cake recipes
double cake love affair! turning unexpected snacks into whimsical cakes!
sweet tomato & plum cake with olive oil buttercream – vanilla cake, tomato & plum jam, tomato leaf pastry cream, olive oil swiss meringue buttercream. This cake was inspired by a challenge I put onto myself: savory tomato cakes have been done before, what about a sweet tomato cake? I had to take it on. For weeks I dreamed of this flavor profile – as I pruned my tomato plants down or as I harvested the day’s tomatoes, I knew it would be such a wonderful summer cake if I could make it happen. A few tries later, this summer garden cake was born. Beautifully tender, softly herbaceous, and full of the delight in knowing that it works!
triple french fry chiffon cake – french fry chiffon cake, french fry buttercream, french fry milk soak. French fries in the buttercream, chiffon cake layers, and the milk soak. It’s a salty, sweet cake full of childhood nostalgia and whimsy. It’s both a simple and complex cake that is sure to bring a smile or two.
vanilla cake, tomato & plum jam, tomato leaf pastry cream, olive oil swiss meringue buttercream
This cake was inspired by a challenge I put onto myself: savory tomato cakes have been done before, what about a sweet tomato cake? I had to take it on. For weeks I dreamed of this flavor profile – as I pruned my tomato plants down or as I harvested the day’s tomatoes, I knew it would be such a wonderful summer cake if I could make it happen. A few tries later, this summer garden cake was born. Beautifully tender, softly herbaceous, and full of the delight in knowing that it works!
Whenever I think or come across lychee I always find myself dreaming of it as a cake. I’ve never had a lychee cake until now. This is the most tender, soft, and lovely cake. An easy, floral, light, and dreamy cake for when you want the romance of life. It’s so tender it almost feels like a whisper.
Two recipes in one – buttercream and cake. A cake for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and snacks in between. Oolong is matched with brown sugar and chocolate, a beautiful cascade of flavors all in one. Baked as a loaf, it beckons for warmth and cozy.
Jollypong is a Korean cereal that tastes like honeyed grains. This recipe turns it into a cake full of the snack's flavor – each bite full of heart, warmth, and the wonder of magicking cereal into cake. You can subsitute Jollypong for another similar cereal like Cheerios or Honey Smacks.
The iconic funfetti cake – with a few twists that bring it new life, a tropical life. This cake brings in the sweetness and tang of summer strawberries and tropical guava, followed by the joyous notes of sprinkles and a tiny splash of almond extract. A true celebration cake and definitely a good reason to bake.
The softest, most tender, moist cake crumb of my life. Paired with the sweetness of blueberry and mild awakening from shiso. This is a cake to enjoy slowly, to devour with care, to share and savor with everyone I know. It's so special.
I wake up most mornings staring at my bowl of oatmeal and wishing for cake instead. I look across my kitchen window and see the jasmine bush in full bloom and decide quickly: it's time for cake. This is inspired by a bowl of morning oats and our jasmine bush – softness and ethereal happiness in cake form.
This recipe offers a variety of ways to create the jasmine flavor and my recommendations for how to best achieve it.
This cake embodies the transitionary period between summer and autumn – when I’m quite ready for cozy spices but the bounty of summer stone fruit still calls. It meets me right in the middle. In between my farmers market trips to admire all of the produce and my camping trips full of s’mores. With this cake, I hold on to summer just a little bit longer.
Most corn cakes incorporate corn in the cake layer itself. Great. But, I wanted more – I wanted corn in the buttercream too. I wanted to double the corn and increase the corn per bite ratio. With this cake, I have fun with making my own milk, pushing the boundaries of buttercream, and having all of the corn I want. It’s always so delightful when playing around the kitchen results in sunshine like this.
One of my favorite cake creations of all time. This is a comforting cake full of life, energy, and softness. It’s delicate, bright, and good all of the time. Perfect for all occasions and all times of day. Look forward to waking up to it for breakfast, enjoy it for lunch, or cap off a beautiful dinner and day with it.
For when you are tired of the usual cakes and want to truly have fun in the kitchen. For when you want to eat something you’ve only dreamed about. For when you want to eat salty and sweet. For when you want to live out your childhood dreams. For anytime. For you.
French fries in the buttercream, chiffon cake layers, and the milk soak. It’s a salty, sweet cake full of childhood nostalgia and whimsy. It’s both a simple and complex cake that is sure to bring a smile or two.
You are intrigued about the idea of making a cake with french fries but you’re kind of just a little scared of it too. This cake is for you! In this cake, the french fry adds moisture and depth to the cake without a strong french fry flavor. Combined with the thick frosting, this is a delicious cake that is too easy to eat.
I love new and beautiful flavor pairings – and to me, that is this cake at its heart and core. Have you ever had these flavors together? If not, you must and need to! Banana and dulce de leche are rich and lush. The fennel adds a beautiful note to further wake up the senses. Pure joy. This recipe has 2 versions: one using cottage cheese and another using sour cream.
Think of the banana bread’s softer, more delicate, milky twin. This cake is a soft ode to the beautiful richness and creaminess of banana. A celebration of tropical flavor in a dainty way. Each bite is soft and endearing.
Banana milk is my favorite type of milk. It is superior to strawberry or chocolate. It is a magical, golden liquid full of childhood wonder, slight sweetness, whispers of somewhere more tropical. Banana milk is a whisper throughout this cake – the banana milk brings a tender softness in texture and flavor for a supreme cake that is a joy to make and eat. It’s light, airy, and golden.
Nothing says summer like a strawberry cake! For weeks now I’ve been dreaming of baking a light and fresh cake full of strawberries. This cake pairs the roasted strawberries with almond extract and poppy seeds, a favorite pairing of mine for any baked good.
What is a bee sting cake? Why is there yeast in the cake layers? What is the best way to describe this cake? To me, it’s what a donut cake would be like. Yeasted brioche layers with a luscious corn cream. Donut cake. Yes, quickly!
Carrot cake is always a yes in my book. When it’s on the menu, it’s really quite hard not to choose it. In this recipe, I infuse an already-great thing with some of my favorite flavors like maple syrup, miso, brown butter, and slightly heavier on the spices. This is my ideal carrot cake.
cheesecake recipes
A double layer of pistachio cheesecake, full of nutty warmth and the lightness of cream. A cheesecake of contrasts – from burnt to barely baked. Every bite is an experience in delicateness.
Pandan reminds me of a tropical vanilla, a new twist on a classic. To me, this cheesecake is the meeting of the new world and the old world. I love how refreshing and light every bite is.
Ube is the most vivid dessert flavor from my childhood. Before I knew about chocolate or vanilla, I was deep into the depths of ube. A mild sweetness so unique it stands on its own. As a cheesecake, it becomes even richer.
I’m not sure where the desire and need to put sweet corn in everything came from but here we are. Sweet corn in everything and anything I put my hands on, specially sweet applications. There is something so whimsical and delightful about sweet corn in bakes. I wanted to make sure this truly focused on the corn so this recipe uses corn in three forms/ways. The cornier, the better - right?
This is one of the flavors I will always gravitate to. For me, it’s a mixture of comforting and exciting. A balance between earthy and creamy in this cheesecake. I enjoy eating this chilled on a hot day.
a 26 page collection of all five of my cheesecake recipes with some of my thoughts on cheesecake, poetry, and additional cheesecake photos presented in a digital zine format!
Thai milk tea cheesecake
Ube cheesecake
Pistachio cheesecake
Sweet corn cheesecake
Pandan cheesecake
donut & bread recipes
I’m extremely, extremely pleased with these cinnamon rolls. Why you ask? Because for the first time in my baking life, my father asked me to make it again. What? He wants more?! It gets even better: he asked me to teach him how to make it. What is happening? There is no greater compliment! I’m so glad to have developed this recipe so that I can come back to this dough over and over again. It’s so good I might have memorized the recipe...
I mention this a lot but I think there are not enough guava-flavored things in existence. This babka is one attempt at remedying that tragedy. What’s special about this other than the guava? The sweet rice flour in the tangzhong and the oozy gooey liquid mochi layered throughout the messy rolls. Guava, mochi, milk bread, babka – all of the keywords that make my heart swoon in a single bake and bite. This is a really good one.
Apple cider donuts are my all time favorite donuts. I've been determined to make my own – an apple cider donut with so much flavor that rolling it in sugar or glazing it is optional. It's best eaten plain, to really appreciate the tang of the apple cider flavor and sit in that glory. These donuts keep fairly well and are best eaten once they have come to room temp. It’s beautiful and perfect. It’s my dream.
Guava should be a more common flavor across the board. Every cake, bread, cookie, and donut should come in guava. It's such a lovely flavor that begs to be eaten. In this pastry, it's a soft cream that is enveloped by soft brioche.
Can it get more summer than sweet corn and peaches together? I wasn’t sure this combination would work but I was curious and I dove head first into it. Luckily, my playing around worked out – this is delicious. Corn in both the frosting and dough. Peaches in the filling and topping. It’s a double double immersion into both of these summer favorites.
I’m always delighted to find donuts with a new or uncommon flavor that I’ve never seen before. Sweet corn pastry cream-filled donuts are a no brainer to me. It’s where summer whimsy and my donut obsession come true. Where else can I find sweet corn donuts if I don’t make it myself? So many levels of rewarding.
Have you ever had banana milk? It’s perfect. I want it to be available everywhere, all of the time. I continue my love letter to banana milk by combining it with my other love, donuts. How do you make something great even better? By putting them together! Each bite is luscious, creamy, and filled with so much of that banana milk flavor I love and adore.
I always tell myself to bake and eat more Thai milk tea-flavored items. This is me finally taking that seriously and welcoming it full-force into my life. I love that these are fluffy bites full of a vibrant orange cream.
If it’s not outrageously thick and fluffy, I don’t even want it. I want extra, extra thick focaccia. None of those thin ones that barely exist. I want a focaccia I can fully bite into and feel a bounce. I want it to hold all of my sandwich ingredients and all of my hopes and dreams. That big of a focaccia.
scone recipes
I've dreamed about these scones for as long as I can remember. I want them for breakfast and for an afternoon snack. It's my answer when I want something quick and can't wait the week for the bananas to turn their sweetest and near-black.
This recipe was born out of a spontaneous weekday morning and a desire to treat myself to some warm scones and a bit of play time in the kitchen. No ube extract, some toasted rice flour, and smears of butter. It's a good one and I want more of it already.
cookie & bar recipes
This is one of the holiday cookies I look forward to the most. The addicting blend of salty and sweet keeps me reaching for it again and again. I add two layers of saltine crackers so that each bite is heftier and more serious. With these layers, the bark eats more like a bar cookie. I also love how easily this cookie comes together!
I had my first sugar cookie bar recently and since then I’ve been in love. They are direct to the point: a sweet bite. For this take, I wanted that directness but in a slightly more nuanced way. I toasted the flour to bring out a nutty flavor without necessarily using nuts. It’s an easy trick that instantly elevates any bake and it works great on this cookie. The final result is a PB&J-like cookie bar without the nuts.
I have a deep love for thick, cakey chocolate chip cookies. But, I love them more when they are a tiny bit more interesting. In this take on the classic, I add in multiple variations of sesame and buckwheat flour. Still a classic, just a little bit more to love.
Salty, sweet, crunchy, full of spice, deep molasses, nutty, and enveloped in toffee and chocolate. This is my favorite holiday cookie full of layers and a symphony of flavors and textures.
Ube madeleines, for when I want quick and easy bites of cake without the fuss of cake layers and buttercream. This comes together so easily and quickly. Before I know, moist and soft bites of cake are in my mouth.
Out with the rice krispies, in with my favorite Ritz crackers. This substitution makes for the perfect salty sweat treat, my ultimate baking motto. It's so good I ate half the pan in one sitting! Good thing it takes less than 30 minutes to make.
I fall in love each year when the mooncakes roll around. Each one a stunning work of art from flavor, technique, textures, and design. This take on the mooncake is my shortcut to having a piece of it too. Full of butter, flavor, and the awe of each pattern.
Thumbprint cookies are one of the most stunning cookies to exist. It’s a classic with so much potential for remixing, re-inventing, changing, dressing up, or down. In this take, I pair apricot with pine nuts for a bright cookie reminiscent of summer sweetness from the stone fruit jam and nutty richness from the toasted pine nuts. It’s a bit of everything in a winter holiday cookie.
My dad only requests one cookie from me each year and it is this. Easy since I love it too and it’s such a quick one to make. I add a whisper of almond extract to complement the flavor of spelt flour. I love how light each cookie is - it melts in the mouth and leaves me with so much happiness.
I love and hate linzer cookies. Hate them because they are more work and effort than the usual cookie. But, I also deeply, deeply love them because of how they look and taste. After I finish putting together my cookies and stare at them for a bit, I always think to myself, “ That was so worth it!” My heart is full each time and I want to keep making linzer cookies.
Sometimes strawberries are not in season and there’s little things like roasting them in honey that bring out their flavor. I love that even in the winter we can have great things like this cake. My take on a strawberry shortcake cake! This recipe pairs the roasted strawberries with a delightful whipped cream and subtle notes of chamomile.