Freddy's Harajuku

Persimmon-gjetost-walnut cake roll

I love persimmon season so much. Mostly because the fruit itself can be used in a variety of ways. Persimmon are like the opposite of corn, where fresh corn is sugary and as it sits, those sugars convert to starch and the corn gets less sweet, but more creamy. With persimmon, it starts out starchy…

Sea buckthorn torte

This cake is my homage to sachertorte. For those of you unaware of what that is, sachertorte is a Viennese chocolate cake that has a thin layer of apricot jam inside of it, and it is covered in a beautiful chocolate glaze. It is a highly technical and iconic cake to Austria, to the point…

Black sesame purin dorayaki

Dorayaki were one of the first wagashi I ever really came to adore. Mostly because being raised in America, I love pancakes, and dorayaki just being a pancake sandwich, was super appealing to me! I wanted to make a special dorayaki and I actually had this idea for over a year, but never was able…

Blonde chocolate and brown butter mochi Madeleines

I was really inspired to make these from my friend, Ann, who sells a lot of butter mochi products in her business, Pair of Pears. She does these really delicious and toothsome butter mochi doughnuts and brownies, and it made me garner a much larger appreciation for it. For those of you unfamiliar with it,…

Ruby chocolate-blood orange “Poosh” cake

So my sister had purchased a “Poosh” cake and I literally had no idea what is was until she did that. Apparently, it is a pink olive oil cake that the Kardashians endorsed, with the proceeds going to the Armenia relief fund, and it is extremely hard to come by. The completely pink cake itself…

Blood orange and sour cherry shortbreads

I wanted to make a really festive and classic shortbread flavor to contrast the kinako-palm sugar recipe I posted, so I came up with these blood orange and cherry shortbreads to do just that. There are some key differences in the dough besides this one containing gluten, however. Instead of using egg yolks, I’m using…

Gluten-free palm sugar and kinako shortbreads

These were literally just a fun experiment for me. Since we are in the holiday season, cookies are a must and a definite. I love doing different kinds of cookies and shortbreads, so I wanted to make some that, in this case, featured kinako. For those of you who are not familiar with it, kinako…

Newton’s Apple layer cake

After going apple picking, I was left with a ton of apples. And cider. So I figured, why not combine the two and make a delicious cake? I have layers of super fluffy cider cake, tart, creamy apple ganache, salted caramel cheesecake, and crispy apple chips. For the ganache, I used dulcey, or blonde chocolate,…

Thai tea-kabocha pie

I definitely did not understand the pumpkin pie hype growing up. Everyone always talked about how it was their favorite part of autumn, but when I had it, it tasted kind of like super spiced, but also kind of soggy. I was not a fan. But what I found is that there is a way…

Hummingbird naked cake

I love doing takes on hummingbird cake, just because the combination of banana, cream cheese, and pecan is a lot of fun to play around with. Sometimes pineapple and coconut can be added in too, but for this variation, I just wanted to keep it down to those core three flavors. I mentioned. I also…

Cajeta Pecan Pie

I really only came up with this because I fell hardcore in love with cajeta, which is a caramelized goat’s milk. If you have never had it before, it is like a syrupy cousin to dulce de leche, made with slowly cooking down and stirring goat’s milk until it completely caramelizes, and there’s hints of…

Apple butter daifuku

I made these a while ago when I went apple picking and cider pressing with some friends! I wanted to use the apples and cider in a fun or creative way, and that’s when the idea to make daifuku, or stuffed mochi came from. Typically, daifuku is stuffed with red bean paste, but in my…

Chawanmushi with edamame, mushrooms, and radishes

So I actually made this dish for my parents on their anniversary. What had happened was that they were out playing golf, but they did not have any dinner plans, or even anything special planned. I didn’t realize this until maybe 4pm, so I decided that I would make them at least something special to…

Heigh-ho!: gemstone cookies

When I was coming up with these cookies, I wanted to do another take on the crystal cookies I did a while ago, but this time, doing a variety of colors inside of a singular cookie. I thought about the gem mines from Snow White, and I wanted to incorporate that element as well. My…

Black forest swan puffs

Whenever I think of pate choux, I always think about pate choux swans, since they are the most obvious go-to in terms of what you can do with that kind of dough. I wanted to do a take on a pate choux swan, but instead of making the neck and wings out of the pastry,…

Gyakkou: a plated dessert

With this dessert, my aim was to create something that was delicate and light, while at the same time, having a pronounced flavor. So I opted for rose and almond for the flavor combination, being inspired by Persian baking, and me wanting to use Turkish delight and almond cake in some way or form. So…

Hot cereal milk cakes with cereal milk ganache and corn cookies

This cake would be my complete homage to milkbar. Corn and cereal milk. That’s literally it. Hot milk cake is a cake that uses warm milk to create a tender crumb and batter. By using cereal milk instead, you then have a hot cereal milk cake, which I find to be an instant one-up. On…

Peach Charlotte

I have made charlottes before, but with this one, I wanted to emphasize the flavors of peaches, and I wanted to test out a new trick with making a ruby chocolate collar. So the components of a charlotte are primarily ladyfingers and spongecake that are stacked with cream and fruit. For mine, I went with…

Matcha-yuzu cheesecake tart

I really only made this because I had a fruit tart order, and when I was measuring out my ingredients, I thought that a doubled recipe for my standard shortbread dough would be enough for two 6-inch tarts, but then I wound up with a generous amount of pastry and filling, so I was able…

Tsuki no Usagi tartlets

I always loved the myth of Tsuki no Usagi, or the moon rabbit. The idea that there is a rabbit on the moon, making mochi, just sounded like really cool to me, and I would take that rabbit over the Easter bunny or the Trix Rabbit any day! I wanted to take Japanese wagashi and…