah Bakery. The colorful mooncakes come housed in a pink keepsake jewelry box shaped like an arched garden gate and emblazoned with images of the moon, rabbits and other symbolic imagery.
Open since 1924, Eastern Bakery is a San Francisco staple. Locals love it for its signature coffee crunch cake, but the bakery also makes mooncakes in-house, rather than importing them like some shops do. While the spot is cash-only, and has a neighborhood feel, the bakery ships a wide variety of luscious, generously filled mooncakes nationwide. Choose from flavors like Lotus, Winter Melon, Rose Black Bean and more. E-mail the bakery directly to place any online orders.
Based out of Hong Kong, Meixin has been making mooncakes since 1987. In 2022 they launched new Lace Mooncakes, which, for the most part, are a traditional take on the pastry, but feature molten salted egg yolks. So when you slice into these little cakes, you won’t find the typical dried yolks, but instead, a creamy egg center. The molten yolk is surrounded by smooth white lotus paste and a flaky pastry shell with crushed caramelized peanuts. With so many textures going on in one small cake, we’re willing to wager that every bite of these will be different from the last.
Food Network host Vivian Chan and her family order mooncake from the same Hong Kong bakery, Wing Wah, every year. “The box even comes with a QR-coded seal, so you can ensure you’re getting authentic mooncakes from that particular bakery.” The yearly sweets remind her of “sitting outside with my family in early fall when there’s just a nip in the air. When we were kids, we would celebrate the festival with paper lanterns, and we’d run around in the backyard. It’s very nostalgic for me.”
Asian American pastry shop Dōmi is giving its mooncakes the spotlight they deserve under a brand called Miss Moon. According to Dōmi, the line is meant to offer “modern” mooncakes that can be had for the Mid-Autumn Festival, but also year-round. For 2023, pastry chefs Evelyn Ling and Joe Cheng Reed are bringing back their pastel-hued shortbread mooncakes in Jujube (pink), Red Lotus (yellow), Red Bean (lavender) and Black Sesame (green). The mooncakes are available individually or as an assorted set. New this year: too-cute Shortbread “moon” cookies in milk, hojicha and black sesame.
Founded by Taiwanese American baker Amy Hsiao, Brooklyn’s Kitsby specializes in Asian-inspired sweets and baking kits, such as matcha cream puffs and hotteok cookies. For the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, Hsiao combines traditional technique with modern flavors. Kitsby’s mooncakes are crafted by hand the traditional way using lye and golden syrup, but the fillings lean into trending ingredients like black sesame, green tea and milk tea.
Along with its own collection, Kitsby is also partnering with Umamicart on a special set: The online Asian grocer will sell an exclusive box that pairs its brand colors with a unique flavor, for example a flaky Teochew mooncake made from matcha and a purple ube white lotus cookie crust mooncake.
Get a variety of mooncakes from another longstanding bakery Sheng Kee, which was founded in 1948 in Taiwan, but only went online a few years ago. The bakery’s offerings include a wide range of sweets — from its popular Green Bean Puff Pastry to its new and improved boba tea mooncakes (with an Earl Grey and chewy mochi filling) — as well as more traditional mooncakes, packaged in its recognizable red box.
Get two styles of mooncake in one luxurious set from 85 C Bakery. The box includes both ornately pressed Cantonese-style pastries, as well as round, flaky-crusted Taiwanese-style ones. Here, you’ll have plenty of sweet flavors to choose from — including Almond Lotus Seed, Pineapple Yolk and Taro Mochi — along with the bakery’s exclusive sweet-savory hybrid, Dong-Po Pastry. Unassuming on the outside, the golden, Asiago-cheese topped pastry is stuffed with a curious amalgam of typical mooncake and bao fillings — pork floss, mochi, red bean paste, walnuts and egg yolk — all wrapped in one.
Beloved New Orleans bakery Dong Phuong is known for a number of baked goods, including its seasonal mooncakes. The James Beard award-winning Vietnamese shop turns out classic variations that span sweet (mung bean, lotus root) and savory (abalone). You can order a sampler pack that includes traditional golden-crusted mooncakes, snowskin mooncakes and Vietnamese pia mooncakes, or create your own assortment.
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