Famous cakes must have appeared after the development of cake-making technology, after the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Some important varieties recorded in Qing Yi Lu by Song Taogu in the Five Dynasties are "Mantianxing" (made of golden rice), "Sanban" (with jujube beans in the middle) and "cut belly with flowers" (with flowers inside).
In the Song Dynasty, the practice was more refined, and there were many cakes in the market. In the Bianjing market in the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a Chongyang cake steamed with "flour noodles". The cake was topped with small flags and mixed fruits such as pomegranate seeds, chestnuts, ginkgo biloba and pine nuts, and the powder was placed on the cake in the shape of a lion, which was called "lion man". There are 19 kinds of cakes in Lin 'an market in the Southern Song Dynasty recorded in Old Stories of Wulin, such as sugar cakes, honey cakes, jujube cakes, chestnut cakes, wheat cakes, flower cakes, sesame cakes, bean cakes, bee cakes, milk cakes and Chongyang cakes. The raw materials involved glutinous rice flour, yellow rice flour, japonica rice flour, wheat flour and bean flour.
There is also a famous "Spiced Cake Formula", which is made of glutinous rice, japonica rice and a variety of traditional Chinese medicines. It can not only satisfy the stomach, but also strengthen the spleen and stomach and replenish qi and blood. It is a wonderful food therapy product. The "Peng Gao" and "Guanghan Gao" in "Mountain Family's Qing Gong" are also very distinctive.
What is special in the Yuan Dynasty is the cakes of ethnic minorities. "Persimmon cake" in women's straight food: 50 glutinous rice and dried persimmons are mashed into powder, mixed with dry boiled jujube paste, rolled with horsetail, steamed, and poured with pine nuts and walnut kernels. I feel that the method is very exquisite and the taste is very good. A similar "Koryo chestnut cake" is made with chestnuts, glutinous rice and sugar water.
The Song's Health Department written by Song Xu in the Ming Dynasty included "yam cake", "glutinous rice cake", "pine yellow cake", "chestnut cake" and "rice cake", most of which were Wu and Beijing flavors, and many practices have continued to this day.
"Poria cocos cake", which is often seen in court dramas in Qing Dynasty, is famous, and there are several ways to make it. Because of the influence of various western customs, there was also a "steaming western cake method" (white sugar, egg yolk and fermented wine), which is very similar to the current egg cake method.
Pastry is not only eaten daily, but also has special seasonal cakes in some festivals, and some mixed drugs have dietotherapy effects.