Salt Preserved Egg (咸蛋)

There are two ways to make Salt preserved egg at home, wet or dry. I have tried both and really cannot tell which one is better. Duck eggs are preferred.

Wet Method Steps

1. Wash eggs clean and let them air dry.
2. Dip the eggs in hard liquor.
3. Immerse in Saturated salt water + liquor for 25-30 days.
4. Boil the eggs and serve hot or cold.

Dry Method Steps

1. Wash the eggs clean and let them air dry,
2. Dip the eggs in hard liquor, and then roll in salt, so that it is covered with a layer of salt.
3. Wrap with shrink wrap and put in a sealed container.
4. After 2-3 weeks, boil the eggs, and serve.

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients

Fresh Strawberry - about 2 lb
Sugar - 1 cup
Lemon - 1
Corn starch - 1/4 cup

Steps

1. Rinse strawberries and soak in lightly salted water for 15 minutes.
2. Clean and remove stems from berries. Halve the berries.
3. Marinate strawberries with sugar for 10 minutes, then pour in the bread machine, add corn flour, squeeze in lemon juice.

4. Put bread machine in JAM mode. You can jam additional 1 or 1/2 cycle if you want the jam to be thicker.
5. Put in clean glass container and store in refrigerator.

Beach Sandal Cake

To celebrate the end of school year, I made this for my daughter's scout troop party.

It is whipped cream frosted chiffon cake. The sand is powdered Graham crackers; the sandals, seashells are made of Fondant.

Cherry Cheese Mousse Cake(樱桃芝士慕斯蛋糕)

I searched for a birthday cake for myself, and came across this Sakura decorated cake. There were many versions of cheese mousse recipe online, I studied and adjusted everything to easier to measure portions.
 

Ingredients

【Bottom Crust】
Graham Cracker - 2 packs, about 280g
Butter - 1/2 cup (1 stick, 113g)
【Mousse】
Cream Cheese - 2 packs total 16oz (453g)
Plain Yogurt - 3/4 cup
Milk - 1 cup (May need to add more depends on how sticky the mousse is)
Heavy whipping cream - 2 cups
Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Gelatin - 4 envelopes (1oz)
Lemon juice - 1 TBSP
Cherry - about 1/2 lb
【Top Layer】
Water - 2 cups
Gelatin -  2 packs (0.5 oz)
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Salt Pickled Sakura Cherry Blossom - a few for decoration

Steps

1.  Rinse salt of cherry blossoms and soak them in warm water for later use.

2. Grind the graham cracker to powder. Mix in melted butter. Press a layer of the crust firmly on the bottom of the 8" cake ring, and put in refrigerator for 30 minutes or more. You may not need to use all the crumbs.

3. Remove stem and pit from cherry, and use blender to make cherry puree, add 1 TBSP of lemon juice.

4. Whisk the heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar into whipped cream, and then set aside in refrigerator.
5. Use stand mixer to blend the cream cheese, sugar, and yogurt into a smooth batter. Then split it into two batches.

6.  In one sauce pan, pour in 1/4 cup of milk, 2 envelopes of Gelatin, the cherry puree, cook at low heat until the Gelatin is fully dissolved. Let it cool.
7. In another sauce pan, pour in 3/4 cup of milk, 2 envelopes of Gelatin, cook at low heat until the Gelatin is fully dissolved. Let it cool.
8. Whisk the cherry batter into one of the cheese batter, and then fold in half of the whipped cream. Pour the pink mousse in the cake ring, and put in refrigerator for 15-30 minutes.

9. Whisk the milk solution into the other half of cheese batter, and then fold in the rest of the whipped cream. Pour the white mousse in the cake ring, and refrigerate the cake for 4 hours or overnight.

10. To make the top layer, boiling water in a small sauce pan, add in sugar and gelatin until the gelatin is fully dissolved. Wait for the solution to cool, and then pour on top of the cake. Place the pickled cherry blossom and then put the cake back to refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

You can also make mini cheese cakes like them using small cake mold.

Sakura Jello

Ingredients:

7-up or water - 1 cup
Sugar - optional
Gelatin - 1 bag (about 7g)
Egg - 4
Salt pickled cherry blossom - 4

Steps:

1. Rinse salt off cherry blossoms and soak the blossoms in warm water.
.
2. Break one end of egg carefully, and pour out the egg so that you have the empty egg shell. Wash them.
3. Melt gelatin and sugar in the 7-up or water. Then pour in the egg shells. Insert the cherry blossom, and put them in refrigerator for 4 hours.

4. Peel off the egg shell, you got the round jello. If you wrap the egg with hot towel to warm it up, it would be easier to peel.