Freddy's Harajuku

Pistachio and chocolate milk bread babkas

So when I was making this recipe, I wanted to do something babka-esque, and as I was measuring out the dry ingredients to make a brioche, it dawned upon me that maybe doing a milk bread babka could be a lot of fun! With brioche, it is rich, dense, and buttery. With milk bread, you…

Yaki Imo Basque Cheesecakes

These cheesecakes were the brainchild of me having purchased far too many yams and trying to figure out how to get rid of them. I remember fondly eating yaki imo as a child, which are just yams that are roasted on coals, and then served to you, wrapped up in parchment and piping hot. They…

Plated devil’s food cake

I was playing around with a new silicone bar mold that I just bought, and that’s where this dessert came from. Well, that and me wanting to make a dessert that was inspired by chocolate and tofu. We have a chocolate cake with a tofu-chocolate mousse, soy caramel ganache, cocoa praline, and a tofu ice…

Skyward bound: a plated dessert

I really only came up with this dessert because I wanted to do something with a burnt honey cremeaux. I don’t know WHY I wanted to do something with a burnt honey cremeaux, it just sounded like a cool component, and that was really it. Something about a silky, creamy texture of a set custard-like…

“Wake up and smell the roses”: a crepe bouquet

For the ruby chocolate ganache:3/4 cups ruby chocolate1/4 cup heavy cream1 tablespoon unsalted buttera pinch of salt Melt together your ingredient in a pot on low heat. Pour through a sieve. Reserve 1/4 cup of your ganache for the mousse balls. For the rose and ruby chocolate mousse balls:1/4 cup ganache2 tablespoons rose hip jam1/4…

Coconut Delight Entremet

I actually made this for my sister’s birthday back in August, since I knew that she loves Coconut Delights/Samoas, and this cake made perfect sense for that. My typical format for an entremet is chiffon cake, mousse, maybe a filling in the mousse, and the mirror glaze. For this one, I wanted to semi-change it…

Goodnight, Meteorite: a plated dessert

So I actually made a dessert years ago, though realistically most of you wouldn’t know that because this was pre-Masterchef, aka the period of time where legit nobody really knew about me, named Goodnight, Meteor. That dessert featured coffee, chocolate, and cookies. So I wanted to take that, and redo it in a cooler format….

Snow White’s Apple: a plated dessert

I really wanted to work with custard apple, also called cherimoya, and that’s where the inspiration came from for this dessert. Custard apple, as the name suggests, tastes like a creamy pear or apple. The catch is that it has tons of poisonous seeds in it that need to be removed. Ugh, me with inedible…

Peach “mille feuille”

I came up with this dessert because I wanted to try something new, and also in honor of two restaurants in L.A., Vespertine and Auburn(R.I.P. Auburn, you will be missed dearly). In Vespertine, we had this gorgeous parsnip and pear dessert where they garnished the edges of the bowl with circles of shaved pear. In…

Storms and bad weather: a plated dessert

When I was conceptualizing this dessert, I wanted to come up with something with a lot of visual contrast and tropical flavors. So I went with passionfruit, and since the inside of a passionfruit is yellow and black, I wanted to focus on those two colors. I knew I wanted to make the dessert inspired…

Pork belly and mushroom cream stew

I love making cream stew. In Japan, they make it all the time, and it’s this velvety, creamy(as the name would suggest) sauce with braised meat and vegetables in it. If you have ever had Japanese curry before, it’s like that, but without the spices, making for a very delicate flavor profile. Truthfully, it has…

The clock strikes 12: a plated dessert

So this dessert is obviously inspired by Cinderella and her pumpkin carriage. I wanted the dessert to resemble the carriage first, but when you crack into it, you’re undoing the enchantment, and you’re left with a pumpkin flan, or in this case, a kabocha squash flan. I went with more Asian flavors on this one…

Strawberry Jewel Box Cake

I came up with this recipe for a friend of mine’s birthday. She happened to be a designer, so I knew this cake needed to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible. When it come to preferences, she specified liking lighter cakes with lots of cream and fresh fruit, so I knew I could do something…

Yo-Yo- Tsuri: a plated dessert

When I was conceptualizing this dessert, I was mostly just focusing on what things come to mind when I think of the summer. In this case, I remembered Omasturi(お祭) which is a festival in Japan where they celebrate the village gods(御神輿) with games and other celebrations. One such game was where you fish for water…

Double chocolate macarons

I love all things chocolate. With these macarons, I wanted to feature a chocolate or cocoa infused shell, but I also wanted to make a French buttercream-ganache hybrid, since the cocoa fat in chocolate can emulsify beautifully with both egg yolk and butterfat to create a beautiful, luscious mouthfeel(albeit one that may or may not…

Strawberry-elderflower macarons

I love strawberry and elderflower anything. I think that this should be a more popular and recognized combination, just because it combines tart and sweet red fruit with floral, lychee-like elderflower for a balanced, pleasant combination. I had to use food coloring in these, as my usual go-to’s of pitaya powder and beetroot powder actually…

My Key to Happiness: a plated dessert

This dessert is meant to be inspired by a ton o things I love to eat or make me happy. That included salted caramel, chocolate, cream, butter, and flowers. We have a chocolate-peanut crumble on the bottom, a tempered chocolate sphere with gold leaf, stuffed with chocolate mousse and caramel-braised peanuts, edible flowers and micro…

Black tea, honey, and bee pollen macarons

These macarons were just something I was making because I was craving some tea. So I did a honey, bee pollen, and black tea French buttercream to fill them! Surprisingly, these ones actually came out quite nicely, and I was happy with almost every single shell, which is very rare for me! I really just…

Scattered wind chime: a plated dessert

So this was my first dessert where I attempted to use isomalt for blown sugar. I was trying to redo a dessert I made years ago, but using some more interesting technique. The base of the dessert is a blackberry-yuzu posset, while we also have matcha crumble, blackberry-yuzu gelee, yuzu curd, and the isomalt to…

Time: a plated dessert

When I was listening to Utada Hikaru’s song “Time”, I was thinking about what kinds of desserts could accompany that soulful, slow, jazzy tune. I thought about coffee, cafes, and other things pertaining to that, and from there, my mind went to hojicha. Hojicha is a toasted Japanese green tea, with this nutty, earthy flavor…