Pink velvet cupcakes with basque cheesecake mousseline

This recipe came up from a cake order, actually! The client was requesting pink velvet cupcakes for a Hollywood-type of party, so I wanted to try my best and embody a sort of glamorous and cute aesthetic. When it came to the cakes, I knew that I could do this super fluffy cake with pink…

Pretty in pink olive and rose cake

This was my 2nd/3rd take on the “Bomb-ass” Poosh cake. For those who were unaware, Poosh is Kourtney Kardashian’s company, and they did a collaboration with an olive oil cake bakery called Little House of Confections to bring to life this cute little pink olive oil cake, which they called the Poosh cake. The original…

Hidden rose apple tarts with ruby chocolate

I just love it when fruits come in unusual or different colors. Purple kale, watermelon radishes, rainbow carrots, blood oranges, all things that I came to love when I first got into cooking over 10 years ago. Then about 3 years ago, I learned about naturally pink apples. Mountain or hidden rose apples, depending on…

“Fever Dream”: a plated dessert

I literally named this dessert after my favorite mxmtoon song, “Fever Dream”. For me, that term represents memories and milestones of your life, past, present, and future, just melting together into one moment. So I wanted to do that in this dessert! For starters, I wanted to use cherries, since my birthday cake growing up…

Sakura financier

With cherries being in season, I had to make something fun with them! I had done cherry tarts in the past, but I wanted to change it up a little. While I love the combination of almond and cherry, I wanted to also use the salted cherry blossoms I still had, and that’s when I…

Ruby chocolate-blood orange “Poosh” cake

So my sister had purchased a “Poosh” cake and I literally had no idea what is was until she did that. Apparently, it is a pink olive oil cake that the Kardashians endorsed, with the proceeds going to the Armenia relief fund, and it is extremely hard to come by. The completely pink cake itself…

Gyakkou: a plated dessert

With this dessert, my aim was to create something that was delicate and light, while at the same time, having a pronounced flavor. So I opted for rose and almond for the flavor combination, being inspired by Persian baking, and me wanting to use Turkish delight and almond cake in some way or form. So…

“Wake up and smell the roses”: a crepe bouquet

For the ruby chocolate ganache:3/4 cups ruby chocolate1/4 cup heavy cream1 tablespoon unsalted buttera pinch of salt Melt together your ingredient in a pot on low heat. Pour through a sieve. Reserve 1/4 cup of your ganache for the mousse balls. For the rose and ruby chocolate mousse balls:1/4 cup ganache2 tablespoons rose hip jam1/4…

Peach “mille feuille”

I came up with this dessert because I wanted to try something new, and also in honor of two restaurants in L.A., Vespertine and Auburn(R.I.P. Auburn, you will be missed dearly). In Vespertine, we had this gorgeous parsnip and pear dessert where they garnished the edges of the bowl with circles of shaved pear. In…

Strawberry-elderflower macarons

I love strawberry and elderflower anything. I think that this should be a more popular and recognized combination, just because it combines tart and sweet red fruit with floral, lychee-like elderflower for a balanced, pleasant combination. I had to use food coloring in these, as my usual go-to’s of pitaya powder and beetroot powder actually…

Sakura blooming: vegan macaron ice cream sandwiches

So the idea to make a vegan macaron sandwich came up a long while back, I think in December 2019. But I never really got a chance to make them, mostly because I was too lazy to buy a can of chickpeas to make aquafaba. But recently, a bunch of stars sort of aligned, and…

Love like you: a mirror glaze cake

When I was thinking of my quintessential Valentine’s Dessert, I had to go this route. A mousse cake would be perfect, since they are gorgeous, and almost resemble a box of chocolates in a way. I decided to go with a classic and simple combination of raspberry and vanilla, just because the contrast is sharp,…

Let this feeling go: a plated dessert

So continuing with my Valentine’s/Singles Awareness Day desserts, I wanted to make something with berries, cream, champagne, and chocolate. But I didn’t want to do just the obvious strawberries with champagne and white chocolate combination. I wanted to be a little different, so I opted for ruby chocolate and raspberries, and for my cream component,…

dreaming of springtime: an icebox cake

Icebox cakes are fun to make, mostly because they’re just giant cookies with fun fillings sandwiched between each layer. In this particular rendition, I wanted to use ruby chocolate, since I have a whole bag of it and I never really use it. I wanted the dessert to be pink, since Pinktober is coming up,…

Dianthus: a plated dessert

I really love baking with pate choux. But I tend not to make it as often due to mirror glaze cakes and naked layer cakes and doughnut creams all looking a lot prettier, so unfortunately, cream puffs do tend to take the back burner to my list of go-to desserts. That being said, when I…

Waiting for the rain: a plated concept

The inspiration for this dessert came from Maaya Sakamoto’s song, “Waiting for the Rain”. It was a song I first listened to my senior year when I was going through some serious shit. Maybe not the best thing to listen to, because it was a beautiful, but sad song. The lyrics really stood out to…

Yogurt-peach-Turkish delight cake

This dessert came about because we had a fuck-ton of peaches in my fridge that we needed to get rid of. I love yogurt-semolina cake and I knew that it would have the perfect dryness in the crumb to hold up to the moisture in the peaches, so I went that route with baking them…

Amoroso pink: raspberry pate choux

The first thing I did when I received my pitaya powder was create these naturally pink cream puffs. I named the dessert Amoroso pink because it means “love pink” in Italian. Super straightforward and simple, because if you want to eat this dessert just based on its appearance, chances are, you love the color pink….

Sweetest Taboo: A mirror glaze cake

This dessert was inspired by guilty pleasures and the Koda Kumi song, “Sweetest Taboo”, which is one of the cutest, most annoying, and energetic JPOP songs I have ever heard. For the dessert itself, I wanted to combine three main guilty pleasures, being funfetti cake, fruity pebbles cereal milk, and pink lemonade. So we have…

Strawberry-Angel Food Shortcake Doughnut Creams

The goal behind this dessert was to make a strawberry cake unlike any that I have made before. I love making doughnut creams, so I wanted to make another flavor. This time, it’s a strawberry angel food shortcake. I used angel food cake as the base, because it is super light and airy, being made…