food

Christmas WA-Pudding

/ Mutsumi / 4 Comments

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

wa-pudding-xmas2

 

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.

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🎄 Market was a Success!

/ Mutsumi / 10 Comments

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.

sakuera-cherry-bloosom

raspberry-mochi-cake

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Autumn Sweet Gift Box

/ Mutsumi / 4 Comments

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”.

autumn-sweet-gift-in-box

The selected sweets for this occasion in the photo (↑) from right to left

  1. Matcha Ukishima Cake with Sweet Chestnut (Free from Gluten, Oil & Dairy)
  2. Halloween Jack-O’-Lantern (Free from Gluten, Egg, Oil & Dairy)
  3. Mochi Sweet Chestnut (Free from Gluten, Egg, Oil & Dairy)
  4. Japanese Maple (Free from Gluten, Egg, Dairy)
  5. 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.

autumn-sweet-left

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Japanese Maple in Autumn Colour

/ Mutsumi / 2 Comments

Day by day Autumn is setting in here in London. First thing which comes to my mind by thinking about Autumn is colour change in Leaves. It would defines as Autumn Colours so it should be the most significant part of this season. In Japan we have four completely different seasons. Warm & beautiful Spring with lots of Cherry blossom, very hot & humid Summer, very cold Winter with deep snow in some area and then … this Autumn. Our Autumn is very between summer and winter, but it is not just that. During the transition period between two totally different seasons a significant temperature change causes the beautiful Autumn Colour in leaves. The Nature is Science. It is amazing!

Japan is a very mountainous country and the sight of mountains in Autumn colour is so magnificent. It does not get defeated by the sight of marvellous view of Sakura, Cherry blossom in spring. We even have a word ‘Momiji-gari‘. ‘Momiji‘ is a Japanese word for Japanese Maple and ‘Gari/Kari‘ means Hunting. Well, we do not hunt/harvest Maple leaves literally but it means that we go out to the countryside to enjoy the amazing view of mountains which are covered in various colours in yellow to red.

The most famous plant with the leaves in Autumn colour is ‘Momiji‘, Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum). I thought it represents beautiful Autumn the most so I made my version of it as a sweet.

Japanese Maple, Momiji

japanese-maple-all3

Yes, we call the plant ‘Momiji‘ not ‘Emoji‘. Please don’t be confused.  😀

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Mochi Sweet Chestnut – The Taste of Autumn

/ Mutsumi / 5 Comments

Officially it is Autumn now. In the UK the clock has been set back to Winter Time so that morning starts in darkness and the Sun sets very early. The weather has been becoming more and more wet and miserable. On the contrary in Japan Autumn is described as for 1. Sport, 2. Appetite, 3. Arts, 4. Reading Books and then 5. Great Autumn Colour and more!

The reason that “Autumn is for Appetite” is simply because there are so many tasty food that become available during this season. They are Mushrooms (including super Mushroom ‘Matsutake‘), Fruits (such as ‘Kaki’ Persimmon), Sweet Potatoes, Ginkgo Nuts and so on …

However, the delicacy we enjoy the most of all is ‘Kuri’ – Sweet Chestnut. Everybody loves Sweet Chestnut in Japan. I have to say that it is almost like “Kuri = Autumn” for Japanese. We make lots of sweet with Kuri Chestnut and we cook even rice with it.

So inevitably I chose Sweet Chestnut as the material for the sweet of November.

Kuri – Mochi Sweet Chestnut

mochi-chestnut-in-autumn-colour

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Banana & Coconut Dairy-free Cake

/ Mutsumi / 9 Comments

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.

banana-coconut-cake1

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Halloween ‘Mochi Ghost’ ðŸ‘»

/ Mutsumi / 12 Comments

It is getting colder now in the UK. However, before Winter is coming ‘Halloween is coming!’ I attempted making Japanese sweet last year in the Halloween theme. It was … OK but I was not satisfied. So this year I tried harder and these are the result.

Mochi Ghost

I made two types of sweets for Halloween this year. First one is this Mochi Ghost 👻.

mochi-ghost-gathered

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Dorayaki with Matcha Custard Cream Part2 – Matcha Custard Cream

/ Mutsumi / 7 Comments

So I finalised the perfect recipe for making soft and moist ‘Dorayaki‘ Japanese Pancake. I am so proud of the taste and the texture with silky finish. We traditionally have it by sandwiching some Sweet Bean Paste such as Azuki ‘Tsubu-An‘ or White Bean ‘Shiro-An‘ Paste between two pieces. It is very recent that people started to put all sorts of cream and fruit instead. For me anything can be OK as long as the Pancake is tasty. I like trying any new flavour combination.

This time I went to a fusion of Japanese and the Western for my perfect Dorayaki. It was Matcha Custard Cream. I love Custard and this time I added a hint of Japanese ‘Matcha‘ Green Tea to this Western flavour. It is a versatile tasty cream to have with any sweet & dessert and it goes so well with Dorayaki’s soft and moist texture as well. How can you resist it by seeing the Matcha Custard Cream is oozing out from the Dorayaki?!

Matcha Custard Cream

 dorayaki-with-matcha-custard

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