Ever wanted to taste a Cauldron Cake (a fictional pastry) from J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter? If you live in China, the second closest thing might be these limited-edition mooncakes released by Chinese bakery Holiland on July 31, which just so happens to be famed wizard Harry Potter’s birthday.
The Mid-Autumn Festival treats are available on Taobao and JD.com and will make their way to brick-and-mortar stores on August 15. (For the blissfully unaware, Mid-Autumn Fest is one of the most important Chinese holidays and falls on the 15th day of the lunar calendar’s eighth month.)
Two tiers of Harry Potter and Holiland mooncake sets are up for grabs: The basic package (see above), containing six mooncakes and a Gryffindor badge, is priced at 289 RMB (almost 43 USD), while a larger gift set including 12 mooncakes, a magic wand-shaped pen, and The Monster Book of Monsters, a fictional textbook from the Harry Potter realm, costs 589 RMB (about 87 USD).
As you might expect, the mooncakes featured in the packages come in a variety of flavors and derive inspiration from the series of fantasy novels.
One mooncake shaped like a Hogwarts school badge is stuffed with egg yolk, spicy pork floss, and mochi. Too savory for your liking? The Chocolate Frog mooncake caters to non-adventurous eaters.
Another mooncake from the collection looks like a train ticket for Platform 9¾ and is flavored with green beans, while the one resembling a jellybean from Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans supposedly tastes like mint toothpaste (you couldn’t pay us to try it).
There is also an Earl Grey-flavored mooncake shaped like Hedwig, the owl, and a custard cake inspired by the Golden Snitch.
Although mooncakes traditionally come with fillings such as sweet red beans, lotus seeds, and egg yolk, modern brands across various industries — Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and Starbucks — have put contemporary spins on the Chinese pastry.
Nowadays, few would bat an eye to seeing a pastry brand collaborating with the Harry Potter franchise. If anything, it makes sense given the latter’s strong fanbase, both in China and worldwide.
Harry Potter-related products have always created a huge buzz in China. Earlier this June, Chinese audio platform Ximalaya released the first Mandarin-language audiobooks of the series of seven fantasy novels.
All images via Weibo