Thank you so much for your review, Karol!! So glad you loved it as much as I did!

I came back bc I almost forgot to give this a million stars.

Hi! You can try microwaving it for a few seconds if you’re taking it straight out of the fridge. That usually softens it up for me. The pastry itself is fine to leave at room temperature, but it’s the pineapple I worry about, which is why I like to store in the refrigerator.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful review, Mikey. I’m touched that this recipe could be used in service to others.

I have been teaching myself to cook for at least ten years now, and I still am finding new ways to expand my horizons and try new avenues so as not to get too stagnant. With that in mind, this might be one of my proudest achievements yet; that is due to how I have jumped into uncharted territory and ramped up my skills.

Over the past year, I have been doing some ministry work by means of voluntary meetings. That is most of what I will say, to respect anonymity. After the meetings, there is time to meet up and have a talk, not to disimilar to a Swedish fika. When the timing aligns well into my favour, I take my time to prepare a dessert to bring in for sharing.

What was also happening with the different desserts was that, on top of a different cuisine each time (that was deliberate), there was also a different flavour to the sweet. It was one of those initially coincidental factors that slowly turned into a running theme. With a slight bit of knowledge for pineapple cake being a popular dessrt from Taiwan, I thought to go looking for a recipe to make it. And here we are with this beauty.

As far as the desserts in this series go, it was my most ambitious yet. That ambition was mainly due to making the cake batter. In the back of my head, I always have a bit of nervousness trying something new – thinking it might go awry. This time around, I can rest easy as it went well. In fact, when I took a bite of the pastry, I was impressed enough to exclaim, “I made that?”. It had such a rich and buttery flavour, that had the hints of sweetness from the condensed milk. And the simplicity allowed it to be pronounced – you can tell the French influence just from the pastry.

I went with honey as opposed to maltose, as getting that was going to be slightly difficult. Plus, it was with *three* cans of crushed pineapple that I made the dessert. There was more than enough to go around at the meeting, and some leftovers for my parents; a bit of good quality ice cream made it a treat for them. And even an old housemate arrived for a meet-up, and my cooking was as good as it ever was – a small bite for afternoon tea, he was quite impressed.

Several factors that jump outside my general comfort zone make this a top-notch achievement: dessert, making a shortcut pastry from scratch, cooking Asian (heck – far east-Asian to boot), and having the proportions work out. Plus, it was a slight challenge that turned out to be a cinch.

Taiwanese is an under-rated cuisine in so many ways, and those mooncakes are one more point in its favour.

made this for a picnic and everyone loved it <3 it was nice and warm, but i'm having issues with storing it, the short bread seems to get super hard – any tips?

Haha no worries, at first I was afraid my site was glitching so thanks for letting me know!