Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

 Japanese strawberry shortcake is different from the kind usually eaten in the United State in that it's more like an angel food cake with whipped cream icing and slice strawberries. Among Japanese people, strawberry shortcake are considered a classic dessert. In Sugamo, Tokyo, is a bakery where it is said that the finest shortcake in Japan are produced. The French Pound House Bakery is found in a quiet residential district, only a five minute walk from JR Sugamo train station.

Because they have received a lot of media exposure, their strawberry shortcake is still their top selling item. Even though they try to keep up with demand , they often run completely out of sponge cake.



For such a good reputation, I felt that it was necessary to find out myself but I can't! (=_=;) yes, because they using liqueur!
  
So, I tried to make my own version of Japanese strawberry shortcake without any types liqueur, orange liqueur, cherry liqueur or whatever it is. Even, I know It won't be taste as good as The French Pound House Bakery.

If you like liqueur or can drink liqueurs go ahead. Some people like to use orange liqueur such as Cointreau or Grand Mariner with strawberry shortcake as their love the combination of strawberry and slight orange taste in the background and many people use Kirsch as well, but if you not particularly a fan of it, it's a matter of taste.

I don't drink any types of alcohol drink. I just do some researched of it, for my knowledge. So, It's best to just cut off the liqueur part in my cake. So, this is my experiment of Japanese strawberry shortcake. The strawberry is just sweet and smells so good... yum!

okeyyy! I'm in some sort of strawberry madness, as you can tell by all three layers of strawberry in one cake. When you see bright red color and big sizes of strawberries in the corner of your eyes, you just gotta look, and that's very dangerous as I can hardly contain myself from staring it and end up buying it. It happens everytime, classic. Same goes to blueberry and apple too! Does it happen to you too? Please tell me that I'm not weird (>_<;)




I have confession to make. I own some cookbooks (or dessert book), not so many, but there lots of them, but I rarely or almost never followed any recipe from them. I don't know, I've always been put off in trying one of their recipes because I'm afraid that I won't like them or the recipe is just too long lengthy. Most of cookbooks that I won (all of them) are the kinds that have a very long recipes page with multiple different components, a lot of them has some bizarre ingredients that I've never heard before or the ones that cost me a fortune. So, it's better for me to do some experiment for my own recipe book.

Mango Mousse Cake

My version of  "Mango Mousse Cake". It's Mango season again! You can see mangoes everywhere. I think it's mango season, I don't know  when exact time of mango season but it's reach it cheapest price that its! But, we have mango trees at daddy's garden growing about three and four meters from my bed room. We have four mango trees at our garden. Well, it looks like we won't need to buy mangoes every years. We just have to take out the ladder and pick the mangoes off our own tree or wait the mangoes off the trees by itself. It makes me smile. Imagine, I'll be making more experiment in our kitchen like 'Mango pie, mango shakes, mango cream  pies or mango mousse cake' from our own mangoes. And the version of me harvesting herbs growing right under the shade of the mango tree makes me smile even more. How cool can that be, eh?
Juicy and sweet mangoes from our own trees.... yummm!

I made these mousse last Tuesday because I needed a little comfort food and some experiment here. I never tried any types of mousse before. ....... Funny how certain foods can make you feel good, and alternatively, there are some that can make you feel very, very bad.  Unfortunately, the latter is what I experienced last Wednesday. I suspect my lunch had some kind of strange preservative in it, because not long afterward I started seeing flashing lights. The dreaded migraine headache. They always scare the heck out of me.

I'm all better now, but the ordeal left me wanting foods with few and simple ingredients. This dessert is just that. Very simple. It reminds me of a fruit-on-the-bottom cake, only a little more dessert-like.

Dark Milky Chocolate Cake with Juicy Raspberry

 Hi-tea... made this elegant 'Dark Milky Chocolate with Juicy Raspberry cakes' for hi-tea. A miniaturized version of the flour-less dark chocolate dessert was simply satisfying... The milky and nutty chocolate for the base is just perfect.

Things like this make me smile.  Giggle, even. If you are looking for something yummy to make for family on weekend, then this may just be the thing.  It's practically fool-proof!  There are minimal ingredients and it takes little time to put together. It's incredibly rich and decadent, and gets an A+ for being a great chocolate fix.  The milky chocolate base is the perfect compliment to the rich, silky chocolate cake and juicy raspberry.






There are a million ways you could tweak this recipe to make it, but I have to say it is quite good as is. this is one of my experiment cake.  Sometimes I like to give a hint as to what special ingredient is inside.