Freddy's Harajuku

Miso Caramel Pear Tarts

A long, long, LONG time ago, I made these caramel tarts with poached apples that I just adored. The caramel was taken to this super dark color that almost resembled chocolate, while the apples, I poached with brown sugar and seared them to give them this gorgeous caramelized finish. Since I made the plate lick…

Black Rose Entremet

It’s been a minute since I’ve last tackled an entremet, so I wanted to do another one, as I had a bunch of random components here and there that I knew I could use. I was making Turkish delight for Pinktober and realized that I had an entire piping bag of leftover ruby chocolate mousse…

Cafe de Olla Naked Cake

This cake is an homage to my friend, Frances. When we used to work together, our morning ritual was going to our workplace cafeteria, getting coffee and toast, and dicking around instead of doing actual work enjoying a mini breakfast together at our desks. In honor of her graduating college, I had to make a…

Pumpkin purin with pumpkin madeleines

A plated dessert I have been playing around with since early high school was purin with madeleines. I just have a very specific childhood memory of eating madeleines and purin(think flan, aka baked or set custard with a layer of caramel on it, also called pudding by the Japanese), which we got from Costco and…

Pear and Gjetost Tarte Tatin

Tarte tatin. Back in high school, I used to LOVE tarte tatin. The idea of caramelized fruit wrapped in a flaky dough, what’s there not to love? Well except in my case where I’ve been traumatized by it across 2 seasons of Masterchef. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s my one huge blindspot…

Funfetti Chiffon Cake with Milk Candy French Buttercream

I have already made a funfetti cake or two before, but I wanted to do an entirely different take on them with a more subtle and minimalistic approach. I wanted this almost completely buttercream-covered cake with just a slight sprinkle(all puns intended) of color on top, and then when you cut into it, there are…

Trio of Onigiri

This recipe in a lot of ways is my play on a charcuterie board, but featuring onigiri. I wanted to make three different kinds of rice balls, featuring pork belly, salmon, and mushrooms, two sauces, one that was creamy and garlicky and another that is sweet-sour-smoky, and some Japanese-style pickles to garnish with. When I…

Milk tea-white sesame cake

I was asked to make a super last-minute cake for an order, and that’s how this recipe came out. Literally just because I was told “any flavor but it needs to be done by tomorrow”. So with that in mind, I somehow came up with this recipe. I had a lot of black tea leaves…

Cocoa brioche maritozzo

This recipe came about out of a necessity to use up my sourdough starter. I made the mistake of feeding dark chocolate cookie crumbs to my starter, which while it enjoyed profusely, the addition of cocoa powder caused my starter to take on a leather-brown color and produce a cocoa aroma. So I had to…

Passionfruit-Champagne Tartlets

I was fortunate enough to be gifted fresh passionfruit from a family friend, so I wanted to celebrate that! With passionfruit, you have this soft pulp with crunchy seeds, and a sweet and sour flavor that really just pops and works well in both sweet and savory applications. I know that people would hear me…

Levain-Black Sesame Kouign Amann

Back in 2015, I watched a video on Youtube on how to make these pastries called Kouign Amann. They greatly resembled croissants, but baked with a lot of sugar, and in the shape of a muffin instead. The pastry was buttery, flaky, and looked like a giant pain to make – all puns intended. The…

Cinnamon Tequila Apple Mille Feuille

So I was fortunate enough to be gifted with a bottle of cinnamon tequila from the lovely Sheetal from Masterchef season 1, from her company, Spice Note Tequila, which features spice-infused tequilas! I actually love baking with alcohol, despite not being an alcoholic or even that much of a drinker(featherweight problems I guess), so I…

Olive oil-chocolate bundt cakes

This recipe is really my idea of what some hipstery cafe in Silverlake would serve. Not saying that in a mean or even malicious way, since I am guilty of going to said hipstery cafes in Silverlake with my friends from time to time. Olive oil cake has been trending up a lot in LA…

Shiso Mint Chip Ice Cream

I grew up on mint chip ice cream. For some reason, it was the only ice cream we would get whenever we went to Baskin Robbins, so it became a nostalgic flavor profile for me. That coupled with me eating a lot of thin mints as a kid. One random day when I was working…

Buckeye Layer Cake

Depending on what part of the world you are in, you may or may not know what a buckeye is. If you happen to be from Ohio, you’ll definitely know buckeye, as they are basically the state’s official dessert! Peanut butter fudge balls partially dipped in chocolate to resemble the nut of a buckeye tree,…

Milk Tea Snow Skin Mooncakes

A few years ago, I wanted to make snow skin mooncakes, but I did not have the molds for those. The difference between a snow skin mooncake and the traditional mooncake is that the snow skin ones are made with mochi as the wrapper, whereas the traditional mooncakes are baked pastries. While I did not…

Lil Chickie Mango Puddings

I have an awkward confession: I hated mango as a child. Something about fruits with a scratchy, fibrous texture that just did not agree with me back then – 8 year old Fred was looking at you too, pineapple. Because of that, I never really understood was mangos tasted like until I was maybe around…

Rhubarb-Elderflower Petit Gateaus

About 5 years ago(which is such a weird preface to say out loud because man, time FLIES), I made a dessert that featured rhubarb and elderflower. Ironically, it featured strawberries as well, so I opted to not even include rhubarb or elderflower in the name of the dessert. The cake itself featured elderflower mousse, and…

Strawberry tea time: an entremet

With this dessert, I really was aiming to utilize some leftover goat cheese and strawberry puree I had lying around. While I initially thought about doing a cheesecake with those two components, I figured that I could make it into something more fun, and go with an entremet, or a mousse cake! Since strawberries and…

Earl Grey Cherry Tart

A while ago, I made a recipe that featured both cherry and earl grey, and it was one of my favorites ever! The combination of the floral and bitter notes from earl grey and the tart and sweet flavor in cherries makes for a fun and well-balanced dessert, so I wanted to bring that back…