Recipes
I'm often asked about my recipes, but to be honest I don't consider myself a recipe developer (though I greatly admire those who are since it seems like such hard work!). I'm entirely self-taught and mostly enjoy experimenting - I usually just Google and adapt recipes that seem like they'd fit the project I have in mind, and use the bulk of my creativity with the decorations. Much of the time, I barely know what I did myself since I winged it!
That said, I often mention any notable recipes in the captions of my Instagram posts and reels, with bonus behind-the-scenes of my process in my Instagram stories when I can, which I hope are helpful for understanding how I made any particular treat. For those who are curious about my go-to recipes, I've listed below some of the ones I often reach for or that I've found really useful (and delicious!). Give them a try, or branch out and swap in your own favorite recipes to make your own food art - and please tag me if you do so I can see them!
Cakes
You can use any pretty much any cake recipe and pipeable frosting that you'd like, but if you’re looking for a place to start, here are some of my favorites - I return to these again and again!
Chocolate cake (Sally's Baking Addiction, most of her recipes that I've tried have turned out really solid in my opinion!)
Orange cake (allrecipes, my sister recommended this one to me years ago and I often return to it since it's pretty simple to make and pairs so well with whipped cream cheese frosting)
Roll cake/jelly roll (Bravetart's jelly roll cake recipe has never cracked on me yet! I used this for the outside of my Poliwag roll cake)
Chocolate roll cake (Sally's Baking Addiction, this is what I used for the inside swirl of my Poliwag roll cake)
Whipped cream cream cheese frosting (America's Test Kitchen, I like to pair this with roll cakes or the orange cake above, it's delicious!)
Cake Filling/Frosting
American buttercream (honestly, I just wing it most of the time now with butter, a splash of cream, powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla, but Sally's Baking Addiction's version is where I'd started from. Her Swiss meringue buttercream is also fairly good when I've tried it!)
Chocolate mousse (Betty Crocker, this one is extra rich due to the egg yolks)
Chocolate mousse, simplified (Sally's Baking Addiction, I'll often make this if I want something faster since you can make it with just the microwave, and it's just as delicious)
Cake Pops/Truffles
Cake pops and truffles are probably the treats I'm most known for, I almost always like to create these to share for local Pokémon GO meet ups (I've been at it since 2017, it's tradition now!)
For cake pops, I often use either just ganache, or a mixture of ganache with homemade cake, brownies, or crushed cookies, it really depends on my mood. The possibilities are endless!
Ganache
For dark chocolate ganache, the ratio is roughly 2: 1 chocolate to heavy cream, warmed until just melted and gently stirred together until silky smooth, then chilled until firm enough to shape by hand. Don't forget a pinch of salt and vanilla extract to make it extra tasty. (And yes, frequent trips back to the fridge to chill are necessary for me to sculpt more complex shapes!)
For white chocolate ganache, the ratio is roughly 3:1 chocolate to heavy cream. White chocolate ganache is extra fun to infuse flavor into, so I will sometimes add fruit (e.g. lemon zest, freeze-dried strawberry powder), matcha powder, or heat the heavy cream with a vanilla bean or other flavorings to infuse it.
If you're new to making truffles, check out these solid recipes for basic truffles or cake pops.
Cake (see Cakes above!)
Cookies: Oreos or Biscoff are delicious when crushed and mixed with ganache to form truffles, so good!
Coating/Details: I almost always use either chocolate or candy melts to dip and decorate my cake pops. To get the shapes for characters, I'll often:
1) sculpt the cake pop/truffle filling before dipping (see my Charmander video for an example), and/or
2) pipe shapes out of candy melts, wait for them to solidify, then flip them over to pipe the other side so they're more 3D. See my Noibat cake pops for an example of how I pipe 3D wings; I also use this method for ears, tails, and other similar details.
To see more of my process for any particular character, check out my Instagram reels and stories.
Cookies
Shortbread (allrecipes, this is probably one of the first things I ever baked since they're so simple and hold their shape well. They're good to use for characters just on their own, or for details such as on my Gengar cookies)
Sugar cookies (Bites by Bianca, these hold their shape fairly well and are pretty good, especially when I sneak chocolate chunks in the center. For other flavor options, I've also used adapted versions of her black cocoa, strawberry, and ube versions for character cookies as well)
Marshmallows/Hot Cocoa Bombs
Character marshmallows (Phay Shing's recipe from her cookbook Deco Marshmallows has been extra reliable for piping 3D characters that hold their shape and are extra squishy, you can tell she put a lot of effort into experimenting!)
Basic pipeable marshmallows (The Simple Sweet Life, this is the marshmallow recipe I started out using)
Hot cocoa bombs (honestly, I've always winged this after seeing them online since the concept is fairly straightforward, but for those who want a recipe, Sugar Geek Show's tutorial seems like a solid one! The only difference is that I'll often use candy melts in place of chocolate since a) I don't have to temper it, and b) to get the colors for Poké Balls or characters just right)
Homemade hot cocoa mix (Bravetart, you can use store-bought of course, but I'm rather fond of making it myself so I can adapt it to my taste!)
Pies/Tarts
Pâte sablée (the kitchn, I used this recipe for the tart shells and decorations for my Mudkip tarts, Growlithe tarts, and more!)
Pie dough (Sally's Baking Addiction, I use a slightly adjusted version of this all butter crust for most of my pies, and use it for pie art decorations too with food coloring + vodka to paint on the colors)
Pumpkin pie filling (Flour Bakery, I've made this several times and really enjoy it!)
Miscellaneous
Mooncakes (Omnivore's Cookbook, this recipe is my go-to for the mooncake dough and overall instructions, though I typically use lotus seed paste inside mine)
Brownies (Handle the Heat, I've used these as cake pop filling before since it's so fudgy and surprisingly moldable once chilled, but I also like to just make these to eat when I'm in the mood for chocolate)
Salted brown butter rice crispies treats (Smitten Kitchen, this is such a delicious treat to pair with homemade marshmallows, sculpt into parts for more daring cakes, or just to eat by itself!)