A Moon Cake Conundrum

I had hoped to celebrate last week’s Mid-Autumn Festival by making ice cream moon cakes. My plan was to make lotus ice cream, shape it in a moon cake mold, cut it in half lengthwise, replace its centre with molten crème brulée, reassemble, and freeze briefly before serving.

Unfortunately, the ice cream got stuck in the mold. After many unsuccessful attempts to remove it intact, I gave up and ate my ice cream in a bowl, pouring the crème brulée on top. Although the difference was only aesthetic, I was disappointed to have been stumped by something so seemingly simple.

It’s now been a week and I still can’t think of a good way to get it out of the mold in one piece. So far I’ve tried:

- banging the mold on my kitchen counter - the normal way to remove normal moon cakes,

- soaking the mold in hot water – wood is a poor conductor of heat and the mold didn’t expand much,

- coating the mold with cream, granulated sugar, and icing sugar – none of these attempts were successful, as the ice cream absorbed the coating,

- lining the mold with plastic wrap – the plastic wrap didn’t pick up the mold’s fine detail,

- lining the mold with aluminium foil – it was possible to pick up some of the mold’s detail, but lining the mold took a long time,

- freezing string in with the ice cream and pulling the string to remove the frozen ice cream – the ice cream was really stuck; the string came out first.

Short of finding aluminium or silicon moon cake molds which could simply be heated, I’m at a loss as to how I could get this to work. One way might be to make normal moon cake pastry and stuff it with ice cream and crème brulée after it’s been baked. But even then, I’d still need to find a way to prevent the hollow pastry shell from collapsing.

If all else fails, I suppose I could cut the mold lengthwise and use the bottom of the mold as a stamp. But before I do that, I’d be grateful for any ideas or suggestions anyone might have.

Comments

[umami]

Sorry, but your story is funny too.

I can only think of one suggestion. How about dipping your knife in hot water before sliding it around the edges. If this loosens it, then do the banging action.

[Jessica]

Wow, you're so creative! How about greasing the mold?

[julia]

How about wrapping the ice-cream in snowskin pastry? Of course, this wouldn't be a pure ice-cream mooncake, but this way, you can get the mooncake out easily and with the mold's fine details on it.

[Clement]

Thanks everyone for your ideas.

Umami - I'll definitely give this a try. The paring knife I was using was too large to fit in between the mold's fluted edges, but I will try it again next time with a skewer.

Jessica - I'm worried that the oil might affect the ice cream's flavour. But perhaps oiling the outer side of the plastic wrap would work? Hopefully the oil would make the plastic wrap stick to the mold better, so that the ice cream could take on all of the detail in the mold. Back to your original idea, maybe using a nut oil would go well with the ice cream? Thanks for your help!

Julia - This sounds like a great, failproof idea! It also it adds another texture and flavour dimension to the dessert. Thanks!

[Carol in TO]

Hello.. I think the (chinese) traditional way of "breaking in" to the mooncake mould, as my mom tells me is to soak it in oil over night. And of course, the banging technique is key.. which you will learn over time. Hope this helps...let me know if it works.

[Carol in To]

Oh and I forgot - of course you have to wash the mould, and flour it before using it (as I read you are afraid the oil will affect the flavour of the cake). But the more times you use it, and maybe repeat dunking it in oil a couple of times, it should be broken into...

[Carol in TO]

I'm sorry.. i don't mean to overcrowd this with posts, but I couldn't stop thinking about this mooncake predicament!

Another thing you should revisit is the way you are packing the mould. Instead of spooning ice-cream into the mould, you should roll the ice-cream in to a ball (maybe using plastic wrap) and flatten it a little, and lightly press the cylindrical ice-cream into the mould.

So the mould would be used to shape it/make an imprint, and use a knife to slice off excess ice-cream (careful not to pack it). Then bang it out right after.

This is the way we make mooncakes at home, or use similar wooden moulds to make cookies.

[Clement]

Hi Carol,

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll definitely try your ideas when I attempt this again. I'd also like to try making normal moon cakes too. It would be fun to use a few different fillings in addition to the normal lotus seed.

[judy]

You should make your ice cream mooncakes in plastic mooncake moulds. Dip the moulds in warm water to unmould. The practice now is not to soak wooden mooncake mould in oil. Just wash it before use.

[charlotte]

Can you please tell me where you buy your mooncake mold? Thanks!

[Tim Piatek]

It's probably a bit late to suggest this - but why not just make your own silicone mold? You can buy food-grade silicone online (just do a search on Google). Just fill with silicone or gelatin (much cheaper), then make a silicone mold around this to get the original form. I'm doing the same thing to replicate Russian cookie molds, which are exceedingly rare.

[simon]

where did you get the mould?? I am trying to find one in Manhattan, very hard.

[simon]

where did you get the mould?? I am trying to find one in Manhattan, very hard.

[Deb]

I bought a similar mould in a store in Chinatown in Chicago. I live in the Washington area and rarely see them here. I would think NY Chinatown would have them. Take a photo and look in the "dustier" sections of stores! (I only use my mould as a display, but you guys make me want to try and make mooncakes - red bean with an egg!)

[Lotus]

Clement,
Just a side note for you regarding lotus ice cream. I just collected lotus seeds and planned on using them for Ice cream. I thought I would steam then grind them and later squeeze them through mesh with spring water and rice flour. How did you make your ice cream? Please enlighten me.
Thanx,
Lotus

[grac3fac33]

haha sry but this made me laugh
those molds aren't used for making ice cream, they're used for making the cake
and treat them w/ good care, they're very expensive to buy