japanese sweets

Incy Wincy Spider II

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My sweet for this year’s Halloween is Spider! I made another one and posted it a little earlier. I am not a great fan of spiders. They are spooky but I don’t like killing them. Whenever I find them in my flat, no matter how big or small, I look for a container and place them in it and release them outside. They are good guys and not our enemies.

Spider

When it comes to the Halloween theme the colour scheme is orange, purple, black and white? I covered all of them in this sweet. The parts that the spider’s legs are touching have got a small dent on the purple surface. These marks are making the impression that the spider is walking on a slightly wet surface and creating tiny ripples.

Spider2

This sweet is Vegan and Gluten free.

Have a wonderfully spooookitacular weekend, everybody!

Grape Mochi

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This is one of the Mochi sweets I recently made. I used fresh red grapes as well as some sweet white bean paste as the centre filling. The size of the grapes was a little smaller side for using for this type of sweet but it was very juicy and tasty. In order to make biting easier the skin of the grape was removed before wrapped up in the Mochi layer.  So it got three thing – looks pretty, tasty and easy to eat.

Grape Mochi

This sweet is Vegan and Gluten free.

I would also like to announce to all Wagashi lovers in London. I am going to have a WAGASHI Making Workshop in the Halloween Theme soon.

October poster2

on: the 19th / October (Saturday), 11:30 – 13:30
at: The Havan (262 Kensington High Street, London W8 6ND)

This time the venue is in a wonderful shop in High Street Kensington which serves a bowl of beautifully thick and creamy Matcha tea and lovely vegan sweets.  They are also a kind of concept shop and have a lot of lovely things. They are offering 10% discount of any purchase on the day for all the participants. Isn’t that Great?

[The tickets] If you are interested in participation, please visit the detail page (←click here to the Link). The class is limited to a small group of people so book now not to be disappointed! Cheers!

Strawberry Mochi

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My ‘Mochi’ making report continues. Recently I made Strawberry Mochi. It is one of my favourite Japanese sweet. Soft Mochi wrapped up the filling of sweet Adzuki (Red) bean paste with a fresh juicy strawberry. At the beginning of summer I made very similar sweet, actually almost identical, which I named Strawberry Daifuku. It was also a Mochi sweet with a fresh strawberry but filled with sweet white bean paste. The contrast of white paste and the strawberry’s red in colour was great. Both Adzuki bean paste and white bean paste goes very well with a strawberry and Mochi so when I make a strawberry Mochi I always have to think a little to decide which bean paste I should use.

Strawberry (Daifuku) Mochi

So this is the latest Strawberry Mochi with sweet Adzuki (Red) bean paste.

Strawberry mochi

Whichever the sweet bean paste is, Strawberry Mochi tastes always heavenly great with a cup of tea!

Japanese Birthday Cake

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I created something I have never made before. I received an order for a Birthday Cake by one very enthusiastic customer of my sweets when they were served at the Kimono shop in Notting Hill, London. There were two options for a Japanese sweet cake. One of them is a traditional Japanese sweet in a cake shape and the other one was a cake with a traditional but sponge-like Japanese sweet as a base with some Japanese decorations. Japanese sweets I often make are mainly made with beans, sugar and rice flour so that they are vegan. I could happily make the traditionally Japanese vegan sweet into a bigger cake shape, however, I have been thinking to try making a very western looking cake but actually a Japanese sweet.

Japanese Birthday Cake

I suggested the latter option to the client and she agreed with it, so here is the Japanese Birthday Cake I made for her.

Birthday Cake2

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Watermelon Mochi

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I mentioned in my previous post of Cinnamon & Cream Mochi I created several types of Mochi this summer and this Watermelon Mochi is another one.

Watermelon Mochi

As you can tell from the name and the appearance of the sweet I used Watermelon as the flavour of filling inside. Two years ago I made similar (in the look and also the name) sweet which I named Mochi Watermelon but there is a minor difference between them. Basically the one two years ago was in a shape of the fruit as well as the flavour, and the one I made this summer was Mochi with the flavour packed inside.

Watermelon Mochi

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Wagashi Workshop in London in Summer

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I have hosted several ‘Wagashi’ Japanese Sweet Making Workshops. They were mainly for adults and I had been thinking that it would be great if I could have a Workshop that people could participate with their children. In order to make this plan possible there were several issues to clear and the biggest one of them was that the event has to be held daytime. For solving the problem I thought it would be best if the event was held during the school holiday period. In case this idea happens, I have been considering several designs for sweets which are attractive and also simple enough for children to make but enjoyable for adults too. After going through many possibilities I finally picked three designs in the summer theme and set up a date and the venue to have a workshop on the 25th of July.

 

Wagashi Making Workshop (July/’19)

I had a ‘Wagashi’ Japanese Sweet Making Workshop in the Summer theme on the 25th of July and it ended well.

w 1

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Morning Glory, the Summer Sweet

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How’s your summer been so far? (Sorry, it’s winter for the people who live on the Southern Hemisphere). Here in London we had a record breaking hot day in July which was followed by some rainy cold days and now some sunny but still quite chilly days as summer. I wonder whether the Indian summer will come this year.

Morning Glory

I made some Japanese sweets in a summer flower design. This is one of them, Morning Glory. I think it’s the most summery flowers. It is the first plant that I have sown the seeds and looked after myself when I was a child.

Morning Glory2-2

I made this sweet because I received a private order. It is one of the best sweets for summertime.

Wagashi Day 2019

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Today, the 16th of June, is the Wagashi Day (please read the article about this day that I posted in 2017). It started as the day that the emperor made sixteen of ‘Wagashi’ Japanese sweets as the offering to the God when the plague took place and destroyed people’s lives in the Heian period. Although the day was set as the Wagashi Day since then, the custom of the offering almost died down. However, just recently people started bringing this Memorial day back.

By following the custom of offering, I re-introduce sixteen sweets of my Wagashi I had created in the previous year here.

16 My Wagashi in 2018

Here are the sixteen sweets from all Wagashi Japanese sweets I have created in the year 2018.

With these sixteen sweets offering/photos I just hope our world is going to reshift towards a better direction. Happy Wagashi Day!