Top 10 Most Delicious Traditional Cakes of South Korea

1. Gyeongdan (Rice Cake Balls)

Easterners seem to possess a natural talent: turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. If Japan boasts the delicate art of wagashi making, then their Korean counterparts have every right to pride themselves on their rice cake creations. Characterized by their intricacy, beauty, and artistry, these cakes are akin to works of art that make one forget their humble origins. The name Gyeongdan originates from the shape of the cake resembling precious gemstones. It's one of the famous traditional cakes of the land of kimchi, often seen during festivals and celebrations, symbolizing luck and reunion.

Korean-style rice cake balls are made by kneading glutinous rice flour with hot water, shaping them into round balls, then boiling and coating them with a sweet layer of various ingredients. The color and flavor of the cakes vary depending on the outer coating. Enjoying these chewy and fragrant rice cake balls with family and loved ones during festive occasions is truly incomparable. Korean rice flour may not be inherently fancy, but it possesses distinct qualities: smoothness, high moisture content, making traditional Korean rice cakes chewy and resilient. Through the skilled hands of talented artisans, humble rice flour transforms into stunning cakes that enchant all who taste them.

2. Songpyeon (Half-moon Shaped Rice Cakes)

Songpyeon, the half-moon shaped rice cake, is a distinctive Korean treat enjoyed during the mid-autumn festival. While Vietnam has its baked and sticky rice cakes, Korea boasts Songpyeon. Made from kneaded rice flour mixed with warm water, these cakes are filled with various ingredients such as sweet bean paste, sesame seeds, and pine nuts, then molded into crescent shapes and steamed until cooked. Every year during the mid-autumn festival, families in Korea gather together to make Songpyeon. It's believed that by crafting beautiful cakes, they'll be blessed with a beautiful daughter.

Feminine in name, appearance, and delightful colors, Songpyeon can captivate any food lover's heart. Koreans believe that the 'waxing and waning moon' symbolizes luck and prosperity, hence the distinctive crescent shape of this treat. These petite moon-shaped cakes, filled with autumn-inspired ingredients like red beans, chestnuts, and pine nuts, encapsulate the essence of the fall season. To this day, they remain immensely popular in Korea. Each mid-autumn season, Songpyeon becomes a national delicacy, increasingly diverse in colors, textures, and sometimes adorned with delicate floral patterns.

South Korea is renowned for its plethora of traditional, aromatic, and enticing dishes. Among them, Yangwa cake stands out as a favorite. Also known as honey cake, it has been a long-standing delicacy in South Korea. The taste of this cake is remarkably refreshing and captivating from the first bite. Enjoying each piece of honey cake with a hot cup of tea on a chilly day is simply delightful. The cake is primarily made from glutinous rice flour, sesame oil, pure honey, and liquor. Afterwards, it is pressed into square molds, fried, and then dipped in honey.

South Korea is famous for its many traditional dishes, not only for their deliciousness but also for their allure. Honey cake is one of the traditional sweet treats in South Korea, often served at festivals, celebrations, rituals, or given as gifts to loved ones on special occasions due to its elegant and sophisticated appearance. If you're a fan of this delectable cake, then don't hesitate to prepare the ingredients and start baking right away.

Bindaetteok

The pancake is fried until golden and enjoyed hot. Indulging in this delicacy on the chilly winter days in South Korea is quite a delightful experience. There are various versions of this pancake, with different ingredients contributing to unique flavors. As a popular street food snack, the preparation of Korean mung bean pancakes is simple. You can easily recreate this fragrant and delicious Korean treat at home for your family without much effort.

Renowned for their exceptional beauty skills, Koreans excel not only in cosmetics but also in creating edible masterpieces. Hobaktteok, a familiar treat among Koreans during festivals, birthdays, or daily meals, is a testament to their culinary artistry. Made with simple ingredients like rice flour, pumpkin, jujubes, and pumpkin seeds, this cake boasts an enticing golden hue and a soft, sweet, fragrant blend of pumpkin and tangy jujube flavors. It's irresistibly delicious and easy to make, ensuring you'll never tire of it.

Hobaktteok, primarily crafted from red pumpkin, is considered a healthy dish. This traditional Korean food, originating from rice cakes, has a long history. It's served as a staple food in place of rice or as a special treat for celebrations and birthdays. There are various types of tteok made with different main ingredients. Let's make this cake and enjoy it together!

Korean cuisine never fails to captivate tourists with its unique flavors and vibrant colors. Dasik is a type of crisp cake made from roasted grain flour, oriental herbs or flower pollen, and honey. What sets this cake apart is the special molds used to shape it - dasik molds featuring birds, flowers, or Hanja characters. Dasik boasts a unique flavor profile that harmonizes the sweetness of honey with other ingredients. Depending on the ingredients, dasik can come in various colors such as white, yellow, black, green, brown, or red.

Dasik is a dessert often enjoyed with tea. In ancient times, dasik was commonly served during tea ceremonies of the Korean nobility and royalty, offering a delightful and aromatic experience to relax and relieve stress effectively. The basic ingredients of dasik include rice flour, black sesame seeds, or green beans. Both the shape and color of dasik are highly valued as they carry different cultural meanings.

Korean homemade pastries always have a distinct charm as they are not only delicious but also visually appealing, meticulously crafted by skillful housewives, paying attention to both decoration and presentation. One of the delicious traditional Korean pastries to mention is the plum blossom cake. The name of the maejakgwa dish is derived from its shape resembling a sparrow (jak) perching on a plum blossom (maehwa) tree. Despite its somewhat unusual name, the preparation and enjoyment of this dish are simple yet delightful.

This is a type of cake made from familiar ingredients and a fairly simple recipe. Maejakgwa is made from wheat flour with salt, ginger water, thinly sliced, cut in the middle, then rolled up, fried in oil, coated with sugar syrup, and sprinkled with pine nuts and cinnamon powder. The cake is crispy, sweet, and has a particularly fragrant cinnamon flavor, suitable for nibbling even on chilly days. No need for an oven, no need for complex ingredients, and no need for overly complicated cooking methods - that's the characteristic of this cake. Just hearing about it is already tempting, isn't it?

Yaksik - Medicinal Cake is one of the famous traditional desserts of Korea, made with glutinous rice, nuts, and jujubes. The cake is mixed with a rich brown sauce made from black sugar, cinnamon, soy sauce, and sesame oil before steaming. After cooking and cooling, they are often cut into perfectly sized squares that can be held by hand. Many Koreans consider Yaksik as a health-boosting food, perhaps why it's called 'medicinal cake.' Besides, Yaksik is closely associated with the full moon festival of Korea every year – one of the country's major holidays, with a long history attached to it.

Alongside dishes like Tteokguk or Jeon, Yaksik (Medicinal Cake) is an indispensable part of the meal for Koreans during traditional Tet. According to tradition, the medicinal cake is eaten on the 15th day of the Korean lunar calendar. However, nowadays, this dish is also prepared and enjoyed on many other festive occasions. Not only delicious and appealing, but the medicinal cake also ranks among the list of foods with health-boosting properties due to its ingredients. The medicinal cake is also a favorite dessert among Korean children.

Renowned as the land of rice wine, not only used for drinking, Koreans also ingeniously create a type of cake much favored by tourists, the Jeungpyeon rice wine cake. It's become one of those dishes you crave for in Korea. Though not the most famous dessert of the land of Kimchi, Jeungpyeon rice wine cake is a traditional dish cherished by the Korean people. The cake has a unique wine flavor, slightly tangy, soft and smooth, perfect for hot summer days. Despite being widely available nowadays, to truly savor this delicacy, one must visit Korea.

Jeungpyeon rice wine cake is made from kneaded rice flour and the essential ingredient is rice wine. Inside the cake are jujubes, pine nuts, chestnuts, and mushrooms. The cake is prepared by steaming, and when you eat it, you'll taste all the harmonious flavors, with the strongest being the wine flavor, making the cake even more delicious and unique, unlike any other cake in Korea. The cake has a slight tangy taste and is quite soft, especially not feeling heavy; one person can eat two or three pieces at a time, as the cakes are made in small, adorable square shapes, with impressive colors.

Baekseolgi is understood as rice cake with a white and fluffy appearance like snow. This cake is steamed in a traditional earthenware pot called siru. Baekseolgi steamed rice cake was not a daily cuisine in the past, only enjoyed on special occasions such as festivals, weddings, ancestral rites, or significant events. Because Baekseolgi steamed rice cake is pure white, it is a typical dish symbolizing good fortune and happiness. For example, on a baby's 100th-day celebration, parents would offer Baekseolgi steamed rice cake to 100 people, believing that by doing so, the child will be healthy, free from illness, and live a long life according to Korean traditional beliefs.

Koreans consider rice cakes to have much more value and significance than rice itself, so there are many folk songs and proverbs related to this culinary item. This cake is relatively simple to make, using traditional ingredients such as: glutinous rice flour, fine sugar as the main ingredients; nuts, pine nuts, jujubes for decoration, and cocoa powder, cherry blossom powder, green tea powder for color. This type of cake is only eaten with family members, not shared with friends or neighbors.