Tokyo Desserts

This cake is a bit unique with the addition of milk and salad oil to the recipe. These two ingredients add additional moisture that makes this a perfect dessert.

Recipe

Egg whites (room temperature) 450 grams

Granular Sugar 150 grams

Flour 150 grams 

Salt 1/2 teaspoon

Milk 6 tablespoons

Salad oil 6 tablespoons 

1. Sift together the salt and flour into a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk and salad oil.
2. Whip the eggs whites with a hand mixer for 3 - 4 minutes then add the sugar in 3 – 4 portions and mix until soft peaks form. Do not over mix.
3. Use spatula and mix in the flour in portions. Lastly, add the milk/oil mixture and mix thoroughly.
4. Spoon the batter into a large size chiffon cake pan (do NOT butter the inside of the pan). Preheat the oven to 170 C. and place the baking pan into the oven. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes depending on your oven.

I live outside Tokyo and technically we are not in a lock down, yet, but I have been in a work-from-home situation since mid-March. Japan has been aware of the virus since February due to close proximity to China so this is an ongoing story. During this stay at home time,  I've tried to show some constraint and only baked what could be reasonably consumed over a couple of days.

Instead of making fancy and fussy cakes, I just feel like a simple, quick and easy snack. With an easy recipe, I've been able to prepare dinner and make dessert at the same time. First was chocolate chip cookies, then oatmeal cookies and lastly this delicious banana bread.

Get the coffee ready

This simple recipe was borrowed from Sallysbakingaddiction and I added a few chocolate chips and an extra banana on top for decoration. I reduced the brown sugar a bit since the ripe bananas provide enough sweetness and the vanilla really draws out the banana flavor.

Recipe
(Fits 2 baking pans)

250 grams all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
115 grams butter (room temperature)
120 grams brown sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
80 grams plain yogurt
3 ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
40 grams chopped walnuts
25 grams chocolate chips

1. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt & cinnamon powder.
2. In a small bowl, use a fork to mash 2 bananas.
3. In another larger bowl, use a small whisk to mix the softened butter until smooth. Next add the brown sugar and mix thoroughly. Add each egg separately and mix gently until each egg is incorporated thoroughly. Lastly, add the yogurt, mashed bananas and vanilla extract.
4. Add the flour mixture in portions to the butter mixture. Use can use a spatula or small whisk to mix. Lastly, add the nuts and chocolate chips.
5. Lightly butter and flour the baking tins and then divide the batter evenly between the two tins. Peel and slice one banana lengthwise and put a slice on top of each tin in the middle of the batter.
6. Preheat the oven and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 35 - 40 minutes depending on your oven.
 7. After baking, cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely.

Is it autumn yet?  It's almost mid-September and the weather is still too warm.  At least the sweltering temperatures of August have cooled down but I am still looking forward to much cooler temps.

The stores already have Halloween decorations and I found a few new ones to buy this year so I included them in the photos -- BOO! Also, I wanted to have Indian corn for decoration for the holidays but since I am living in Japan these are very difficult to find. One of my friends spotted them at a Tokyo Farmer's Market and they must be about the only ones in the Tokyo area. Could have kissed that farmer when I spotted them.



Full disclosure, I did not bake the roll cake in the photo. Since I was collecting all of the beautiful fall pumpkins, Indian corn and apples I just wanted to grab my camera and start shooting without the baking part. Also, it's still too warm to start using the oven. In Japan the most popular taste for cakes is chestnut. All types of cakes and cookies with chestnut filling are popular. Pumpkin is not very popular for desserts so I will need to bake my own pumpkin spice cake.  Also, if you visit Starbucks in Japan you won't find a pumpkin spice latte.



I may be a  little too early for Halloween but I wanted to get this fall feeling started. Looking forward to cool evenings and hot drinks. Once this hot weather is over, then we can start complaining about the cold.

If you like pumpkin desserts, it is time to think outside of the traditional pumpkin pie. The most popular pumpkins in Japan area called kabacha. The kabacha is actually part of the squash family and is a bit sweeter than traditional pumpkins. Also, the outer skin is a dark color instead of the traditional orange. Kabacha are eaten throughout the entire year and are not seen as an autumn vegetable only.

I love pumpkin desserts and this one is great for the warmer weather. The kabacha puree is mixed with fresh cream and gelatin to create a smooth creamy topping for the light chocolate genoise cake on the bottom.

I used a buche cake mold to make this cake. Interesting shapes are another easy way to up your game with baking. Presentation is just as important as taste when serving your guests.

The recipe starts with the chocolate genoise cake followed by the pumpkin mousse. Maybe I am being lazy but I use frozen kabacha puree since the taste is quite full bodied. I am sure the canned pumpkin will work just as well.

Recipe

Pumpkin Decoration
1/4 fresh pumpkin boiled
1. Boil the pumpkin and drain the water and cool. Using a peeler, cut several thin slice and these will be used to line the pan for decoration.

Chocolate Genoise Cake
(makes a 24 cm x 24 cm cake)

2 eggs
60 grams sugar
50 grams flour
10 grams cocoa
20 grams butter (melted)

1. In a bowl, sift together the flour and cocoa.
2. In a larger bowl, mix the eggs and sugar with a hand mixer until the color is a pale yellow. In several small portions, add the butter and continue to mix with the mixer.
3. Add the flour mixture to above and gently mix with a spatula until everything is well mixed.
4. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius (pre heat the oven) for 20 minutes approximately. Remove the cake from the pan soon after removing from the oven so that it thoroughly cools.

Pumpkin Mousse
250 grams pumpkin puree
70 cc milk
2 egg yolks
60 grams sugar
9 grams gelatin sheets (softened in water)
150 grams fresh cream

1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolk and sugar with a whisk. In a saucepan, heat the milk until just lightly boiling. Pour the milk into the bowl with the egg yolk mixture and mix and then add back to the saucepan and heat on a low heat until the mixture lightly thickens. Lastly, add the gelatin and mix. Strain into a bowl and let cool.
2. In another bowl whisk the fresh cream until just soft peaks form. Do NOT over whip.
3. I another bowl add the pumpkin puree and mix with a whisk to loosen the mixture. Slowly add in #1 and mix together with a small whisk. The mixture should be lightly chilled but be careful not to chill too much since the gelatin will begin to make the whole mixture firm. If the mixture starts to become firm you can heat it lightly over hot water.
4. Mix in the whipped cream in portions with a spatula to the pumpkin anglais (#3) and mix thoroughly.

Putting Everything Together
1. Prepare the buche cake pan by lightly coating with olive olive and then smoothly line with plastic wrap so that there are no wrinkles (or very few). Place several pieces of the sliced pumpkin neatly at the bottom in a nice shape.
2. Pour the pumpkin anglais into the buche mold on top of the pumpkin slice up to about 90 % full. Cut a piece of the chocolate cake to fit on top of the pumpkin anglais. Gently place the chocolate cake on top of the pumpkin anglais and then put in the refrigerator for up to 1 - 2 hours.
3. The cake should be able to be removed from the pan easily if you pull on the plastic wrap.

Happy Baking :)

Soft sponge cake with fresh cream and chestnut filling

I like to bake with seasonal ingredients and when it is fall then it is time for chestnuts. Most of the brands of chestnut cream are from France and they can be expensive but they are well worth the money.

The soft sponge cake combined with the fresh cream and chestnut paste is a delicious combination.

The cake is quite easy to put together so take a Saturday afternoon and make a new dessert.




Sponge Cake:

5 egg yolks
60 grams flour
10 grams cornstarch
45 grams butter
4 egg whites
95 grams sugar
5 grams cornstarch


1. In a bowl, sift the flour and cornstarch together.
2. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter. Add the flour/cornstarch (60 grams) mixture. Mix with whisk.
3.  Put #2 above into a bowl, add in the 1 egg & the egg yolks (in portions) and mix well with a small whisk.
4. Whip the egg whites until stiff – add the sugar in portions while mixing. Add the 5 grams cornstarch at the end.
5. Mix the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture.  
6. Pour into the baking pan about 20 cm x 20 cm. Spread evenly. Tap once on the table to remove air bubbles.
7. Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes. Do not over bake or the cake will not be soft enough to roll.






Egg yolks 4
Granular sugar 40 grams
Flour 20 grams
Cornstarch 9 grams
Butter 20 grams
1 teaspoon dark rum
150 grams chestnut cream
Gelatin 6 grams (soften in water and drain the water)
150 grams fresh cream

 
2. Combine the egg yolks & granular sugar in a bowl and mix well.  Sift the flour/cornstarch and add to the egg yolk mixture.
3. Pour the warm milk into the egg mixture. Pour back into the pan and strain while pouring.
4. Heat until it becomes thickened. Use a whisk to mix
5. Remove the milk mixture from the heat and add the gelatin then the butter.  Mix well to remove any lumps. Put into a bowl then add the chestnut cream and mix.
6. Pour into a bowl and cool until the mixture becomes thickened.
7. Whip the fresh cream into firm peaks.

Putting the cake together:

1. Cut the cake to the correct size and put the cake on top of a piece of plastic wrap.

2. Use a spatula and brush a layer of the fresh cream on the cake. Then add the chestnut topping on top and smooth with a spatula. Be careful not to mix together the cream and chestnut paste.

3. Roll up the cake and use the plastic wrap to leverage the rolling process. Once it is rolled, wrap tightly and put in the refrigerator for about 30  minutes.

 

Chestnut topping:

200 grams chestnut cream

30 grams fresh cream
3 gram gelatin
 
1 Heat the 30 grams cream & then added softened gelatin Add to the chestnut cream.
2. Slightly whip the 30 grams cream & add to the above. Decorate the cake using a pastry bag and nozzle with several small holes on in it.

Cherry Blossom Roll Cake

March is cherry blossom season and the beginning of spring. We had a snowy winter by Tokyo standards so I was happy to see the close of winter. I was excited to eat something special for the start of spring so rounded up all of the ingredients for making this cake.

The recipe is a basic sponge cake. You can use any filling you like with it. For this occasion I flavored the cream with cherry blossom flavor.

I found these cherry blossoms that were soaked in a syrup. I put them at the bottom of the pan and poured the batter on top.

These may be difficult to find outside of Japan so apologies for that.

The container on the left side had the cherry blossom pieces which had been soaked in a sweet syrup.

Chocolate cake with pumpkin cream filling

Time for Halloween decoration.
This roll cake is filled with pumpkin cream and a few pumpkin seeds. I added cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg to the pumpkin puree so it has a tasty pumpkin pie taste to it.

This recipe is fairly quick to put together but if another person is available to help it will go even that much quicker.

This decoration will be piped on top of parchment paper and then the cake itself will be poured over the decoration before baking.  For decorations, either draw on your own or use cookie cutters to make shapes and trace.

Decorations are ready

Decoration:

Roll cakes are very popular in Japan. There are many different types of filling such as plain cream, green tea flavored cream, chocolate, etc. Roll cakes are  usually standard items in a bakery.

This roll cake is decorated with cherry blossom flowers. The technique for making the decoration is easy - use your imagination to create a design to match the season - flowers, leaves, animals, etc.

You could also add a little cocoa to the batter for Halloween and draw pumpkins, etc.

Decoration: