''Hwajeon'', kkotbukkumi, kkotjijimi, () or flower cake is a small Korean pan-fried

rice cake A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten. Common variations include ...

. It is made out of glutinous

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

and edible

petal Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corol ...

s from seasonal flowers, such as

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

. It is eaten during the festivals of Samjinnal and

Buddha's Birthday Buddha's Birthday or Buddha Day (also known as Buddha Jayanti, Buddha Purnima, and Buddha Pournami) is a primarily Buddhist festival that is celebrated in most of South Asia, South, Southeast Asia, Southeast and East Asia, commemorating the bir ...

Etymology

The word ''hwajeon'' () is a compound noun made of the

hanja Hanja (; ), alternatively spelled Hancha, are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language. After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese, they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. () ...

character ''hwa'' (), meaning "flower", and the character '' jeon'' (), meaning "a pan-fry". The synonyms ''kkot-bukkumi'' () and ''kkot-jijimi'' () are also compounds of the native Korean word ''kkot'' (), meaning "flower", and '' bukkumi'' (), meaning a "pan-fried

"; or ''kkot'' () and '' jijimi'' (), meaning "pancake".

Varieties and preparation

''Hwajeon'' is made of edible

s from seasonal flowers. Typically,

, pear flower, goldenbell flower,

cherry blossom The cherry blossom, or sakura, is the flower of trees in ''Prunus'' subgenus '' Cerasus''. ''Sakura'' usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, such as cultivars of ''Prunus serrulata'', not trees grown for their fruit (although ...

, and violet are used in spring;

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

is used in summer; and

chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums ( ), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants in the Asteraceae family. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia, and the center of diversity is in China. Co ...

and cockscomb are used in autumn. In winter when flowers are scarce in Korea, alternatives like

mugwort Mugwort is a common name for several species of aromatic flowering plants in the genus '' Artemisia.'' In Europe, mugwort most often refers to the species '' Artemisia vulgaris'', or common mugwort. In East Asia the species '' Artemisia argyi'' ...

leaves, waterdropwort leaves, rock tripe, or

jujube Jujube (UK ; US or ), sometimes jujuba, scientific name ''Ziziphus jujuba'', and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus '' Ziziphus'' in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. It is often confused wit ...

s are cut into flower shapes and used instead.'' There are two main ways of preparing ''hwajeon'': * Glutinous

is seasoned with salt, pounded into fine

, and kneaded with boiling water. The dough is made into a small, round, flat shape and pan-fried in

sesame oil Sesame oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from sesame seeds. The oil is one of the earliest-known crop-based oils. Worldwide mass modern production is limited due to the inefficient manual harvesting process required to extract the oil. ...

. Flower petals are placed and lightly pressed on the dough while frying on the griddle. * Fine glutinous rice flour is kneaded into thick dough and rolled into thick sheets. Flower petals are then placed onto the dough, lightly pressed, and the sheets are cut with ''hwajeon-tong'', a utensil similar to cookie cutter, with diameter. The flower cakes are fried in sesame oil. This method was used in Korean royal court cuisine. Fried flower cakes are soaked in

to add sweetness and sprinkled with

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

powder.

''Hwajeon nori''

''Hwajeon nori'', which literally translates to "flower cake play", is a tradition of going on a picnic in the mountains to watch the seasonal flowers during spring and autumn. In spring, women used to go on a picnic, carrying a glutinous rice flour and griddle near a stream on '' Samjinnal'' which falls on every third day of the third lunar month in the

Korean calendar Throughout its many years of history, various calendar systems have been used in Korea. Many of them were adopted from the Lunar calendar, lunar Chinese calendar system, with modifications occasionally made to accommodate Korea's geographic locat ...

. They picked edible spring blossoms and made ''hwajeon''. The variety made with

is regarded as the most representative ''hwajeon''. It is traditionally eaten with rhododendron punch consisting of the same flower floating in honeyed or magnolia berry water. Similarly, people enjoyed ''hwajeon nori'' in autumn, with ''hwajeon'' which is made with

flowers and leaves. It was consumed with chrysanthemum wine or yuja punch. The custom is closely related to the '' Junggu'', the traditional holiday falls on every ninth day of the ninth lunar month in the Korean calendar. These customs date back to the

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dominated China from AD 220 to 280 following the end of the Han dynasty. This period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and followed by the Jin dynasty (266–420), Western Jin dyna ...

era (57 BCE ‒ 668 AD) and originated in

Silla Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...

References

{{Portal bar, Food Flower dishes Korean pancakes Tteok

Etymology

Varieties and preparation

''Hwajeon nori''

See also

References