Edible gardening

I've been wanting to make an edible potplant for the past year. I'm not sure where it came from, but I recall seeing photos of potplant desserts popping up. Perhaps it started from Heston Blumenthal and his amazing edible garden? I'm not really sure. I just really wanted one..

Instagram is a wonderful thing. It's one of the things I use as a "to do", "to go", "to eat" wishlist. Okay.. call me Asian (well actually, I think it started off being an "Asian thing" to do, but now it's just a "foodie thing"), but I love taking photos of food. Food is meant to be seen by the eyes, smelt by the nose and tasted by the tastebuds. For me it's smell, see and then taste. And because you can't preserve smell and taste, you can at least capture how it looks. Hehe :P

When I was in Sydney this year, I wanted to get a potplant dessert from Blackflower Patisserie. Thanks to Instagram, I saw a photo of it whilst I was in Sydney and decided to go find it. (I love how Instagram tells me where to go.. instantly. It also happened in Tokyo when I saw a photo of a really cute cafe with the cutest matcha latte art. So I went there on my last day of my holiday). But when I got to Blackflower Patisserie, I found out that it was only served during the evening. I was quite disappointed because I had to fly back that evening.

But... as I was browsing Instagram for any cute (I really am a sucker for cute things..) or interesting things in Seoul before I went again, I found out about Banana Tree. They served potplant desserts and potplant bingsoo! I saw it. I wanted it.. and I got it! Hehe. They didn't serve the bingsoo during winter though, so I was a tad disappointed.

The potplant looked great! I think I was more in love with the shovel spoons though. The dessert itself was just a small patty case of cream and cake. A tad disappointing for the price, but definitely cute! I eventually decided that I had to find those shovel spoons for myself and found them on ebay. :)

I decided that I'd make my own pot plant desserts. I tried looking for mini terracotta pots but couldn't find any. So I ended up with plastic ones.

Edible potplants
Makes about 10

Matcha genoise (see recipe below)
Matcha mousse (see recipe below)
Black sesame crumble (I made mine with blacksesame, butter, sugar and a little flour)
Matcha cookie crumble (I made mine, but I don't have a recipe for you)
Chocolate mushrooms (I made mine)
Chocolate rocks (I bought a packet)

This was how I imagined it:

Matcha genoise

2 eggs
40g sugar
40g plain flour
8g matcha
20g butter, melted and cooled

Cream the eggs and sugar. Add in sifted flour and matcha.
Fold in melted butter.
Pour into a lined slice tray.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for about 15mins.

Matcha mousse

100ml milk
10g matcha
1 egg, separated
40g sugar
80ml cream
1 tsp gelatin powder

Beat egg yolks and 20g sugar until pale.
Heat up milk and matcha on low heat. Take off from heat.
Gradually pour the eggs into milk, constantly mixing.
Add the gelatin.
Sieve the mixture if needed.
Add the cream.
Whip egg whites with 20g of sugar until stiff peaks.
Gently fold into matcha mix.

To assemble:

Make sure your pots are clean firstly.
I double lined mine with some IKEA cupcake patty casings as they're taller than the average patty case. Stickytape it at the bottom so it stays.

Cut rounds of cake out. I used the back of a piping nozzle.
Layer one round of cake. Half fill with mousse. Add another piece of cake. Fill with mousse to the top.
Refrigerate overnight.

Sprinkle black sesame crumble.
Gently twist a toothpick into the mushroom chocolate stalk (This will keep it steady). Stick the mushroom into the cake.
Sprinkle some matcha cookie crumbs. Add a few chocolate rocks.
Refrigerate when not consuming.

Great for gifting ;)

I love my shovel spoon! It also came with a shovel fork. Hehe.

Tea time

I know, it's been a while since I've last posted. I've been and come back from overseas. I've started full time work for over 2 months. But it feels like time has gone by so fast! It feels like only yesterday I was in HK. Oh, I miss HK. I miss travelling. I can't wait to go on my next trip! :D


So I had a tea party today. Planned, rescheduled.. and was going to reschedule/cancel again. But whatever. I'm tired. Work drains me, then I spend all this time baking/preparing... which makes me just plain tired and in not a very good mood. I've realised that I'm not very good at organising and prioritising time.. Things seem to go rush rush fail for me.

Anywho, here's what I made:

Lemon cupcakes with mascarpone frosting


Dark and white chocolate chip mudcake cupcakes


Egg tarts


Black sesame macarons with white chocolate ganache

Makes approx 36 macarons

150g almond meal
50g black sesame powder
300g icing sugar
190g egg whites
60g caster sugar

Sift almond meal, black sesame and icing sugar twice.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks. Add caster sugar slowly and beat until smooth and glossy.
Fold egg whites into almond mixture.
Pipe onto lined baking trays.
Leave uncovered for 1 hour in order for a skin to form.
Bake in a preheated oven at 120C for 15-20mins.
Remove from oven and allow to cool.
If macaron halves are hard to remove, place the baking paper on top of some water.
Sandwich two macaron halves together with white chocolate ganache.


Vanilla macarons with chocolate ganache


Chicken and mayo sandwiches


Smoked trout and cucumber sandwiches


Hommus dip

Tzatziki dip

Anyway, thanks to all those that came! :) I'm sorry that I didn't have the time to make more or anything better..

When injeolmi met matcha icecream

Asian fusion dessert; a fusion of Korean, Japanese and Chinese tastes!

Home made green tea ice cream and Korean rice cakes (injeolmi). I've always known that rice cakes and icecream can be friends. Yummy friends. Haha :P


Green tea icecream
Makes about 800ml

250ml cream
240ml milk
2/3 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
2 tsp matcha (green tea powder)

Prepare ice-cream maker. (ie. Freeze the cannister 24hrs in advance).
In a saucepan on low heat, heat cream, milk and sugar until combined. Do not let it boil.
Cool the mixture for about 15mins.
Whisk into egg yolks and matcha.
Set aside and allow to cool completely before refrigerating until chilled.
Then follow ice cream maker instructions to create your ice cream!
Either serve immediately or place in airtight container and freeze until needed.


Ingeolmi (Korean rice cakes)
Makes.. a lot? Say, about 60?

500gm glutinous rice flour
1 3/4 cup water

1/3 cup soybean powder (plus extra if needed)
3 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup black sesame powder (plus extra if needed)
3 tbsp sugar

Boil a large pot of water.
Mix glutinous rice flour and water until a dough is formed. It should not be too wet nor too dry. So it shouldn't be sticky or crumbly to handle.
When the water is boiled, drop little balls of dough (~1.5cm in diameter) into the pot. They will rise to the top when cooked. Allow them to float at the top for a while before removing them into a bowl of cold water.

In a different dry bowl, mix soybean powder and sugar.
Drain your rice cakes and roll into soybean powder while still warm.
Set aside.
Repeat remaining rice cakes with black sesame powder if you wish.


Serve as is, or with ice cream!


I find that the soybean rice cakes taste good by themselves as the Koreans like to do. The black sesame one isn't traditionally Korean. I just wanted to try it, and the fact is, it wasn't that great by itself. Add some vanilla icecream and it'll taste much much better! Next time, I'll just stick to the traditional soybean ones! :P