So my friends watch a show call The Summer I Turned Pretty, and I’ll be honest, never really got into it myself. A friend of my, Georgina, once told me that it’s about a girl who met these two brothers, and one is bi and the other isn’t, and that’s honestly all I can sum…
Tag: Agar agar
White Peach Blanc Manger
White peaches are my reminder that it’s finally summer. It’s crazy to think we’re over halfway through 2025(time literally flew by this year it feels like). 2020 still feels like yesterday, and the craziest part is that people born that year are already old enough to be in kindergarten now! That being said, white peaches…
Forest Gateau
I was loosely inspired by an item in Pokemon called the “Old Gateau”. In the English, this item is a reference to the location is was found in, called the Old Chateau. In Japanese, the item and the location are named “Mori no Yokan”, which means either the “Forest Yokan(Japanese red bean jelly)” or “Forest…
Mini Honey Cakes
Honey cakes are something I fell in love with when my sister brought one back from her student exchange in Europe. They are cakes made from these thin, honey cookie-like layers sandwiching a tangy cream-type of filling. For those who have never had a honey cake before, they are very similar to an icebox cake,…
Yuzu-Chevre No-Bake Cheesecakes
These no-bake cheesecakes took inspiration from several places. Conceptually, they were inspired by one of the few desserts my mom would make for me a kid, being cheesecake with a graham cracker crust. I was also inspired to go the no-bake route because of two reasons. The first there being how popularized nama or rare…
Litwick Carrot Cakes
Making these little Litwick carrot cakes was an interesting process. Originally, I was going to bake carrot cake batter in cookie shot molds, and then stuff those with a lot of fun fillings, and decorate the exterior of the cakes to resemble little Litwicks. Litwicks, for those unfamiliar with them, are a Pokemon that is…
Shiny Cottonee (Hojicha) Tea-ramisu
So I had already made a regular Cottonee tea-ramisu(tiramisu but using tea instead of coffee) before, but I figured, why not invert the matcha and hojicha in the recipe, and somehow we wound up with shiny Cottonee. Unlike normal Cottonee, which features a white body, orange eyes, and green leaves, a shiny Cottonee features a…
Cottonee Matcha Tea-ramisu
These tea-ramisu were the end result of me wanting to use these silicone cloud molds I purchased, and wanting to do something Pokemon-themed. So after thinking through what I could do, it just made sense to go the route of Cottonee. Cottonee, as the name may imply, is a cotton ball-themed Grass/Fairy type Pokemon. It…
Blue Yuzu-Elderflower Haupia Pie
A long time ago, I made a haupia pie that was a gorgeous blue color. It was a bit whimsical, with a purple ube crust, a blue haupia(thickened Hawaiian coconut pudding) filling, and these pretty spheres of haupia that were scattered across the top. I wanted to create that, but pairing the coconut with a…
Matcha-Hong Kong Almond “Yoshi Eggs”
Ever since Universal Studios opened Super Nintendo World, I have been obsessed with buying a Yoshi headband. To elaborate, Universal sold these cute Mario character headbands, with a mini doll of the character placed on the headband in a way where it looked like the character was laying on your head. I personally find Mario…
Pink Peach-Moscato Pound Cake
So this recipe came about because I had leftover pink peaches from another recipe, and I did not want those to go to waste. Pink peaches are made by taking the peels off of white peaches, turning that into a simple syrup, then cooking the white peaches in said simple syrup. The syrup, through being…
Blueberry-Yuzu Mochi Ice Cream
I adore the combination of blueberry and citrus. It just takes me back to living in New England, where the Maine blueberries and the abundance or either Meyer lemon or blood orange was such a common yet effective dessert combination. I also love making mochi ice cream, and plating it up in a presentable dessert…
Ube-Passionfruit Mousse Cake
I had the initial inspiration for this cake when I was visiting my friend, Ann, who lives in Oahu. There was a shrub with these gorgeous purple flowers, and I had the idea to make a cake with that kind of visual inspiration. In light of everything going on in Maui, I felt like it…
Poliwag Tang Yuan
When I think of cute O.G./Gen 1 Pokemon, Poliwag immediately comes to mind. Mostly because I remember accidentally running them over in Pokemon Snap in the River stage(whoops), and seeing Misty’s Poliwag(which managed to make it all the way to a Politoed!) back in the original anime series. Poliwag are these round, blue tadpole-like Pokemon…
Lucuma Alfajores Stack
So the initial idea for this recipe came about because I had purchased lucuma pulp for the first time, and I was trying to figure out the best way to utilize it. Lucuma is a fruit that allegedly tastes like caramel, and is the number 1 most popular ice cream flavor in Peru. Personally, after…
Kinako-PB&J Brioches
These brioches came about because I wanted to make something with the peanut butter and strawberries I had lying around, and the first obvious choice was to do a PB&J. Peanut butter and jelly is such a nostalgic concept, since so many people(at least in the States) have grown up eating these at some point…
Hanami Chiffon Sandwich
I’ve made it a point to make hanami desserts every single year, so I definitely did not want to stop that trend this year. Hana-mi refers to flower viewing, specifically the viewing of cherry blossoms blooming every spring. As a whole, this is meant to symbolize the beginning of a new year, or at least…
Coconut-Blood Orange Blanc Manger
Blanc manger, also spelled blancmange, is a French milk jelly, quite similar to a panna cotta, but set using gelled cornstarch instead of bloomed gelatin. The result of it is a slightly firmer consistency, and a creaminess that lingers longer(try saying that phrase three times fast) than a panna cotta would have. It is quite…
Ruby Forest Petit Gateau
This is an homage to the black forest cake, which was my birthday cake for the first 14 years of my life. The reason why we would eat black forest cake was because we would celebrate my birthday in Taiwan, and the bakery in the Shida district where we would stay/live only made one kind…
Almond Tofu with Persimmon and Chrysanthemum
This dessert comes from a combination of various friendships, childhood memories, and a growing appreciation for my Taiwanese-Chinese-American upbringing. So I’m sure a good amount of people out there have zero clue what almond tofu is. Also called almond pudding, almond tofu is a Chinese dessert that consists of a sweet almond-flavored, milk-based jelly, similar…