Long time no blog! What has it been? 5+ months?! I apologize for the long absence, but between my trip to Germany back in May, training a new team at work, moving to a new (and much larger!) apartment at the beginning of August, and multiple overseas business trips this autumn, I have hardly had any time at all to bake, let a lone blog about it. To be honest, things haven’t really calmed down all that much on the day job front, but October is already upon us and it would be a complete waste to let my beloved Halloween season go by without baking up some spooks. Luckily, one of my spooky-inclined friends has a mid-October birthday, giving me the perfect opportunity to break in my new mini skull cake pan and kick-off the Halloween baking season in style. The tequila and lime flavors I decided to go with for these margarita-inspired cakes may be a bit of a departure from the usual pumpkin-y, spicy fall flavors, but the bright flavor of lime with a tequila kick is a refreshing treat any time of year, so I definitely recommend these margarita skulls to anyone looking to make something a little different this Halloween★[Continue Reading/続きを読む]
Pikachu Pumpkin Rum Cakes
The Pokemon craze may be a source of late 90s-early 2000s nostalgia in America, but here in Japan it is still alive and well, and you can find a massive variety of Pokemon products from plush toys to dishes and tablewear all over the place. In fact, a couple of months ago I saw a silicon pan for making cute little Pikachu-shaped cakes in store and immediately snapped it up knowing that I would undoubtedly find myself baking for Pokemon fan one of these days. And sure enough, my Pokemon-obsessed friend’s birthday came up a couple of weeks ago so it was the perfect excuse not only to try out my Pikachu pan, but also to try out a pumpkin rum came recipe that I had been wanting to make.[Continue Reading/続きを読む]