SHAPED like a begonia flower, haitang cake, with its red bean paste filling and white sugar topping, is a traditional snack popular among Shanghai’s older generation.

The cake tastes best when it is steaming hot out of a clay oven. The first bite is through crispy outer skin; the ensuing taste is smooth, hot red bean paste mixed with the lard oil.

To cook the cake requires a special mold shaped like a begonia. The batter, with lard, soybean paste, sugar and other ingredients a cook might prefer, is poured into the mold and baked in a clay oven until its crust turns a brownish red.

“I often decorate the cake with shredded dried fruits and nuts after it’s baked,” said Wang Jinlong, who has been making this old-fashioned snack on Qibao Old Street for more than 13 years. “And it does look just like a flowering begonia.”

Haitang cake is hard to find nowa­days in downtown centers. It is a strange concoction to young people.

“Ah, well, they have so many snack choices,” Wang said.

“They aren’t interested in haitang cake. Most of my customers are old people who remember the taste,” Wang added.