I was taken aback when the lady at My Pastry's booth at Compass Point's Mooncake Fair offered my mum and I entire chocolate truffles when I asked for a sample of their snowskin champagne mooncakes. The sales assistant then managed to find samples of the mooncakes and offered them to us. We were again, stunned at the generosity of the samples- we were given 1/4 of a mini mooncake! And we tried both the white chocolate and dark chocolate flavors)- a far cry from the tiny pieces proffered by other merchants (possibly leading to a scenario where the flavor of the mooncake can sometimes only be discerned by highly sensitive tastebuds). Thankfully, we liked their champagne mooncakes and decided to get two boxes of them as we were meeting up with a relative later.
While I have not tried them, judging by their popularity, the offerings from Raffles Hotel, Fairmont and Jewels Artisan Chocolates probably rank as the best champagne ganache mooncakes in Singapore. While My Pastry's Snowskin White Lotus Champagne Mooncakes have yet to enter their league, they were pretty decent and make an affordable alternative to those previously-mentioned- the least pricey of which is Fairmont's version at $38.40 for a box of eight mini mooncakes after 20% early bird discount (for HSBC cardmembers. In contrast, a box of eight mini snowskin mooncakes from My Pastry (U.P. $46) are going for a discount at $34.96, with a free mini Snowskin Soursop mooncake thrown in for every box purchased. This works out to $3.88 per piece, as compared to $4.80 per piece for the former.
I have to slice these mini mooncakes very meticulously to prevent an argument about who gets the piece with the largest champagne truffle quarter from breaking out. Just kidding! Undoubtedly, the most enjoyable part of this mooncake was the creamy, boozy centre encased in a crunchy chocolate shell. While the white chocolate and champagne or dark chocolate and champagne combination were both pleasing, I preferred the latter as the intense flavor of the lush dark chocolate ganache paired really well with the champagne! The fact that there is no other retailer which offers dark chocolate champagne mooncakes at the moment, despite the snowskin and lotus paste faring just okay, was sufficient to warrant our purchase.
Though the champagne truffle is spiked with a decent dose of alcohol (less so for the lotus paste), the alcohol content in these chocolate champagne mooncakes is not so strong to the extent that they are unsuitable for consumption from children, unlike the Snowskin Rum and Raisin mooncakes- or so described by the sales assistant. I did not get to try the latter though as they were sold out.
The fact that the flavor of the complimentary mooncake was fixed turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The chunky soursop filling in My Pastry's Snowkin Soursop mooncakes were superbly refreshing, and I would definitely love to get more of them next year, along with the dark chocolate champagne mooncakes. Strangely enough, the snowskin of the Snowskin Soursop mooncake I had was softer than that of the chocolate champagne mooncakes.
My Pastry
Booth at Compass Point Basement till 22 September 2010
Main kitchen: Shimei East Kitchen, 3015 Bedok North Street #04-08