Petal Leaf Chinese Bakery – Flower Cakes 鲜花饼 (NYC)

A waltz of roses from Yunnan to New York.

Our experience

What’s your favourite Chinese bakery treat? Pineapple bun? Lao poh bing? Sponge cakes? Egg tarts? Honeycomb cakes? Mochi cakes? Tofu Pudding? We have previously rounded up NYC’s best Chinese bakeries (most of which have a Southern Chinese focus), we have compared two tofu pudding spots and two coconut jelly purveyors, and we have also featured an edgy modern Chinese patisserie. Although there has been a wave of Michelin-starred fine dining Korean restaurants elevating Korean desserts to incredible heights in NYC, we haven’t yet seen the same for Chinese restaurants (or even Japanese restaurant desserts, notwithstanding the constellation of omakase spots). So when we recently heard through IG about Petal Leaf — an online Chinese bakery that ships out traditional Yunnan-style “flower cakes” (鲜花饼; xian hua bing) — we immediately hopped online and ordered a sampler box of these cakes.

Petal Leaf’s flower cakes are individually-wrapped, and upon opening, exude a most fragrant twirl of roses. Filled with crushed edible rose petals, each possess just a whisper of sweetness. The flaky outer shell of each cake come infused with a few colours and flavours — with matcha, charcoal, and yam being the more colourful — but these purported flavours are somewhat muted or imperceptible against the strong rose flavours. Of the flower cakes in our box, we particularly loved the contrasting texture from the pine nuts, and the more subtle jasmine and chrysanthemum flower cakes over the rose cakes. They all pair beautifully with tea.

We haven’t seen cakes like Petal Leaf’s flower cakes at any other bakeries in Chinatown or elsewhere in NYC. They are well worth trying for when you are looking for traditional Chinese desserts originating from a province other than the Guandong and Fujian provinces which dominate NYC’s Chinese bakery scene.