junko has done it again, this time in the form of decorated mushipan (steamed cup bread). she's probably most well known for her decorated roll cakes but she actually has a few other books on decorated desserts like puddings and cookies as well. i only saw this book recently at the store so i reckon this must be her latest. was actually not very keen on making mushipan again after the first attempt (it was really dry) but the cute decorations really wowed me. theres even one on alpaca. did you know alpacas are really big in japan? they've got plush toys, stationery and stuff. who would have thought?

the weather had been so amazingly warm lately its really unbearable. on some days, temperature would soar to 34 or 35C (95F) during the afternoons and there would be long queues especially at the drinks stalls or ice cream trucks. honestly its like a vicious cycle. sweetened beverages just do not quench thirst, neither do ice creams. and after having those, you'll just realized you're not really satisfied then you want more. what a great way to consume additional calories! i needed something low-cal, refreshing and with the abundance of citruses around, make something fun using them.

it was mothers day yesterday, hope you guys had a great time celebrating the occasion! even though i did make a roll cake for our early celebration dinner last week, it was more like a cake i made for the mothers in my family and not for my mom herself so i really wanted to make her something personally. i recently discovered how to make a genoise properly and have had fantastic results from this recipe i used so i thought a shortcake would bring out the genoise nicely. my mom loves mangoes and even though i've not attempted this version i went ahead with it.

i was really inspired by this roll cake i saw on a japanese blog recently. it was so pretty i wanted to do the same. i've always thought about making a roll cake like this and felt it would also look great to use it to line the sides of an entremet, like hidemi sugino's fruits rouges. it would look far better if i had just used this instead of a joconde piped with jam as it resulted in deep unsightly gashes after baking.