DIY Suncakes and the International Pastry Festival that You Never Heard About

I did know about the 2012 International Pastry Festival of Taichung, but only because I live across the street from the park that was hosting it. Not because it was well-advertised, which it wasn't or because many foreigners seem to care- which they don't.  Still, you gotta give the local government points for the effort, it's just, as I am growing used to understanding, their execution was lacking.

Part of the 'festival' which seemed to me to be just another series of tents set up around Wenxin Park was a 'DIY baking event for foreigners.'

I heard this from my lovely colleague Liz. We signed up. We got no response. We showed up. We signed up again.

Signing up was easy enough

We got on a bus. It was 8:30 a.m. on a chilly Saturday.

Come on kids, get on the bus

Nevermind that the the DIY activity was only a small fraction of the day's itinerary. We'll look past that. Never mind that the other parts of this glorified tour were spent at places like the Taiwan Museum of Legal Documents.

Why are you taking me here? I just want to bake something!

Nevermind that it started at 8:30am on a Saturday. We'll look past all of that. My friends and I kept smiling, hoping that we'd get our hands into some dough sooner rather than later.

These bikes are much more fun than  prosecutorial documents

It was worth it to see the technique that goes into make suncakes. They were always kind of a mystery to me. I was never really bowled over by their flavor, but more by their texture. There is a thick, sugary filling inside, and flaky layers around the outside. I couldn't get my head around how they actually put them together.

Ah, a chocolate suncake

As it turns out, the flaky texture that makes suncakes so unique and so messy to eat, (there's usually a pile of flakes left behind) is nothing so mysterious: It is a laminated dough. The unique thing about the process is that it is actually three doughs folded and rolled together.

A Tale of Three Doughs

It's really a blending of traditions:

It is really part dumpling, part croissant.

It reminds me of something from Entenmann's that I used to eat as a kid...God only know what it was. A danish of some kind?

Can you spot the difference?

Ultimately, I couldn't score the recipes for the doughs. I don't think that there is any expectation from the bakery that people would actually try to do this by themselves at home. I think the idea is more "come to the bakery and get your hands dirty, take some pictures, then take something home in a pretty box." It wasn't very educational. The explanations were short; and my Mandarin is, well, less than good. All I got out of it was There are three doughs, one very buttery, one very dry and well kneaded, and one sugary dough.

Each dough was flattened, rolled up like a carpet, rolled again, then stuffed with the next dough. My hands were quite greasy, so I didn't get to take many pictures of the process, but I hope to recreate it.

Finished suncake, oven-ready

We were encouraged to make cute shapes. This is Taiwan, after all.

Can you guess my number?

The end result was better than I expected, though I think the baker left the batch in there a bit long to make sure the thicker ones were all cooked. Hey, they were fresh from the oven!

Everyone crowded the poor staff, really excited to  see the fruits of their 'labor'.

The small room did smell quite delicious.

The pastry chef approved of my technique. For real. I asked him when I can come and help in the kitchen. He said anytime!

Pao Chuan has a long history in Taiwan and Japan. This DIY event was at the Ziyou Road shop in Taichung.