This coconut cake was actually in dedication to someone I worked with named Jan. While we only worked together for a little over a year, it was like work love at first sight – we both worked with a lot of the same people and even in some of the same hotels(at different points in…
Tag: dessert
Swablu Mousse Cookies
I would be lying if I said this was my first Swablu dessert. That being said, compared to my first one, these cookies definitely captured the color of Swablu a LOT better. When it came to the flavors, I wanted to go with something a little more tropical-leaning as an homage to Swablu, since it…
Tofu-Nutella Silk Pie
One of my absolute favorite components to make is my chocolate tofu mousse. I’ve been making for it years, since it’s so simple – literally just equal parts melted chocolate mixed with pureed silken tofu, and salt just to bring out the chocolate flavor a bit more. And yes, it is the same chocolate-tofu mousse…
Miso Bete Noir (Flourless) Cake
This inspired by the Black Mirror episode of a similar name(in this case, Bete Noire, which translates to “thing that people particularly dislike”), but with pastry always on my mind, I immediately thought of the chocolate cake instead. Bete noir is a French flourless chocolate cake, literally translating to “black beast”. For my variation on…
Corn-Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches
Whenever I think of a corn dessert, almost immediately my mind wants to pair it with some kind of berry. Corn is sweet and usually lends itself to creamy, buttery textures. Whereas with a berry, it will be sweet and tart. So the two make for a perfect contrast. Usually my default is pairing corn…
Smoliv Oil Cakes
I haven’t made a Pokemon-themed dessert in a hot minute, but I wanted to try my hand with one after I made this really tasty olive oil cake, and wanted to find a way to showcase it! So I figured, why not make a cake inspired by the adorable Pokemon, Smoliv? Smoliv is a Normal/Grass-type…
Sourdough Shio Pan Taiyaki
So a while back, I made these anko shio pan, but what I did not talk about was how I frozen some of the leftover shio pan, and eventually tried making taiyaki out of them! Taiyaki are a Japanese fish(sea bream)-shaped waffle, usually stuffed with either red bean paste or custard most commonly. In the…
Chocolate-Salted Date Thumbprints
This recipe was inspired by the combination of chocolate and dates. Both are a bit earthy, but one provides sweetness, while the other more bitterness. Combine that with a little bit of salt from the usage of soy sauce, and you have essentially a chocolate-salted caramel-esque cookie! In this case, we have a salted date…
Strawberry Custard Cream Cake
While I was at my friend Hannah’s wedding, I happened to befriend a couple sitting next to us, who also lived near the South Bay area(of Los Angeles, not San Francisco). It’s not every day that you meet people who live in that part of LA county, especially because it is a much more residential…
Egg-Free Hummingbird Cake
Hummingbird cake is my obsession. I love banana desserts(get your minds out of the gutter), and the concept of hummingbird cake, being this Southern hummingbird cake with Caribbean roots, is just so fascinating to me. Plus the name is just so pleasant and cute. My version of hummingbird cake usually is made with this brown…
Milky Oolong-Strawberry Tarts
I have become fully obsessed with milky oolong, which is an alkalized oolong tea that tastes like those creamy milk nougats you might find in Asian grocery stores. I find that milky oolong is the perfect ingredient to pair with strawberries, as one is sweet and buttery, and the other is tangy and tart. I…
Constellation: A Petit Gateau
This recipe came about because my mother gifted me with a giant oro blanco citrus, and I had zero clue what to do with it at first. For those unfamiliar with it, oro blanco is a giant green, round citrus fruit that is a hybrid between a grapefruit and a pomelo. Meaning that it is…
Peanut Milk Panna Cotta and Madeleines
This plated dessert was actually inspired by sweet peanut milk soup(花生仁汤), a popular canned beverage from my native Taiwan. I still remember the first time I had it, it was in my grandma’s apartment in the Shida district on a hot summer night. It was a milky beverage with these tender, braised peanuts. I was…
Semolina-Tahini Cake with Biko and Coconut
While I was going through my sugar fast, I was craving basically everything with sugar. This dessert specifically was one of those sugar-deprived fantasies I conceptualized around two desserts that are notoriously sugar-laden. One of the inspirations was basbousa, an Egyptian semolina cake that is baked with tahini for a nutty texture, and is normally…
Baked Berry Ripple Cheesecake
Growing up, my mom only ever made two different kinds of Western desserts for us: white cake or baked cheesecake. I still remember as a really young kid, seeing her use our electric hand mixer to whip the cream cheese mixture(the literal only time she would ever use that thing), she would crush the graham…
Brown Butter Cereal Milk Egg Tarts
There are many interpretations on an egg tart. The most popular is probably the pasteis de nata, which are the Portuegese ones, featuring a thick, rich custard that is broiled on top for a creme brulee-like topping. I personally grew up on Hong Kong style egg tarts, which were a favorite of mine whenever we…
Olive Oil-Tangerine-Sesame Cake
It’s funny to see the rise in popularity with olive oil cakes, especially here in Los Angeles, over the past 4 years. It’s almost as if post-pandemic, that became the “it” cake in the city. You would be amazed to see how many bakeries and cafes sell a variation of it, and almost all are…
Peanut Butter Blossom Choux
I will be honest in that I never fully got why a peanut butter blossom cookie was referred to as a blossom. It’s a round cookie with a little Hershey’s Kiss sticking out of it – to me, that looks more like a weird hat or a part of human anatomy more than anything else….
Seaweed-Tonka Bean Shortbreads
I made these shortbreads specifically with my plating bestie, Bri, in mind! She was visiting Los Angeles, and I wanted to greet her with a dessert that she never had before. Seaweed desserts are already rare to come by, but adding in tonka bean to that, and I guarantee you that is a flavor combination…
Oreo Tofu-Chocolate Pie
This chocolate pie was essentially my attempt at doing a chocolate pie, but completely featuring a chocolate crust. I used Oreos(which are surprisingly completely vegan) to make a very straightforward no-bake Oreo crust, and then used my favorite tofu-chocolate mousse recipe to make the filling. For those who aren’t aware, if you blend silken tofu…
Freddy's Harajuku 