My parents once had a Clematis plant in their front garden. In springtime it opened hundreds of beautiful flowers in lilac colour. Although the plant has sadly disappeared since then, the sight of the beauty stays in my memory forever and I wanted to make it as Wagashi sweet. The Clematis sweet I made last year and two years ago also can be seen from the links.
I made Clematis Japanese sweet ‘Wagashi’ by trying to reproduce the flower from my memory.
Whilst we’ve been locked down, it’s already the middle of May and the Cherry blossom season has been long gone! Luckily I had a chance to see beautiful Sakura blossom in my area during my walking.
Japanese people love Cherry blossom so much that we have lots of words which express scenes relating to Sakura blossom. Even when we see the blossom is ending and some petals are blown away, we find a beauty in the scene of sakura petals floating on water such as a pond or river. We call it ‘Hana Ikada’ which means a flower raft. I made my version of Hana Ikada, Floating Sakura Petals.
It was ‘Midori no Hi’ the Greenery Day in Japan on the 4th of May. It’s a national holiday that people should get close to and appreciate nature. Of course we cannot go outside as much as we’d like in the current situation so I am posting a very green sweet as a reminder how wonderful nature is.
This is a ‘Mochi’ sweet with ‘Matcha’ green tea flavoured filling inside and dusted with more Matcha powder.
How is your lockdown life going? Whilst I have been staying at home, it’s so spring outside. Luckily we are allowed to go out for exercise once a day in the UK so I can find some spring even in this difficult time.
Daffodil is one on the early spring flowers. The colour of the flower is white to orangey yellow, but I love the white one the best. They look so clean and pure.
I made this sweet as one of the monthly Japanese sweets for the Havan Store (262 Kensington High Street, London) during March. I am pleased to hear that their customers liked it very much and it sold out quickly.
I thought something refreshing taste is suitable for this spring sweet and selected orange flavour for its centre filling.
This sweet is Vegan and Gluten free.
‘Stay Home’ everybody and take care of yourself!
We’ve been having the perfect weather for the Bank Holiday. When Easter approaches I always want to make Hot Cross Buns and dream to have it with a huge dollop of clotted cream and raspberry jam. However, last year I wanted to make something similar but also quite different from the usual buns. As a Japanese sweet maker I thought I should try making something similar as a Japanese sweet so I made Hot Steamed Cross Manju. It was a steamed buns with Azuki bean paste filling inside.
For this Easter I wanted to go for a more Japanese sweet and made this one. It still may look quite like a hot cross bun, however, it is a totally Japanese sweet this time. It might be difficult to see its scale but the size of each sweet is very small and it’s about 4cm diameter.
I made Japanese sweet into a shape of one of the most string-like flowers ‘Tulip’.
How is your lockdown life going? The weather is so great in London this weekend.
Stay safe at home!💕
Have a wonderful weekend!😊
It is a little early for expecting ‘Sakura’ cherry blossom but you can see pretty ‘Ume’ Plum flowers in Japan. The flower looks quite similar to cherry blossom but much tinier and with a intoxicating sweet scent. The petal comes from white to dark pink and quite often you can find flowers in different colours on the same tree.
So I made Plum Flower Mochi as one of my January sweets.
It’s got a soft gooey Mochi type sweet as the outer layer that is made into a shape of a plum flower. The sweet white bean paste filling is placed inside as well as homemade plum jam.
This sweet is Vegan and Gluten free.
This sweet was served at a Matcha Bar at the Havan Store during January (sorry to post this information too late) and I am very pleased to hear that it has received a great feedback. I am preparing different sweets for February now so please stay tuned!
Around the New Year’s Day period I feel like I am more Japanese than any other time of a year. It must be because New Year is traditionally such a big event for Japanese and we have three days national holiday in Japan. As my New Year card I used the photo of ‘Kagami Mochi’ sweet this year. Kagami Mochi, two pieces of round Mochi placed on top of each other and decorated with a citrus with a leaf called ‘Daidai’, seemed to be a very spiritually Japanese thing for me. My spirit has been still in traditionally Japanese mode all through January and my second sweet of the year 2020 is this ‘Temari’ Ball.
Handcrafted Art ‘Temari’ Balls
‘Temari’ is a Traditional Japanese handcrafted ball which is made with cloth and embroidery. The materials and pattern provide a very Japanese quality. I made a sweet which is supposed to look like a Temari. Instead of creating a pattern of embroidery I tried to produce the Japanese-ish image with the colour combination.
I made two types of Temari sweet in a different colour combination, one with pink and purple and the other one with green and orange-yellow, and placed a tiny golden ball on top.
The darkest colour of each type is coloured with food. The purple with Ube, purple sweet potato, and green with ‘Match’ Green tea. Both types have a ‘Koshi-An’ Azuki Red bean paste as the centre filling so you can enjoy the taste combination of “Purple sweet potato x sweet Bean paste” and “Matcha x sweet Bean paste”, I assure you that both go so well.
This sweet is Vegan and Gluten free.
It wasn’t a White Christmas in London this year but here you’re, you can have one! This is a Japanese sweet ‘White Christmas’.
It’s Vegan & Glute free.
Sakura Junction 