User:Huawei Sun/sandbox

= Chinese bridal cake = Chinese bridal cake (Chinese: 喜饼; pinyin: xǐbǐng) is a flour based baked dessert given to guests in the Chinese wedding. It is mainly made of flour, white granulated sugar, and eggs. Its most prominent role is a kind of thank-you gift. Usually, host of the wedding party gives four Chinese bridal cakes to guests attending the wedding party to share their joy.

Historical allusion
According to popular legend, in the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei wanted to occupy Jingzhou but he was not sure where to start. Zhuge Liang came up with an idea for him that he could borrow the land. In order to retrieve Jing Zhou, Sun Quan pretended to agree that Liu Bei could marry Sun Quan's sister. After Zhuge Liang heard the news, he decided to achieve that a false thing becomes true. Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei decided to make some gifts and send these gifts to residents of Jingzhou. In this way, the news that Liu Bei was going to wed with Sun Quan's sister would be known to residents of Jingzhou. With the growing impact of this news, Sun Quan's mother was more likely to agree that Liu Bei got Sun Quan's sister for his wife. After the plan was made, Liu Bei asked skillful craftsmen to make wedding gifts for him. At that time, a master craftsman who had been making desserts for many years heard the news and he made a kind of Chinese bridal cake with a pattern of the dragon and the phoenix. The dragon and phoenix pattern symbolized good fortune as one wishes. As soon as this kind of cake was sent to Jingzhou, it was chosen by Zhuge Liang and the master craftsman was asked to make ten thousand cakes. Zhuge Liang ordered Zhao Yun to send these cakes to residents of Jingzhou. A few days later, all the residents in Jingzhou knew that Liu Bei was going to marry Sun Quan's sister. Later, Liu Bei in order to reward the craftsman, he built a Chinese bridal cake shop for the craftsman. After that, the Chinese bridal cake becomes one kind of gift of the wedding.

A kind of thank-you gift for guests
The Chinese bridal cake is the traditional food given to guests attending the wedding party. Usually, after a wedding, a guest can get four Chinese bridal cakes from the host. The Chinese bridal cake is a straight-forward way of conveying the newly-married couple's pleasure to guests attending the wedding party.

Blessing for newly-married couples
A guest who has a close relationship with the newly-married couple give Chinese bridal cakes as one kind of physical form of blessing to newlyweds. The more Chinese bridal cakes, the more blessings.

Traditional customs
A bride-to-be cannot eat Chinese bridal cakes sent by a bridegroom. Chinese bridal cakes stand for happiness, if a bride-to-be eats her own Chinese bridal cakes, it will symbolize that she eats her happiness, which is unlucky.

A guest who has a close relationship with the newly-married couple need to send Chinese bridal cakes as a present. When the wedding party is over, the newlywed only accepts half the number of Chinese bridal cakes from the guest, which symbolizes the newlywed accept the guest's blessing. In return, the newlywed convey their happiness of marriage by giving the same number of Chinese bridal cakes to the guest.

Types of Chinese bridal cakes
Traditional Chinese bridal cake is a regular round cake without filling. The traditional flavor of Chinese bridal cake is welcomed by the elderly. As the years change, there appears European flavor, such as chocolate, cream, coconut and so on, which is popular among the young.

Ingredients
Flour, eggs, yeast powder, peanut oil, white granulated sugar, milk.

Cooking
There is no drop of water in the Chinese bridal cake. Besides, peanut oil cannot be replaced by other edible oils. Using other edible oils to cook the bridal cake can change the bridal cake's unique taste. If someone does not like the taste of peanut oil, it should be heated up first. After finished, the bridal cake is in yellow. The quality of ingredients and the process of kneading a dough are key steps determining the quality of Chinese bridal cakes.