Sweets

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.

Umeshu is Japanese plum liqueur.

It’s very popular, and a lot of people make it at home.

My parents would make it every year, and we would have a few vintage bottles.

The older it is, the milder it tastes.

It’s a sweet liqueur, and it’s delicious on the rock, or mixed with water or seltzer.

This is a little souvenir I bought for myself when we were staying at Fuji Lake Hotel in Japan.

It’s a box of plums (used to make plum liqueur) wrapped in Shiso leaves and soaked in sweet syrup.

Here is a plum!

Chopped plums and Shiso leaves were both generously added.

DELICIOUS!

Now I want to go back to see Mt. Fuji again.

I miss it…

This was the view we had from the Onsen bath in our hotel room.

Everyone’s favorite!

Cocoa and banana muffins with chocolate chips.

Simply tasty.

The peaches I bought cheap were good but not the sweetest.

And I still had some rhubarb I got from my mother-in-law’s garden left (chopped and frozen).

So this is how I utilized them.

I was sure of the flavor combination of peach and rhubarb, but what I didn’t expect was this beautiful colors created together.

I did a little experiment with the crust this time by not using oil.

I used this recipe https://www.veganricha.com/vegan-strawberry-galette-no-oil/ as a base and changed a few things.

Galette crust: 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 3 tbsp. almond flour, 1/4 tsp. baking soda, a pinch of salt, 1.5-2 tbsp. sugar, 1/4 cup coconut cream; with filling, bake 350F/45 min.

This turned out delicious!

I was nervous about the crust because I’ve never made crust without added oil (well, fat is from coconut cream).

But I really liked it!

It’s rustic, slightly softer than regular galette crust, and you can really taste the wonderful whole wheat flour.

I will definitely make galette using this crust again.

Since my first vegan canelé https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2020/05/09/vegan-canele/ was so successful, I decided to make some again.

This time I added earl grey flavor, and these turned out delicious!

I try not to make too many, because we can’t stop eating these.

So good!

As with my first one, I used https://highteasociety.com/recipe/vegan-canele-recipe/ as a base recipe.

This is not only vegan but also gluten-free as it does not use flour.

Justice for George Floyd.

The rhubarb season has arrived, which makes me happy.

This time of the year my mother-in-law always invites me to her backyard to “harvest” rhubarb.

So last weekend I visited her wearing a mask and got several stalks.

I wanted to showcase the beautiful pink color of the rhubarb, and with this cake I think I succeeded.

Isn’t this ruby color pretty?

This cake was so moist and delicious.

I also enjoyed it with oat milk yogurt.

Justice for George Floyd.

It’s been a while since I made cupcakes last time.

Because I try not to eat a large quantity of sugar, I decided to go for the mini size.

I cut the recipe that makes 12 regular ones in half, but I still ended up with 24 mini ones!

I will freeze most of them for future use.

It does make me feel good though, because technically I can eat four mini ones that will only equal one regular sized one.

These cupcakes were perfectly soft and moist.

They were served with lemon buttercream frosting and fresh raspberry and blueberries.

Adorable and very appropriate color-wise for this weekend.