This was inspired by the Japanese story called “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter”. The story itself featured a bamboo cutter who uncovered a little girl, named Kaguya, one day when he was cutting open stalks of bamboo. She was specifically found inside of a glowing bamboo stalk. As the story progresses, Kaguya is revealed…
Tag: gelatin
Pink Lemon-Olive Oil-Rose Cake
This cake is dedicated to my friend, Na’ama, specifically for her birthday. Fun facts, she was one of my friends that attended my apron battle for season 12(she was in the podium instead of the balcony), and we went to college together, but did not actually know each other back then. Since Boston University was…
Matcha Kokedama(Moss Balls)
Kokedama are these decorative moss ball plants that are super popular in Japan. They are used as planters for other plants more often than not, and they give any room a pleasant, earthy aesthetic that I just adore. My first time seeing a kokedama was when I was playing Animal Crossing New Horizons, where they…
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…
Passionfruit Mousse Cake
I was fortunate enough to be gifted fresh passionfruits from a family friend, and it was actually around that time that I wanted to make a mousse cake with them. Not necessarily a mirror glaze cake, but just a mousse with layers of chiffon cake embedded inside of it. A while ago, I made a…
Bond Forger Marshmallows
So I got into Spy x Family back when I had COVID in June(I call June 2022 the lost month for that very season), and I instantly fell in love with the characters. From Anya being a meme-tastic derp to Yor being comically overpowered but well-meaning to Loid trying to be a good father and…
Peach Bellini Pate Choux
These pate choux, in a lot of ways, are an homage to my Masterchef bestie, Bri. Peaches just because her family has a peach orchard in Texas, prosecco because I know she loves her sparkling wines(fun fact, a bellini is a drink made from peaches and prosecco), and the usage of molecular caviar as it…
Oshawott Cheesecakes
Back when Pokemon Black and White came out, I was immediately a fan of Oshawott. Based on sea otters(which are already an adorable species of animal), Oshawott are these blue and white sea otters that kind of look like snowmen, and are just adorable. They have these large round noses and hold a scallop-like item…
Bamboo dreams: a flower cake
I created this cake as an homage to my own childhood of Asian rice-based desserts, while also doing a nod to the greenery I would see growing up in Southern California by the coast. I wanted this cake to capture both the aforementioned flavors of Asian desserts, and the aforementioned scenery of flowers by the…
Persimmon mousse tart
I am very fortunate to have a coworker who grows his own tropical fruits and vegetables! Earlier this year, I got fresh passion fruits, while right now, I got fresh fuyu persimmons. Truthfully, I never really had a ton of persimmon desserts growing up. I usually would either eat them fresh from the tree in…
“Butterfly Skies”(blueberry-yuzu) entremet
Now I would be lying if I said this recipe was easy. Or very doable. Or simple. I would not be lying if I said this recipe takes multiple days to execute without a blast chiller or liquid nitrogen. This is the kind of cake you would only make for special occasions. Between the techniques,…
Pistachio-matcha cake
I literally came up with this cake because I wanted to see how much pistachio powder I could incorporate into a chiffon cake without compromising the integrity of the cake – as pistachios do not have gluten, that would obviously affect the texture of a cake when subbing out ground pistachios with flour. The end…
STEP: a plated dessert
I have been listening to a ton of ClariS again recently. ClariS is a Japanese pop group consisting of two girls who sing extremely girly songs that make me question my own gender identity. That being said, I do appreciate how dessert-friendly their songs and aesthetic are, and it makes it a lot easier for…
Snowball fight in the icebox: gingerbread icebox cake
Now I don’t really eat or make gingerbread men that often. Mostly because I was only raised with 50% of American traditions, being an immigrant, so gingerbread baking was not really something we did in our family. Highly ironic, given how much ginger we had at home, from fresh ginger root to powdered ginger to…
Royal milk tea mousse cake
This dessert was directly inspired from Lady M Cake Boutique. I have only recently come to realize that the damn cakes there drill holes in your wallet more effectively than I could ever drill biology concepts into my own brain. Screw you AP Bio, I have baking. Which is a science. But much cooler than…
Citron Othello: black and white lemon mousse cake
The idea behind this cake came from a very unusual silicon mold I purchased from Amazon. I knew that just from the triangular prism shape of the final cake, that each slice would be a little tear drop-triangle-chestnut-looking thing. I thought it would be cute if I made some mousse cakes that were visual plays…
Black sesame-matcha cheesecake doughnut cream
I came across the inspiration for this concept on Instagram, where I saw a chef make a double decker cake doughnut that was pressed into a mousse then glazed in a mirror glaze. I believe it was called a tiger doughnut, because of the pattern on it. For my own version of it, I decided…
Thick Mint Bars
These were obviously inspired by the popular Girls Scout Cookie, the Thin Mint. A thin, dark chocolate cookie with a minty chocolate glaze. They’re delicious, to say the least. Since Girl Scout Cookies are not available year-round (while they do have knock-offs available, it’s just not the same), I figured I would try to recreate…
Blue mallow marshmallows
The inspiration for this dessert came from a play on words, being the “mallow” from blue mallow tea and the “mallow” from marshmallow. Yes, it’s original. I know. I flavored the marshmallow with elderflower liquor and bee pollen, just because I had those in my pantry to give it a very unique flavor profile. Blue…
S’mores panna cotta: a plated dessert
This dessert came about two summers ago when I was really bored. And I mean REALLY bored. Although that summer, I learned how to do a lot of things, specifically in terms of plating beautiful desserts and tackling ingredients I have never used before. The inspiration for the dessert came from a couple different things….
Freddy's Harajuku 