Freddy's Harajuku

Mixed berry naked layer cheesecake

I love cheesecake and I wanted to do something that represented the fun of being a kid. Cutting into a cake and exploring the different flavors hidden between the layers of cake, cream, and some sort of fruit-type of components, it’s a lot of fun. For my dessert, I wanted to take two kid-favorite desserts,…

Chocolate-bourbon-coffee cake

I dub this cake my “adulting” cake because it consists of two things I often need or want in my life: coffee and booze. I also made the cake look really drab and compact, to symbolize how being an adult is not as wonderful and exciting as people would expect. It’s honestly boring. Is that…

Passion fruit-coconut-caramel naked layer cake

I literally only made this cake because we had about 15 passion fruits lying around and I needed to start getting rid of them before they went bad. The cake itself has five different layers to it, being coconut-brown sugar cake, salted coconut caramel soaking liquid, coconut cream, passionfruit curd, and coconut crumble. I think…

Elderflower Eton Mess Fruit Tart

I made this mostly for Pi Day, but also because I wanted to try making a rectangular fruit tart that does not look like an ass sandwich; the first time I purchased a rectangular fluted tart pan, it was back when I was still an accounting intern in DC. As my going away gift to…

Fried chicken sandwich with brown butter pretzel bun, furikake corn, and sesame slaw

I’ve seen spicy fried chicken sandwiches popping up since last year when I was watching Top Chef: California, where my favorite contestant, Marjorie Meek-Bradley, prepared one for a quickfire challenge. Since then, it has resurfaced with Shake Shack, and is a favorite guilty pleasure of my older sister’s. Now personally, I’m a big wuss the…

Goodnight Meteor: a plated dessert

I have been listening to an artist group called HarmonicBlend for a while now, and I just love their music. They have songs that really tell stories and follow themes, and their most recent album, Dreaming Children, features quite a few songs that I’m inspired to create desserts from. One of those desserts is named…

Coconut-sesame panda mousse cakes

This dessert goes out to my friend from high school, Karen, as a belated birthday gift. She’s obsessed with pandas, and hilariously enough, I have created a ton of panda desserts with her aesthetic guidance. Panda cupcakes, panda cookies, panda bread, and a panda parfait. And no, no pandas were harmed in the making of…

Kale Fagottini

When I first heard of the name of this pasta, I tried really hard not to react. The term, fagottini, I pronounce the “g” like a “j”, just because I don’t want to accidentally offend anyone. The pasta itself is a purse-like dumpling, stuffed with traditionally sausage or ground mince meat. However, when I prepared…

Cookies and Milk Jam Tart

I wanted to create a dessert inspired by my childhood favorite, cookies and cream. However, I didn’t want to just serve that. I have done cookies and cream inspired desserts in the past, but this time around, I wanted to play around with milk jam. For my milk jam recipe, I love using cornstarch, xantham…

Miso chocolate cake with soy milk-black tea ice cream, sesame, and azuki jam

The inspiration for this dessert was Chinese New Years. The idea of a festive dish that embodies a lot of traditionally Asian flavors, namely the red beans and sesame. Red bean soup with black sesame-mochi balls is a traditional Chinese dessert, so this is a definite homage to that. The miso-chocolate cake really plays off…

Duo of mini dorayaki

I love dorayaki. A pancake sandwich, typically stuffed with red bean paste. Coming from a much more Westernized background (putting it politely, whereas the more accurate way of saying it is that I was raised in Torrance, therefore was bleached of cultural appreciation), I love stuffing my own dorayaki with fillings other than the traditional…

Strawberry-Angel Food Shortcake Doughnut Creams

The goal behind this dessert was to make a strawberry cake unlike any that I have made before. I love making doughnut creams, so I wanted to make another flavor. This time, it’s a strawberry angel food shortcake. I used angel food cake as the base, because it is super light and airy, being made…

Salted Caramel Devil’s Food Cake

The first time I ever had a cake presented to me in such a fashion was at Hinoki and the Bird. I wanted to recreate that same Devil’s Food Cake for years, and now I’ve finally done…. after they had already removed it from their menu. Oh well, at least it’s mine, and only mine….

Cutie Honey Raspberry Cake

I wanted to prepare a dessert that I could enjoy with a cup of tea while staring out into the city, quietly judging everyone. For some reason, I like to do that. I don’t know why. I guess being an 100% Judging type per Myers-Briggs does that for you. But being a judgmental bitch aside,…

Citron Othello: black and white lemon mousse cake

The idea behind this cake came from a very unusual silicon mold I purchased from Amazon. I knew that just from the triangular prism shape of the final cake, that each slice would be a little tear drop-triangle-chestnut-looking thing. I thought it would be cute if I made some mousse cakes that were visual plays…

Chocolate-Tangerine Creamsicle Cake

I love chocolate cake. I cannot stress or repeat it enough. But one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes is my fluffy fudge cake, which is made using bloomed cocoa powder, melted chocolate, and meringue, just to give the cake a dense, fudge-y start and a light, airy finish. Because yes, some cakes can have…

Prickly pear-glazed salmon with shiitake egg noodles

This idea sounds like a weird one from the get-go. What business does the fruit from a cactus have with fish, mushrooms, and Italian-inspired pasta? Well, truth be told, almost nothing at all. I wanted to prepare a dish that takes my Californian upbringing, my Asian heritage, and my love of making fresh doughs and…

Mussels with Latin flavors

This dish was originally inspired by the Mediterranean, but forcibly took a detour into Mexico when I could not find the right kind of chorizo and just went with it from there. Going to school in Boston, you come to love shellfish and seafood. I love eating and cooking mussels, because they plump up in…

Swan song Boston cream pie

This dessert was inspired by two things: my friend and (sadly, now ex-)coworker Christine, and Boston, the city I have come to love in the past four years, but had to part ways with. Christine and I would often talk about Boston, because she’s wanted to go for quite some time. Additionally, her nickname at…

Strawberry cheesecake tiramisu

This dessert is an oldie but a goodie for me. Tiramisu is an Italian classic, typically made with whipped mascarpone cheese and coffee-amaretto soaked ladyfingers, topped with cocoa powder. The coffee and alcohol are there to give you a little “pick me up”, but I wanted to have that same effect with just strawberries. For…