Meet the artisan who has been “keeping the soul” of traditional moon cakes for over 40 years

Performed by: Nam Nguyen | August 26, 2024

(Fatherland) - Mr. Tran Van Ban (Thuong Cung village, Tien Phong commune, Thuong Tin district, Hanoi ) is a rare artisan who still maintains the traditional craft of making wooden moon cake molds, even though the work is hard and only seasonal.

Every year, when the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, Mr. Tran Van Ban's family in Thuong Cung village (Tien Phong commune, Thuong Tin, Hanoi) is busy making moon cake molds to serve consumers.

Mr. Ban's family has had a tradition of making moon cake molds for over 40 years and is one of the few families in the village that still maintains the profession to this day.

Sharing about his work, Mr. Ban said that the moon cake molds were previously made of ironwood, but now this type of wood is very rare, so his family switched to using rosewood, which is flexible, smooth, durable, and less warped after a period of use.

To make a complete moon cake mold, the craftsman must spend a lot of time, effort and do many steps such as: cutting wood into molds, treating humidity, cutting blanks, planing, inking, carving patterns...

In the past, people had to carve the molds completely by hand, just flattening the inside of the mold took a whole day, sometimes even causing damage. But now, thanks to the help of machines, this job only takes a few minutes. Therefore, depending on the complexity of the design, it only takes 1-3 hours to complete a mold.

However, Mr. Ban said that the most important and complicated step is carving patterns and decorative lines for the mold, which must still be done entirely by hand. This step requires the craftsman to be extremely skillful and meticulous to make the patterns sharp, the mold slopes so that the cake dough does not stick to it... so that the cake will be beautiful.

Mooncake molds and mooncake molds are not the same. Mooncake molds must be sharp and dry to create a beautiful mold. Mooncake molds are more elaborate, the lines must be thick, even and soft.

To test the quality of the mold, the craftsman will use clay to cover the mold as if making a real cake for comparison. After passing this test, the mold will go through the final step of using sandpaper to smooth the surface.

In previous years, every time the Mid-Autumn Festival approached, Mr. Ban's family was always busy with orders from many customers from the provinces in the South, the North and even abroad.

Mrs. Pham Thi Tam - Mr. Ban's wife is in charge of smoothing the small details of the cake mold with industrial sandpaper. Many details are too small, Mrs. Tam has to fold the sandpaper neatly, carefully push it down and meticulously sand the products. Mrs. Tam explains while working: "The two types of moon cake molds, baked and soft, have different ways of sanding. For baked cakes, you have to sand evenly so that when baking, the outer layer catches fire evenly and does not burn or turn brown unevenly."

Every Mid-Autumn Festival, his family can produce several hundred molds. There are years when he and his family have to work through the night to meet all orders on time.

However, recently, wooden cake molds have been gradually replaced by plastic molds, so Mr. Ban's family's production volume has decreased significantly.

However, Mr. Ban is still passionate and maintains the profession with the desire to "preserve and pass it on to future generations so that the quintessence of the nation will never be lost".

The value of the traditional moon cake is not only due to the artisan who makes it, but also due to the hands of special craftsmen like Mr. Ban, Mrs. Tam and their families - who have inscribed into the cake mold the talented features of hundreds of years of craft village experience.

Source: https://toquoc.vn/gap-nghe-nhan-hon-40-nam-giu-hon-cho-chiec-banh-trung-thu-truyen-thong-20240826102444842.htm