Freddy's Harajuku

Chicken cacciatore with egg noodles

This was literally a simple dinner that I whipped together after I butchered a chicken and had to figure out how I was going to cook the thighs. I love chicken cacciatore, the latter word in the term being the Italian word for “hunter”, because it is this super hearty dish. Think of chicken stewed…

Giant hot milk crumb cake

So a while ago, I made a take on the LAUSD coffee cake in the form of doughnut creams. I wanted to revisit that inspiration, but this time, making a giant crumb cake! For the cake batter itself, I went with a take on hot milk cake, which is a soft, springy cake made with…

Pistachio-matcha cake

I literally came up with this cake because I wanted to see how much pistachio powder I could incorporate into a chiffon cake without compromising the integrity of the cake – as pistachios do not have gluten, that would obviously affect the texture of a cake when subbing out ground pistachios with flour. The end…

Sticky Toffee-Bourbon Pecan cake

This was actually a cake I made for my boss at work’s birthday! I was talking with my coworkers in sales about what he liked, and we figured that a bourbon pecan cake of some capacity would just suit his personality and preferences, so why not go that route? For this cake, we have a…

Vegan and Gluten-free Devil’s Food Cake

I came up with the idea to make this cake because I wanted to make my vegan chocolate-tofu mousse again, but also wanted to pair it with something that would compliment it perfectly, so I figured, why not chocolate mousse on chocolate cake? For the cake itself, I went with my gluten-free and vegan devil’s…

Tiramisu wedding cake

So this (not so little) cake was actually my first wedding cake order! I usually don’t do wedding cakes, since they take forever to make and the stress of delivering these while keeping them intact is a lot to handle, but I was asked by my friend Lily to do it for our mutual friend…

“Rebirth”: a plated dessert

With this dessert, I was going for that phoenix from the ashes motif, but using all gluten-free and vegan ingredients! During the peak of 2020 quarantining, when everyone hogged all of the flour, eggs, and butter, I had to pivot and learn how to make desserts without any of those things, and this is really…

“Feathered Apple”: a plated dessert

I created this dessert from just several techniques that I fell in love with, and wanting to compose those techniques into a cohesive dessert. Homemade phyllo is always something I love to do, while the usage of Almond Inspiration was just to add a pleasant nuttiness. I wanted to use hojicha as well, since it…

“Fever Dream”: a plated dessert

I literally named this dessert after my favorite mxmtoon song, “Fever Dream”. For me, that term represents memories and milestones of your life, past, present, and future, just melting together into one moment. So I wanted to do that in this dessert! For starters, I wanted to use cherries, since my birthday cake growing up…

Forêt de cauchemars: a petit gateau

This dessert literally only happened because I purchased a ton of cherries to make another recipe with, and I had to figure out what to do with them before they went moldy. Which is always a great motivator when you purchase way too much of an ingredient! So I went ahead and pureed my remaining…

Amethyst: lavender-honey gemstone cookies

It has been a minute since I made any of my gemstone cookies, so I felt like I needed to bring out a new flavor! I still have a lot of lavender from the last time I used it(yes, that was over a year ago), so I wanted to use some of it in this…

Gluten free pumpkin cake roll

I literally came up with this recipe for my coworker, Holly. It was her last day at work, and she has a gluten allergy, so I wanted to make something that embraced the seasonality of it being fall, but also made 100% without gluten. I have never quite made a gluten-free chiffon cake before, so…

Okra noodles with dashi and shisso

This dish came about because my friend Karen was growing okra in her backyard, and she gifted me with a ton of it when I hung out with her. My initial thoughts on what to do with the okra were either a curry or a gumbo, but then I thought about something lighter and more…

Chocolate-raspberry-rose tarts

I literally only came up with these because I had a coworker who was putting in her two-weeks, and I wanted to thank her properly for all of the hard work she had done! She specifically requested chocolate and raspberry, and I just happened to have made a batch of raspberry-rose jam, so I wanted…

Sakura financier

With cherries being in season, I had to make something fun with them! I had done cherry tarts in the past, but I wanted to change it up a little. While I love the combination of almond and cherry, I wanted to also use the salted cherry blossoms I still had, and that’s when I…

Beetroot red velvet with yuzu cream cheese frosting

So this was actually a cake order for a friend’s boyfriend’s birthday. He wanted a red velvet cake, and I did not want to use red food dye, so I opted for using beetroot powder. My initial batch turned out brown, as beet root powder does not like being baked, and I had to do…

Pumpkin Cream Puffs

This recipe only came about because my friend Naama gave me a squash that was grown by her friend. Squash could refer to a lot of things, but in this case, think like a butternut or kabocha squash, so basically a pumpkin. I figured since the flavor of it was so sweet, it would work…

Ruby chocolate-berry cake

When I was conceptualizing this dessert, I actually had a ton of leftover components and ingredients in my fridge. I had a ruby chocolate-sakura mousse from a plated dessert, leftover pate brisee pie crust from a pie I made, leftover ruby chocolate snow the same aforementioned plated dessert, and a bag of berries that turned…

Savory pumpkin curry puffs

These are my take on pumpkin pasties from the Harry Potter series. I would assume that they are dessert-friendly in real life, but I figured a fun little spin on them would be to go savory! For the pastry, I was inspired by Malaysian styled curry puffs, which are made with this flaky pastry formed…

Yogurt panna cotta with instant ramen “crunch”, yuzu chia seeds, and macerated peaches

So before somebody assumes that I was smoking something, I came up with this dish in response to a friend giving me a “Mystery Box” challenge. She wanted to see what I could do with spicy Korean instant ramen and chia seeds. Hilariously enough, my mind did not want to go in the savory direction,…