What is the Confection “Geppei”?
As with Momoyama, “Geppei (月餅)” is a confection about which I didn’t know much until recently,
though I often see it in the Wagashi sweets section of supermarkets, alongside Manju and Momoyama.
Geppei (月餅)
I thought that the sweet snack Geppei was a variety of Wagashi because it is almost always lined up with those confections like Manju and Momoyama.
But I looked it up on Wikipedia and found my thought was incorrect. The article says that the confection Geppei is of Chinese origin, known as mooncake in English.
In 1927, the confectionery company “Nakamuraya (中村屋)” (Google Map) altered the original Chinese mooncake to suit Japanese tastes and developed their own.
The Japanese mooncake has now been popularized and can be found in many grocery stores around the country.
It seems, in China, the confection comes in many varieties and various fillings,
but they usually have a full-moon-like round flat shape in common as the Chinese character “月” means the moon.
Japanese-style Geppei is also shaped like a full moon, but most are filled with sweet Azuki red bean paste called “Anko (餡子)“.
Although the Japanese cake is similar to Manju buns in composition and taste, it isn’t fluffy at all.
Ingredients/Calories
According to the ingredients and nutrition facts label on the back of the pack,
the Geppei cake from Yamazaki mainly consists of sweet red bean paste, wheat flour, egg yolk, sugar, whole egg, lard, sweetened white bean paste, starch syrup, mirin, soy sauce, egg white, and butter.
The calories per piece are 211 kcal.
