I’d been wanting to make a roll cake for a while, especially one as good as the kind Oshima Ruro from that one game whips up — the kind that’s delicious from the first bite. I finally gave it a shot recently, and man, it’s actually really hard. First off, a roll cake means baking a cake first. It’s a chiffon cake, just baked in a flat sheet pan. You can add matcha or whatever you like; the same cake can also serve as the base for a mousse cake, though if you’re using it as a base you can bake it a bit longer. There are plenty of chiffon cake methods out there, so I won’t go into it again. When baking in a flat pan, do not let it go past 20 minutes — that’s the max — and make sure the cake stays soft. Once it’s out, cool it down right away and start practicing a roll with parchment paper. If you don’t roll it now, it’ll firm up and crack when you try later. Then it’s time to whip the cream, spread it on, and roll.

I’ve made mousse cakes quite a few times, and honestly most of them weren’t really up to my own standards. People eating them said they were fine, but there were a few things I knew needed work. Texture — sometimes too firm, sometimes too soft. The setting part is a pain to control. Flavor — if you use milk it tends to be too firm, because milk has way too much water. Time — making a mousse cake is time-consuming, and if you can’t manage your ingredients well, you won’t be efficient. So after summing things up, I’ve got some experience now, and I can make cakes I’m fairly happy with.

Second attempt. Pretty much the same as the chocolate mousse last time, except the cocoa powder is swapped out for matcha powder.

Got bored of baking standard cookies, so let’s make something different — a knockoff Choco-chip batch.

Easiest cookie I’ve ever made, and it tastes the best too.

Last time I made cranberry cookies. This time I wanted to add some flavor. My two favorites are black pepper and matcha, and black pepper is obviously out of the question, so matcha it is.

Sort of a copycat of Zhongwang’s little cookies? Making them is actually really simple.

I’ve had three kinds of fresh-cream puffs. Here’s the rundown. The first is the roughest-looking of the bunch — a yellowish blob — but the skin is thin and the cream is generous. Eating it feels like an explosion in your mouth; you can really feel the cream hit you. The second is the deluxe version of the first. It doesn’t look rough anymore, some even have a pattern piped onto the crust, and sometimes the outside is still crispy. But that over-refined crust only cuts into the cream’s impact — that’s what it means to let the tail wag the dog. One bite in and you find you’re just chewing crust, or only got half the cream. You can’t pop the whole thing in your mouth, and honestly……… The third is even more upscale, improved on the second: more cream, more refined crust work, raisins or whatever thrown in. It tastes fine, sure, but I can’t shake the feeling that this isn’t a cream puff anymore… “little cake” fits better.