I say here once again ‘Happy New Year!’. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. In Japan New Year is such a big deal so the first three days of January are national holidays. Traditionally we celebrate those days in very Japanese style visually, musically and spiritually. So naturally I would like to make a very Japanese looking sweet for this New Year month.

‘Sensu’ Folding Fan 

I wondered what was very Japanese in design. I thought something that relates to Japanese clothing ‘Kimono’ must be surely very Japanese. The pattern and the texture of the silk print and embroidery work are unmistakably Japanese. So I had been thinking what was suitable as the design for my sweet making and decided to create a sweet in a shape of one of the important props when you wear Kimono. It is a folding fan called ‘Sensu’ that is made of Japanese paper ‘Washi’.

I made the sweet into a Fan shape and created some Japanese paper ‘Washi’ type of shading pattern with ‘Matcha’ Green Tea. I also placed celebratory Red and white ‘Ume’ Plum flower on top which is now in blossoming season. Yes, it has to be Red and white in New Year.

Since I make two types of seasonal monthly sweets for a Kimono shop in London this sweet is very suitable for being served with a great Matcha Green Tea in the Japanese amotosphere.

The centre of the sweet is smooth sweet Aduki bean paste.

The light brown triangular part on top of this sweet is supposed to be the wooden part of a fan which you hold when you use it. In order to create the colour I mixed Cinnamon and ‘Kinako’ (Toasted Soy bean powder) with Japanese pastry which is adding the hint of spice that created the great flavour combination with the pastry and aduki bean paste.

It is a Gluten free, Dairy free and also Egg free sweet.

This sweet is served at Wasoukan Café ( Notting Hill, London) until the end of this month.