The moon is full on the twenty-fifth of September this year, and the hotel kitchens of Hong Kong have been making mooncakes since June. The Peninsula’s pre-order is the starting gun.
Mooncakes are exchanged at the Mid-Autumn Festival in gilded boxes, and the hotels of Hong Kong turned them into a luxury product forty years ago. The Peninsula egg custard mooncake, created in 1986, remains the one the city queues for.
Where to order
The Peninsula Boutique opens pre-orders in July and sells out weeks before the festival; the Mandarin Cake Shop makes lotus and custard versions; Butterfly Patisserie at Rosewood sells the modern ones with chocolate and tea flavours. In Singapore, Raffles and the Fullerton sell snowskin mooncakes with durian and champagne; in Tokyo and Dubai the Mandarin Oriental and Peninsula houses follow.
How to eat them
Cut into quarters and share; eat the custard ones warm from the oven, the lotus ones at room temperature with oolong tea. A box keeps two weeks; the snowskin ones are frozen and eaten within days.
Frequently asked questions
When is the Mid-Autumn Festival 2026?
Friday 25 September 2026.
When do the Peninsula mooncakes go on sale?
Pre-orders open in July; the boutique sells out by mid-September.
