Taking a shot at macaron-making was certainly a good experience, but they are definitely more difficult to make with less room for experimentation in terms of ingredients than my go-to cupcakes. As such, when I received an invitation to my friend’s house party I knew it was time to go back to my old stand-by the mini “cocktail cupcake” as those require minimal fuss and the possibilities for experimentation and creative recipe customization are nearly endless. Said house party was being held to celebrate his 2,000th day (5.5 years) living in Japan as well as birthday, so I figured it would be thematically appropriate to make a cupcake inspired by Japanese flavors and went with matcha green tea cupcakes filled with sakura liqueur pastry cream and topped with sakura liqueur butter cream frosting. The result was the beauty of contrast in cupcake form: the less-sweet flavor of the matcha cupcakes paired nicely with the fruity sweetness of the sakura liqueur frosting and pastry cream, not to mention the natural green of the cupcakes made for a beautiful contrast with the vibrant pink icing. These were by far my best-received cupcakes to date, so do yourself a favor and give this feast for your eyes and your stomach a try for yourself★[Continue Reading/続きを読む]
Sakura Macarons: a first attempt at the finicky art of macaron-making
The sakura (cherry blossoms) may have already dropped their petals like pale pink snow here in Tokyo, but I’m still in the mood for spring and had quite a bit of leftover sakura liqueur pastry cream on my hands to use up, so I’m introducing yet another sakura recipe despite the fact that hanami season is over for the year. After making those sakura liqueur pastry cream filled pink champagne cupcakes, I had a rather large amount of cream leftover and was wondering what I could make to use it up other than more cupcakes. After wracking my brains for a bit the first cream-filled thing that came to my mind was macarons, which are something I hadn’t yet attempted due to their reputation for being finicky to make with a high failure rate for amateurs, but I made up my mind to stop being such a chicken and take on the majestic macaron. Despite my worries, I was actually able to successfully make pretty decent macarons on my first try with minimal fuss, so I decided to upload this recipe for fragrant little sakura macarons with either sakura liqueur pastry cream or sakura liqueur butter cream for all those other people who are under the impression that making macarons is too difficult and tedious for the average noob★[Continue Reading/続きを読む]
Pink Champagne Cupcakes Filled with Sakura Liqueur Cream
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★