Month: March 2015

Apple & Plum Crumble Biscuit Cake

/ Mutsumi / 2 Comments

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After the ‘Blueberry Challenge’ we still have many fruits left. I wanted to use plums this time. The first idea that came to my mind for using them was Crumble but just normal Crumble is nothing special. I also wanted something biscuity & cakey, so this had to be ‘Crumble Biscuit Cake’! Plums and apples always make good Crumble so no need to worry about the flavour combination here.

Only the possible problem was moisture from the fruit might make the cake too soggy. That is why I created an Oat Biscuit layer at the base.

So, I did the following

  • Make Oat Crumble and place it at the bottom of a tin. Press it down with the back of a spoon to make a flat base.
  • Make cake dough mixture and add into the tin on the Oat Biscuit base.
  • Add chopped Plums and Apples on top of the cake mixture and sprinkle some plain Crumble on top.
  • Place the tin in a preheated oven at 180 degrees and bake for about 25 minutes till it becomes golden colour at the top. Or bake until the skew test comes out clean.
  • Wait until it cools down before cutting into pieces.

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This cake has basically been composed of three layers – Oat Biscuit base, Cake part in the middle and Apple & Plum Crumble on the top.

It was a delightfully crumbly cake.

I have been cooking & baking always with my instinct and not used to measuring all the ingredients whilst making something … It means I haven’t specified the recipe for this Biscuit Cake yet. I will continue searching the best recipe for getting the best result. If anybody fancies making this cake please send me a message, I will post the recipe soon.

Happy Healthy Eating!

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Blueberry Cheese Daifuku

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Cream Cheese-An (Sweet White Bean Paste base) and Blueberry Jam centre wrapped up with Blueberry infused soft Mochi (Rice Cake)

Since I sub-named this site as ‘Japanese Food and Everything Else’, I could not think of starting a post with non-Japanese food on this blog. But there was a problem. We have a huge variety of fruits at home at the moment. They are plums, kiwi fruits, grapefruit, banana, blueberries, apples and figs. I have to use them. I wanted to make something I can post on this blog by using them. However, these fruits are more suitable for western sweets rather than for Japanese. So I had to think what I can do to make something Japanese with western fruits.

And then my eyes focused on one of the fruits.

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Blueberries!

However, they look too western! So I gave a challenge to myself on turning Blueberries into Japanese Sweets.

M’s Blueberry Challenge!
Here is the outcome of my challenge ‘Japanese Sweets with a western twist’.

 <Blueberry Cheese Daifuku>
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‘Daifuku’ is one type of Japanese sweets that An (Sweet Bean Paste) is wrapped up with Mochi (Rice Cake). Usually the An used for Daifuku is either Tsubu-An (Azuki Bean Paste) or Shiro-An (White Bean Paste) and both go well with most of fruits. So the flavour of Blueberry should also go well with this idea.

But it has such a western face, then I had to give a little bit of twist in Daifuku for making it slightly more western.

The solution was ‘Cream Cheese’. I am going to use ‘Cream Cheese-An’ for this sweets. Basically the idea is making a Japanese version of Blueberry Cheese Cake.

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It was the first time for me to make ‘Cream Cheese-An’. I have not had it anywhere else yet but the taste of the ‘Blueberry Cheese Daifuku’ was just what I wanted. Soft smooth Cream Cheese-An matched very well with Blueberry Jam. A hint of White Bean Paste’s mild taste combined all the flavours into one.

Obviously it is not Dairy Free but it is still Free from Gluten, Fat/Oil and Egg. It was a good attempt. Success!

Happy Healthy Eating!

Welcome to Sakura Junction!

/ Mutsumi / 2 Comments

Sakura

Hi I’m Mutsumi,

Welcome to Sakura Junction and my first post on this blog!

I am very pleased to start this website ‘Sakura Junction’ at spring – Cherry Blossom time. It’s because ‘Sakura’ means Cherry/Cherry Blossom in Japanese. Japan is famous for cherry blossoms and Sakura is our National flower. There is no any other season more suitable than spring for the start of ‘Sakura Junction’.

I have been wanting to be involved in food production for many years, particularly Japanese Food. WHY? It is because there’s been a kind of trend in Japanese Food here in London for several years, however, people don’t really know much about Japanese Food. How many Japanese dishes can you name other than ‘Sushi’? Japanese street food is becoming quite popular recently so you might know ‘Okonomi-yak’ or ‘Tako-yaki’. And our most recent hit in London ‘Ramen’ is the one that foodies are talking about right now! Basically there are so many different types of food in Japan.

So I want to introduce Japanese Home Cooking to you. You may have tried to make some Japanese food before but got stuck with unfamiliar ingredients? I am going to adapt the ingredients and use only the stuff you can find in London without any difficulty.

to post intro

Over several years I have developed the skill of making Japanese Sweets. That is my specialty and I occasionally sell these in a market. Japanese Sweets are not only pretty, but very different from westerns sweets. Many of them are mainly made of beans,
rice flour and sugar so that they are Free from Gluten, Dairy, Fat/Oil and Egg. Carbohydrates burn cleanly in our body unlike butter & cream with high content of Fat/Oil. Beans are thought to be a healthy food option anyway, so that overall Japanese Sweets are much healthier than pastries.

I hope my blog will inspire you to cook more Japanese Food.

Happy Healthy Eating!!