The wildly popular Hong Kong mooncakes are not limited to just the flowing salted egg yolk custard ones.

In recent years, the mooncake world has seen a constant stream of innovative flavors, but if we’re talking about the true star of the mooncake scene, it’s none other than the flowing salted egg yolk custard mooncake. When you cut into one, you can see the golden custard filling slowly oozing out — that radiant golden flow, the savory richness of the salted egg yolk, and the deliciously salty-sweet taste all combine to make the flowing salted egg yolk custard mooncake the undisputed “signature” of the custard genre, an irresistible “culinary masterpiece” that has food lovers hooked.

Nowadays, the variety of flowing custard mooncakes on the market is ever-increasing, but the quality varies greatly. The custard filling mustn’t be too “runny,” which would compromise texture, nor too “thick,” which could cause it to solidify. At the latest edition of the Monde Selection World Quality Selections (Belgium) in 2019, one type of flowing custard mooncake won the highest honor — Grand Gold. For the first time in 58 years, a flowing custard mooncake anywhere in the world received this top-tier Grand Gold award. Its quality was recognized by an authoritative international institution, sparking admiration from food bloggers on platforms like INS and Xiaohongshu, making it a new internet-famous flowing custard mooncake. The author decided to take an in-depth look at this award-winning mooncake.

Internet-famousflowing custardmooncake behindisthe artisanal creation of two heavyweight masters

According to our findings, this flowing custard mooncake comes from the Hong Kong brand — Royal (brand name redacted), a company rooted in Hong Kong, with its own large-scale modern factory, bringing together chefs from five-star hotels, and committed to 100% Hong Kong manufacturing. Their flowing custard mooncakes were co-developed by Master Ye Wing Wah, known as the “Father of Milk Custard Mooncakes,” and his only official apprentice, Master Lai Wing Kwun. To achieve the perfect balance in the flowing custard filling of these mooncakes, the production technique demands extremely high standards. Under the stringent requirements of these two master artisans, Royal’s flowing custard mooncakes underwent hundreds of rounds of research and refinement, ultimately mastering the art of achieving a flowing center even at room temperature — vibrant in color, rich in aroma, and exquisite in flavor.

Innovating constantly,they sparked a craze for flowing custard mooncakes

Master Ye Wing Wah served as the head of the dim sum department at Peninsula Hotel’s Gaddi’s Restaurant for over 30 years and developed the enduringly popular milk custard mooncake back in 1986. In 2018, he joined Royal, where he built upon the classic milk custard mooncake to innovate and launch the Royal Flowing Salted Egg Yolk Custard Mooncake and Hong Kong’s first-ever Flowing Sesame Mooncake, setting off a flowing custard mooncake craze.

Innovationin flavors ushers mooncakes fully into the flowing custard era

This year, Master Lai Wing Kwun was also invited to join Royal, teaming up with Master Ye as Royal’s Master Pastry Chefs, focusing on product R&D and quality control. Master Lai had served as the head chef of the dim sum department at Shanghai Peninsula Hotel for over a decade, where he established the hotel’s dim sum division from scratch. As a Michelin two-star pastry chef, Master Lai is passionate about innovation and transformation. By combining the characteristics of ingredients with pastry techniques, he has developed a variety of uniquely flavored pastries. During the 2019 mooncake season, the two masters joined forces not only to completely revamp the recipes for the Flowing Salted Egg Yolk Custard and Flowing Sesame Mooncakes — carefully selecting premium, large salted egg yolks preserved in sea salt for a full 40 days to blend into their secret fillings, resulting in an even richer savory taste — but also to co-develop multiple distinctive flowing custard mooncake flavors. These include the Flowing Musang King Durian Mooncake, made with top-grade Musang King durian, using fresh whole fruit pulp that is manually deseeded to preserve the purest durian flesh, perfectly integrated into the mooncake. The combination of premium Musang King durian and flowing custard is simply divine. There’s also the Flowing Ginger Juice White Lotus Seed Paste Mooncake, where freshly grated ginger is turned into juice and blended into silky white lotus seed paste. The strong ginger flavor complements the delicate fragrance of the lotus paste, while a hint of flowing custard adds layers of richness, reaching what can only be described as Michelin-level flavor.

In today’s rapidly advancing material life, diners have so many choices. With its excellent food quality and superior craftsmanship, Royal has created a Michelin-level series of flowing custard mooncakes that is sure to win over diners’ palates.