Date-Paste Sesame Cake

The date-paste sesame cake is a traditional tea snack of the Suzhou area: a flat round cake fully coated in white sesame seeds and filled with smooth date paste, with a crumbly crust and a deep date fragrance, common among Jiangnan tea pastries.

Sesame cakes are a traditional category of Suzhou tea snacks, served alongside pine-nut candy and other treats, and the date-paste version is the best-known.

Usually taken as a snack with tea, eaten at room temperature; biting through the crust reveals a rich date filling, best paired with plain tea to cut the sweetness.

Coated in sesame, filled with smooth date paste and built on a crumbly crust, it is one of the representative small treats of Suzhou's tea-snack tradition.