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…
Tag: pastry
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…
White Rabbit and Salted Egg Mimosa Cake
Easter is one of those holidays I literally never understood. I never grew up in a household that celebrated it beyond Easter Egg hunts and getting sick from eating chocolate rabbits and jellybeans, so whenever people talk about how it is this whole commitment that they had to spend with their families, I did not…
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…
Baked Chocolate Dulce de Leche Doughnuts
I wanted to make these doughnuts for a couple of different reasons. The first was that eggs are getting really expensive/hard to find about now, I wanted to do some R&D with egg-free desserts, this being one of them. The second was that I was fondly reminiscing about my time at Boston University, and recalling…
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…
Chocolate-Milky Oolong Cake
Milk or milky oolong has been one of my obsessions ever since I got some from a cute tea shop in Munich. I’m partially ashamed to admit that I never heard of the tea prior to that trip, especially since it is a Taiwanese tea, and I am Taiwan-born after all, but better late than…
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…
Tonka Bean Tiramisu “Clouds”
Ever since I got these cute silicone cloud molds, I wanted to make some aesthetically pleasing mousse cakes with them! One idea is taking a classic Italian tiramisu, and literally setting it into cloud-like shapes just for a cozier feel. Italian tiramisu consists of a sponge, usually ladyfingers or savoiardi biscuits, dunking them in a…
Rayquaza-themed Mugwort-Kinako Parfait
So this recipe was the result of me being asked by The Pokemon Company to make a Rayquaza-themed dessert! The very first English Pokemon game I ever played was Pokemon Sapphire, and I loved beating the Elite Four, climbing the Sky Pillar, and catching Rayquaza. Rayquaza is a green serpentine Dragon/Flying-Pokemon that is meant to…
Gjetost Caramel Apple Pie
While I have made gjetost apple pies in the past, the filling for this particular pie was the result of me trying to macerate the apples in caramel. With baking with fruit, there is the moisture factor that can cause a recipe to either work, or taste soggy, dense, and raw. Apple pie can be…
Forest Gateau
I was loosely inspired by an item in Pokemon called the “Old Gateau”. In the English, this item is a reference to the location is was found in, called the Old Chateau. In Japanese, the item and the location are named “Mori no Yokan”, which means either the “Forest Yokan(Japanese red bean jelly)” or “Forest…
Pate Choux Swans
Whenever I think of retro, classic-but-not-trendy desserts, the first two desserts that come to mind are an ice cream sundae, and pate choux swans. I just remember seeing them on every cruise ship dessert menu. Two little cream puff swans with a chocolate sauce underneath to visually represent a lake. Even though I try not…
Gjetost-Azuki Basque Cheesecakes
Sometimes when you have accidents, you just have to pivot. That, or dump your mistakes into a parchment-lined springform pan, throw them into a burning hot oven, and throw a hail, Mary. This recipe was that. Originally, these were going to be cheese tarts, stuffed with a gjetost(caramelized cheese) and azuki filling, but I overfolded…
Cereal Milk and Berries Cake
Ever since working at Milkbar, I feel like my love and appreciation for cereal milk(cornflake-steeped milk) has been at an all-time high. That being said, I always find myself with leftover soggy cornflake mush whenever I make it. At Milkbar lab, I was always trying to find ways to use it up. But the issue…
Mini Honey Cakes
Honey cakes are something I fell in love with when my sister brought one back from her student exchange in Europe. They are cakes made from these thin, honey cookie-like layers sandwiching a tangy cream-type of filling. For those who have never had a honey cake before, they are very similar to an icebox cake,…
“Box of Chocolates” Tartlets
When I think of Valentine’s, the first three things that I associate the holidays with are pink-colored things, red-colored things, and chocolate. While let’s be real here, chocolate on Valentine’s Day is just a marketing ploy for candy companies to sell more chocolate, it is still fun to see all of the heart shaped chocolates,…
Milky Oolong Strawberry Cream Cake
One of my favorite finds while I was exploring a tea shop in Munich was a curious little tea called milky oolong tea. Milky oolong, also called jin xuan tea, has the toasty, nuttiness of oolong tea, but it also has these buttery, caramel-y notes, similar to Chinese milk candies. This flavor is the end…
Freddy's Harajuku 