Tutuo sesame cake is also known as warped-pot sesame pastry or hanging-pot sesame pastry. As a traditional snack in Yubei, it originated in the 1920s. For Yubei people, Tutuo sesame cake is not only food but also a childhood memory. In 2014, Tutuo sesame cake was included in Chongqing's municipal intangible cultural heritage list.
The process of making Yubei Tutuo Sesame Cake
Li Cheng, aged 58, is the third-generation inheritor of Tutuo sesame cake in Chongqing. It has been 39 years since Li learned to make Tutuo sesame cake as an apprentice. The process of making Tutuo sesame cake includes 12 procedures, namely, washing sesame and pressing oil, boiling sugar and making syrup, selecting filling materials, chopping filling materials and sesame, mixing fillings, kneading dough and baking a cake, wrapping filling in groups, stretching and rolling the cakes to make them take shape, adding sesame with bamboo sifter, shaking cakes and turning cakes over, baking cakes in a warped cake, and observing the color and finish making. The fillings are mainly white sugar, sesame oil, white gourd paste, and kumquat grain, etc., and ham, sweet-scented osmanthus, rose, jujube paste, and other materials can be appropriately added to cater to customers' different tastes.
Li Cheng, aged 58, is the third-generation inheritor of Tutuo sesame cake in Chongqing.