The next Japanese sweet in my search of the right product for the Christmas market was a sweet called ‘Ukishima (浮島)’ in Japanese. It means literally ‘Floating Island’. I think the name came from the pattern the sweet has. It is often made in two layers in different colours and the wave of the lower layer looks like an island appearing above the sea.

I had had the sweet when I was in Japan in October and I even posted the photo on this blog as ‘Manju in Autumn Theme’. It is the square one in orange and green colour with a piece of Chestnut. I was so amazed that a sweet can be light and moist at the same time. It was so delicious that I bought it again.

Ukishima – Floating Island (浮島)

‘Ukishima‘ is a steamed sponge like Japanese sweet. The texture is very light but also very moist. The Good news for many people is that it is Gluten / Dairy free. Perfect!

‘Matcha Ukishima with Apple’

I tried two versions. This one was with ‘Matcha (Green Tea)’ with Apple. It was a little rough but it looked OK, don’t you think? My voluntary tasters liked this and gave “10 out of 10”! So I am certainly adding this one in my products list.

It looked just a little bit … pale, but I got an idea to solve the problem. I will add something extra to add some colour.

‘Chocolate Ukishima with Chestnuts’

Another version of Ukishima was Chocolate flavour. The warm brown colour came not only from Chocolate but from Azuki (Red) beans so it did not taste like normal Chocolate cake at all. I added some Chestnuts pieces that I had cooked in syrup.

Actually this one in the photo was the first Ukishima I tried to make. It came out not having enough height and also a little wetter than it should be. Well, that was because I was not patient enough to drain the Chestnuts. I will make sure these minus points would be fixed for the real one.

So, what is the next sweet I should make?