Mooncakes 2017 (Mid-Autumn Festival Singapore): Best & Favourites

Mooncake season is unseasonally late this year in October, thanks to a leap month in the lunar calendar. So if you still haven't bought your mooncakes, all is not lost. There's still plenty of choices this year, and here are some of my favourites, and my totally arbitrary awards (just for fun).

Most Fabulous Presentation

Gloriously golden and gleamingly glamourous! Anyone who lays their eyes on this stunning mooncake box from Yan Ting (of St Regis Singapore) will certainly be glowing.  Their snowskin flavours include a heady Champagne Truffle with Chocolate Paste; a Six Coarse Grains Paste with earthy multigrain goodness; and a deliciously healthy Reduced Sugar Green Apple Paste with Macadamia Nuts - this one won favour all round in my family even though we didn't recognise the green apple at first. It was just so lovely, and the macadamia nuts added luxurious crunch.

Best Baked Mooncakes

Ooh the #red @sheratontowerssg #mooncake #lacquer #box is so #pretty. There's also a premium gold box. New #snowskin flavours this year include Mini White Lotus Paste with Strawberry Sea Salt Truffle, and Mini Green Tea Lotus Paste with Passionfruit Truffle. Both 8pcs for S$60. #LiBai #LiBaiRestaurant #SheratonTowers #Singapore #SheratonTowersSG

A post shared by Catherine Ling (@camemberu) on Aug 15, 2017 at 11:42pm PDT

Most people I know prefer the snowskin variety but I like baked mooncakes. And Li Bai has one of the smoothest and silkiest pastes wrapped in evenly thin skin. It's also not too sweet (a big plus in my books).

Best Snowskin Flavour

Smooth, soft and creamy #snowskin #mooncakes from @fullertonhotel. The new Tangerine #Lemon with Pistachio reminds us of childhood lemon biscuits. The #Kopi with Salted Hokkaido Milk is an intense coffee paste studded with a salty milk core. The pretty teardrop mould is designed by #Jade's exec chef Leong who is also an artist. #fullertonhotel #sgmooncakes #mooncakes2017

A post shared by Catherine Ling (@camemberu) on Aug 23, 2017 at 3:27am PDT

Fullerton Hotel's snowskin mooncakes by Jade restaurant boast one of the smoothest and creamiest textures of all the mooncakes. There are so many winners among the flavours too. We loved the Tangerine Lemon as well as the Kopi with Salted Hokkaido Milk.

Best Wholegrain Flavour

The #first of #mooncakes have arrived. The Ritz-Carlton has a new White Lotus Paste with Five Grains (S$72, 4pcs), which gives traditional lotus paste a health boost with pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds, oats and walnuts. The boxes are also all different this year. Love the #blue lacquer box with Mini Lava Custard with Vanilla (S$78, 8pcs) and some #snowskin mooncakes. There's an early bird discount of 25% for online purchases at rcmooncake.com.sg from now til 31 July! #ritzcarltonsingapore #sgmooncakes

A post shared by Catherine Ling (@camemberu) on Jul 18, 2017 at 8:47am PDT

There's a trend towards mooncakes with multigrain fillings. Some do them well, others not so. I liked Ritz-Carlton's version. It has the right balance and mix of grains, nuts and smooth paste to make it easy to eat.

Prettiest Chinoiserie Motifs

I've always liked the mooncake boxes from Shangri-La. This year, they come in tower form, with very pretty motifs on the side and on the mooncake boxes themselves. The drawers have a pretty pearl clasp handle. I didn't get to taste the mooncakes but I do love the boxes.

Most Elegant Shape

The @fairmontsingapore has #cute peach-shaped #mooncakes. Baked ones with macadamia nuts, or five grains in white lotus paste. Snowskin ones with flavours like Imperial #Yuzu, #Champagne #Truffle and #Chocolate #Ganache, and Golden #Caramel Crunch. See http://www.celebrations central.com.sg for details. #fairmontsingapore #mooncake #singapore

A post shared by Catherine Ling (@camemberu) on Aug 16, 2017 at 4:47am PDT

When you get tired of square or round mooncakes, these peach-shaped babies should certainly please. The snowskin flavours are also exquisite, with the Imperial Yuzu one being most memorable.

Best Salty Mooncake

Photo courtesy of Antoinette

Chef Pang of Antoinette has cleverly fused chicken floss with salted egg yolk for his 2017 mooncakes. And we all know how good his salted egg yolk items are. Imagine them boosted with savoury floss.

Most Eggy Mooncake

Xin's Mini Custard with Egg Yolk is one of the more unusual and interesting renditions of mini mooncakes - custard with salted egg yolks. It's egg in egg - eggception?

Most Epic Mooncake Box

Totally blown away by this epic #superbling #jewellerybox case for @concordehotelsg #mooncakes: it's even got lighting you can switch on and off. #bling #shiny #swan #box #concordehotelsg

A post shared by Catherine Ling (@camemberu) on Aug 18, 2017 at 8:48am PDT

When it comes to wow factor, I think few can beat Concorde Hotel's mirrored box with bejewelled swans, LED lights and bling. Worth getting just for the box alone!

Most "Teochew" Mooncake

Photo courtesy of Thye Moh Chan

I was surprised to see that Thye Moh Chan has also jumped on the bandwagon, offering their Teochew pastries as a mooncake alternative or variety. These have been upgraded with ingredients like XO Sauce, and Mao Shan Wang durian. Prices are slightly lower than traditional mooncakes but the presentation is no less impressive.


So there you go for 10 mooncakes this year. Which ones are your favourite so far? I do love the yam paste flaky pastry ones, but haven't been able to get any. Must remedy that!