I will be honest in that while I absolutely adore the Hoenn region, the Duskull line wasn’t something that I would say I particularly cared for. Of the various Ghost-types in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, I was more partial towards Sableye or Shedinja because of how unique each of them were. With Duskull, they are…
Tag: Black Sesame
Apple-Brown Butter-Sesame Cake
This cake was the result of me making caramelized apples, and wanting to do some fun things with them. I was attempting to make a tarte tatin(whomp whomp) and if that wasn’t foreshadowing enough, I basically ran out of butter to actually make one. So with the butter that I still had, I decided, instead…
Everything Goes On: a plated dessert
This dessert was loosely inspired by my most recent trip to the Big Island, where my friends and I hiked through a dormant volcanic crater in Kilauea. At the bottom of the large crater, there was a surprising amount of plant life that was sprouting out of the black volcanic rock, and the visual contrast…
Black Sesame-Milk Oolong Roll Cake
This cake was a fun reunion between me and a friend from middle school, Inna. Inna and I had been friends during middle school and high school, and while we did hang out a lot with the same people, and had similar interests(video games, anime, baking), we weren’t necessarily the closest of friends back then….
Marbled Sesame Cheesecake Brulee
So I was scouring the internet, and found this gorgeous rectangular cheesecake with a bruleed top, that was sold by the popular Japanese brand, Mr. Cheesecake. That store features these rectangular slabs of cheesecake with a caramelized top and a custard-like center – think like a more aesthetically pleasing basque cheesecake. What was cool was…
Pomelo-Sesame-Blueberry Entremet
A while ago, I went to Tokyo for fun – we only had two full days in the city since flying to and from took a day each way, but we made the most of our two days, seeing Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo Skytree, several Pokemon Centers, Harajuku(my personal favorite), and we also visited Teamlab Planets….
Black Sesame-Blueberry Swirled Baked Cheesecake
So I made the (can be seen as some as a) mistake of purchasing a Costco container of blueberries, and the consequence of doing that is now I have more blueberries than I know what to do with. I personally have always loved blueberry compote or jam on top of a baked cheesecake, so my…
Trio of Milkbread Shio Pan
So I had zero clue what shio pan was until the beginning of 2024 when I saw someone make shio pan and referring to them as “salt bread”. This whole time, I just thought that they were chubby croissants, and as someone who has studied Japanese for 5 years and lived in and visited the…
Black Sesame Hotcakes
I have been on a real hotcake kick lately. Hotcakes are pancakes, but fatter and thicker. They are very popular in Japan, and are often ordered at cafes! When I was in Kyoto, I was able to get some at the hotel we were staying at, and they were super fluffy and tender. So I…
Starry Night Lilikoi Cookies
These cookies were the brain child of me being on a cute, linzer sandwich cookie-type of kick, and me having passionfruit puree to play around with. I thought from a visual standpoint, how cute would it be to make these cookies look like a starry night’s sky? And voila, that’s how we ended up here…
Blood Moon: a petit gateau
For this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, I wanted to do a few different kinds of moon cakes. Some more traditional, and some, a new interpretation of the term “moon cake”. In this case, I wanted to do not one, but two petit gateau, both moon-themed. One would be inspired by the full moon, but the other,…
Black Sesame-Cherry Crostata
Sometimes a good recipe comes about because you have a TON of leftover components in your refrigerator, and it forces you to get creative. I don’t think I would have come up with the combination of black sesame and cherry anytime soon had it not been for the fact that I had leftover black sesame…
Sesame Panda Shortbreads
Whenever I make panda-themed anything, I always think about one of my friends from high school, Karen. Fun fact, I had two friends from high school named Karen, who weirdly enough, I still keep in touch with, but also, they have never met each other before. That Karen-themed tidbit about myself aside, the panda-loving Karen…
Sesame-Kinako-Chocolate: a Petit Gateau
This recipe came about because I was craving something kinako-flavored. Kinako is a toasted soybean flour, which is 100% gluten-free! It kind of tastes like peanut butter, in that it is nutty and warming. I personally love using it with flavors like sesame, which is where the inspiration to pair the two came into play…
Banana-Mixed Grains Tart
This recipe came about because I had a ton of super ripe bananas I needed to get rid of, and I wanted to get rid of these bananas in a somewhat extravagant fashion. I say somewhat because this tart has a decent amount of bells and whistles to it. Namely in the little craquelin choquettes…
Black Sesame and Strawberry Lemonade Cookie Sandwiches
This recipe is a slight homage to a PB&J sandwich, but in cookie form. I have recently been obsessed with Sanritsu sandwich cookies(imagine two tuiles sandwiching a pleasantly sweet creamy filling), and wanted to try making a rendition of them. Instead of doing a buttercream or ganache, since I had leftover strawberry puree and a…
Sesame Checkerboard Bunnies
I felt major FOMO when I saw so many of my fellow Asian bakers posting bunny-themed desserts during Lunar New Years(I was unfortunately in Texas during the week leading up to it with limited access to a kitchen, so I could not join in on the bunny dessert festivities nor did I have the foresight…
Kinako Mochi Chiffon Sandwiches
Kinako is one of my favorite ingredients, I feel like it is highly underrated. Translating to “gold powder”, kinako is a Japanese toasted soy bean powder. It is very nutty, similar in flavor to Korean injeolmi or even just peanut butter, and it quite frequently used in Japanese desserts. For me, I grew up eating…
Levain-Black Sesame Kouign Amann
Back in 2015, I watched a video on Youtube on how to make these pastries called Kouign Amann. They greatly resembled croissants, but baked with a lot of sugar, and in the shape of a muffin instead. The pastry was buttery, flaky, and looked like a giant pain to make – all puns intended. The…
Black Sesame Swirled Baked Cheesecake
A long, long, LONG time ago, back when I was just a middle schooler, way before I even started cooking or baking, we went to a restaurant on Redondo Beach Pier called Maison Riz(sadly it closed something while I was away for college). It was this Japanese-French fusion restaurant located directly on the pier, with…
Freddy's Harajuku 