✿ 桂花糕 | Osmanthus cake ・グイホアガオ。甘い香りのキンモクセイは、幸運、繁栄、富の意味を持っています。8月はキンモクセイを見るのに最適な時期であり、8月15日の中秋節も月を眺めるのに良い時期です。古代人は自然に甘い香りのモクセイを中秋節と関連付けていたので、中秋節で甘い香りのキンモクセイを食べる伝統があります。

Made this chamomile cake with strawberry icing today, and oh my god it is Delicious 🤌

Substituted osmanthus for chamomile bc I am not a super big fan of chamomile, and it is perfect.

The dried strawberries did not crush finely as the recipe implied they would, so the icing is a little chunky, but c’est la vie.

Overall happy with how it turned out, and already have plans to make again!

AHHH mother bought moon cake ^_^ going to make tea and then cut one up.

Okay. Screw it. I'm making lotus paste buns. This is a thing that's going to happen. Sure, my tofu brains didn't turn out well, but that ginger syrup was killer so it wasn't a complete loss.

Here's the recipe I'll use: https://www.seriouseats.com/chinese-lotus-seed-buns-recipe

My steamer is very small so I may have to ask around my friend group for a larger one to borrow.

I'll also need 11oz of dried lotus seeds and some glutinous rice flour.

...and then I'll need more recipes for the rice flour since I'll only need 1 tablespoon of it.

I've got all the other ingredients besides heavy cream, which is easy to find.

(And, yes, I think that includes the food coloring unless I lost it in a move.)

Osmanthus Chestnut Cake

Osmanthus Chia Seed Chiffon Cake

Osmanthus Chestnut Cake

Take time for yourself every day to practice self-love. 💛 Don't forget to prioritize yourself! 👸🏼 #selflove #metime #selfcare #mindfulness #relaxation #mentalhealth #cake #matcha #osmanthus #hightea #food (at Singapore) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpnOOLJvDw2/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

I almost forgot! For those who haven't done Wedded Bliss:

Huangshan Maofeng Tea: 3-3-1-2-1-2

Osmanthus Cake: 1-2-2-1-2-3

--

Note: Pick Huangshan Maofeng's answers for crystals

Desserts in China

There's quite a large variety of treats and desserts in China (more than you can imagine), so here are some of the most common ones!

Almond jelly/tofu - 杏仁豆腐 - xìngréndòufu Despite the name, almond jelly doesn't actually have almonds in it. Almond jelly is made from gelatin and almond milk, although some recepies use dairy milk instead.

Glutinous rice balls - 汤圆 - tāngyuán These rice balls are made from glutinous rice balls with a sweet filling, such as red bean paste (a pretty popular filling in desserts, I've been fooled more than once when purchasing what I assumed to be a chocolate filled pastry).

Red bean buns - 豆沙包 - dòushābāo One of my favorite desserts so far. These are steamed buns with a sweet red bean paste filling that I'd definitely recommend.

Egg custard bun - 流沙包 - liúshābāo A sweet and savory bun, with a lava-like egg yolk filling. A pretty interesting dessert, as it's both sweet and savory.

Pumpkin cake - 南瓜饼 - nánguābǐng I haven't tried this yet, but it definitely looks good. A fried and crunchy cake with a sweet filling such as red bean paste.

Eight treasure rice pudding - 八宝饭 -bābǎofàn This is a pretty popular dessert, especially during the Lunar New Year. It gets this name becase of the toppings, which are eight or more different types of dried fruits and nuts arranged on top of the sweet rice, with (once again) red bean paste.

Hawthorn stick/ Candied Haws/ Sugar coated haws/ Bingtanghulu - 冰糖葫芦 - bīngtánghúlu This treat has quite a few translations and you may have probably already seen it. This is basically candied fruit covered with a sweet, crunchy and sugary syrup. Traditionally, Hawthorn is used but other fruits such as grapes, strawberries and oranges are also popular options.

Sachima - 沙琪玛 - shāqímǎ I haven't tried this snack yet, but it looks quite fascinating. Sachima is made from fried batter stuck together with a sugary syrup, with an interesting texture.

Sesame balls - 芝麻球 - zhīmaqiú Similar to the rice glutinous balls, this treat is also made from glutinous rice flour with varying fillings including lotus seeds, mung bean and red beans, and sesame seeds.

Water chestnut cake A sweet pan-fried cake made from chinese water chestnut, with a unique semi-transparent appearance.

Wintermelon puff/ Wife cake/ Sweetheartcake - 老婆餅 - lǎopóbǐng This cake has many names, mainly because it has several different origin stories, each more fascinating than the next. This dessert is a flaky pastry with wintermelon, almond (not red bean this time!) paste and sesame filling.

Fortune cake - 发糕 - fāgāo Not a fortune cookie! This is a spongy steamed cupcake cake commonly made for the New Lunar Year celebrations and occasionally other events. They're usually a white-ish or brown-ish color, but they're often dyed bright colors to add extra festivity.

Mooncake - 月饼 - yuèbǐng This is a pretty well-known dessert, commonly prepared for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncakes are smallish steamd/fried (depends on the region) cakes with a sweet filling that can also sometimes have an egg yolk inside.

Osmanthus cake - 桂花糕 - guìhuāgāo This is a unique traditional pastry made from glutinous rice flour, honey and osmanthus. This cake has a really interesting texture, as it's quite dense but also airy in a way? I'd definitely recommend trying it, as it's not super sweet and goes really well with tea.

i think, in your typical “barista x florist au,” or in a world where, satoru gojo and suguru geto get to peacefully retire in their late 30s after nourishing a new generation of sorcerers and start a joint library/bookshop/cafe/flower shop, satoru would not be the one running the cafe.

given his heightened senses, a cafe during rush hour would absolutely overwhelm him. plus, part of the job is to recalibrate the espresso machine every morning; which involves tasting very bitter coffee multiple times, and we all know how much of a sweet tooth he has.

the flower shop, though? he loves it there. he read once that plants listen when you talk and ran with it. every morning, he practically skips into the shop to talk to his plants. he’d grab the watering can and say hello to each individual orchid. he’d prune the browning leaves of a sunflower while humming to it. as he watches his personal cactus get its share of bottom watering, he’d go on a tangent about how hot suguru is when he’s focused.

who could blame him? the concentrated on suguru’s face when he prepares orders creates 50% of their sales, after all. (the coffees and cakes are good too. just, people buy more when a pretty face is behind the counter.)

suguru didn’t think he’d enjoy steaming milk and brewing coffee before, but after a week of testing it out and discovering his natural talent for latte art, there was nothing else he’d rather do. the customers, the inventory checking, the ingredient prep—they’re all fine. where he finds peace and joy, however, is when he gets to put ingredients together to create a beverage.

how a slightly modified ratios can create an entirely different flavor profile. which temperature is correct for brewing each type of coffee and tea. how syrups and essences of the same flavor can actually give contrasting effects to the drink. how liquids swirl and create a gradient of color in a glass.

the amount of detail that needs to be put into one cup fascinates him, but it doesn’t stop him from creating and pushing limits. he knows there’s the “proper” way of preparing a macchiato, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try and make a new variant from a flower in their shop. well, he does it to test boundaries, sure, but also to see satoru’s eyes sparkle whenever he succeeds in creating a new recipe.

sometimes new customers gather enough courage to not just place orders, but also ask for their barista’s or florist’s number. regulars can only sigh and shake their head in pity, knowing their efforts are for naught. they’ve caught the owners spoon feeding each other strawberry shortcake on a table decorated with fresh osmanthus flowers way too many times to still hope for a chance.

(they’ve caught them giggling and kissing behind a book rack a couple times too, but that’s for the newcomers to discover themselves.)

Relationship: Liu Qingge/Zhuzhi-lang

Rating: T

Tags: Canon Divergence, Zhuzhi-jun AU, Arranged Marriage, Fluff

Word Count: 3.9k

Written for the System DLC Comic Anthology @svfancomicanthology !!

Snippet:

Zhuzhi-jun finds Luo Binghe in the kitchen with his mother. Only the young half-demon is cooking; Su Xiyan has never been one for the culinary arts, as her skills lean more towards swordsmanship and rescuing demon lords in distress. But both mother and son have one important thing in common: happy husbands. So Zhuzhi-jun figures it can’t hurt to ask for their wisdom, which he does after stealing one of the osmanthus cakes Luo Binghe has just finished arranging into a beautiful pattern reminiscent of the delicate flowers the pastry requires. “Zhu-ge, those are for Shizun!” Luo Binghe promptly pulls the tray out of Zhuzhi-jun’s reach and inadvertently into Su Xiyan’s range. She sneaks one herself with a straight face, ignoring her son’s exaggerated pouting to address Zhuzhi-jun. “Why do you need to know how to make a man like you?” “…” Zhuzhi-jun nibbles at the forbidden sweet. “No reason in particular.” Luo Binghe must pick up on his cousin’s strange mood because he throws aside the childish persona he’s been affecting to arch a single brow, becoming the spitting image of his father. “Is Liu Qingge not treating you well? I can kill him for you.” “Binghe, that’s your cousin’s fiancé,” Su Xiyan chides softly. “If he needs to be killed, I’m sure Zhuzhi-jun is more than capable of handling things himself.”

Read the rest here!!

💙 spoke like we meant it by BlackWiresOnHerHead

💙 spoke like we meant it

by BlackWiresOnHerHead (@blackwiresgrowonherhead)

T, 10k, Wangxian

Summary: A smile spreads across Wei Ying’s face. He has a long and extensive list of Favorite Gifts From Lan Zhan, and at the very top of the list are nights like this. “Lan Zhan? Sleepwalking again, huh?” Lan Zhan looks up at him, eyes open but unmistakably glassy, and continues methodically peeling stalks of celery. “Mn.” -- Five times Wei Ying says how he really feels while Lan Zhan is sleepwalking, and one time Lan Zhan is awake to hear it. Kay's comments: What an absolutely adorable story!! Cuteness overload!! I still haven't recovered!! A 5+1 story in which Lan Wangji sleepwalks and his roommate Wei Wuxian looks out for the most adorable sleepwalker in the world. I loved, loved, loved how until the very end the only interactions we had between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji was only during the night when Lan Wangji sleepwalked, so we really only knew what Wei Wuxian told us about their relationship through their POV. Major cuteness with a hint of angst. Excerpt: He smiles when he speaks again, even though his audience won’t really see it. “Ah, wonderful Lan Zhan, you’ve worked so hard, and you’re going to wake up soon. You need to go back to bed.” Lan Zhan emphatically shakes his head. “I have to make him something. It must be perfect, he deserves—” He shakes his head again, agitated. “He is so good, he doesn’t think he should get good things, but he does. I will give him good things.” “I can—” Wei Ying coughs a little. There’s a lump in his throat, and he wonders if he’ll ever get used to this. All these reminders of how good Lan Zhan really is. How good Lan Zhan is to him. “I can make the cake for Wei Ying. You need to go rest, Lan Zhan. I promise I’ll make him the best osmanthus cake in the world, I just need you to go back to bed.” “If it’s not good, I will kill you,” he says, deathly serious. Wei Ying carefully breathes around the sensation in his chest that feels like it’s being filled by an expanding balloon. “I’ll keep that in mind,” says Wei Ying, and he gently tugs Lan Zhan back to his room to put him to bed.

pov wei wuxian, modern setting, modern no powers, 5+1 things, roommates, friends to lovers, getting together, sleepwalking, sleepwalking lan wangji, humor, fluff and humor, cute, soft lan wangji/wei wuxian, accidental confession, love confessions, family feels, light angst, angst with a happy ending

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

You know what? We need more crazy-about-her-sibs!JYL! Her babying her brothers after a hard battle, making mile long lists of how best to take care of them to send along to CR for their summer classes, her having much stricter requirements as to what their partners should be. We always talk about her brother’s codependency but we need to go more into hers for them.

I love this, but imo-- people wish Yanli made lists. People wish she interrogated their potential spouses. But no.

What happens is, the boys come back from like, a week in Meishan with mom's side of the family, and one of the cousins is describing the amazing dinner they had one night and Yanli's just softly like "oh..."

And the cousin's like, "Oh no, what?"

And Yanli's like "No, no, it's nothing at all really... just, you said you had osmanthus cakes, and the boys really prefer water chestnut cakes... I'm sure it was fine though, I'm sure they had plenty to eat anyway.........."