Pick mold size, filling, count, and crust style. The card shows crust vs filling grams plus crust ingredients.
Why this exists
Mooncake ratios are unforgiving. Too much filling and it explodes out of the mold. Too little and the mooncake is all pastry. Cantonese and Suzhou styles have different ratios, but recipes rarely say which.
Who this is for
Anyone attempting homemade mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival. Cooks who have had mooncake filling burst through the side. People gifting mooncakes and wanting consistent results.
How to read the result
The famous oil return (hui you) is when the crust darkens and softens over 1-3 days. Eat fresh-baked mooncakes within 4 hours - they will not taste right. The wait is part of the recipe. Lye water (jian shui) is critical for color and crackle; substitute 1 g baked baking soda + 3 g water if you cannot find it.
Honest limitations
Lye water availability varies by country. In the US, it is sold as kansui in Asian grocers. Cantonese syrup requires aging 1-3 months; this tool assumes you have aged syrup ready.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
What are the common mistakes when using Mooncake Crust-to-Filling?
Most common mistakes come down to four habits: entering 20 when the field expects 0.2 because the field is a percentage; leaving a field blank and accepting the default without checking what it stands for; changing one input and reading a result that was calculated before the change; and quoting the output as an exact figure when the page describes it as a reference estimate. Press calculate again after any edit, and treat the number as a reference point rather than a final answer.
How do I read the result from Mooncake Crust-to-Filling?
Read the final figure first, then come back to this section for the conditions behind it: The famous oil return (hui you) is when the crust darkens and softens over 1-3 days. Eat fresh-baked mooncakes within 4 hours - they will not taste right. The wait is part of the recipe. Lye water (jian shui) is critical for color and crackle; Keep two things apart: the number itself, which comes from the values you typed, and the assumptions it depends on, which decide whether that number is meaningful. The page sets out what a higher or lower result means for your case, so check that direction as well as the magnitude.
Can I act on the Mooncake Crust-to-Filling result directly?
Treat it as one reference sheet before you decide, rather than as the answer itself: Lye water availability varies by country. In the US, it is sold as kansui in Asian grocers. Cantonese syrup requires aging 1-3 months; this tool assumes you have aged syrup ready. The output describes a magnitude under the conditions you entered. It does not include what it actually costs to act, what might change while you act, or how the other side behaves. Before you commit, compare the result against reality and note which assumptions do not hold where you are.
What inputs does Mooncake Crust-to-Filling need?
Mooncake Crust-to-Filling takes 3 inputs: Mold size (g) Mini 50g Small 75g Standard 100g Large 150g、Number、Crust style Thin crust (Cantonese) Thick crust (Suzhou). They are listed in the order they feed the calculation, so an earlier value can change a later one. Do not skip a field you do not recognise - work out what it means first, because a silently guessed value produces a number that looks reasonable and is not. Before typing anything, make sure every figure uses the same unit and the same time period.
What should I check before I run Mooncake Crust-to-Filling?
Three checks pay for themselves. First, confirm the question you need answered is really inside the scope of this tool rather than a neighbouring one. Second, confirm that the figures you have are drawn from the same source and the same period - mixing monthly and annual numbers, or two different definitions of the same quantity, quietly distorts the result. Third, keep the key inputs written down, so that later you can tell which set of numbers produced a figure you are about to quote.
Why did my mooncake crack? Surface dried too fast. Cover with a damp cloth for 10 min after shaping.
Why is the crust hard? Did not rest the dough, or oven too hot.
Can I bake without lye water? Yes, but you lose the crackle and color.