Kokedama are these decorative moss ball plants that are super popular in Japan. They are used as planters for other plants more often than not, and they give any room a pleasant, earthy aesthetic that I just adore. My first time seeing a kokedama was when I was playing Animal Crossing New Horizons, where they…
Tag: tuile
Coconut-Blood Orange Blanc Manger
Blanc manger, also spelled blancmange, is a French milk jelly, quite similar to a panna cotta, but set using gelled cornstarch instead of bloomed gelatin. The result of it is a slightly firmer consistency, and a creaminess that lingers longer(try saying that phrase three times fast) than a panna cotta would have. It is quite…
Blue(berry) Goat Cheesecakes
This recipe hilariously came about because I had leftover blueberry gelee cores(from my Jigglypuff recipe), leftover white chocolate shavings(from my lemon-white chocolate snowballs), leftover goat cheese(from my pumpkin toast recipe), and leftover shortbread dough(from my Oshawott cheesecakes). Before anyone asks, since all of these recipes were clearly posted months apart, yes, I do make content…
Ube-coconut layer cake
It had been a minute since I made an ube dessert, so I wanted to try another rendition, this time with a chiffon cake! Ube, for those unfamiliar, is a Filipino purple yam that is commonly used in desserts there. It does not grow naturally in America, so the best options you have for it…
Lemon-Blueberry Gateau Breton Tart
So this dessert was initially meant to be like a 2.0 version of a lapis lazuli tart I made YEARS ago. But I knew I had to do a few things differently this time around. The first is the tart shell. Instead of just doing a pastry in a tart tin, I went with a…
Vanilla Bean Boston Cream Pie
When I think about Boston Cream Pie, I just think about college. Going to school in a city full of history like Boston, I cannot help but think of that aforementioned classic American dessert. Layers of fluffy vanilla cake, a vanilla pastry cream, and chocolate ganache. Depending on the rendition, there are also almonds encrusting…
Hanami cake
Hanami roughly translates into “flower viewing” from Japanese. It usually refers to the blooming of cherry blossoms, or sakura, in early April, and signifies new beginnings. One thing I love about hanami, besides how gorgeous the cherry blossom-filled skies look during that time of year, is of course the desserts that come with it. Cherry…
“The Fourth Flavor”: a plated dessert
If you have ever watched Codename: Kids Next Door, you would totally get the reference here. If not, let me explain. According to that cartoon’s lore, there are three main flavors of ice cream, being vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. But there was also a legendary fourth flavor that was said to taste even better than…
Clione: a petit gateau
As an awkward middle schooler who was just diving into Japanese pop culture, I was stunned to find out how popular clione(also called sea angels) were. Pronounced “klee-oh-neh”, they are a relative to the sea slug, and are these little, translucent creatures that float through the ocean. If you have ever played Pokemon games before,…
Gluten-free sesame-buckwheat mousse cake
I had yet to make a true vegan chiffon cake prior to writing and testing out this recipe. Last year, I did make a pumpkin roll cake, but it was not a true chiffon batter, just a cake roll. When I say chiffon, I’m talking whipped whites folded into an egg yolk mixture. Doing so…
Forêt de cauchemars: a petit gateau
This dessert literally only happened because I purchased a ton of cherries to make another recipe with, and I had to figure out what to do with them before they went moldy. Which is always a great motivator when you purchase way too much of an ingredient! So I went ahead and pureed my remaining…
Deep Dive: a plated dish
Of the five dishes from the “Namie” pop-up, I would say this was probably the one with the least amount of true Asian influence. While I took more inspiration from Halal/Middle Eastern flavors, it would be a stretch to say that it took influence from Halal-Chinese food, when it was more Jordanian with sprinkles of…
“Husk of the Black Forest”: a plated dessert
So when I was conceptualizing different desserts that would use salted duck egg, one of them that I had in mind was with injeolmi, which is a roasted grain mix from Korea, similar to misugaru, but with a less earthy flavor profile. I was first introduced to injeolmi by my friend, Ann, who ordered it…
Jade Fairy: a petit gateau
So this dessert went through several phases because I was not 100% sure where I wanted to go in terms of the flavor profiles. I knew it had to be green, and that I wanted to feature pistachio and chrysanthemum tea. For those unfamiliar with it, chrysanthemum tea is a popular Chinese/Taiwanese drink made from…
Chrysalis: a plated dessert
During my senior year of college, I made a plated dessert called “Sanagi” – sanagi is the Japanese word for chrysalis, or cocoon. The dessert itself was matcha pate choux with spun sugar, made to resemble a little caterpillar crawling into a cocoon, hence the name of the dessert. I wanted to do a more…
Chocolate and kinako blanc manger
This was honestly one of the simplest desserts I have made in a while. Mostly because I made it to get rid of some spare ingredients I had lying around. I love blanc manger, which is a set milk-based mousse, similar to panna cotta. The key difference is that blanc manger uses starch to set…
Sunburst: a plated dessert
I named this dessert ‘Sunburst’ after a Tobu and Itro song that came out a while ago of the same name. And also for my Chinese namesake, which translates to Winter Morning Sun. I had to use sesame since it is a favorite ingredient of mine, and I paired it with sea buckthorn to add…
Semolina cake with chocolate-Turkish delight ice cream
Truth be told, this recipe was directly inspired by controversial MKR contestants, Sonya and Hadil, and a dish that they prepared during the Cole’s ice cream challenge, where they made chocolate-Turkish delight ice cream with semolina cake and pistachio biscuit. I know that several people hate them because they got ejected from the show for…
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…
Mussels with Latin flavors
This dish was originally inspired by the Mediterranean, but forcibly took a detour into Mexico when I could not find the right kind of chorizo and just went with it from there. Going to school in Boston, you come to love shellfish and seafood. I love eating and cooking mussels, because they plump up in…
Freddy's Harajuku 