Freddy's Harajuku

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…

Black cacao tiramisu: a petit gateau

The first time I ever worked with black cacao was actually at Milkbar, when I had some downtime to test whatever I wanted. I stumbled upon a small container of black cacao powder, and I was really curious. I opened it, sniffed it a little, and it had this earthy, but fragrant aroma. It was…

Curation: a plated dessert

So this dessert was inspired by a summer road trip going to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad and getting strawberry shortcake by the road! I wanted to take that memory and turn it into a dessert, which is what we have here. So we have an elderflower and pistachio mousse with a strawberry liquid core,…

Ramune-Calpico ice pops

I used to have ramune popsicles all the time in Taiwan at my grandma’s house. Also referred to as “soda pop” over there, they were these popsicles made from ramune, a popular melon-citrus flavored soda, made popular in Japan, but available in almost any Asian supermarket. Ramune are typically packaged in these blue bottles with…

Fireflies in the night: a plated dessert

So when I first acquired pandan-buko extract, I had to play around with it a ton, since I had very little familiarity with it. Upon testing it with dango, I found out that it turns things green because of how strong of a green coloring that extract had. So I wanted to capitalize on that,…

Almond-cherry-chocolate layer cake

Whenever summer rolls around, some of my favorite ingredients to work with include lychees, peaches, rhubarb, and cherries. I wanted to make a dessert that showcases fresh cherries, but I did not want to make another cherry tart, since I spent an entire summer making way too many of those. So instead, I went the…

“Wishing star”: a plated dessert

I really only came up with this dessert because I wanted to test my new chocolate sphere molds. So I knew chocolate was going to be a central part of the dessert, but then I thought about what I could pair that with. Luckily, there was a large bin of pistachios in front of me,…

Bee who I want 2 bee: a plated dessert

I came up with this dessert because I was craving medovik, or Russian honey cake. That is essentially just an icebox cake with honey wafers. I love to infuse mine with bee pollen, just to give it a unique flavor. Since it would be kind of boring to just do the medovik, I went with…

Kinako chiffon sandwiches with black rice cream and mochi

These were really just my take on a dorayaki sandwich. I wanted to do something wagashi-inspired, and I also wanted to try baking chiffon cake in circles, like a whoopie pie, so that’s how this dessert came about! I used kinako, a toasted soy bean powder, to flavor the actual chiffon cake itself, while I…

Starry night: lucuma tarts

If you were to ask me what I have been up to in terms of my cooking, I would probably present you with these lucuma tarts. They perfectly represent how much I have been doing research on Latin American-cuisine, as well as tie into my background at Milkbar. The shells are made with lucuma, being…

Summertime: a plated dessert

When I was conceptualizing this dessert, I wanted to focus on three specific ingredients, being peaches, blood orange, and olive oil. I have done olive oil desserts in the past, but most, if not basically all of them, featured an olive oil cake, or an olive oil gelato. So I decided to go a different…

“Worms and dirt”: a plated dessert

I mostly made this dessert because I was craving black rice pudding, and just felt like making it. So I made a take on it, being more like a custard. But I wanted to also make a conceptualized dessert out of it, and celebrate rice in general. So I thought about what else I could…

Ube Basque cheesecake

I’ve made Basque cheesecakes before, but I wanted to try making another flavor, using leftover use paste that I had in my refrigerator. You know, a two in one. Practice a baked good, and also use up an ingredient/flavor that I have not necessarily touched in a while. Ube is a Filipino purple yam, and…