The first time I ever had a cake presented to me in such a fashion was at Hinoki and the Bird. I wanted to recreate that same Devil’s Food Cake for years, and now I’ve finally done…. after they had already removed it from their menu. Oh well, at least it’s mine, and only mine….
Category: Mousse cakes
Swan song Boston cream pie
This dessert was inspired by two things: my friend and (sadly, now ex-)coworker Christine, and Boston, the city I have come to love in the past four years, but had to part ways with. Christine and I would often talk about Boston, because she’s wanted to go for quite some time. Additionally, her nickname at…
Strawberry cheesecake tiramisu
This dessert is an oldie but a goodie for me. Tiramisu is an Italian classic, typically made with whipped mascarpone cheese and coffee-amaretto soaked ladyfingers, topped with cocoa powder. The coffee and alcohol are there to give you a little “pick me up”, but I wanted to have that same effect with just strawberries. For…
Banana-salted caramel doughnut creams
I’ve finally settled on calling the doughnut entremet-things doughnut creams, mostly because it’s a lot easier to say. For this recipe, I opted for banana and salted caramel, nuanced with brown butter and walnuts. The layers for this cake are a brown butter-banana-nut cake, salted caramel bavarian cream, caramelized mirror glaze, salted caramel, and bruleed…
Eternal memories: a plated concept
I was inspired to create this concept from a song by Crystal Kay of the same name. The chorus talks about finding yourself, despite how difficult that may be to do so. The song just reminded me of my own culinary journey so to speak, coming up from being a vegan cupcake baker to a…
Black bottom cheesecake doughnut creams
I constantly crave black bottom cheesecake: a rich, chocolate cake that enrobes a creamy cheesecake. For this recipe, I wanted to do that, but in a doughnut shaped entremet, or mousse cake. When it comes to chocolate cakes, there are just too many different kinds to make, ranging from the Viennese sacher torte to the…
Tarte Tatin Mirror Glaze Cake
This really just came about when I was thinking about a dessert for a family friend. I saw a very specific mirror glaze cake, that used a disk of passionfruit gelee or jam, and I thought about what other fruits I can do the same technique with. Since it was during the holidays, I wanted…
Black sesame-matcha cheesecake doughnut cream
I came across the inspiration for this concept on Instagram, where I saw a chef make a double decker cake doughnut that was pressed into a mousse then glazed in a mirror glaze. I believe it was called a tiger doughnut, because of the pattern on it. For my own version of it, I decided…
Tale of two princes: a plated concept
This dessert is a literal translation of who I am. It features two princes in the form of desserts, being the Prince of the Sky, and the Prince of the Snow. The Prince of the Sky represents my hometown of Palos Verdes, where wild fennel and peacocks foam; fennel is featured in four applications in…
Red velvet-raspberry entremet
Now you cannot deny the beauty of a mirror glaze cake. You can try, but you are just kidding yourself. Since my last attempt at a mirror glaze cake, I have decided to have at it with another one, this time, a raspberry infused red velvet entremet. The design was actually inspired by my friend,…
Lotus + pond cake
This cake concept came about after my friend, Christina, was so kind as to share with me drawings of cakes she likes to create. One that caught my eye was the lotus cake that she drew. It was beautiful, and being raised in a Buddhist household, I just had to create a cake inspired by…
Strawberry mirror glaze shortcake
This recipe came about because I wanted to do some sort of take on strawberry shortcake, but I didn’t exactly know what kind of dessert I wanted to do. Then I started to remember this dessert I had at Melisse in Santa Monica a few years back, and it was this pain per du (French…
Freddy's Harajuku 