Is it all from the same company? Or do multiple terrible cake companes all just share the same terrible formula?
Chinese cakes, desserts, etc use less sugar and are generally more bland than western recipes. It is a matter of different cultures having different tastes.
I’ll have to look into that idea! Honestly I never even imagined that these were even vaguely related to actual Chinese desserts; I entirely assumed they were just Western cake ideas, but impossibly cheap.
Like the pizza that’s always on those burgers. Even less authentic than the rest of the stuff, and somehow cheaper tasting than even Cici’s. (Not knocking the restaurants for that; gotta have something for the picky kids.)
In America in particular we use a ridiculous amount of sugar in everything. People used to eating Chinese food – like, the kind they eat in China – in my experience are typically unprepared for it. I worked for a Chinese restaurant for a while and my boss, who was Cantonese, tried and subsequently declared a wide array of American foodstuffs to be completely inedible due to being too sweet. Including stuff we don’t think of as being “sweet,” like ketchup.
I’d doubt the horrid sponge cake you find at the Chinese buffet is actually related to any imported Chinese confection, but it’s probably made according to the sensibilities of whoever is running the place. Especially if they ever plan on eating it themselves. (You laugh at this prospect. And yet: one of my boss’ favorite things to do on the rare holidays we were closed was to go to other Chinese restaurants that weren’t.)
For the record, ketchup is sweet as fuck. Delicious. And sweet. So is bbq sauce.
But is shouldn’t have to be, ketchup without any additional sweeteners, apart from the natural sugar from tomatoes, is really good.
Which cakes? I’ve searched my entire brain catalogue for Chinese cakes and I must say it was pretty empty. I didn’t know there were a particularly bad type sold at school cafeterias and cheap takeaways
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Chinese buffet sheet cake? On what planet?
Might be a regional thing. I’ve seen these in a hotel in Turkey.
