It’s finally starting to feel like spring here in Tokyo and the sakura (cherry blossoms) are blooming, so the long awaiting and highly anticipated hanami (cherry blossom viewing season) is upon us again at last. I did my first hanami of the year this last weekend and since it’s become something of a tradition for me to bring booze-y “cocktail cupcakes,” I made pink champagne mini cupcakes filled with sakura liqueur pastry cream. The pink champagne cake and frosting were made with the same recipe I’ve used a few times before, but the sakura liqueur pastry cream filling was a first try for me, so I was relieved that the cupcakes got good reviews from the people who did hanami with me. The color and flavor of these little guys really does invoke all the best parts of spring, plus mini cupcakes are the perfect size to share no matter how big your hanami picnic ends up getting, so I definitely recommend giving making these a try for hanami season★
Pink Champagne Rose Cake Pops
I don’t really have a significant other or anything so I just gave them to my friends at work, but these champagne rose cakepops are what I made for Valentine’s Day this year. The roses are pink champagne cake pops, the leaves are marshmallow fondant, the dirt is a champagne brownie, the pot is an ice cream cone…which is to say you can eat all of it but the lollipop stick! To be honest though, I feel like they have more of spring feel to them than a Valentine’s feel to them anyway so that’s why I’m uploading them now despite the fact that Valentine’s is long past.
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Pink Champagne Cookies to Ring in the New Year
It’s already 2015 in Japan and here in the US we’ll be greeting 2015 in a matter of hours! I can’t believe it! Time flies! I’ve been back in the US to visit since Christmas, and while Christmas is a much bigger event in the US than Japan (it’s a national holiday here for starters) but I don’t really feel that New Years is quite as big of a deal in the US as it is in Japan. For example, I don’t think there is any sort of special food for the New Years here quite like soba is in Japan–people just drink champagne to ring in the New Year. For that reason, I figured now would be an appropriate time to post the pink champagne cookie recipe I made quite some time ago. [Continue Reading/続きを読む]