Yellow Chiffon Layer Cake with Blonde Chocolate

Truthfully, I never really understood yellow cake. I just assumed it was a vanilla cake with a lot of yellow food coloring in it. But turns out, yellow cake is not yellow from food coloring, but from the usage of butter in place of oil, and egg yolks. An abundance of egg yolks results in…

Boozy Grasshopper Pie

This dessert was a bit of an unintentional classic for me. I made my first grasshopper pie back in 2016, when I was asked to help cook for a Thanksgiving banquet at Boston University for about 90 people. I was in charge of the desserts, and grasshopper pie was one of the desserts that I…

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…

Cacao Parfait

I came up with this dessert because I was having MAJOR choco-holic cravings. If you were looking to get chocolate-wasted from a dessert, this parfait has your number. I did this in the style of a Japanese parfait, which features less fruit, yogurt, and granola, and more ice cream, crunchy cookies(I made feuilletine), and cream….

Creamsicle Dusk Cake

I came up with the concept for this cake when I was watching the sunset on the beach. Seeing the different colors in the sky got me thinking, how cool would it be to replicate that with buttercream? The blues, oranges, purples, and dark green-ish tints, it would be a really pretty visual effect that…

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…

Beetroot red velvet with yuzu cream cheese frosting

So this was actually a cake order for a friend’s boyfriend’s birthday. He wanted a red velvet cake, and I did not want to use red food dye, so I opted for using beetroot powder. My initial batch turned out brown, as beet root powder does not like being baked, and I had to do…

Injeolmi and barley tea mirror glaze cake

This was a last-minute cake order for my sister’s high school best friend, Jane. Jane is currently expecting, and in commemoration of that, I wanted to make a dessert that was very much to her liking – Jane herself is Korean, and she loves Asian desserts and flavors. So naturally, I went with injeolmi powder,…

Tofu ice cream with tofu water meringue

So this would not be the first tofu ice cream recipe I have made. However, it would be the first where I do not use coconut milk – that makes a huge difference in the actual flavor of the ice cream, as coconut milk, while it does contain the necessary fat to create creamy vegan…

Baked S’mores

This dessert was partially inspired from my childhood. Specifically, we would always go to the local Souplantation(whihc my mom would affectionally call “Soupie”) for dinner on the weekends, and they would serve this molten chocolate cake, which was basically just a scoop of chocolate cake with fudge sauce over it. I wanted to take that…

Matcha and cream roll cake

So I actually made this cake for my mom’s birthday, but I figured that the green color just made it perfect for St. Patrick’s and March, so I held off on posting it until then. The unique thing about this roll cake compared to other ones I have done in the past is that the…

Keep on keeping on: a roll cake

I have wanted to make a vertical roll cake again for quite a while. They’re a lot of fun because visually, they resemble trees! Whenever I think about Christmas, I obviously have to think of yule logs or bouche de noels. Those are roll cakes that are decorated to look like a freshly cut log….

If I believe: a Mont Blanc

When I was doing a Google Hangout baking session with my friends, Ann and Sylvie, I was struggling hardcore with what to make. I really wanted to do a strawberry Mont Blanc, but I had these dates in my refrigerator that have been laying there for at least four weeks, and I also had a…

Eton mess with creme patissiere

For my second lesson with Lemonade, Marcin and I wanted to tackle another common ingredient, this time being eggs. Truthfully, the lemon meringue cookies could have been used for both lessons, since I showcased how to use the yolk and the white in a dessert, but I figured I would tackle an entirely different dessert with…

Lemon meringue cookies

For my cooking mini-series with Lemonade(my friend Roshni’s social platform company), my co-host Marcin and I were actually tasked with making three different classes with three different themes. So we decided to go with ingredients, and to fit with the name of the company, we went with lemon dishes for the first class! For my…

A very berry (vegan) layer cake

Now I really wanted to make this cake for a couple of reasons. The first being, a lot of people have been complaining that Swiss meringue buttercream is hard. Personally, I don’t think that it’s hard, it’s more about knowing how to make it. To give a little explanation about meringues, we have three kinds….

Mackles’mores petit gateau

Mackles’mores(spelling might be inconsistent because truthfully, I have no clue what the correct spelling for them is), are chocolate chip cookies baked on top of graham crackers, with melted chocolate and marshmallow on top. They sell them at a bakery in Seattle, and happen to be one of my sister’s absolute favorite desserts. And I…

Meyer Lemon-Elderflower-Meringue Beignets

I love a good beignet. Fluffy doughnuts are honestly my favorite thing ever for munching on, especially when they’re stuffed with something. In this case, I had a ton of Meyer lemons sitting in my fridge, and I wanted to use them up. Immediately, my mind went to lemon curd. And with lemon curd, you…

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…

Don’t start now: a plated dessert

When Dua Lipa released her new single, “Don’t start now”, of course I fanboyed. It had this upbeat, modern Disco-style that was so indicative of her music. And the message, while a bit generically delivered so that it was relatable, still resonated with me. Specifically not letting “being left behind” affect you, but rather, propel…