I really love doing different renditions on the iconic sea salt ice cream from Kingdom Hearts 2. There is just something about it that reminds me of summers at the beach…oh wait, that’s just the summer for me, because I’m from Los Angeles, and I happen to work nearby the beach. But anyways, it just…
Tag: sugar
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…
Naked German chocolate cake
I just love chocolate cake. And this chocolate cake, no exceptions. I layered devil’s food cake with salted caramel-pecan milk bavarian, coconut-chocolate cremeux, and coconut-pecan macarons to make for a fun, delicious, and semi-interactive eating experience. For the pecan milk 1/2 cup pecans 1 cup water Bring pecans and water to a simmer for 15…
Strawberry checkerboard shortcake
I… am actually surprised I have not shared this recipe yet. It’s a really fun one, because it’s got strawberry and vanilla chiffon cakes inside of the cake, surrounded by homemade ladyfingers, a mirror glaze, and topped with glazed berries and edible pearls. I really just wanted to make a dessert that is fun to…
Apple-bee pollen cheesecake
When I made this cake originally, I made the mistake of using yogurt. Why is yogurt a mistake? Because it will leech out a ton of water (almost an endless supply of it to be frank) and make whatever is unfortunately underneath it a soggy mess. So while the original recipe calls for using yogurt…
Corn cookie and strawberry cheesecake sandwiches
These little cookie sandwiches were something I whipped up because every Friday at work, we always have these meetings for associates under the age of 30, and I like to bring something just to make the meetings a little more fun. I… was actually surprised by how well received these were! I knew that the flavor…
It’s my life: a plated dessert concept
The name for the dessert was inspired by the Koda Kumi song of the same name. The dessert itself came from me wanting to do something unique, indigenous to almost every American’s life, and most importantly, to show that I don’t give any fucks about what others think about my cooking/baking style. I live my…
L’eclipse: the blue cheesecake
While I was sick with bronchitis, all I could think about was what I would bake the moment I stopped coughing my throat out. I thought back to my old cupcake-making days from high school, where I remembered one of the very first desserts that I have ever thought of: a blue velvet cupcake with…
Italian Lemon Meringue Doughnut Creams
I just wanted to create a new flavor combination using some of my favorite ingredients. That’s how this concept came about. I love lemon and olive oil together, and herbs just perfume that. Olive oil desserts are so underrated, but I adore the rich, rustic quality that they have. For this doughnut cream, I prepared…
Elderflower Eton Mess Fruit Tart
I made this mostly for Pi Day, but also because I wanted to try making a rectangular fruit tart that does not look like an ass sandwich; the first time I purchased a rectangular fluted tart pan, it was back when I was still an accounting intern in DC. As my going away gift to…
Goodnight Meteor: a plated dessert
I have been listening to an artist group called HarmonicBlend for a while now, and I just love their music. They have songs that really tell stories and follow themes, and their most recent album, Dreaming Children, features quite a few songs that I’m inspired to create desserts from. One of those desserts is named…
Cookies and Milk Jam Tart
I wanted to create a dessert inspired by my childhood favorite, cookies and cream. However, I didn’t want to just serve that. I have done cookies and cream inspired desserts in the past, but this time around, I wanted to play around with milk jam. For my milk jam recipe, I love using cornstarch, xantham…
Miso chocolate cake with soy milk-black tea ice cream, sesame, and azuki jam
The inspiration for this dessert was Chinese New Years. The idea of a festive dish that embodies a lot of traditionally Asian flavors, namely the red beans and sesame. Red bean soup with black sesame-mochi balls is a traditional Chinese dessert, so this is a definite homage to that. The miso-chocolate cake really plays off…
Cutie Honey Raspberry Cake
I wanted to prepare a dessert that I could enjoy with a cup of tea while staring out into the city, quietly judging everyone. For some reason, I like to do that. I don’t know why. I guess being an 100% Judging type per Myers-Briggs does that for you. But being a judgmental bitch aside,…
Strawberry cheesecake tiramisu
This dessert is an oldie but a goodie for me. Tiramisu is an Italian classic, typically made with whipped mascarpone cheese and coffee-amaretto soaked ladyfingers, topped with cocoa powder. The coffee and alcohol are there to give you a little “pick me up”, but I wanted to have that same effect with just strawberries. For…
Sweet potato mont blanc
Mont blanc is traditionally a French dessert, featuring a puree of chestnut piped over whipped cream and topped with powdered sugar to resemble a snow-capped mountain; fun fact, mont blanc is French for white mountain. This dessert is popular in both France and Japan, and other varieties use sweet potatoes, shiro an or azuki beans…
Multilayered Chocolate-Raspberry Tart
This dessert was everything that the chocolate-raspberry meringue tart was supposed to be. Chocolate on raspberry on chocolate with no other interference. While the recipe would have conceptually remained the same, I changed it up, using nama chocolate as the base, raspberry gelee as a disk instead, fresh raspberries, a chocolate cremeaux, a tempered chocolate…
Banana-salted caramel doughnut creams
I’ve finally settled on calling the doughnut entremet-things doughnut creams, mostly because it’s a lot easier to say. For this recipe, I opted for banana and salted caramel, nuanced with brown butter and walnuts. The layers for this cake are a brown butter-banana-nut cake, salted caramel bavarian cream, caramelized mirror glaze, salted caramel, and bruleed…
Christmas is dawning: a plated dessert
The concept for this dessert originally came from watching The Next Iron Chef: Superchefs, all the way back in 2011. Chef Elizabeth Falkner created this really cool chocolate devil’s food cake with peppermint snow, inspired by Christmas, and I wanted to do something that was a nod to that, since I finally have the tapioca…
Raspberry and Frangipane Tart
Challenging yourself is fun…from time to time. For me, a challenge is doing something that practices technique, and hinges on perfect execution so that you cannot hide behind the bells and whistles that you should all know that I am capable and comfortable with doing. Granted, a tart is not hard. They just take a…
Freddy's Harajuku 