Sweets

There is a little cafe in our neighborhood, and they sell vegan cookies.

Their cookies are good, but their hours are irregular.

We never know when they are open.

Timings have been off lately.

When they were open, we were too full or we did not have money with us.

And when we really wanted a cookie (and had money with us), they were closed or out of cookies.

My husband has been craving for cookies the past few days, and I decided to make some for him.

These turned out perfect!

I added some Kinako (roasted soy bean powder) to the batter for an extra flavor.

I hope you can see the crispy edge from this picture.

These cookies are crispy outside (bottom) and moist/soft inside, just the way we like.

I know a lot of people like milk when they eat cookies, but I prefer black coffee with my chocolate chip cookies.

My mother was (and is) a fantastic cook and baker.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a sweet tooth as a child, and I didn’t appreciate her creations as much as I could have.

But I do remember her madeleine very fondly apparently because that was one of my favorite pastries she made.

It’s a simple buttery type of cake, and it’s usually baked in a pretty shell-shaped pan.

I was so excited when I found this pan.

This is so pretty!!

These turned out exactly how I wanted my madeleines to be.

Their outside is wonderfully crispy, and inside is soft and moist.

I poured the batter a bit too much, and they resulted in forming a “ring” around it.

I actually really liked the crispy ring part, but next time I will put less so that they will look more like real shells.

By the way, this is another pan that I initially purchased.

It looked the same as the Chefmade one on an online shop.

But…

This is the Chefmade brand, and when you compare them side by side, you see clear differences between them.

My first one was from a different brand, and it was much cheaper.

It’s a personal preference, but I like my new pan better because of it’s overall shape and clearly defined lines.

These are the ones baked in my first pan.

The name is confusing, but this is a lemon-shaped orange-chocolate cake.

The cakes were decorated with orange icing, semi-sweet chocolate drizzle, orange zest, and cacao nibs.

I am so excited because these cakes turned out exactly how I wanted them to be.

Pretty and sophisticated, but not girly.

Serve these with black coffee.

I just recently bought cacao nibs for the first time.

I had been interested in it for a long time, and I had read about it,.

But this was something you never know exactly what it is until you actually try it.

It tastes like chocolate, and it tastes like nuts.

Slightly sweet, and then somewhat bitter.

Did I like it?

Yes I did.

This was a perfect topping for these cakes.

My title may confuse you.

But these are lemon-shaped strawberry cakes.

Strawberry flavored cake.

Two kinds of icing.

One is strawberry and the other is lemon

And a sprinkle of pistachio.

This is the plate I worked on the icing decoration.

Now it loos like work of art.

The cake was perfectly soft and moist.

I love how they look.

Lovely, aren’t they?

If you are following my blog, you saw I already made my husband his birthday cak.

Well we finished eating it fast.

By the end of Sunday.

To tell the truth, his birthday is not until this week, and we realized that he wouldn’t have a cake on his actual birthday.

So I decided to make another one.

This time a mini one.

Luckily I had some leftover cake from his first cake (I froze it, but it didn’t stay long in the freezer!).

This is lemon cake and vanilla and raspberry butter cream frosting decorated with fresh blueberries and pistachio.

Isn’t it pretty?

My husband’s birthday is in the middle of July, and we decided to celebrate it over the weekend.

I always ask him if he wants me to order a cake from a professional, but every time he tells me he wants me to make one.

That makes me happy.

So this year I made this three-layered lemon cake.

（He likes lemon, so his birthday cake is always a lemon cake!)

Lemon sponge cake, lemon butter frosting, and lots of fresh fruits.

I warn you.

There are a lot of pictures today.

My first lemon-shaped lemon cakes!

My mother used to make these when I was little.

Last time I went back to Japan, my mother was going to give me her pan because she was not using it anymore.

But then she couldn’t find it and realized that she had given it to my sister.

I didn’t think I would find lemon-shaped cake pans in the U.S., because I’ve never seen anyone I knew making anything like this, but I did find one!

It took me a few months to decide, but this COVID19 situation made me believe it would be a good purchase.

Isn’t it lovely?

Super lemony, and my husband and I both loved it.

Taiyaki is a Japanese fish-shaped cake, typically stuffed with sweet red beans.

Taiyaki pan was on my list for a long time, and I finally pulled the trigger.

Well, this quarantine is definitely loosening my purse strings, particularly for things that I use in the kitchen.

Well, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and that justifies such spending, right?

This is exactly what I expected when I saw it on an online store site.

Nice size.

Light, compact, and easy to store.

My very first homemade Taiyaki!

It’s not difficult to make, but I’m glad I did my homework by watching some YouTube videos.

I did use sweet red beans this time, but I can’t wait to experiment with other filling options.

I wonder if you were ale to spot this one.

If you noticed one had a different color, you were right.

A little Matcha was added to the cake.