Years Cake

To find Years Cake, just follow the enticing aroma of baking down Taipei City’s Chaozhou Street until you spot the distinctive red-andblack store frontage. This establishment, now under the stewardship of third-generation owners, has been serving up freshly baked goods since 1950. In the early years, the store made its name selling cakes that were intended to be given and consumed at moments of ritual significance –weddings, funerals, and those days when the gods need to be honored with something sweet and special.

Wedding cakes in particular were this store’s bread and butter. In traditional Chinese culture, couples announce their upcoming nuptials by offering pastries to friends and relatives. Old-style wedding cakes were usually flat, round, large enough for a whole family, and filled with high-quality ingredients – sweetened beans, nuts, braised meat, or dried shrimp. This tradition is still widely practiced in Taiwan, although preferences have changed dramatically since the 1950s. Rather than taking aim at the perpetually moving goalposts of whatever flavor is currently in fashion, Years Cake has stood firm – its walnut and datepaste wedding cakes have earned the company loyal supporters.

Over time, plenty of new products have been added to the store’s repertoire, but the flavors remain decidedly towards the more traditional end of the spectrum. Offerings include pastries packed with mung beans, curry braised pork, salted egg yolk, taro, and sesame. Those curious to dip their toes in the world of simultaneously sweet and savory fillings don’t need to worry about biting off more than they can chew, since Years Cake sells most of its confections in small, medium, and large sizes. A good place to start is the store’s signature egg yolk and sesame cake – a circular wheel of flaky, melt-in-the-mouth pastry encasing a salted egg yolk and sesame paste filling.

YEARS CAKE ( 宜德和志 ) (02) 2394-9889

No. 149, Chaozhou St., Da'an District, Taipei City ( 台北市大安區潮州街 149 號 ) 10am~9pm www.0223218374.com (Chinese) www.facebook.com/yearscake

No. 309, Sec. 1, Dihua St., Datong District, Taipei City ( 台北市大同區迪化街一段 309 號 ) 10am~7pm lee-cake.com (Chinese) www.facebook.com/leecake1895