Xitang Eight-Treasure Cake Making Technique

The craft was created in the late Qing dynasty by the physician Zhong Daosun, founder of the Zhong Jiefu Tang pharmacy, who adapted the "Eight-Immortal Cake" formula from the Ming-dynasty Orthodox Manual of External Medicine; it takes its name from its eight herbs and entered the third Zhejiang provincial ICH list in 2009.

The craft prizes authentic materials and the careful pairing of herbs and food, grinding yam, poria, job's-tears, malt and four more into powder, then blending them with glutinous and non-glutinous rice flours and sugar in measured proportions before steaming in moulds; the heat and ratios are guided by long experience, yielding a soft, gently sweet cake with a faint herbal note.

The craft is a living vessel of Jiangnan's food-as-medicine wisdom, fusing Chinese-medicine preparation with traditional pastry-making, and holds real value for the study of regional herbal diet and folk food culture.

The cake and its craft can be tasted and explored at the Zhong Jiefu Tang pharmacy and the old pastry shops of Xitang.