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…
Tag: pastry
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…
S’mores Slice
I love taking a nostalgic flavor combination like chocolate, graham cracker, and marshmallow, and putting a fun spin on them. Nostalgia is always a great basis for a solid dessert, and I think almost any child raised in America could relate to a s’more. Graham cracker, gooey chocolate, and a toasted marshmallow. That’s childhood right…
Ginger-Pear Shortcake
Shortcake can have a lot of meanings. In America, a shortcake is a sweetened biscuit with cream and fruit, typically strawberries. In Asia, namely Japan, a shortcake is a light spongecake, but with the same accompaniments of cream and fruit. I wanted to make a pear shortcake with this gorgeous snow-white aesthetic just to capture…
“Tea and Mooncake”: a plated dish
I’ve been trying on and off to make this recipe for years now, but until recently, I had zero clue to where to buy quail. That is until I finally came across a meat market that sold almost every conceivable protein imaginable, including quail, and I could finally revisit this concept! The idea was to…
Persimmon Sticky Toffee Pudding
These sticky toffee puddings are the love child of two Chinese ingredients(Chinese almond powder and persimmons) and a classic British dessert. Whenever the fall/winter rolls around, persimmons are abundant. And trust me when I say this, but having Chinese/Taiwanese family friends, I find myself rolling in persimmons every fall because I always know someone that…
Financier Crumb Cakes
I came up with this recipe namely because I was craving financier, but I was also craving coffee cake. Coffee, or crumb, cake consists of this dense, rich cake that is usually made with sour cream, and lightly spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon. It has streusel bits baked throughout it, which adds a pleasant crunch…
Maple-Pecan Cookies
These maple-pecan cookies were the result of me wanting something pecan pie-adjacent, and not wanting to outright bake a pecan pie or eat pecan pie filling. That and I was craving maple-flavored cookies. I have been making tons of brown butter-baked goods, and maple is just something that fits perfectly with that flavor profile. I…
Tres Leches Cake with Whipped Condensed Milk
This cake was actually a cake order for one of my repeat customers who have been ordering cakes from me sine the pandemic! For the sake of confidentiality, I won’t outright say who they are, but I have made so many cakes for them already, and am grateful as always whenever they reach out for…
Maple-Vietnamese Cinnamon Rolls
These cinnamon rolls were a random brain child when I was trying to think of fun things I could do with maple syrup and Vietnamese cinnamon. When life gives you cinnamon, making a cinnamon roll is kind of a no-brainer. However, I did not want to just do a plain cinnamon roll. So that was…
Tonka Bean and Yuzu Paris Brest
I made this dessert for my friends’ highbrow-lowbrow caviar night. We sometimes do this thing where we buy caviar to be bougie, and pair it with fancy things(like champagne and charcuterie) or less fancy things(like chips and fried chicken). In my case, I wanted to go the fancy route, since I am a bougie bitch…
Red Velvet Cake with Cheesecake Brulee
This red velvet cake combines together a few fun desserts, being obviously red velvet cake, but also cheesecake, and creme brulee. I have been obsessed with doing these baked cheesecakes with bruleed sugar tops – these kinds of cheesecakes are similar to a basque cheesecake, but instead of the top being burnt, it is a…
Vegan German Chocolate Cake
German chocolate cake reminds me of two things. The first is back in 2018, when I worked at a hotel in Inglewood, and I had a boss who threw a giant stink because I was not bringing desserts into the office frequently(because every time I would, nobody would eat them so it was a giant…
Chocolate Mont Blanc Chiffon Sandwiches
My favorite after school snack my mom would get for me was the mont blanc from JJ Bakery in Torrance. Their mont blanc consisted of a fluffy chocolate sponge cake with chestnuts and chantilly cream in the middle, and a generous piping of the creamy chestnut puree on top. It was soft, light, nutty, and…
Sourdough Sata Andagi(Okinawan Brown Sugar Doughnuts)
The first time I had sata andagi was in 2023 when my family and I were visiting Japan. We went to a local bakery in Kyoto, and they were selling these cute, rectangular, crackle-surfaced brown sugar doughnuts. I was a bit taken aback from the texture at first – I was expecting something more like…
Chocolate-Tonka Shortbreads
These shortbreads are meant to be decadence incarnate. I really wanted to celebrate chocolate in its darkest and richest flavors, and what pairs better with cocoa than butter and sugar? So with that logic in mind, I decided to make these buttery shortbread cookies, flavored with black cacao, and studded with chocolate throughout. One of…
Mini Levain-style Cookies
On and off for the past year, I have been trying to perfect a mini version of those gigantic Levain cookies. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Levain(which is a French culinary term for sourdough starter) is a bakery originally from New York that specializes in these tall, chunky cookies that are crispy…
Freddy's Harajuku 