Freddy's Harajuku

Cafe de olla cake

When I was doing research on Latin cuisine, I came across an interesting beverage called cafe de olla. It is an earthy coffee drink with spices, namely cinnamon, anise, and clove, sometimes orange, in it that is normally served in a clay cup. It sounded like a lot of beautiful flavors, to be honest, and…

Strawberries and cream Mont Blanc

I really wanted to make this Mont Blanc after seeing so many different kinds of them on my discover feed on Instagram. Traditionally, Mont Blanc is made with chestnuts, but I opted for a fresher, strawberry version instead, just to make it appropriate for the summer. So I went with a strawberry chiffon cake, a…

Starting your day: a religieuse

I was trying to figure out some creative ways to use pate choux, and then I thought about making breakfast cream puffs. I wanted to use bacon, blueberry, and maple, to emulate pancakes, and from there, I just thought about how I could use them in fun or inventive ways in pate choux. So I…

Soulmate: a petite gateau

I’ve been meaning to make this dessert for months now. Ever since I heard about candied rhubarb ribbons, I knew that I was going to use them in a cute, pink little cake. I really wanted to make these for Valentine’s, but sadly in California, rhubarb isn’t in season until May. So I had to…

Duo of eclairs: ruby chocolate-apple and chocolate “Inca gold”

I just wanted to make really artsy eclairs, so I opted for two flavors, being a ruby chocolate-apple and a chocolate “Inca gold”. For the ruby chocolate eclairs, they are glazed in ruby chocolate and garnished with shards, while the inside is an apple butter pastry cream. I wanted to keep this one aesthetically pleasing,…

If I believe: a Mont Blanc

When I was doing a Google Hangout baking session with my friends, Ann and Sylvie, I was struggling hardcore with what to make. I really wanted to do a strawberry Mont Blanc, but I had these dates in my refrigerator that have been laying there for at least four weeks, and I also had a…

Pork and vegetable fried rice

No matter who you ask, one of the first Chinese dishes anyone has any exposure to is fried rice. It is a quintessential Chinese dish! So many different varieties too, truthfully. For me, it always starts with cooking a thin layer of egg, then breaking it up and stirring in my already-cooked rice into that….

Pork and mushroom san choy bau

I feel like san choy bau is a Chinese dish a lot of people have either eaten or seen, but they did not know the same of. It is basically a lettuce wrap, with minced and stir-fried meat inside. It is such a simple recipe, as with most Chinese dishes, but it is one of…

Blood orange-rhubarb mimosa cake

I wanted to do a summery, Italian take on mimosa cake with this recipe. I have made mimosa cakes before, but I wanted to do a different take on it. For this cake, I went with a blood orange-olive oil cake, whipped skyr, which is this Icelandic yogurt, a blood orange-amoretti crunch, and macerated blood…

London Fog Boston Cream Pie

So I actually made this dessert was my entry item for the “Great EatWith Bake-Off” as a part of EatWith(a dining-serving company that Bri and I partner with to do our pop-up dinners)’s social media event just to keep users engaged. The premise, inspired obviously from the “Great British Baking Show” is that 5 of…

Sea salt ice cream popsicles

Now that I finally have proper popsicle molds, I can make the actual sea salt ice cream from Kingdom Hearts. I have done renditions on it in the past, but this time, I feel like this is as close to the ice cream as I can possibly get. Just to make these more interesting, I…

Matcha bundt babka

Babka are always so much fun to make, and every more fun to eat! I wanted to do a fun little take on the classic babka, and use a matcha filling instead of the traditional chocolate, and bake them in my doughnut molds instead of the loaf pans, just to give them more of a…

Something comforting: a plated dish

I really love stewed chickpeas. Actually I just love chickpeas in general. And luckily, I got to cook with them more often these days because I need them for their aquafaba. However, with all of the vegan meringue I have been making, I still need to get rid of the actual chickpeas themselves. So this…

Pork belly okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes)

Okonomiyaki are one of my personal favorite things to make. The first time I ever had one was with my cousins, and it was delicious. It’s a Japanese pancake batter that can have a variety of things in it, but typically you would find cabbage, pork, and a delicious sauce and Japanese mayonnaise. A lot…

Duck fat-grilled onigiri

These rice balls were just a way for me to utilize a bucketload of leftover brown rice. With rice of any kind, it can be very bland. In the case of brown rice, that is no exception. I knew that I had to inject as much flavor as I could into it, so I wanted…

Chocolate covered banana craquelin choux puffs

I was doing some recipe testing with craquelin pate choux, since I am planning to use them for quite a few different projects and concepts coming up. For these choux pastries, I decided upon the flavor pretty quickly. I had bananas in the freezer that were taking up space, so I wanted to get rid…

Chocolate-blackberry izba crepe cake

I haven’t made izba cake in years, so I wanted to revisit it, using my newfound love for making crepes. So we have tubes of cocoa-mochi crepes stuffed with whipped yuzu-mascarpone cheesecake mousse, brown butter-ruby chocolate macerated blackberries, chocolate feuilletine, and chantilly cream. Izba cake is typically done with tubes of pastry, but I subbed…

Future Nostalgia: a plated dessert

Truthfully, I never really made scones before. I have made biscuits, and my god, I love me a flaky biscuit, but with scones, they just felt too much like a biscuit that was trying to be a cookie(I know that if you’re British or Australian, reading that sentence would make no sense, but bear with…

“番茄炒蛋”: a plated dish

番茄炒蛋, or tomato-fried eggs, are a childhood staple for me, and probably every Chinese/Taiwanese person. Simply put, it’s scrambled eggs with tomato, topped with scallions and/or cilantro. A very humble dish, and because of that, a great blank canvas/ inspiration for a prettier, more complex one. My mom’s version included ginger, since it provided a…

Knafeh flavored lotus pastries

I have been meaning to make lotus pastries for a long time now. They’re a hugely popular snack in China, consisting of flaky layers of fried dough, wrapped around a filling. As the name suggests, they are assembled and cut in a way that when deep fried, the dough blossoms and resembles a lotus. It’s…