Freddy's Harajuku

Oatmeal (Rum) Raisin Icebox Cake

So I have feelings about oatmeal raisin cookies. Mostly of disappointment because it looks like a chocolate chip cookie from afar, and when you bite into it and realize that you have been deprived of your chocolate experience, only for it to be replaced with dried fruit, it’s infuriating. That being said, I wanted to…

Sesame shortbread sandwiches

I feel like every Asian household has that metal tin of cookies in it. At least every household that that I’ve been to. One of my favorites were this cookie sandwiches that would usually feature some kind of cream in them. So that’s what these sandwiches were meant to be an homage to. I went…

Milk tea cookies with chewy “boba” bits

I really was inspired to make this dessert from seeing all of the “boba” desserts on Instagram. Truthfully, the idea of eating boba that is not warm and soft doesn’t appeal to me, and more times than not, boba sitting out on a pie or a cheesecake will turn hard and cold really quickly. Then…

Strawberry and pistachio pate choux

I was pretty happy with how these puffs came out, considering that ever since I got some Strawberry Inspiration(naturally strawberry flavored chocolate) couverture from Valrhona, I wanted to do a strawberry and pistachio dessert. There was something about crunchy and salty versus sweet and tart which just sounded like a fun combination, and while the…

Dango with black rice pudding and salted rice milk

I love mango sticky rice. The stewed down rice with salty coconut milk and juicy mango, it’s a fun combination to play around with. For this particular recipe, I wanted to accentuate that classic Asian dessert by doing rice three ways, and mango two ways. For the rice, I used black rice and did a…

Cutie Honey Scoop Cakes

Originally, these were going to be honey tiramisu, but I felt like the term “scoop cake” just sounded a lot more cute and fun. So we’re going with that description instead. With these little cakes, we have layers of bee pollen infused castella(Portuguese/Japanese honey cake), chamomile tea and gelee, honey-bee pollen infused quark(German cheese yogurt),…

Roasted cabbage with pork belly and mushroom dashi

So this is a dish inspired directly from mille feuille nabe. I wanted to do a dish that featured layers of roasted cabbage and pork in an umami-rich mushroom broth. I could imagine these soft, tender layers of cabbage that are steamed with the rendered pork fat from the belly slices between each leaf, sponging…

Sakura Parfait

I love Japanese styled parfait. American parfaits tend to just be fruit, yogurt, and granola, and while that’s all fine and dandy, Japanese parfaits just beat their American counterparts by a landslide. They usually contain cookies, ice cream, cream, jellies, fruit, cake, just everything unhealthy for you, but in one tall glass, and decoratively arranged….

Rainbow Carrot Cake

I have been putting off making this cake for quite a while. Mostly because I was lazy. The concept of taking rainbow carrots and individually highlighting them sounded like a ton of fun, and it would make for a cute and pretty cake. However, the execution of it sounded like a tall task. I wanted…

Scallion pancakes with braised oxtail and bone broth

So I was inspired by birria tacos, but knowing that I cannot make them authentically, I figured, why not take dishes and ingredients from my own culture, but just serve them in the same fashion? So I took the concept of a wrap with a dipping broth, and essentially made it Chinese/Taiwanese. I still remember…

Only a fool: a plated dessert

So a fool can refer to a lot of things. It can be somebody who undercooked his filet mignon on national T.V. despite being a trained butcher(whoops), somebody who does not know what 2+2 is, or it could also be a dessert that involves a fruit puree being folded into cream. In the case of…

Blackberry-semolina cake with olive oil and Meyer lemons

I literally came up with this recipe because I went to the grocery store, and saw 99-cent cartons of blackberries on sale! I knew it was a sign from whatever powers that be that I had to make something with these, so I bought about three 6oz containers of them! I had a couple of…

Aurora: a “glow-in-the-dark” entremet

So before I get into the rest of this post, I want to clarify the technical misnomer of this cake. I used tonic water, which allows the cake to glow under black light. Different than actually glowing in the dark, but still really cool. That being said, this is actually the second time I have…

Thai Tea-Milk Bread Sticky Buns

So this recipe only came about because I had a ton of Thai tea powder, and I had to get rid of it somehow. I brainstormed a bunch of ideas, like macarons, panna cotta, ice cream, basque cheesecake, and pound cake, but then I realized it had been a while since I made anything with…

“Beautiful World”: a plated dessert

So I conceptualized this dessert around initially two flavors, being pistachio and olive oil. From there, I sort of expanded it to include rosemary and lemon, since I have fresh rosemary in my backyard, which has been blooming these beautiful flowers, and the lemon adds a nice acidity to counterbalance all of the other ingredients….

Cajeta-misugaru banoffee pie

I’ve made cajeta desserts, and I’ve done misugaru banana pudding desserts, and I’ve made banoffee pie desserts too. So I figured, why not combine all three? I mean for Pi Day, it just made the most sense to go with a pie that is an amalgamation of both banana pudding(custard, cream, wafers, and bananas) and…

Jade Fairy: a petit gateau

So this dessert went through several phases because I was not 100% sure where I wanted to go in terms of the flavor profiles. I knew it had to be green, and that I wanted to feature pistachio and chrysanthemum tea. For those unfamiliar with it, chrysanthemum tea is a popular Chinese/Taiwanese drink made from…

Matcha and cream roll cake

So I actually made this cake for my mom’s birthday, but I figured that the green color just made it perfect for St. Patrick’s and March, so I held off on posting it until then. The unique thing about this roll cake compared to other ones I have done in the past is that the…

Dadar gulung mille crepe(pandan and coconut)

So a lot of Asians grew up on pandan, but truthfully, I never did. I always hear people saying that it’s the “vanilla of Asia”, which I might call blatant B.S. to, because I did not grow up on anything with pandan at all. And before the pandemic, I never even had anything with pandan…

Chocolate-chestnut-matcha entremet

I was mostly inspired to make this because I wanted to make a really woody and vibrant-green dessert. Mostly because with St. Patrick’s Day coming up, I had to get together as many green, Irish, beer, or gold-themed dessert ideas together as possible. So this would be one of them. For my components, we have…