West Slope: Chestnut cake

　Chestnut cake refers to a cake made from chestnuts as a raw material, rather than sprinkling chestnuts on top of a cream cake.

　　After the publication of the humble article "Fresh Milk Little Fang", it resonated with some readers, probably from this and that, more than one friend encouraged me to "write another "Chestnut Cake"; it just so happened that some of my relatives had recently bought chestnut cake for the birthday celebration, and how advanced they were; as for the topic of chestnut cake mentioned earlier, it was more... There are many opinions, and it seems that chestnut cake is regarded as a sign of high-end cake.

　　There is a saying that I have been holding in my stomach before and it is inconvenient to say, taking advantage of this node, it is okay to think about nagging and nagging - do you know what chestnut cake is all about?

　　The reason for such an impolite "examination" is roughly to speculate that many people's understanding of it is likely to be confused.

　　unbelief? Readers who are interested can type the word "chestnut cake" "Tara" to see what it tells you: "Chestnut cake is a delicacy made of three dairy products: protein balls, chestnut sauce, and whipped cream paste, and the finished product is delicate, and the flavor is fat and refreshing." Later, it also details the steps to make chestnut sauce, such as roasting, shelling, boiling, rolling sauce, rubbing sauce, etc. Some people even posted photos of the mounted part of the "chestnut cake" on the Internet with broken chestnuts or simply inlaid with a complete or half chestnut meat in all directions. They use irrefutable "seeing" to justify the cakes they call "chestnut cakes."

　　Then there is no way!

　　Cream cake is poured with chocolate sauce, which is called "chocolate cream cake"; cream cake is inlaid with strawberries, kiwi fruit, pineapple, it is called "fruit cream cake"; cream cake is smeared with ice cream, which is called "ice cream cake"... According to this logic, the cream cake is covered with chestnut sauce or chestnut meat, which can of course be called "chestnut cake". The problem is that cream cake can also be sprinkled with hazelnuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts, they seem to be more advanced and delicious than chestnuts, but why can't they catch fire? Aren't they all tasty and not advanced? Aren't they all suitable for being called "hazelnut cake", "pistachio cake" and "macadamia nut cake"?

　　I am afraid that the situation is not what people think.

　　In fact, the original paradigm of chestnut cake is only the use of chestnuts as raw materials to make the billet of the cake.

　　Anyone who has made cakes at home knows that eggs, butter, sugar and flour are used in cake blanks. Flour is processed from wheat and is a grain and one of the representatives of carbohydrates. And there are more things that intersect with carbohydrates, such as rice. However, if you want to make a cake blank with rice, the result will most likely become "Chongming cake". Therefore, although sweet potatoes, pumpkins, taro, yams, etc. are rich in starch, in theory, flour can be replaced, and in practice, no one dares to try or try it at all.

　　However, the first warriors who dared to eat crabs were always there.

　　In the early 1930s, Ling Amao (Ling Qingxiang), a Pudong Yangjing man who used to work in the "Feida Western Cuisine Society" run by the Germans, jumped to Kaisling, and he was famous for making extraordinary cakes with his superior craftsmanship. In order to maintain a competitive advantage, Ah Mao asked his eldest son Ling Heming and his younger son Ling Yiming to resign and go to Commander Kai to learn art from him and assist in his work. Later, Crane Ming specialized in modeling, and Yi Ming specialized in mounting flowers. "Brothers with one heart, their profits and gold", plus Lao Tzu sitting in the town to point out, as if rubbing mahjong, three of the four people are actually their own people, then what is the other person's chances of winning? The cake of the Ling father and son pressed the peers on the Shanghai Beach without suspense.

　　In 1954, in view of the fact that the standard of cake making by the relevant departments in Beijing did not match the requirements of foreign-related reception, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited Ling Heming and Ling Yiming to Beijing to make cakes. The brothers thought, how can we make foreign guests experience that the cake we make is not completely copied from foreign classic tastes, but is both delicious and has certain Chinese characteristics? They made cakes out of chestnuts – they fried freshly listed chestnuts, shelled and peeled the meat, added sugar and ground them into a puree, making a cake blank, and then covered with a layer of fresh milk or white shear. As a result, it was a hit and was greatly appreciated by diners. The brothers brought this idea back to Shanghai to copy, so that the "chestnut cake" caused a sensation when it was listed, and it was repeatedly rated as a high-quality product of the Ministry of Commerce and became a shanghai famous brand product with old qualifications. In May 1960, the Ling brothers went to Beijing to participate in a cake-making competition and won the first place in the country.

　　However, chestnuts can only be eaten during the harvest season in September and October of each year, and they are difficult to preserve for a long time, so there is a seasonal difference in making chestnut cakes. This problem was overcome in the 1990s by Ling Yiming's disciple and special technician Bian Xinghua in cooperation with the Shanghai Food Research Institute. Since then, foodies have been able to taste chestnut cakes all year round.

　　Chestnut cake mixes the aroma of chestnuts and cream together, coupled with the granularity of chestnuts is more prominent, there is a considerable taste impact, forming a chic taste.

　　Today, while maintaining the traditional characteristics, chestnut cake flavors are also constantly innovating, with a variety of flavors to choose from, such as butter cream, cream cream, and cheese.

　　Chestnut cake is delicious, but its "delicious" is just another flavor, it is relative, and it cannot replace other flavors of cream cake at all. This is exactly better than some people saying that Fan Bingbing is good-looking, and some people saying that Li Bingbing is good-looking, in other words, of course, I must say that my wife is good-looking, although this word, I said it in front of her face more times than behind her back. (West Slope)