Freddy's Harajuku

Tonka Bean Black Forest Cake

Black forest cake was my birthday cake growing up for the first 13 years of my life. Not because I particularly liked it, but because we would always go back to Taiwan for my birthday/winter break, and celebrate it at my grandma’s apartment in Taipei. And the only cake that the bakery underneath her apartment…

Matcha-Frog Shortbreads

I am hesitant to put this out there on the Internet, but I used to have a gigantic phobia of frogs. I’m not 100% what it was, but until the Pokemon Froakie came out, I found frogs to be kind of gross? Slimy, bulbous eyes, the expanding throats, the randomly differently colored underbellies, and the…

“Buffet-Food” Lemon-Strawberry Tartlets

I feel like this recipe is classic, and not trendy. These tartlets are the stereotypical catering or banquet dessert you would find in a gala or at a golf club buffet. A perfectly round tart with a lemon filling and a meringue, torched on top. Or a dessert with cut up berries on top of…

Miso Corny Cookies

I feel like I have done so many iterations on corn cookies in the past, but I keep making tweaks to my recipe in an attempt to make the absolute most perfect version of one. My usual corn cookie recipe starts out like your standard American cookie, with whipped butter and sugar, then to that…

Sesame Panda Shortbreads

Whenever I make panda-themed anything, I always think about one of my friends from high school, Karen. Fun fact, I had two friends from high school named Karen, who weirdly enough, I still keep in touch with, but also, they have never met each other before. That Karen-themed tidbit about myself aside, the panda-loving Karen…

Sweet Corn Coffee

So I was watching Single’s Inferno, and to semi-avoid spoilers(I won’t include specific names), there was an instance in one of the seasons a contestant was so enamored with the concept of sweet corn coffee that, at least it seemed like this to me anyways, she dumped all of her other prospective suitors to pursue…

Poliwag Tang Yuan

When I think of cute O.G./Gen 1 Pokemon, Poliwag immediately comes to mind. Mostly because I remember accidentally running them over in Pokemon Snap in the River stage(whoops), and seeing Misty’s Poliwag(which managed to make it all the way to a Politoed!) back in the original anime series. Poliwag are these round, blue tadpole-like Pokemon…

Choco-Bear Shortbreads

Ever since I purchased a plethora of cute-shaped cookie cutters, I wanted to capitalize on that and use them in fun ways. I have been seeing a lot of these sandwich cookies or shortbread cookies with fun shapes cut out of the center of them, and I wanted to try my hand at them today…

Classic Pan Con Tomate

I love pan con tomate. I had it for the first time in Jaleo in Washington, D.C., and it was such a simple concept – crusty, airy bread, rubbed with raw garlic, garnished with juicy, crushed tomatoes, olive oil, and sea salt. So straightforward in the components, and honestly very refreshing and light! The perfect…

Modern Pan Con Tomate

Originally was going to serve this recipe with homemade ricotta and whey, specifically using the whey in the crystal bread, but I opted out of doing that, mostly because even the classic pan con tomate doesn’t use ricotta cheese, so this recipe should not either. There are times when cooks, myself included, can get a…

Passionfruit-Coconut Choux

For the final white and blue dessert on my tea tower, I had to do a French pastry. It was between macaron or pate choux, and I opted for the pate choux, strictly because they were easier to present in an afternoon tea tower. I love making pate choux. It is the dough used to…

Pretty in Pink Anmitsu

For this recipe, I wanted to do anmitsu, but make it pink, as I was inspired by the new Barbie movie. My sister had Barbie dolls growing up, and we totally Kate Mckinnon/Weird Barbie’d her dolls a lot. That and my only other real Barbie-related memory was that my sister owned that Barbie car toy,…

Blueberry-Yuzu Mont Blanc Tarts

One trick I learned a year ago was using upside down muffin pans to bake tart shells on. Prior to that, when I wanted to make mini tarts with muffin pans, I was lining the inside of muffin pans with butter/oil and flour, and then pressing the dough into them. However, doing this meant that…

Blue Tonka Bean Panna Cottas

I love how simplistic a panna cotta is. Cream, sugar, gelatin, that’s all you need and you can make a rather fancy Italian dessert. My first panna cotta memory was in college, when I was inspired by a lot of the delicious Italian desserts in the North End in Boston. Thanks to the internet(and chef…

Blue Chiffon Cake with Tofu Rare Cheese and Blackberries

This recipe was one of several parts of a blue and white-themed dessert tea tower I have been meaning to make. I had purchased a cute blue and white tea tower from the Pokemon Center in Japan, and it inspired me to make high tea-friendly desserts. However, I wanted to embrace the color of the…

Coconut-White Chocolate Lava Bundt Cakes

Before I say any more about the recipe, I need to preface this by saying that these cakes are 100% gluten-free. I used coconut flour for additional natural coconut flavor(since coconut flour is just finely ground up coconut flakes) and mochiko(glutinous rice flour) for that stability. You can substitute the mochiko and upwards to half…

Creamy Napolitan Pasta

This post is loosely inspired by my friend Ahran’s Kimchi-Bacon Cream Pasta recipe, which sounded absolutely delicious. Pasta, a creamy sauce with umami and heat, and pork product, there’s a lot of good things going on conceptually there, and I wanted to dig right in myself when I heard the description of that recipe. In…

Strawberry-Tonka-Mascarpone Sando’s

If you thought this recipe was going to be premade bread, premade mascarpone cheese, and fresh strawberries, you would be only 1/3 right there. I was inspired to do this from my trip to Japan(which honestly inspired a LOT of new recipes for me). I got some strawberry sando’s from Tokyo Station on my Shinkansen…

Edamame-Garlic Confit Gazpacho with Socca, Sumac, and Nasturtiums

So as a part of my post-Asia diet, I swore off of foods with added sugars in them. Which is a lot of things, considering the fact that I primarily am a pastry person. In an attempt to eat better, I wanted to make something that was sugar-free, vegan, gluten-free, and still high in protein….

Lemon-Basil Mousse Cake

This recipe was made specifically for my dad. One of my dad’s favorite cakes of mine is a lemon cake. A while ago, I was in the middle of making a lemon-blueberry roll cake, and he wound up eating the cake before I even had time to finish decorating or photographing it. It did cause…