Recipe Journal | Cupboard Salad with Wine Sunday

•Ice Bath For the Chardonnay: I like my white wine nice and chilled any time of the year- even if it’s freezing cold outside. It’s great to have a proper wine bucket around at home, but  I like to try and go with different vessels to put the wine in. Today I used my Le Creuset oval dutch oven, just because I just finished washing it after I used it to make chili the night before, and thought why not. 
*Important tip* If you are on the clock, and need your wine chilled immediately, just put a teaspoon or two of salt in the ice bath along with some water, and in about 2 minutes, your wine is chilled! This tip makes my life a lot easier, especially after a crazy work day. 

•Crocodile Salad: This recipe comes from Nigella’s cookbook; Nigella Feast. I love this salad, mainly because I love pickled gherkins—  so I always have it in my fridge— and I love any recipe that uses lots of parsley. This also goes really well with some chicken breast tossed on top of it. 

•The Chopping: I chopped the cucumbers and parsley really finely, just because I find it really fun to use the mezzaluna, but I sometimes leave the big chunks of them sprinkled on top of the salad. 

•The Dressing for the Salad: Very light, savory dressing. The recipe calls for the gherkin brine in place of ‘acid component’ of the dressing, which boosts the flavor of the pickled gherkins. 

•Setting the Table: My favorite part! 

•The ‘Wine Aerator’: I got it from my boyfriend that day, and we had to try it as soon as I opened the box. This small device works as an immediate decanter. The assemble was pretty straightforward, and when I poured a glass, the top was really bubbly. (—so I guess IT IS working in some way!) Let me try a few more times, and get back on the feedback, I want to try it on a several red wines.

recipe journal | Flower Decorated Chocolate Cake

Happy Valentine’s Day! I made a very chocolatey cake for my valentine (-and family). I wanted to make a video of making it, as Valentine’s Day surprise for him. My boyfriend likes to make things in the kitchen with me, so we usually spend weekend mornings at the studio kitchen together. He also helped make this cake, in the beginning, measuring the ingredients. If you look closer, the bigger hands in the video are his. ♥️

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The Cake

*Grease and Powder the pan: Even with the parchment paper, it’s always better to grease the bottom and the side of the pan— can prevent the cake to be perfectly smooth on the outside.
*The Cake Batter: This is a very moist batter, so don’t be alarmed. It can look runny.
*Bake for 40 minutes: Make sure to test the cake with a toothpick. Chocolate Custard Filling Melted dark chocolate makes it easier the custard to firm up, which I find it easier than to make a regular vanilla custard. This also makes a great chocolate ice cream, trifle and a pudding with simple whipped cream on top. Yum.
*Cover with film and refrigerate: Cover the custard tightly with a plastic wrap touching directly the custard right after pour it into a bowl. This prevents skin formation on top. Whipped Ganache One of my favorite way to frost a cake. Simple and delish. Also has versatile ways to use in dessert recipes.

The ‘Moist Maker’

*Coffee and Cocoa Powder: I used freshly brewed coffee from moka pot. Mix in a couple of teaspoons of cocoa powder, brush it onto the cake. This makes the cake unbelievably moist. Not to mention coffee always boosts the flavor of chocolate in so many chocolate dessert recipes. I came up with this idea when I was watching Friends, in ‘the One with Ross’ Sandwich’ episode, where Ross gets mad at his colleague eating his sandwich that Monica made with Thanksgiving leftover turkey. He mentions that the sandwich has the ‘moist maker’, which totally makes sense on both delicious sandwiches and cakes. I sometimes make other cakes with the ‘moist maker’ layers; a strawberry cake with strawberry syrup layers, dark forest cake with cherry syrup layers, and etc. It’s also optional to add in some sugar into this liquid, but since the cake and the frosting are sweet, I’d like to keep this on the bitter side.

Assembling the Cake

*Cutting the cake in half: Cut both cakes in half to make 2 layers each, so we’ll ultimately have a gorgeously tall, 4 layer chocolate cake.
*Brush the ‘Moist Maker’: Again, the ’Moist Maker’ will make the cake moist, and the coffee in the mixture will boost the chocolate flavor.
*Scoop the Filling on the Cake: This is the frosting layer of the cake. I use the ice cream scoop to make sure I use the even amount of frosting on each layer. This is a bare cake, so it’s always nice to make everything neat.
*Spread the Filling with a Flat Spatula: It’s very satisfying to swirl about this silky frosting with a spatula on a rotating plate. piping the whipped ganache at the edge makes it easy, too. Just remember to not to push the filling too hard, otherwise, this filling layer will look flat from the outside.
*Another layer of cake sheet + Another layer of Chocolate Filling: Just keep going until you use up all the cake sheet and the filling.
*Refrigerate for 20 minutes: This step will drop the temperature of the cake, which will help the glaze to set fast when dripping it onto the cake.

Chocolate Glaze

*Chop the Chocolate: Mezzaluna is one of my favorite kitchen tools. I use it every chance I get to chop things.
*Apply chocolate glaze onto the chilled cake with a spoon or a piping bag: I made a mistake not to warm the glaze enough before I use it. Remember, the cake has to be chilled enough so that when the warm glaze drips down the cake and sets in quickly. If the cake is not chilled enough, the glaze will slip further than you intend to, or if the glaze is not warm enough, it won't drip pretty.
*Pipe Little Ganache Stars + Decorate with Strawberries: I decorated the cake with strawberries and fresh garden flowers. The whipped ganache sets hard later, so not only the little piped stars on the of the cake are pretty, but they also help you place strawberries.
*Fresh Garden Flowers from the Sink: I have to be honest— the flowers are NOT from my garden. They are store-bought chamomile flowers and daisies. I used them on the cake because they are my favorite, but also they are edible, so I don’t have to worry about wrapping the stems with foils or whatever. 💛

Items used in the video

•Matcha Bowl used for 'indoor foraging': Studio Arhoj (스튜디오 아르호이) https://bit.ly/3bIBAFb
•Mini Jug for Coffee Making: Studio Arhoj https://bit.ly/3bIBAFb
•Flower Vase on the Kitchen Counter: Studio Arhoj https://bit.ly/3bIBAFb

journal 02 | Tokyo Flower Market

Last summer, I stayed in Tokyo for bridal bouquet workshop and freelance event producing works. One of the places I love so much in Tokyo is definitely this flower market. Generally speaking, Tokyo has a lot, A LOT of flower shops throughout the city, and honestly, I think they are all beautiful with carefully selected blooms that go nicely with their atmosphere. So even if I don't get to go to the market, I get to play with the local flowers without fuss. But I love all the energy flying around in the air at the early morning market, and you always get the freshest flowers there.

At the market, most of the flowers are harvested locally- yes, that means you get those delicate looking butterfly ranunculus in every color, ruffled pansies, oh, and those cute looking bumble bee like ranunculus.

I get a lot of inquiries about Tokyo flower market. So I think I’m going to mention what I do to be clear for everyone who’s wondering. I do floral workshops in Tokyo in about every 3 months, the workshop is held in English, Japanese and Korean, so if you speak any of those, you are welcome! I also teach 1 on 1 private classes, so even if you can’t make it to the workshop, you can ask me for private lessons with small group. Also I do floral and event producing freelance work in throughout Japan. For floral works, I work with other florists or event planners from both Japan and other countries. Sometimes florists or event planners who are not based in Japan have hard time sourcing the fresh flowers, because you need a license- to each market- to purchase flowers, and also you need to speak the language to communicate with the vendors. So as a floral liaison, I would make the arrangements before they arrive in Japan, and also I participate the creating part as a florist.

I am planning to go back to Japan in May for a workshop, so lots to plan! Hope to see you there. Wherever you are.