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I know, I know. It’s been years since I’ve posted on here and honestly, I don’t think anyone even sees this blog. So posting this here is solely for my benefit. Also, I know this isn’t anime. They’re mascots for messaging service but oh my god are they adorable. I tried to make them look just as adorable here but that obviously didn’t happen. 

Does anyone remember that show on Food Network called “Semi-Homemade.” This recipe could probably fit in on that show if the host was making adorable character desserts.

(P.S. There aren’t a lot of photos unfortunately because I forgot to take them and also the lighting in the kitchen/dining area is atrocious so the photos would have been fugly anyway.)

This is a Swedish Princess cake (prinsesstårta). It’s a cake filled with sponge cake, pastry cream, raspberry jam, and whipped cream and covered in marzipan. I made this mainly because it was my birthday, this is my sister’s favorite cake, and The Great British Bake-Off is one of the loveliest shows I’ve ever seen. 

First, the raspberry jam....I bought a generic supermarket brand one so I can’t help you there. If you have a go-to raspberry jam recipe, use that. Maybe support a small vendor by buying the jam at a farmers market. The jam is going to provide a nice bit of tartness in this sweet cake. 

Next, the marzipan. Now I didn’t know how much marzipan I needed so I made a lot. 

3 cups of almond flour/almond meal

3 cups of powdered sugar

4 tsp. of almond extract

2 egg whites

Sift the almond flour/almond meal and powdered sugar together. 

Slowly fold in almond extract and egg whites.

Mix well. If the mixture is too wet, add in almond flour. If the mixture is too dry, add in water. Final mixture should be a nice paste, like Play-doh.

Roll marzipan into a log, put in a plastic bag/cover in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge. 

Remember those two egg yolks left over from the marzipan? Well we’re gonna use that to make pastry cream. 

250 ml of milk

60 grams of sugar

25 grams of corn starch

2 egg yolks 

Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap. We’ll be putting the hot cream here later. 

Mix the yolks, corn starch, and half the sugar in a heat-proof bowl. 

Heat up the milk and the rest of the sugar in a saucepan until it simmers. 

Pour 1/3 of the milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisk it together. This will ensure the eggs don’t scramble.

Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the milk mixture and whisk until the cream turns smooth and glossy. The cream is ready when it “burps” back at you a.k.a. bubbles pop. 

Pour the cream onto the baking sheet. Fold the wrap over to cover the cream and place the pan in the fridge to chill. Try to allow the cream to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. 

Now it’s more traditional to use a sponge cake but making a sponge cake requires a lot of eggs and I wasn’t in the mood for that. So I picked up a box of vanilla cake mix, (hello Betty Crocker!) but if you have a go-to vanilla cake recipe, use that. I didn’t really follow the instructions for the cake mix and added things to make it seem more homemade. Instead of water, I added milk. Instead of vegetable oil, I added melted butter. I also added an extra egg (so instead of the 3 like the box says, I put 4), 2 tbsp. of sugar, 2 tbsp. of flour, and 1 tsp. of vanilla extract. Bake it in a 13 x 9 inch tray and when it’s finished baking, allow it to cool completely before assembly. 

For the whipped cream, I whipped it by hand and now my arm is mad at me. 

1 cup of heavy cream

4 tbsp. of powdered sugar

Whip heavy cream with a whisk. You can use a hand mixer if you want, I’d suggest a low or medium speed in the beginning so the cream doesn’t splash everywhere. If you’re whipping it by hand like I did, prepare to burn some calories and it’ll take about 10-15 minutes to reach stiff peak consistency.  

Whisk in powdered sugar.

Assembly time!

Use a 3-inch biscuit cutter to cut out rounds of the cake. I only managed to cut out 6 even though the recipe I got it from said I could make 8. :/

The cake should have risen nicely so slice it to make two layers.

Put a layer of jam on the bottom layer of cake. 

Take out the pastry cream from the fridge and whisk it in a bowl to make it easier to spread. Also, whisk in a 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract. Put it in pastry bag to pipe a layer of pastry cream on top of the jam.

Place top layer of cake on top of pastry cream.

Put a layer of jam on the top layer. 

Pipe whipped cream on the top layer of jam. 

Place the cakes in the fridge to chill. This will allow the cake to harden a bit so they won’t smoosh and flatten when we attempt to put the marzipan on. 

Take the marzipan out and use food coloring to color half of it a yellow-orange for Ryan and the other half pink for Apeach. 

Dust powdered sugar on a surface to roll out 4 or 5 inch rounds of marzipan to cover the cakes with. 

Take the cakes out of the fridge and put on that marzipan! You can cut the excess or tuck ‘em in underneath. 

Use icing to make the facial features of each character on the cakes. 

Dig in!

Mmmmmm....deliciousness. 

^^Look at those gorgeous layers!

Next time, I think I’ll use a jumbo muffin pan for the cakes so I don’t have so much cake leftover. 

Recipe sources (Cake, pastry cream, marzipan)

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Maeno Mitsuya - Macarons

It’s stated that Maeno likes trendy foods and the dessert that immediately came to mind was macarons. Obviously, I could’ve decorated the macarons to look like the tanuki that Maeno loves so much but no. I refuse to give in to his tanuki obsession. So here’s some plain macarons filled with chocolate ganache. I didn’t have a tanuki plate so I just placed two on a cat plate. It looks like balls. 

Macarons, like most french desserts, don’t require a lot of ingredients and are actually quite simple. It’s the techniques required that eff you over. I’ve made macarons several times so this batch wasn’t my best. I was too impatient. It was a new kitchen. I will post photos of a better batch some other day for another character maybe. (x)

- 120 grams of egg whites (preferably room temperature, I left mine out the night before)

- 160 grams of sifted almond meal

- 190 grams of sifted powdered sugar

- 40 grams of sugar

In a separate bowl, combine the almond meal and powdered sugar.

On medium speed, use a hand mixer to beat the egg whites until foamy. (Sometimes I like adding a pinch of salt before beating the eggs, as it makes it slightly easier to make a meringue) Once foamy, slowly add in the sugar, while still using the hand mixer to beat the eggs. The meringue is finished when you lift the mixer and the meringue forms stiff peaks. It should also look glossy. This process should take about 5 - 10 minutes. Watch videos on YouTube if you’re unsure. 

(^I stopped beating the eggs too early, which is why my batch ended up being small for the amount of ingredients used and the batter became runnier than usual)

Add half of the almond meal/powdered sugar mixture into the meringue. Fold in a circular mixture, around and under the batter. Add the rest of the mixture. Continue folding the batter in the same motion until it’s fully incorporated. You don’t want to work the batter too much. You should also add food coloring while you’re mixing. I usually add it when I’m making the meringue but it slipped my mind. Powdered food coloring is best but liquid food coloring is fine too. 

The finished batter should flow like lava. 

^Your batter should look better than this. It will look thicker and look more like lava.

I chose pink because Maeno works at a Shoujo magazine.

Fill a pastry bag with the batter and pipe two-inch rounds on parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. (I used an Ateco 804 tip) If you’re using parchment paper, use a little bit of batter as glue at the corners to help hold the parchment paper down.

If there are any air bubbles, use a toothpick to pop them. Allow the piped rounds to rest for thirty minutes to two hours. The batter is ready for the oven when you lightly run your finger across the surface of a macaron and the batter doesn’t stick to your finger. Pop the macarons into the oven for 15 - 18 minutes at 350F. (Every oven is different so it might take a few batches before you find the perfect temperature for your macarons. I’m still trying to find out the perfect one for my new oven.)

Once finished, all the macaron shells to cool before removing from the tray.

You can make the chocolate ganache while the macaron shells are resting before being put in the oven, as the ganache needs to thicken in the fridge. 

- 8 ounces of chocolate chips or chopped chocolate or chocolate rounds

- 1 cup of heavy cream

(I made a lot of ganache. You might not use all of it or you might use all of it. It’s all dependent on how much ganache you want in your macarons.)

Heat up the heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat. Once bubbles begin to appear, pour the heavy cream onto the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Combine until all the chocolate is melted. 

Transfer ganache into a container and chill in the fridge. 

When the macaron shells are cool, assemble the macarons. You can pipe the ganache or you can spread the ganache on. It might be tempting to eat the macarons now but allow the macarons to sit in the fridge for a day. The flavors will need time to get to know each other and the result will be amazing. 

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Iwaizumi Hajime - Agedashi Tofu Ice Cream

In honor of Iwaizumi’s birthday yesterday, I decided to try making agedashi tofu ice cream instead of just making his favorite dish. 

First make the tentsuyu caramel sauce. (x)

- 2 tablespoons of tentsuyu (you can make your own or use bottled sauce)

- 1/4 cup of sugar

In a saucepan over low heat, combine both ingredients. Constantly stir and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until sugar is fully dissolved. 

Set aside and allow it to cool completely. If mixture becomes too thick to drizzle, heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds. 

Now to make the ice cream. (x)

- a package of firm tofu

- 1 cup of milk

Put both ingredients into a blender and blend until the mixture is smooth. 

Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and let the ice cream maker do its thing for 30 minutes or until the ice cream forms.

Scoop ice cream into a bowl and drizzle the tentsuyu sauce on top. Enjoy.

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Okegawa Kyoutaro - Nekomata Cream Puffs

My first entry for this blog is going to be these cream puffs I tried to decorate to look like the Nekomata character that Okegawa-banchou loves so much. As you can see, my decoration skills are non-existent. 

Assemble the pastry cream first, as it needs to be chilled in the fridge for two hours. (x)

- 500 ml milk

- 125 grams of sugar

- 4 egg yolks

- 30 grams of cornstarch

- 30 grams of flour

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (not pictured because I forgot)

In the photo above, I put the cornstarch and flour in the same bowl.

In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the milk and half the sugar to a simmer. 

While the milk is heating up, whisk the egg yolks, the remaining sugar, the cornstarch, and the flour in a heat proof bowl. It should end up looking like the above picture.  

Pour half of the warmed milk into the egg mixture and whisk quickly. This allows the egg yolks to slowly adjust to the temperature of the milk and so it won’t cook into some form of scrambled eggs. 

Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Whisk quickly. Stop whisking once the mixture “burps” at you. This shouldn’t take very long. 

Pour the mixture onto a baking pan lined with plastic wrap. Try to spread it out in an even layer, but be careful because the mixture is very hot. Fold up the edges of the wrap and put the pan into the fridge for two hours or until the center is cool. 

Once it’s fully chilled, remove the wrap and place the cream in a bowl. Whisk the cream until it’s smooth. Add the vanilla extract. Taste it. If it needs more vanilla, add some more. 

While the cream is chilling in the fridge, make the pate à choux. (x)

- 5 eggs

- 125 grams of butter (I like using European butter, mainly because it tastes better to me but you’re free to use whichever brand you’re comfortable with as long as it’s actual butter.)

- 125 ml of water

- 125 ml of milk

- 150 grams of flour

In the above photo, I combined the water and milk into the same cup.

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.

In a saucepan over medium heat, heat up the water, milk, and butter. Don’t stir it. Just leave it alone and let it do it’s business. 

Once the butter has melted, dump in all the flour at once. 

Mix it all together until it ends up looking like this dough/paste. It shouldn’t be sticky. 

Transfer the dough/paste into a bowl. Mix in one egg. Once the egg has been fully incorporated into the mixture, add the next egg. Continue doing this until all of the eggs have been mixed in. The dough should end up looking like the above mixture. 

Pipe onto parchment paper or silicone baking mat. I piped 2 - 3 inch rounds on two trays. Pop them into the oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until they’ve turned a nice shade of golden brown.

After they’ve cooled, pipe the pastry cream into them. Or, if you prefer, slice them and fill them with cream that way. 

I got lazy at this point and used Nutella to make Nekomata’s face. If I wasn’t lazy, I would have made a chocolate ganache and piped the decorations on. They’ll still taste delicious either way. Hopefully Kyon Kyon-senpai approves.