Taiwan has a lot of traditional family run businesses scattered around the rural areas, and often I would see them in the villages after I go on hikes. During one of my such hikes, we passed by bakery store that specialises in wedding cakes with a modern twist.
| Here's the traditional store | And here's the modern twist |
|---|---|
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Chinese wedding cakes differ from western ones in that we don't have one big center piece on display at the wedding. We have small boxes instead. Traditionally, before the wedding, the groom's family will buy some wedding cakes and deliver them to the bride's family. This will be given out to the guests when the bride's family delivers the invitations. Therefore, only guests of the brides family will receive the wedding cakes, those from the groom's side won't get any.
The tl:dr version is that many years ago a war lord in China told another war lord he was going to let his sister marry him. It wasn't supposed to be real, it was just a cunning plan for him to take control of the latter's land and power. When the second war lord found out about the cunning plan, he decided to make it real by announcing it to all the villagers and giving out cakes so the first war lord had no option but to let his sister marry him. That then became a tradition whereby the brides's family would give out cakes to announce their daughter was getting married.
This particular bakery is called Yung An, I don't believe they're nationally famous or anything, just a random one who's been around in the area since the 70s. Family run business is still a big thing in Taiwan and many second or third generations are happy to take over the family business due to a sense of fillial piety. In order to keep up with the times and keep the business going, the younger generation will often modernise the brand whilst keeping the heritage of the product. I think this is what has happened here.
Their logo is the cartoon character of a pair of newlyweds, in red of course as red is the lucky colour for the Chinese. On the newlyweds head you'll notice a cross and a line at the bottom.
This is the top part of the traditional double happiness symbol (Source Wikpedia) for wedding, and they have merged it with the cartoon character to make the logo. Very creative!
And if that wasn't enough, the brand extends from behind the counter all the way along the ceiling back out towards the front entrance, creating a very modern fun feel, just like a wedding should be. You can't miss it no matter where you are in the shop.
In my opinion, the gem in the shop is it's packaging. These are the boxes of cakes that will be given out to the bride's guests. The design is beautiful and has some of the traditional features such as a dominant red for luck and specks of gold for extravagance. The font for the brand name is in chinese calligraphy, and there are some traditional patterns and flowers etc. I think they look very elegant as a gift particularly to celebrate a wedding.
For those who prefer an even more modern twist there are these packaging with the cartoon character. And they come in either a carrier bag packaging or a gift box and contains different quantities of cakes.
And there's even this design of a bride with a beautiful bouquet. However, I thnk her headwear isn't very "weddingy"!!
The locals in this area are Hakka people, Hakka being one of the main Chinese dialects. They have their own customs and traditions, and one of them are some beautiful Hakka style floral prints. This is transposed to these Hakka style packaging, which is designed like the front of a female's garment. I think this i a lovely nod to the Hakka culture blended with the bride.
All the different boxes I just showed you contains different flavour cakes. Some of the traditional flavour are red bean paste, taro, green bean paste, a savoury one made of pork floss (I could never understand this one), black sesame, pineapple etc. There was plenty available for customers to sample, perfect for a post hike/pre dinner light snack!!
I hope you enjoyed reading about traditional wedding cakes from Taiwan. Do you have any wedding cakes in your country and what are they like?
