With its comprehensive 2025 Mid-Autumn Festival celebration, The Peninsula London brings ancient Chinese traditions to Belgravia, featuring handcrafted mooncakes and curated dining experiences that honor centuries-old culinary customs. The hotel’s signature Mini Egg Custard Mooncakes, first perfected at The Peninsula Hong Kong in 1986, showcase the delicate artistry behind this traditional pastry, boasting a buttery golden crust and a velvety custard center.
The Mid-Autumn Festival holds profound significance in Chinese culture, representing family reunion and completeness through the symbolic sharing of round pastries that mirror the full moon. Traditionally, these pastries consist of rich dough wrapped around dense fillings. The most revered combinations are lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk centers. Their round shape embodies unity and harmony, making mooncakes an essential element of family gatherings during the festival.
Traditional mooncake preparation requires precise techniques passed down through generations. Master pastry chefs start with golden syrup, alkaline water, vegetable oil, and plain flour to make the signature crust. The dough must rest for at least 30 minutes to achieve the proper elasticity. For the lotus seed paste filling, dried lotus seeds are soaked overnight and cooked until soft. Then, they are processed with powdered sugar and oil over low heat for 30 minutes until the mixture holds its shape.
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The salted egg yolk component requires careful handling. Chefs wash away the egg whites before wrapping each yolk in lotus paste to create the symbolic “moon” center. Professional bakers mist the assembled mooncakes with water before baking them for the first time to prevent cracking. Then, they apply an egg wash for a golden finish.
The Peninsula London’s 2025 collection features traditional and modern interpretations of mooncake artistry. The hotel’s award-winning Mini Egg Custard Mooncakes have maintained their status through meticulous preparation techniques developed over nearly four decades. These smaller treats feature custard powder, cake flour, and a carefully controlled steaming process that gives them their signature texture.
The Peninsula Constellation Mooncakes introduce tea-infused varieties made with the hotel’s signature leaf blends. These include jasmine and Earl Grey flavors, which are modern adaptations of classic recipes. The new Luna Cakes offer yet another contemporary take on the tradition, created exclusively by the hotel’s pastry team in chocolate and mango variations. Head Dim Sum Chef Ling Ling Zeng oversees the production of homemade mooncakes, ensuring authentic techniques while allowing for creative interpretation.
From October 1-4, The Peninsula London is partnering with Burlington Arcade to create an immersive cultural experience with a vintage-inspired cart painted in Peninsula Green. This collaboration fuses British heritage shopping culture with Chinese festival traditions and features gift boxes designed to combine Burlington Arcade’s gold rosette with traditional Chinese red symbolism.
The pop-up installation offers limited-edition mooncake boxes with pastries embossed with the Burlington Arcade rosette, creating collectible items that bridge two cultural legacies. This partnership exemplifies how traditional festivals adapt to contemporary urban environments while maintaining their cultural significance.
From September 29 to October 12, Canton Blue restaurant will present a six-course tasting menu featuring dishes that complement the mooncake tradition. It includes steamed lobster and green vegetable dumplings; barbecued pork; sautéed Atlantic king prawns with salted egg yolk; steamed sea bass fillet; braised lion’s mane mushroom with winter melon; and imperial crab golden pearl.
The dining experience concludes with traditional red bean rice balls served with sweet rice wine syrup, providing a complete festival meal that honors the culinary heritage of Cantonese cuisine. The £188-per-person menu offers a professional interpretation of home-style festival dishes, elevating traditional recipes through restaurant-quality preparation.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese families traditionally reunite, and the eldest family member cuts mooncakes into pieces to distribute among relatives. Modern celebrations have evolved to include gift-giving traditions where mooncakes serve as tokens of respect and affection between friends and business associates.
Beyond family gatherings, the festival’s historical importance extends to legends connecting mooncakes to resistance movements during the Yuan dynasty, when secret messages were hidden inside the pastries to coordinate uprisings. Contemporary celebrations maintain these themes of unity and communication, adapting them to international settings like London’s luxury hotel scene.
The Peninsula London offers a comprehensive experience with both retail and dining options. Mooncakes are available for purchase at the Peninsula Boutique & Café until October 8th, starting from £48 for a box of four.