Tucked away in Fuping County, Shaanxi Province, there’s a humble golden-brown pastry with a name fit for royalty: the Empress Dowager Cake – or Taihou Bing (太后饼) in Chinese. With a history stretching back over 2,000 years, this crispy, flaky treat is more than just a snack – it’s a taste of ancient China’s imperial court, a symbol of a mother’s love, and a proud bearer of Shaanxi’s intangible cultural heritage.
The Legend: A Mother’s Love and a Baby Emperor
The story begins in the early Western Han dynasty, around the 2nd century BCE. According to legend, the future Emperor Wen of Han (Liu Heng) was still a baby in arms when his mother, Empress Dowager Bo, found herself struggling to feed him. Her milk was insufficient, and the infant prince cried constantly from hunger, leaving his mother desperate and heartbroken.
One day, the empress rushed into the imperial kitchen, searching for something – anything – that could nourish her child. Her eyes fell upon a mound of glistening white pork leaf fat (猪板油) on the chopping board. Recognising it as a rich, nourishing ingredient, she had an idea. She mixed the pork fat into leavened dough, rolled it into small strips, and baked them over an open fire. The baby Liu Heng took a bite and loved it. The snack was crispy, chewy, soft, and satisfying – enough to sustain a future emperor.
This humble creation was called Huoqu (火曲) – literally “fire-baked pastry” – and it became the precursor to today’s Empress Dowager Cake.
From Imperial Kitchen to Local Delicacy
Years later, after Liu Heng had grown up and ascended the throne, Empress Dowager Bo often travelled to Liyang – present-day Fuping County – to visit her elderly mother, who lived there. Each time she made the journey, she brought along imperial chefs who baked these beloved pastries. Over time, the locals learned the technique from the court chefs, and the pastry spread throughout the region. In honour of its imperial origin – and the mother who created it – people named it Taihou Bing: “Empress Dowager Cake”.
There’s another version of the legend as well. Some say that when Empress Dowager Bo visited her mother, the old lady would serve these pastries to her daughter. The empress loved them so much that she would share them with the local people, and the pastry’s fame grew naturally from there.
A Craft That Stands the Test of Time
What makes the Empress Dowager Cake so special? It all comes down to the ingredients – and the hands that make it.
The pastry is made from just a few key ingredients: high-quality wheat flour, pork leaf fat, honey, salt, and ground spices like cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and star anise. The pork fat is carefully trimmed, diced, and then mashed with a knife back into a smooth paste, with the spices and salt gradually worked in. The flour is kneaded into a soft dough and rolled out into thin sheets. The seasoned fat paste is spread evenly over the dough, which is then rolled up, coiled into a circle, and pressed into a flat round cake. A touch of honey dissolved in warm water is brushed on top for a glossy finish, and sometimes sesame seeds are sprinkled over the surface for extra fragrance and texture.
The cakes are baked in a traditional three-pan clay oven (san shan ao) – a distinctive Shaanxi baking tool that gives the pastries their authentic rustic character. The whole process involves over a dozen handcrafted steps, from kneading and resting the dough to shaping, seasoning, and baking.
The result is a pastry that is golden-brown on the outside, crispy and flaky, yet tender and soft within. It’s savoury and fragrant, with just a hint of sweetness from the honey glaze. Locals describe it as “so soft that even someone with no teeth can eat it” – a testament to its delicate, melt-in-the-mouth texture.
A Living Heritage
For over two millennia, the Empress Dowager Cake was passed down through generations, mostly within families and small local shops. It wasn’t until the late Qing dynasty that the pastry began to appear in historical records, associated with a master baker named Wang Jingzhou (王荆州, known locally as “Jingzhou Wang”), who was considered the modern inheritor of the craft. In the 1930s, Wang set up a stall outside a grocery shop in Fuping and taught his skills to a young man named Meng Zhenhan, establishing a lineage that continues to this day.
In 2010, the traditional making techniques of Fuping Empress Dowager Cake were officially inscribed on Shaanxi Province’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, securing its place as a treasured part of China’s culinary heritage.
The Empress Dowager Cake Today
Today, the Empress Dowager Cake is more than just a piece of history – it’s a beloved everyday breakfast in Fuping. Locals start their mornings with a couple of these golden pastries, accompanied by a bowl of rice porridge or oil tea and a few small side dishes – a simple, comforting meal that warms both body and soul.
Modern inheritors like Zhai Jiangfeng (翟江峰), the owner of Lu’s Empress Dowager Cake Shop（陆氏太后饼店） on Lianhu Street in Fuping, are keeping the tradition alive while embracing innovation. Zhai, whose mother-in-law Lu Yuzhen (陆玉珍) was a third-generation disciple of Master Wang Jingzhou (王荆州), has been perfecting the craft for years. While staying true to the traditional clay-oven baking method, he has adjusted the proportion of pork fat to suit modern tastes and developed new flavours like osmanthus and spring onion. He has also begun selling the pastries through both online and offline channels, and is working on establishing a central kitchen for larger-scale production.
Where to Find It
If you’re visiting Shaanxi Province, the best place to taste authentic Empress Dowager Cakes is Fuping County （富平县）, about an hour’s drive northeast of Xi’an. Look for Lu’s Empress Dowager Cake Shop 陆氏太后饼店 on Lianhu Street, run by inheritor (Zhai Jiangfeng 翟江峰). You’ll also find the pastries at local breakfast stalls and traditional pastry shops throughout the county. In recent years, the pastry has even made its way to hotel and restaurant menus in Xi’an, where it’s served to international guests as a taste of Shaanxi’s imperial heritage.
A Bite of History
Every bite of an Empress Dowager Cake carries the warmth of a mother’s love, the elegance of the Han imperial court, and the dedication of generations of bakers who have refused to let this ancient craft die. It’s a pastry that has survived wars, dynasties, and centuries of change – and it’s waiting for you to discover it.
Leave a Reply