Amoroso pink: raspberry pate choux

The first thing I did when I received my pitaya powder was create these naturally pink cream puffs. I named the dessert Amoroso pink because it means “love pink” in Italian. Super straightforward and simple, because if you want to eat this dessert just based on its appearance, chances are, you love the color pink….

Orange-chocolate poundcake

I keep watching these Korean baking videos, and even though I am not Korean nor do I understand the language, I can still figure out what the ingredients they use are and what techniques were because yes, it really can be that simple. I wanted to do a dessert that just embraced the orange-chocolate combination,…

Miso butterscotch tarte tatin-financier

This was a hodgepodge of different French desserts, tied together with Japanese miso and Chinese ginger. Honestly, the inspiration came about from having a shit-ton of apples and pears in my fridge that I needed to get rid of, so I got creative with how I wanted to do that. I remember seeing a Korean…

Cookies and cream tres leches cake

The inspiration for this dessert actually came from Housekeeping Appreciation Week. Since our team was only 22 people, it was actually a doable task to make something for them. I wanted to make something amazing for the housekeeping team that works hard to make sure that our guests don’t realize that our hotels rooms have…

Jump Up, Super Star!: a galaxy cake

I really just was inspired to make this dessert from when I was watching an episode of Sugar Rush on Netflix, which is this reality baking competition aka the things I used to learn how to cook from. Two somewhat snooty and bitchy, but funny contestants prepared this galaxy cake, where it was white on…

Let it grow: mint-chocolate succulent cake

I’ve seen a ton of succulent cakes on the Internet lately, and I wanted to give it a whack myself. However, my policy on buttercream, which seems to be the thing that everyone is making them out of, is a huge no-no. If I am given that much butter, that much sugar, and that much…

Meyer lemon Mimosa cake

When I was doing research on Lady M (I need to better understand my enemy to spite them) I came across a cake that was called a Mimosa cake. It was this cake covered in cubes, and it was vanilla flavored. Now, I was expecting champagne and oranges, so I was really disappointed at first….

Banana cream pie mille feuille

This was directly inspired by Lady M, which is why it’s called a mille feuille at all. In my opinion, it’s just a fancy banana cream pie that happens to use puff pastry. For the layers, I have a crust of homemade puff pastry, Chantilly cream, vanilla genoise, fresh bananas, and arlettes, which are caramelized…

S’mores Cupcakes

These have been a classic favorite of mine since I started baking and learned how to make Italian meringue. Graham cracker crust, chocolate cake, and Italian meringue, torched in the broiler of your oven, super simple, super fun. For this rendition, I doctored up my meringue a little by introducing gelatin into the simple syrup,…

Sea salt ice cream with coconut cream

I really love doing different renditions on the iconic sea salt ice cream from Kingdom Hearts 2. There is just something about it that reminds me of summers at the beach…oh wait, that’s just the summer for me, because I’m from Los Angeles, and I happen to work nearby the beach. But anyways, it just…

Sweetest Taboo: A mirror glaze cake

This dessert was inspired by guilty pleasures and the Koda Kumi song, “Sweetest Taboo”, which is one of the cutest, most annoying, and energetic JPOP songs I have ever heard. For the dessert itself, I wanted to combine three main guilty pleasures, being funfetti cake, fruity pebbles cereal milk, and pink lemonade. So we have…

Naked German chocolate cake

I just love chocolate cake. And this chocolate cake, no exceptions. I layered devil’s food cake with salted caramel-pecan milk bavarian, coconut-chocolate cremeux, and coconut-pecan macarons to make for a fun, delicious, and semi-interactive eating experience. For the pecan milk 1/2 cup pecans 1 cup water Bring pecans and water to a simmer for 15…

Strawberry checkerboard shortcake

I… am actually surprised I have not shared this recipe yet. It’s a really fun one, because it’s got strawberry and vanilla chiffon cakes inside of the cake, surrounded by homemade ladyfingers, a mirror glaze, and topped with glazed berries and edible pearls. I really just wanted to make a dessert that is fun to…

Apple-bee pollen cheesecake

When I made this cake originally, I made the mistake of using yogurt. Why is yogurt a mistake? Because it will leech out a ton of water (almost an endless supply of it to be frank) and make whatever is unfortunately underneath it a soggy mess. So while the original recipe calls for using yogurt…

Blue dreams doughnut cream

When I was thinking about a summery dessert, I was inspired by both sea salt ice cream from Kingdom Hearts and salted coconut-butterfly tea lattes. There is just something about that blue-white contrast that really reminds me of sunny skies and blue seas. The name “blue dreams” came from a song of the same name….

Black forest izba cake

Izba cake (Izba is Russian for “cottage”) is a Russian cake made of rolls of pastry stuffed with fruit, typically cherries, that are then layered with cream and allowed to set into a triangular prism shape. The cross section when you cut into it resembles a mini house, which is why it gets that name….

Rewind: a lemon-blackberry entremet

After watching the new season of Cardcaptor Sakura, I could not help but get addicted to the ending theme, Rewind. I wanted to incorporate the sun and moon and clock motifs into this dessert, so I opted for elderflower, lemon, and black currant as the main flavor profiles, as they best compliment one another, but…

Matcha jade layer cake

The idea of this dessert came from wanting to create a layer cake that was visually reminiscent of a garden. I wound up with a dessert that had the gradient of a jade stone, which is still not bad, so pleasant surprises, you know? When it comes to using matcha, getting it to the right…

Chocolate bombolini cake

This dessert came about because I had a shit ton of ricotta cheese leftover, and I needed to use it. I wound up making cannoli cream, which is made with heavily whipped ricotta and chocolate chips. I figured that it would be the easiest way to use the ricotta, since I was not about to…

Corn cookie and strawberry cheesecake sandwiches

These little cookie sandwiches were something I whipped up because every Friday at work, we always have these meetings for associates under the age of 30, and I like to bring something just to make the meetings a little more fun. I… was actually surprised by how well received these were! I knew that the flavor…