Chrysanthemum White Bean Paste Nerikiri Cake

This lovely chrysanthemum flower is actually an edible treat!  It’s a Japanese sweet treat known as nerikiri and is simply made with white bean paste.  We’ve previously made a super cute Easter Bunny nerikiri with white bean paste and it was super fun as well as delicious.  

We’ve made a Chrysanthemum White Bean Paste Nerikiri Cake this time in the same way, just in time for the Mid Autumn Festival 中秋節.  Chrysanthemums bloom in the fall and are traditionally used as a background to gleaming mooncakes and flowered filled osmanthus jellies that celebrate the festival.   Today the chrysanthemum leads the way as a delicate, gorgeous to look at and yummilicious to eat treat. What a revelation!

White Bean Paste Nerikiri Bunny

It's time for Easter and we're letting the bunnies out!  We recently discovered and have been exploring 'white bean paste', a mild sweet bean paste that turns out to be very versatile in the making of all kinds of desserts.  Check out our first dessert made with white bean paste, our Chocolate Raspberry Tang Yuan, so yummy!

We've pushed on exploring white bean paste and discovered the wonderful things that the Japanese have done with it.  Namely they have made white bean paste into an edible "clay" or "dough" that can then be modeled and shaped into all kinds of amazing little sweet treats called "nerikiri" or "nerikiri wagashi."

Our first try at making and shaping a "nerikiri" was to make this simple bunny in time for Easter celebration.  We were all delighted by the results.  Our White Bean Paste Nerikiri Bunny turned out super duper cute, with soft white fur and little pink ears, twinkly black eyes and a round fluffy tail.  Bunny's all ready for some Easter fun!