This recipe is in dedication for Tayde, who was a former patient at St. Jude’s Children Hospital, a childhood cancer(acute lymphoblastic leukemia) survivor, and now a healthy mother of two. Her floral-themed art pieces were featured at the Creator’s Summit at St. Jude, which I was lucky enough to attend(thank you, Shari from my first…
Tag: cinnamon
Carrot Cake Castella with Honeyed Goat Cheese
This recipe was directly inspired by a petit four I had at Singular restaurant in Kyoto. When we ate there, they used carrot juice to make this light and airy cake, and paired it with a soft whipped cream cheese topping. Castella is a type of cake that originated from Portugal, but has since made…
Sticky Toffee “Cinnabon” Loaves
One of my personal favorite memories during filming Masterchef: Back to Win was when a bunch of us(i.e. Gabriel, Samantha, Dara, and I) ordered Cinnabon to where we were staying, and we just ate Cinnabon while trying not to feel stressed about the competition(before anyone asks, Bri had an appointment when that happened, or else…
Lu Rou Fan Rice Bowls
Lu rou fan, or 滷肉饭 as it’s written in Chinese, is a Chinese/Taiwanese dish that consists of braised meat, usually pork, with rice, and it’s usually served with pickled daikon and an egg that is usually braised or cooked with the stew. At least that’s how I was raised to eat it. The stew is…
Chocolate-Cajeta Cupcakes
These cupcakes are meant to represent decadence and indulgence. One of my personal favorite combinations is dark chocolate with salted caramel, and these cupcakes take that combination, and really drive it home. In place of using just a regular caramel, I went with Cajeta. Cajeta is a Oaxacan goat milk caramel, very similar to dulce…
Whipped Cheesecake with Brown Butter Carrot Cake: a plated dessert
This recipe came about because I was thinking what I could make with rainbow carrots, and I thought about a fun plated carrot cake meets a cheese platter. Whipped cheesecakes are always a favorite dessert of mine, because they are super easy to do. Cream cheese, gelatin, sugar, and there you have a silky textured…
Gluten-Free Levain Cookies
So I am fully aware of my penchant for making giant cookies. I just happen to own a really large ice cream scoop, so with that comes really large scoops of ice cream and cookie dough! So when I would visit New York, once of the most iconic bakeries there was Levain. Known for their…
Oatmeal-chocolate chip scones
These scones came about because I dun goof’d on an oatmeal cookie recipe – I did not sub out enough flour when adding in the oats, resulting in what were supposed to be cookies not spreading as much, and developing a more biscuit/scone-like texture. I know with scones, there is usually a stigma with them…
Pumpkin Butter Mochi Pie
So I had a lot of leftover pumpkin lying around after doing R&D on my calabaza en tacha clafoutis, so I had to figure out how to get rid of it. After blending it up into a puree, I found that the only thing I could feasibly do with pureed pumpkin(that was already sweetened) was…
Apple Crostata with Dutch Crust
I literally only came up with this recipe because I had a ton of apples I needed to use up. So. Many. Apples. And while I could have dumped all of my proverbial apple-eggs into one basket, and make one colossal apple dessert, that seems lame and kind of unoriginal. I would rather stretch out…
Calabaza en Tacha Clafoutis with Cajeta
I came up with this dessert when I was conceptualizing a dish for a gala for a nonprofit called Loveworks, based in Oklahoma City(shoutout to Gabriel Lewis for inviting me to help out with this event!). The dinner took place in November, so because of that, I wanted to focus on whatever was seasonal to…
Pumpkin-Persimmon Mirror Glaze Cake
This recipe came about because I had a buttload of pumpkin-dulcey(blonde chocolate or roasted white chocolate) ganache that I left in my freezer for when fall rolled around. And the moment that it did, I went ahead and busted out my pumpkin-blonde chocolate ganache and made this cake with it and randomly a persimmon that…
“Gansito” Petit Gateau
My friend Frances once described gansito to me as “a Mexican Twinkie”. So that is what a gansito is, in broader terms. But more specifically, gansito is a vanilla snack cake with a layer of strawberry jam, a cream filling, and it is covered in chocolate. So it is like a Twinkie, but with strawberry…
Apple-Cajeta Phyllo Tart
I have made quite a few apple tarts. Mostly because I love buttery pastry and caramelized apples. Unlike other apple tarts, this recipe is deceptively simple, but does require a lot of technique to make. Namely because of the cajeta, and the phyllo. Cajeta is the Oaxacan cousin to dulce de leche, using goat’s milk…
Cafe de Olla Naked Cake
This cake is an homage to my friend, Frances. When we used to work together, our morning ritual was going to our workplace cafeteria, getting coffee and toast, and dicking around instead of doing actual work enjoying a mini breakfast together at our desks. In honor of her graduating college, I had to make a…
Cinnamon Tequila Apple Mille Feuille
So I was fortunate enough to be gifted with a bottle of cinnamon tequila from the lovely Sheetal from Masterchef season 1, from her company, Spice Note Tequila, which features spice-infused tequilas! I actually love baking with alcohol, despite not being an alcoholic or even that much of a drinker(featherweight problems I guess), so I…
Citrus Sfogliatelle
I love sfogliatelle. They are as crunchy, creamy, and delicious as they are tricky to make. These Italian pastries are made with a copious amount of dough that is quite similar to phyllo in composition, and filled with a mixture of semolina, ricotta, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and candied orange peel. The filling MIGHT sound a…
White Bunny Carrot Cakes
So when it comes to Easter, I don’t really celebrate it. Growing up in a Buddhist household, Easter as a holiday just meant that time of year when there’s lots of rabbits, ducks, marshmallows, polka dots, colorful eggs, and randomly, jellybeans. That’s literally all Easter means to me to be honest. With that in mind,…
Hedgehog “Cinnabon” Mont Blancs
I initially was inspired to make these cakes from seeing all of the cute animal-themed crepes in Japan! One that seemed doable-enough were the hedgehogs, which they made by piping things onto a scoop of whipped cream to create the animal. I knew that I could do something similar using the half-sphere molds I normally…
Kinako-Pumpkin Ripple Cheesecake
This recipe kind of morphed from the original concept, which was going to be my take on Milkbar’s Cinnaswirl Milkbar(Crack) Pie. Back when I worked in Milkbar Lab, Milkbar had just launched a partnership with Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal. Meaning that we got to play around with different recipes using it. While I did not…
Freddy's Harajuku 