Taichung, Taiwan — 20th century local specialty
Taichung's signature gift pastry: a flaky, multi-layered Chinese shortcrust pastry filled with a sweet malt sugar paste (mai ya tang). The pastry uses the same Chinese flaky technique (water dough wrapped around fat dough) as wife cake, but the filling is distinctively honey-sweet malt sugar. A Taiwanese gift culture staple — boxes of sun cakes are taken back from Taichung visits.
Intensely sweet malt sugar against subtly salty, multi-layered flaky pastry; the contrast of sweet filling and short-flaky pastry is the entire appeal
{"Chinese flaky pastry: two doughs — water dough (flour, water, lard) and oil dough (flour, lard only); wrap oil dough in water dough, roll and fold multiple times","Malt sugar filling (mai ya tang): malt syrup with butter and a little salt — must be cooked to correct temperature or it becomes too hard","Individual small discs, slightly flattened — about 6–7cm diameter","Score a sunburst pattern on top before baking for the 'sun' appearance"}
{"Lard is essential for both doughs — butter creates different flakiness character","The malt sugar filling should slightly ooze when the pastry is broken open — perfectly cooked filling","Taichung's Yi Hong brand is the regional standard for authentic sun cakes"}
{"Under-laminating the pastry — too few folds result in thick layers rather than paper-thin flakiness","Malt sugar paste too hot — becomes too firm and hard when cooled","Not scoring before baking — the signature pattern is non-optional for sun cakes"}
The Food of Taiwan — Cathy Erway; Taiwanese pastry tradition