Hong tao guo, the peach cake
A pink cake in the shape of a peach, a longevity character pressed into the face, used both for celebrations and for the ancestors.
Pronunciation hóng táo guǒ｜Food and tea｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
Rice flour for the skin, coloured red, pressed in a peach-shaped mould, the filling usually glutinous rice, mushroom, dried shrimp and peanut. The peach stands for long life, and the character pressed into the base of the mould comes out on the face of the cake; it turns from pale to peach red only in the steam.
The savoury filling differs by household. The common one is chives, diced mushroom, shrimp, peanut and diced pork, prepared in separate piles and then mixed.
When it is eaten
At the festivals and at celebrations: the seventh month, ancestral sacrifices, weddings, birthdays. It is the commonest of the rice cakes, and there is hardly an offering without it.
Words easily confused
It is a kind of rice cake, not a red peach. It is usually named alongside the mouse-ear cake, black and for Qingming, and the sweet cake, for the new year: three cakes, three different festivals.
Read next: Chaoshan rice cakes: a kind for every festival.
See also: Birth rites: the peach cakes given to the neighbours at the first birthday.
Same group: guo, the rice cake, the mouse-ear cake, the sweet cake.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026