What it is
Pineapple cake (鳳梨酥, fenglisu) is closer to a shortbread tart than a cake: a crumbly shell of butter, flour, egg and sugar around a thick pineapple jam. Many fillings mix pineapple with winter melon (冬瓜). Cakes filled with pineapple alone are sold as 土鳳梨酥 and taste tarter and more fibrous. Boxed sets are among the island's top-selling souvenirs.
Where it came from
Pineapples became a major crop under Japanese rule. Japanese industrialists brought in many cultivars and set up processing plants, and by the late 1930s Taiwan was the world's third-largest pineapple exporter.
The pastry as sold today grew out of a later glut. In the 1970s exports shrank and fruit went unsold, so some makers of traditional Chinese-style pastries (漢餅) began using pineapple as a filling. The fruit of that time was sour and stringy. Bakers tamed it with winter melon, a cheap crop grown in rice fields between plantings, cooked down with sugar and maltose. Some accounts trace the cake further back, to a round pineapple pastry given at weddings.
Taichung calls itself the birthplace. In early 2007 its officials pushed back after Taipei promoted the cake as a souvenir. Pure pineapple fillings have since made a comeback. One of the best-known makers, SunnyHills (微熱山丘), was founded in 2008 in Nantou and buys local fruit from contract growers.
How it is made
The pastry starts with butter creamed with powdered sugar, then flour, egg and often milk powder. Lard was the older fat. For the filling, chopped pineapple is cooked down with sugar and maltose, with or without winter melon, until thick and glossy. Each piece of dough is wrapped around a ball of filling, pressed into a rectangular mould and baked until the top just turns golden. Factories add citric acid to keep the sourness consistent.
How to eat it
Most pineapple cakes are bought in gift boxes for friends, family and colleagues. The Hokkien word for pineapple, ong-lai (王梨), sounds like a phrase meaning "prosperity comes", which makes the cake a lucky present. It is eaten at room temperature with tea, often oolong. Many shops hand out a free sample with a cup of tea.
Around Taiwan
- Kaohsiung
- Zhongwai Bakery (中外餅舖) in Zuoying has records going back to 1905, when the family traded in the old-town lanes by the North Gate. Its Taiwan-shaped cake is filled only with native pineapple.
- North
- Taipei's city government ran a yearly pineapple cake festival from 2005. Its contests pushed bakers to try unusual fillings and doughs, including ones made with rice or Taiwanese tea.
- Central
- Taichung presents itself as the home of pineapple cake as well as sun cake, and has run contests to rank its bakers. In Nantou, SunnyHills serves its all-pineapple cakes with tea in a traditional courtyard house at the foot of Bagua Mountain.
