Of the many DIY activities we’ve tried in Taipei, my kids enjoyed the pineapple cake class at Kuo Yuan Ye Museum of Cake and Pastry the most.
In this hands-on activity, each kid got to make their own box of Taiwan’s most famous snack to take home. They also got to try on traditional Taiwanese clothing while the cakes were baking. The whole class took just under two hours.
In this article, I’ll share our whole pineapple cake making experience to help you decide if it’s for you. And keep in mind that adults are allowed to join this activity, too!
Related Articles:
– My taste comparison test of Taiwan’s most famous pineapple cake brands
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– Places our kids love visiting in Taiwan
How to Book the Pineapple Cake Making Class
It’s super easy to reserve a spot in the pineapple cake making class here on Klook or here on KKday. I suggest to book early because the class is popular and does sell out.
On the Klook page, you’ll find the option for 1 person (for anyone age 12+) or one adult + one child (under 12).
As I write this, it seems like afternoon tea is included with both, but sometimes there are options with or without afternoon tea. This is simply a glass of Taiwanese tea and little snack that you can enjoy towards the end of the activity.
On either platform, you’ll need to choose the date and 10 AM or 2 PM class – it will tell you which ones still have spots available.
When you arrive at Kuo Yuan Ye, you simply show the Klook QR code to the staff on the 4F.
How to Get There
Kuo Yuan Ye Museum of Cake & Pastry (郭元益糕餅博物館, pronounced “guo yuan yi“, see official site) is located in Shilin district of Taipei city. We took the MRT to Shilin station. It was a 7-minute walk from Exit 1 of the MRT station – we walked under the MRT overpass most of the way there.
Arriving at Kuo Yuan Ye, we entered the door just past the street level bakery then took an elevator up to the 4F.
Before or after your DIY class, you may want to visit other kid-friendly attractions in the area, including Taipei Children’s Amusement Park, National Taiwan Science Education Center, or Taipei Astronomical Museum. Each of these needs at least a couple hours to properly visit.
If you do the afternoon class, you could visit Shilin Night Market after, but you’d be a little early for it (most stalls get going around 5 PM). Shilin has the best collection of children’s games of any night market in Taipei and it has a giant 3D baby tiger. See my Shilin Night Market guide to find these.
Yet another kid-friendly idea in the area is the Shilin branch of poo-themed Modern Toilet restaurant, which is on the edge of the night market.
The DIY Pineapple Cake Class
As soon as the class started, all the participants were seated at large tables. They grouped people who spoke the same language (they provide instructions in Mandarin, English, Korean, and Japanese).
For my family, they put us at an “English table” denoted with a little American flag. My kids found this a little funny because we are Canadian, my wife is Taiwanese, and our whole family can understand Mandarin. Still, it’s nice that the activity caters to multiple languages.
We also noted that not all the participants in the room were parents with kids. There were a few tables of young adults who were most likely visitors to Taiwan.
The kids were instructed to put on aprons and the activity began.
The instructors led the class from a table at the front, which has a large, tilted mirror above it, so that everyone in the room could observe the steps.
Our kids were first guided through the steps to mix and knead the dough for the pineapple cake pastry. Of course the really enjoyed this part.
When ready, they shaped the dough into a log and cut off 10 sections for the 10 cakes they would make. They also received 10 pucks of pre-made pineapple cake jam to go in the center of each cake.
We learned that this jam consisted of 70% pineapple and 30% wintermelon (冬瓜), which is a pretty standard recipe for pineapple cakes in Taiwan.
You can read about the reason they add wintermelon and why some newer shops don’t use it anymore in my pineapple cakes guide.
Next, my kids wrapped the pastry dough around the pineapple jam pucks and then pressed them into rectangular molds to give the cakes their signature shape.
To make it more fun for kids, they provide little shapes like bunnies and dinosaurs that could be pressed onto the cakes. After this step, the cakes were ready to be baked.
While the cakes were baking, all of us were taken up to the 5F for a tour of the small museum. The museum includes a handful of displays about Taiwanese pastry history and some cultural customs connected to it.
One example is the baby drooling cookie ceremony (called 收涎 or “siu-nua” in Taiwanese). My kids were born and raised in Taiwan, so I definitely remember this one.
When babies in Taiwan reach four months, parents will tie a string with several cookies around the baby’s neck and let the baby drool on them. It’s a way to celebrate the child’s having reached 4 months and to give him/her wishes moving forward.
Anyways, to be honest, the museum tour wasn’t the best. There isn’t much in the museum, and because they are giving tours to multiple groups in different languages at the same time, all in the same small room, with each tour guide using a microphone, we found it a little noisy and hard to focus.
However, after the short tour ended, everyone got the chance to try on traditional Taiwanese qipaos in a connecting room. There were lots of choices for both boys and girls, including accessories and props for taking photos. This part was great!
We didn’t realize this was going to be included, and it was a very nice surprise. My son didn’t really care about it, but my daughter loved dressing up and she had time to try on several different outfits.
The pictures we got of this really made this activity worth the price for us! Note that there are many sizes of clothing, from child-sized to adult sized.
Related: Here are more places to try on traditional clothing in Taiwan.
After around 20 minutes of trying on the clothes, it was time to go back to the DIY baking room. The pineapple cakes were fresh out of the oven, so the room smelled great!
The final step was to individually wrap each cake and place them in a nice take-away box. During this step, we got to enjoy our afternoon tea set and each kid got to win a little prize from a gashapon machine.
They also gave away a few bigger prizes, boxes of other Kuo Yuan Ye pastries, and my daughter was one of the winners!
At this point, the activity was finished. Last but not least, every person received a voucher for TWD 50 towards anything in the bakery on the 1F. Pretty much everyone from the class went to the bakery after, as you can get at least one free item with this.
In the shop, we noted that Kuo Yuan Ye has regular pineapple cakes (just like the ones we’d just made), 100% pure pineapple ones, pineapple and egg yolk cakes (my personal favorite), and pearl milk tea ones (sounds interesting, but not my favorite).
They also had various other pastries for sale, as well as some halal options.
The TWD 50 voucher is smart, as we could see that most people spent well over 50 in the shop.
I should also mention that if you just want to buy their cakes, Kuo Yuan Ye also has shops all over Taipei, including one in Taipei Main Station and another in Taipei 101.
When we went back to my father-in-law’s place after the class, the kids’ agong (grandfather) was so happy to taste the pineapple cakes made by his grandkids.
All of us were surprised how good our DIY cakes taste – really no different than the real thing, just not quite as perfectly shaped (although they were very close!)
Overall, I highly recommend this DIY class for anyone visiting or living in Taipei with kids, or even for adults who want to give it a try!
Hi
If only my son (13) and I wanted to do the making of pineapple cake, can husband come and watch?
It seems like the deals on Klook and KKday are always 1 kid + 1 parent. But if he just wants to watch, I think you can just pay for 1 parent, and bring him along. He might have to pay a small additional fee at the door.