Little Miss Bento

Sakura kanten jelly dessert!

The one thing that excites me at the start of the year is spring~ I love all the beautiful things associated with spring. Especially sakura flowers.

I was also inspired by a talented friend and artist of mine – @Lovelimzy.  She creates the most beautiful flora mixed media art pieces.

Recently we met up for dinner and she passed me her lovely calendar set that features prints of her creations. I was so thrilled and happy! Decided to make something flora to match the theme~

Check out a glimpse of her calendar, totally heart it~~ check out her FB page here.

Although sakura season is not here yet, I decided to make this super pretty sakura flowers kanten jelly dessert!

What is kanten? It is Japanese agar dessert.

In recipes, you can swap kanten powder with our local agar powder but the texture will be different.

Personally I find that Japanese kanten jelly has a slightly softer and tad chewier texture which I prefer. And if you are making Japanese Tokoroten, you will have to use kanten powder to get that right texture (read this article on Japan Times).

Lucky for us, we can get kanten powder here in Singapore. They are sold at Meidiya-Supermarket located at the basement of Liang Court. Check the section where they sell sweets ingredients like bean paste, syrup and flours.

You may need to look out for the Japanese description to locate the product – Kanten powder/flour is written in Japanese Kanji as 寒天粉 or it may also be written in Japanese Hiragana as かんてん粉.

For the sakura flowers, I used the preserved sakura flowers that I bought from Japan which is not available here.

In Singapore, the alternative option will be to get ‘Sweet Sakura Tea’.

Open the tea packs and select the whole sakura flowers you would like to use, you will need at least 2 packets of the sakura tea for this recipe. I would recomend to rinse the flowers first before using if not it may be too salty. I usually soak the flowers in some water then drain and pat dry before use –  see recipe details.

So many people have been asking me about this jelly cake mold. I bought this jelly mold super long time ago from Rakuten Japan.

If you are keen, I managed to find the following online retailers that carry the product

1. Bento & co, website link.

2. Little Bento World in Autralia, see here.

3. Rakuten global shopping site, see link here.

This mold is actually very versatile, it can be used to make sushi cake, cake and jelly etc.

A super easy Japanese Kanten Jelly recipe for you~

Recipe for Sakura Kanten Dessert

Ingredients

(milk layer)

• kanten powder 2g
• milk 100ml (if you dont like milk, you can even change this to a juice you like * a pink colour juice will be nice~ to match the sakura flowers)
• water 200ml
• sugar 30g

1. Add all the ingredients in a pot, bring to low boil slowly. Keep stirring gently as the mixture heats up. When all powder and sugar are dissolved and incorporated, remove pot from heat. Pour into your jelly mold till the halfway mark and let it rest (at room temp) for about 30mins until harden.

(top clear layer)

• kanten powder 2g
• water 300ml
• sugar 30g
• sakura essence 3-5 drops (optional)
• sakura flowers 8 pcs

1. Soak the sakura flowers in a bowl of water to get rid of the salt. Drain and pat dry the flowers gently with paper napkins and arrange the sakura flowers around the jelly mold.
2. Add all rest of the ingredients into a pot, bring to low boil slowly. Keep stiring gently as the mixture heats up. When all the powder and sugar are dissolved and incorporated, remove pot from heat. Pour gently into your jelly mold to fill it up.
3. Using a thin skewer, adjust the positions of the flowers as you need.
4. Let the jelly rest at room temp for about 30mins until it firms up. Chill in fridge.
5. Dessert recommended served chilled.

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More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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