i've been doing alot of sliced cakes lately. not that i'm terribly fond of them but i'm trying to practice on my cake slicing. slicing cakes may be a simple thing but to do them evenly and neatly? not easy! i seriously could use more practice but i can't possibly be baking everyday so its a shame really.

anyway i was craving for a matcha cake and i decided to come up with my own "creation". each component is taken from a different recipe and for a moment i couldn't really decide what to pair it with. matcha is rather versatile and it goes well with either chocolate, adzuki bean, chestnut or black sesame but i decided to go with a black sesame mousse in the center coz i've not made it before.

apart from matcha, goma black sesame would perhaps be my 2nd most favorite japanese-inspired flavor. having made a few chiffon cakes now (rose, pistachio raspberry, matcha, purple sweet potato), i can't believe i waited so long to make a black sesame one coz this is by far, in my opinion, the best chiffon cake i've made.



in terms of recipe, this is rather different from the others i've come across. it doesn't contain any oil, just water. the black sesame paste i used was also somewhat dry but the cake was anything but. texture-wise this one is smooth and more compact, very much like a japanese souffle cheesecake but i love it that way. some chiffon cakes can taste really foamy and you can actually hear bubbles bursting when you bite into it. the black sesame aroma was light but i could taste it, tho' i wouldn't say no to a stronger black sesame taste. i totally dig the color too, a very cool greyish black. when mixing the batter the color was a very light grey, who would hv thought it would turn so dark after baking? i thought it was a very pretty hue!


and this is a pack of ground black sesame seeds from daiso which i added into the cake. aroma's quite good and saves me the trouble of grinding my own. seriously, i swear daiso sells everything! new surprises every visit, i always look forward to shopping there. anyway i'm gonna make either yuzu or royal milk tea chiffon nx time!



*recipe removed due to copyright restrictions.

a continuation from the previous topic on ice cream, this is something i made quite sometime ago. i promptly forgot all about it (actually its more like i didn't wanna post it coz this pic is really ugly). one blogger commented that it looks like century egg on 1st glance :( well, i hv to agree! the shape & color i guess, plus i couldn't really get a good picture in this sweltering heat. that is why i hate to photograph ice cream coz i can't take my own sweet time! then again i must post this coz its a really really good recipe. i've seen some black sesame ice cream recipes that use just ground sesame seeds but i think the flavor would be very mild, judging from the looks of it. whereas this one, it uses black sesame paste so its really potent & concentrated, as u can see! i like to order this whenever i'm out for japanese, or when i visit meidi-ya. so yes i think it comes very close to the japanese version.