Yesterday, I learnt how to make 浮島 (ukishima – the cake like thing) and 桃山 (momoyama – the biscuits in front). The MVP of the day was shiroan (white bean paste) because we used it for everything.

And I mean everything.

First the 浮島. Here it is just out of the oven. It’s basically shiroan + egg + a little bit of flour + meringue. And then it’s steamed to produce a fluffy cake!

The green stuff is matcha-flavoured and the pink is food colouring. My sides don’t look so good but you can sort of see the “wave” when you cut it:

There are little bits of adzuki inside.

We’re not supposed to cut it until it’s cooled, which means we have to bring it home, but I had zemi that day and was late. Late in the sense that when I finished the wagashi class, my zemi had already started (for almost two hours). Sensei said that all would be well if I bring him what I make so the teachers helped me cool the cake down so I could cut his portion out.

And these are the 桃山 before they go into the oven. I made them in the shape of 梅 (ume; plum) and 松 (matsu; pine). I think ume is cuter though. Believe it or not, but the outside “biscuit” is shiroan (plus boiled egg yolk plus raw egg yolk plus mirin plus oil) and the inside is yuzu + shiroan.

Quite amazingly, it doesn’t merge while baking but separates into biscuit plus filling!

And here they are out of the oven. The brown colour is from the mirin I brushed on top before baking. I guess it’s better not to have too much.

I don’t know if you can see if clearly, but there are cracks in the cookie. I think it’s more obvious in the next photo:

The teacher says that if we let it sit a day or two, the cracks will disappear!

Everyone in the class was really nice. They knew I was rushing, so they told me not do the last part of the washing up and just leave. And the teacher even gave me a plastic bag (I was planning on just holding the box all the way).

And don’t worry about my class – we ended up finishing at 11pm, so I was there for a few hours.