Have a Merry 🎄Christmas🎄!
cake
Sweet ‘Mochi Snowman’ ⛄
This year we are having very mild winter in England. We hardly need to heat rooms during daytime and wear gloves outside. So it is very unlikely that we are going to have a White Christmas. Although it is not cold, in my mind “Winter = Snow” so another sweet I made in the Winter theme was this one.
Mochi Snowman
It is made of ‘Mochi‘ Rice Cake type of sweet.
Gingerbread City
I wandered into a little wonderland called ‘the Gingerbread City’.
It was a miniature town made of many Gingerbread Houses by different designers and architects.
They were constructed with all sorts of sweets and candies.
Christmas WA-Pudding
What kind of traditional Food do you have during the Christmas season? In England people have Roast Turkey with Gravy for their meal and then Mince Pie or Christmas Pudding for dessert or Tea.
I wanted to make some Japanese Sweet with a Christmas theme so after thinking for a few days decided to make this fusion sweet.
Christmas WA-Pudding
It might look like just a normal Christmas Pudding which is a wheat cake with lots of dried fruits and steamed in a quite big bowl. My version is much much smaller, just about 5cm in diameter. It is actually a very traditional Japanese sweet ‘Nerikiri‘ that is made from sweet Bean paste, rice flour and sugar. The white part is also made from sweet White Bean Paste and not icing sugar.
🎄 Market was a Success!
Our yearly event ‘Christmas Market’ is over!
Thank you very much for the people who came to the Market and stopped by our Sakura Junction stall. My preparation for the market started a week earlier and in the morning on the day I finally wrapped up my sweets for taking them to the venue.
These are some of the little ones.
Matcha Ukishima Cake with Sweet Chestnut
This is one of the sweets I assorted for creating the Sweet Gift Box in an Autumn theme which I introduced on my previous post. It might look like a normal western cake but it is actually very Japanese sweet.
Autumn Sweet Gift Box
Just before Halloween I received an order for a gift box of Japanese Sweets. I was told that the gift was for a family with Japanese and also some non-Japanese people so that the client wanted me to make variety of sweets that could be enjoyed by everybody. I thought a lot to decide which sweets were most suitable and seasonal for this occasion.
These are the finalists for “Autumn Sweet Box Set”.
The selected sweets for this occasion in the photo (↑) from right to left
- Matcha Ukishima Cake with Sweet Chestnut (Free from Gluten, Oil & Dairy)
- Halloween Jack-O’-Lantern (Free from Gluten, Egg, Oil & Dairy)
- Mochi Sweet Chestnut (Free from Gluten, Egg, Oil & Dairy)
- Japanese Maple (Free from Gluten, Egg, Dairy)
- Plaine Castella (Free from Oil & Dairy)
In case you cannot get a good view of them from the top these are the side shots of them which are much closer.
Banana & Coconut Dairy-free Cake
It has been for quite a while since Coconut Oil became popular in the world. People say it is much healthier than any other vegetable oil or Butter. I was trying not to ride on this trend but just recently one pot of Coconut Oil has appeared on my kitchen shelf. So I have to start going into the usual mission of searching for healthy but tasty things.
Banana & Coconut Dairy-free Cake
I have tried using Coconut Oil for cooking before but this cake was my first attempt for making sweet with it.
Trick or Treat! Jack-O’-Lantern 🎃
I made two types of Japanese Sweets on the Halloween theme this year. One of them was ‘Mochi Ghost’ in my previous post and the other one was ‘Jack-O’-Lantern’.
Jack-O’-Lantern
These are my ‘Jack-O’-Lantern’.
My First Afternoon Tea Experience
I have been living in England for many years. During that time I have picked up several English customs such as having toast with Orange Marmalade and a MUG of Milk Tea for breakfast or Tea-time at 4:30 often with Earl Grey Tea. I also love Scones but it has to be with Clotted Cream and Raspberry Jam. However, I have never experienced having a set of Afternoon Tea in a Tea shop … until recently.
Last week I saw a friend of mine in Central London. We decided go to Patisserie Valerie for Afternoon Tea.
Sakura Junction 