Gaoqiao Pine Cakes

Gaoqiao Pine Cakes

　　Shanghai’s Gaoqiao Pine Cakes originate from Shanghai, China. Made from refined flour, lard, granulated sugar, red beans, and osmanthus using delicate processing techniques, they are sweet, rich, fluffy, and crisp—making them one of Gaoqiao’s four famous snacks (Pine Cakes, Pine Cakes with Cake Layer, Crispy Wafers, and One-Pinch Crisp). They are named for their light, flaky texture upon first bite. Additionally, due to their clearly layered, paper-thin pastry, they are also known as Thousand-Layer Cakes.

　　Shanghai Gaoqiao Pine Cakes offer a perfect combination of color, aroma, and taste. Their edges are snow-white, the surface a creamy yellow, and the fragrance of oil fills the air. Upon tasting, they are delightfully fluffy and crispy, with a deliciously sweet flavor. Since 1983, Gaoqiao Pine Cakes have won accolades as municipal and ministerial-level quality products, selling both domestically and internationally to widespread praise from people around the world.

　　Legend has it that during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, families in Qingxi Town, Pudong, would make various kinds of collapsed cakes to serve guests and relatives. Later, when Qingxi Town was destroyed by Japanese pirates, this type of snack and the custom were passed on to Gaoqiao Town in Pudong. Around the 26th year of the Guangxu reign (circa 1900), Zhao Xiaoqi, a wealthy local, had a wife who was an expert at making collapsed cakes. Her cakes were small, tasty, fluffy, and crispy—melting in your mouth. After the Zhao family declined, to make a living, his wife began selling her homemade pine cakes from a basket at teahouses and tobacco shops, where they became very popular among customers and were affectionately called “pine cakes.”

　　In 1925, Huang Jindi, a woman from Zhangjia Lane in Gaoqiao Town, diligently studied the art of making pine cakes and improved the recipe. She produced them in a small home workshop and sold them to shops in town. Her pine cakes, known for their thin crust, many layers, generous filling, fluffiness, and fragrant stickiness, quickly gained fame. In 1931, her husband Zhou Baichuan opened a shop on North Street under the name “Zhou Zhengji,” proudly advertising itself as the “original old shop, expert in pine cakes,” which was an instant success. From then on, many others followed suit, and at the peak, there were as many as 18 shops in town producing and selling pine cakes.

　　Around 1930, Gaoqiao businessman Zhang Jinzhang opened Gaoqiao Food Company on West Street, hiring master confectioners to refine the pine cake-making technique, making the product increasingly perfect. He also created other food series such as crispy wafers, one-pinch crisp, sesame crisp, and spiced slices. At the same time, he widely opened branch stores and retail outlets. Separately, Huang Jingyi, the female shop owner of “Zhu Changfeng” in town, partnered with the shop’s chef Lu Caiqing to set up a workshop at Gao Temple Qingning Temple, which later developed into Hudong Food Factory. The shop’s apprentice, Ma Heshang, also opened Gaoqiao Food Factory (later renamed Shanghai Gaoqiao Food Factory) on Yongjia Road in Shanghai around 1942. This helped Gaoqiao Pine Cakes expand beyond Gaoqiao and gain fame throughout Shanghai.

　　By the 1950s, Gaoqiao Pine Cakes had become a renowned product of Shanghai, with their production methods documented in the book National Food Science and Technology Production Plans. In 1983, they were named Shanghai Quality Products. In 1985, they were recognized as national-quality food products by the Ministry of Commerce and were included in the Traditional Chinese Foods compendium, specifically in the Shanghai Traditional Foods volume. They are also known as one of the “Hundred Treasures of Shanghai Suburbs,” and have been featured and reported in newspapers and magazines such as Liberation Daily, Xinmin Evening News, Food Weekly, science and technology publications, as well as on Shanghai Television.