I first tasted this flavor when my friend Jason in San Francisco made this. We’d often have dinner together with his wife, Yoko and we had many delicious meals together. With that said, he knows his stuff. He isn’t a baker/pastry chef or a person who works in the kitchen – he works in tech. Strangely enough, he married his eye for detail with his obsession for dessert and he always manages to outdo a lot of dessert programmes in the city.
Jason’s sakura and strawberry cake had umeshu, salted sakura leaves and strawberries. It’s like spring bursting in your mouth. The sweet and sour umeshu and the delicious flavor bomb of strawberries from Rodriguez farm and earthy nutty flavor of the salted sakura leaves really left a lingering imprint in my memory that I had to remake this.
I didn’t want to use the umeshu that Jason made as it’s my final bottle split between Lih and I so I found some ume tea which works just as well. Floral, nutty, and with the sweet scent of strawberries – this is really one of my favorites. I wish I could make this more often, but the weather here is impossible and also other logistical issues that cottage bakers would understand makes this not “delivery friendly”. I do however hope that one day, I’ll be able to open a small dine in shop and share these bakes.
Until then ◡̈ Happy 2023.
little favors 