Carrot Cake Bunny Shortbreads

These carrot cake shortbreads came about because I had about half a bottle of carrot juice in my refrigerator, and I needed to find a creative use for it. So then I thought, why not reduce it down into a jammy consistency, which will then have an intense carrot flavor to it, and then use…

Matcha-Frog Shortbreads

I am hesitant to put this out there on the Internet, but I used to have a gigantic phobia of frogs. I’m not 100% what it was, but until the Pokemon Froakie came out, I found frogs to be kind of gross? Slimy, bulbous eyes, the expanding throats, the randomly differently colored underbellies, and the…

Sesame Panda Shortbreads

Whenever I make panda-themed anything, I always think about one of my friends from high school, Karen. Fun fact, I had two friends from high school named Karen, who weirdly enough, I still keep in touch with, but also, they have never met each other before. That Karen-themed tidbit about myself aside, the panda-loving Karen…

Blueberry-Yuzu Mont Blanc Tarts

One trick I learned a year ago was using upside down muffin pans to bake tart shells on. Prior to that, when I wanted to make mini tarts with muffin pans, I was lining the inside of muffin pans with butter/oil and flour, and then pressing the dough into them. However, doing this meant that…

Coconut-White Chocolate Lava Bundt Cakes

Before I say any more about the recipe, I need to preface this by saying that these cakes are 100% gluten-free. I used coconut flour for additional natural coconut flavor(since coconut flour is just finely ground up coconut flakes) and mochiko(glutinous rice flour) for that stability. You can substitute the mochiko and upwards to half…

Buko Pandan Madeleines

This recipe is me revisiting the gluten-free coconut madeleines I made a few years ago. A while back, my friends, Ann and Brenda, and I went to a Filipino restaurant in North Hollywood, where we had buko pandan. Buko pandan is a Filipino dessert consisting of sweet coconut milk, young coconut flesh, pandan, puffed rice,…

“Love is Love” Mousse Cake

I was honestly not 100% sure what I was going to make for Pride this year. A huge deterrent for me in regards to making rainbow desserts is having to divide and portion something by 7, and then dying each piece one of the colors of the rainbow. Even with this recipe, which normally I…

Kinako-PB&J Brioches

These brioches came about because I wanted to make something with the peanut butter and strawberries I had lying around, and the first obvious choice was to do a PB&J. Peanut butter and jelly is such a nostalgic concept, since so many people(at least in the States) have grown up eating these at some point…

The Bamboo Cutter: a petit gateau

This was inspired by the Japanese story called “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter”. The story itself featured a bamboo cutter who uncovered a little girl, named Kaguya, one day when he was cutting open stalks of bamboo. She was specifically found inside of a glowing bamboo stalk. As the story progresses, Kaguya is revealed…

The Choco-Bear Cake

This cake was for a baby shower, where the invite featured a cute little teddy bear with light blue balloons. I wanted to pay homage to that image, and carry it through, along with the color scheme of the party in general, in the form of this cake. The clients requested the cake to be…

Starry Night Lavender Cake Pops

Lavender, or “valender” as my English-is-his-second-language dad would call it, is such a polarizing ingredient to cook with. Outside of France, nobody else really cooks or bakes with lavender. It is distinctly floral, and in too large of a quantity, very medicinal. However, I find that beyond smelling really pleasant in smaller dosages, lavender definitely…

Cold Brew-Butter Mochi Crumb Cakes

This recipe came about because my extremely talented friend, Ahran, launched her own product, being vanilla-flavored cold brew concentrate, with Coba coffee, and she was generous enough to gift me some of it! I actually enjoyed the product quite a bit, because you have the sweet fragrance of vanilla against the bitter richness of the…

Pink Lemon-Olive Oil-Rose Cake

This cake is dedicated to my friend, Na’ama, specifically for her birthday. Fun facts, she was one of my friends that attended my apron battle for season 12(she was in the podium instead of the balcony), and we went to college together, but did not actually know each other back then. Since Boston University was…

Matcha Cream Chiffon Sandwiches

Perfect in time for St. Patrick’s Day, my next chiffon sandwich recipe is for matcha green tea-flavored! I feel like everyone has at least had matcha in the form of green tea ice cream before, and what I love about pairing matcha with dessert is that sugar and dairy are great vehicles to balance out…

Matcha Namelaka Mille Feuille

Whenever I think of mille feuille, I actually think of my friend from college, Sena. We took some boring math general-education class together, and one day while we were bored, we were talking about our favorite desserts, mine being financier, and hers being mille feuille. A mille feuille, translated from French to mean “a million…

Matcha Kokedama(Moss Balls)

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…

Raspberry-Champagne Linzertorte “Hearts”

Linzertorte is a classic Austrian dessert that consists of a tart shell, an almond cake-like layer, and raspberry jam. I wanted to reinterpret that by embracing the almond and raspberry, while also introducing champagne to the mix! The end result were the little hearts that you see here. Special shout out to Shari or Spiced…

(Shiny) Torchic Sundae

This recipe came about because I had way too many persimmons and I basically was desperate to get rid of them. So I figured, why not make an ice cream with them? Persimmons are sweet, almost creamy, and very jammy when ripe, which are nice characteristics to incorporate into an ice cream base. The skin…

Blonde Chocolate Crumb Cake Doughnuts

I would be lying if I said this recipe was not just a crumb or coffee cake baked with a hole in it. That’s literally the recipe. However, there is something doubly nostalgic about a crumb cake that also looks like a doughnut, since those are the two coffee shop staple desserts you would usually…

Fidough Box Cake

I have made many cakes in sake cups before. I just love the minimalistic aesthetic of a small wooden cake and when you scoop into it, there’s cake! The concept of this recipe is definitely inspired by the tiramisu from Cafe Bora, but since there is no coffee/tea or alcohol being used, it felt wrong…