fruits

The King of Summer Fruit – Watermelon (スイカ), Wagashi

/ Mutsumi / 6 Comments

What is your favourite fruit in summer-time? Mine is definitely Watermelon. In Japan when you see big watermelons displayed in a shop I feel ‘summer is here!’. We used to have some farmers selling ripe watermelons on the side of the street. When I was about 13 on one Sunday evening my family came back from a day out and saw a farmer was about packing up his stall. He had one big watermelon which had a crack and told us “Can you buy this watermelon, please. It’s got a crack but it is very sweet. I’ll make it just 100 yen for you”. 100 yen is about 50 pence in present time. Of course we bought the watermelon and went home. When we put the tip of a knife into the watermelon it just cracked up into two by itself because it was so ripe. The flesh was so red and juicy. It was the best watermelon I have tasted in my entire life. All of my family still talk about it when we eat watermelon. It was such a memorable taste.

Watermelon (スイカ), Wagashi

As the Sweet in summer time I had to make ‘Watermelon’ as a Japanese sweet. It is almost like an homage to my summer-time childhood.

Watermelon Suika front

How does it look?

It is made of Sweet White Bean Paste with Rice Flour & Black Sesame Seeds.

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Apple & Plum Crumble Biscuit Cake

/ Mutsumi / 2 Comments

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After the ‘Blueberry Challenge’ we still have many fruits left. I wanted to use plums this time. The first idea that came to my mind for using them was Crumble but just normal Crumble is nothing special. I also wanted something biscuity & cakey, so this had to be ‘Crumble Biscuit Cake’! Plums and apples always make good Crumble so no need to worry about the flavour combination here.

Only the possible problem was moisture from the fruit might make the cake too soggy. That is why I created an Oat Biscuit layer at the base.

So, I did the following

  • Make Oat Crumble and place it at the bottom of a tin. Press it down with the back of a spoon to make a flat base.
  • Make cake dough mixture and add into the tin on the Oat Biscuit base.
  • Add chopped Plums and Apples on top of the cake mixture and sprinkle some plain Crumble on top.
  • Place the tin in a preheated oven at 180 degrees and bake for about 25 minutes till it becomes golden colour at the top. Or bake until the skew test comes out clean.
  • Wait until it cools down before cutting into pieces.

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This cake has basically been composed of three layers – Oat Biscuit base, Cake part in the middle and Apple & Plum Crumble on the top.

It was a delightfully crumbly cake.

I have been cooking & baking always with my instinct and not used to measuring all the ingredients whilst making something … It means I haven’t specified the recipe for this Biscuit Cake yet. I will continue searching the best recipe for getting the best result. If anybody fancies making this cake please send me a message, I will post the recipe soon.

Happy Healthy Eating!