Freddy's Harajuku

Vietnamese Coffee Sticky Buns

There are two beautiful things about being on a diet. The first is obviously that you lose weight and in a healthier way. The second is that you continuously develop cravings for things you know you should not be eating, and that is a wonderful basis for some really delicious desserts. These sticky buns are…

White Bunny Carrot Cakes

So when it comes to Easter, I don’t really celebrate it. Growing up in a Buddhist household, Easter as a holiday just meant that time of year when there’s lots of rabbits, ducks, marshmallows, polka dots, colorful eggs, and randomly, jellybeans. That’s literally all Easter means to me to be honest. With that in mind,…

Lemon-Blueberry Gateau Breton Tart

So this dessert was initially meant to be like a 2.0 version of a lapis lazuli tart I made YEARS ago. But I knew I had to do a few things differently this time around. The first is the tart shell. Instead of just doing a pastry in a tart tin, I went with a…

Lil Peep Egg Tarts

While I do not celebrate Easter in the religious sense, I can still appreciate the fact that the holiday is closely associated with rabbits and eggs. Those are cute things to make desserts from, and the latter if what inspired this dessert! Well, that and marshmallow peeps. Fun fact: I was originally going to do…

Vanilla Bean Boston Cream Pie

When I think about Boston Cream Pie, I just think about college. Going to school in a city full of history like Boston, I cannot help but think of that aforementioned classic American dessert. Layers of fluffy vanilla cake, a vanilla pastry cream, and chocolate ganache. Depending on the rendition, there are also almonds encrusting…

Chocolate chip-cookie butter cupcakes

This recipe primarily came about because I was craving cookie dough ice cream, and I happened to still have a jar of Speculoos cookie butter lying around. So I figured, why not make a cupcake that was chocolate chip cookie-flavored? I would make a cake with brown sugar, brown butter, and chocolate chips, just to…

Super simple pita bread

While in the midst of my crash dieting, I have developed some hilariously random cravings. Super fluffy pita bread has been one of those. About a year ago, I had dinner with my friends in downtown LA, at a restaurant called Girl and the Goat(which is best known for their flagship in Chicago, and being…

Hanami cake

Hanami roughly translates into “flower viewing” from Japanese. It usually refers to the blooming of cherry blossoms, or sakura, in early April, and signifies new beginnings. One thing I love about hanami, besides how gorgeous the cherry blossom-filled skies look during that time of year, is of course the desserts that come with it. Cherry…

Shaymin Nerikiri

I would be lying if I said this recipe was easy. Namely because it took me 4 hours from start to finish. A lot of it, not going to lie, is just the amount of time it took perfecting the color and shape of these little nuggets. That and I tried to make a half-batch…

Gooey lemon curd-stuffed olive oil cakes

So it might be a surprise to anyone reading this, but I am actually dieting right now. Mostly because I have to go to a wedding in Hawaii, and I am not trying to look photogenic for that. That being said, dieting sucks. Majorly. Many, many meals spent on weight-loss smoothies and near-bland chicken breast…

Chocolate-sesame-cardamom cake

How this cake came about was hilarious. It was 6:35AM, and I had just finished my workout. It was also my friend’s birthday, and I was debating if I wanted to make a cake for her or not. But I did not want to be a crap friend, and I decided, screw it, 50 minute…

Hedgehog “Cinnabon” Mont Blancs

I initially was inspired to make these cakes from seeing all of the cute animal-themed crepes in Japan! One that seemed doable-enough were the hedgehogs, which they made by piping things onto a scoop of whipped cream to create the animal. I knew that I could do something similar using the half-sphere molds I normally…

Passion Pearl: a petit gateau

These little pearls only came about because I had an abundance of passionfruit(what a problem to have), and I wanted to find some interesting or fun ways to utilize them! For the dessert itself, we have a coconut mousse that is surrounding a passionfruit gelee, on top of a blue spirulina cookie. I wanted to…

Bamboo dreams: a flower cake

I created this cake as an homage to my own childhood of Asian rice-based desserts, while also doing a nod to the greenery I would see growing up in Southern California by the coast. I wanted this cake to capture both the aforementioned flavors of Asian desserts, and the aforementioned scenery of flowers by the…

Kinako-Pumpkin Ripple Cheesecake

This recipe kind of morphed from the original concept, which was going to be my take on Milkbar’s Cinnaswirl Milkbar(Crack) Pie. Back when I worked in Milkbar Lab, Milkbar had just launched a partnership with Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal. Meaning that we got to play around with different recipes using it. While I did not…

Chocolate-peanut butter pie

For Pi Day this year, I was truthfully struggling with what I wanted to make. I could not figure out if I wanted to go with a fruitier pie, a green pie(again), or just something completely different. Eventually, I settled on this recipe, inspired by a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. It features a chocolate short…

Matcha checkerboard ombre cookies

I love checkerboard cookies. I feel like in almost any Asian bakery you go to, checkerboard cookies are always on display. I appreciate the fact that you’re getting more than one flavor in them, since the color contrast usually comes from differently flavored doughs. I won’t lie, they can be finnicky to make, since you…

Matcha “jiggly” cheesecake

There is a common misconception about the “jiggly” cheesecake that has gone viral over the past 5 years: everyone seems to think that this kind of cheesecake is like a panna cotta and wobbles perpetually until it is time to eat it. However, the cheesecake is only jiggly fresh out of the oven, when it…

Baklava layer cake

For the first half of March, my goal was to make as many green things as possible. This cake, while not outwardly green, has a green pistachio sponge hidden underneath a layer of spiced honey French buttercream. I love baklava, and wanted to translate the flavors, textures, and ingredients of it into a full-on layer…

Pandan Melon Pan

Melon pan is probably one of the most iconic Japanese pastries out there. Soft fluffy bread enrobed in a crunchy, cookie-like shell, these breads are just all kinds of textural fun to eat! If you have ever had Mexican conchas or Chinese/Taiwanese pineapple buns, these are quite similar to those. The name “melon pan” refers…