Tokyo Banana will always take me back to trips to Japan, where I would eat the soft fluffy snack cakes, stuffed with a banana cream often. When I was conceptualizing a fun chiffon cake sandwich recipe, one of my immediate go-to’s was none other than Tokyo Banana. When it comes to banana-flavored desserts, I learned…
Tag: gluten-free
Matcha Cream Chiffon Sandwiches
Perfect in time for St. Patrick’s Day, my next chiffon sandwich recipe is for matcha green tea-flavored! I feel like everyone has at least had matcha in the form of green tea ice cream before, and what I love about pairing matcha with dessert is that sugar and dairy are great vehicles to balance out…
Chocolate-Orange Cream Chiffon Sandwiches
Continuing on with our weekly chiffon cake sandwiches, our next once is the chocolate-orange. I personally adore the chocolate chiffon cake that we use for this recipe, since it is soft and spongy, but also full of cocoa flavor. I highly recommend using black cacao powder for this recipe, because it adds a fruitiness to…
Raspberry Tea-ramisu Chiffon Sandwiches
Tiramisu is classically made with either ladyfingers or Savoiardi biscuits, soaked with coffee, layered with mascarpone cheese, and dusted with cocoa powder. It is such a classic Italian dessert, but I wanted to turn it on its head, and do a raspberry tea-ramisu. The logic here was two-fold: raspberries and coffee do not really go…
Coconut-Blood Orange Blanc Manger
Blanc manger, also spelled blancmange, is a French milk jelly, quite similar to a panna cotta, but set using gelled cornstarch instead of bloomed gelatin. The result of it is a slightly firmer consistency, and a creaminess that lingers longer(try saying that phrase three times fast) than a panna cotta would have. It is quite…
Strawberry Shortcake Chiffon Sandwiches
I can’t tell if I am late to the whole chiffon cake sandwich craze or not, but I can tell you that I am pretty obsessed with the concept! Aa chiffon cake is traditionally baked in a round cake pan with a little chimney running through it – the chimney allows for even air and…
Tofu Fraisier Rare Cheesecake
I have made rare cheesecake with tofu in the past, and fraisier cake in the past, so I figured, why not combine the two? The end result was quite straightforward, being a rare tofu cheesecake that was rippled with strawberry coulis, enrobed with slices of strawberries, and all on top of a crunchy-salty-sweet Triscuit crust….
Ube-Passionfruit-Coconut Cake
This recipe came about because I had ube paste, coconut milk, and fresh passionfruit, all of which I wanted to use, and preferably together. Ube(pronounced oo-beh) is a Filipino purple yam that is sweet and nutty in flavor. Almost like if you took a purple yam and toasted it with brown butter. Ube is a…
Dratini Tteok
Tteok are Korean rice cakes that are eaten in both savory and sweet applications. They are quite similar to mochi, and have a delicious chewy texture to them. One of the more common savory applications of tteok is tteokbokki, which literally translates to stewed rice cakes. The cakes are usually stewed in a spicy, kimchi-gochujang…
“Present Box” Petit Gateau
Before you ask, these little egg nog-cranberry present boxes are my modern, gluten-free interpretation of a Christmas cake. Christmas Cake, at least in Japanese culture, are soft spongecakes with cream and usually strawberries, just to capture this red and white aesthetic. I wanted to take the red and white aesthetic, along with some more traditionally…
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…
Snom Wagashi
Ever since I saw Snom when Sword and Shield came out, I was a fan. They are these cute little worm-caterpillar-larvae bugs-things with a layer of ice spikes around their bodies. And they are hilariously adorable, namely because of their super simplistic design! For those unfamiliar with what wagashi are, it is an umbrella term…
Togarashi-Walnut Mochi Brownies
I am a more recent eater of the mochi brownie, first having had one from my friend Ann, when she sold them at a pop-up in Venice Beach! And honestly, I am so annoyed that I never had one prior to 2020. Crispy at the edges, super gooey on the insides, it is the perfect…
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…
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…
Ghost Mochi
For Halloween, I absolutely had to make something ghost-themed. I wanted to use tonic water in this recipe as well, just because it contains quinine, a fancy way of saying that it will glow under black light. It has admittedly been a minute since I last made a dessert using tonic water(mostly because tonic water…
Gluten-Free Rhubarb Financiers
Years ago, I was fortunate enough to snag a dinner table at Annisa in New York City. Annisa was a 1-star Michelin restaurant(which sadly closed in 2017) helmed by the highly talented Anita Lo, who focuses on French cuisine with Asian influences. I remember seeing chef Lo dominating in Iron Chef, Battle Mushroom, back in…
Baby Seal Mochi
One trend that I remember seeing a lot of were these little mochi that were shaped into baby seals. They were adorable to look at, and that was enough of a motivation for me to attempt making these. I have seen different fillings being used in these, ranging from strawberry daifuku(strawberry and red bean stuffed…
Rowlet Inarizushi
When I was a kid who did not like raw fish yet, I found myself ordering only three things whenever we would go out for sushi: cucumber rolls, tamagoyaki(Japanese omelet), and inarizushi. Inari refers to these puffed tofu skins that are based in a sweet soy mixture, giving them a sweet, smoky, and almost salty…
Milky Way Yokan
I love Tanabata. For those unfamiliar with it, Tanabata is a Japanese holiday where they have a star festival, celebrating all things wishes! It is held to commemorate the one day in the year(July 7th) where two lovers, Orihime and Hikoboshi, who were separated by the Milky Way can see each other. Tags with wishes…
Freddy's Harajuku 