Have Fun with Your Children! Amazake Cake Recipes

If you are a father or mother spending more time at home with your kids, you might be searching for something to enjoy together with a little bit of help from them. In this feature, we asked Yui Chihiro to tell us how to make amazake cakes with the help of children. With experience in baking confectionery at the iconic CAFÉ SHOZO in Kuroiso, Tochigi Prefecture, Chihiro is now poised to open her own new shop in Otari Village, Nagano Prefecture.

Cooking cakes with Chihiro is Yamato, a three-year-old boy in her neighborhood. Yamato always loves to help his mom in the kitchen. Having read the picture book Guri and Gura recently, he is also keenly interested in cake making “using butter, egg, wheat…” Indeed, he was very much willing to help Chihiro, watching every move of her hands attentively.

“I came up with recipes that include enjoyable steps for children like crushing, kneading, mixing and decorating ingredients. It’s true that confectionery making sometimes requires subtle techniques, but even a little too much mixing or too much kneading will seldom spoil these cakes. Look into the bowl from time to time and encourage your kids. ‘Almost there! You can do it!’ ‘Way to go! Now it’s my turn!’ I’m sure you can make it without worrying about details.”

Plus Koji: Koji Amazake no Moto is an essential ingredient to the recipes. According to Chihiro, Plus Koji: Koji Amazake no Moto is a perfect fit for confectionery making.

“I find it great that it can replace sugar and other sweeteners. It effectively helps reduce the amount of sugar, and its mild sweetness would also be palatable to children.”

Yamato was very much pleased with this enjoyable confectionery-making experience. “That was fun!” said he with a big smile.

A Seasonal Delight: Amazake Yoghurt Mousse

Amazake and yoghurt go very well together. With mild sweetness and a refreshing taste, this desert is meant for the upcoming season. The recipe also includes many enjoyable steps for kids, such as mixing and decorating.

“Today I picked blueberry sauce for the yoghurt mousse, but you can replace it with crushed kiwi sauce with a little bit of sugar to add sweetness, or shredded and sugared strawberry left for a while to obtain some moisture, for example.” (Chihiro)

No Dairy Product Required: Light Amazake Scone

Using amazake helps you avoid dairy products and reduce sugar at the same time. With its mild sweetness and the light texture of flour, Amazake Scone is a smart choice as a snack for kids.

“Scone faithfully reflects the taste of flour. I thus chose local flour called jigona. I do recommend using it if it’s available. You can find it as “jigona made in xx (locality)” at a roadside station, local specialty store or large supermarket. I also used coarse beet sugar to add some roughness to the texture. Any sugar is okay if it is not available.

The baked scone tastes good by itself, but also goes well with fresh cream or jam. You can also make a variety of scones by adding chocolate, nuts, or orange peel to the dough. When you eat it on the next day, I recommend using a toaster oven to heat it.” (Chihiro)

Children will enjoy kneading the dough. You can leave this step to your kids to a considerable extent as it rarely affects the outcome.

Nicely Mild and Sweet: Amazake Banana Cake

“Amazake Banana Cake” features the mild sweetness of amazake and banana.
Kids can play key roles in crushing with their hands, mixing the dough, decorating. The tantalizing aroma coming out of the oven, the delicious-looking golden brown color will attract cheers from the kids.

“Crushing bananas as completely as possible will create better texture. Mixing coconut or something else that goes with banana in the dough is also a good idea.
I used cane sugar to get milder sweetness, but you can use any kind of sugar you like.” (Chihiro)