Jiaodong Wedding Cake

The Jiaodong wedding cake, also known as "bride's cake," is a round flatbread made of flour, egg, peanut oil and sugar, leavened then baked on a griddle to a golden hue, soft and yielding, rich with the fragrance of egg and oil—a traditional festive pastry of the Jiaodong coast.

The Jiaodong coast has long held the custom of gifting wedding cakes, the bride's family sending them with the dowry to the groom's home and sharing them among relatives as a token of a complete and happy life; the practice is especially strong in Rongcheng and Wendeng, making the cake a key carrier of Jiaodong wedding culture.

Wedding cakes are shared at the wedding banquet but also eaten as an everyday teatime snack; best enjoyed warm or re-griddled, soft and gently sweet, they are often taken with tea or carried as durable provisions before putting to sea.

Its golden oil-glazed look, soft sweet crumb and the auspicious meaning bound up with weddings set the Jiaodong wedding cake apart from other wheaten treats.