Because spring is on the way and I can't wait, I created a new cherry blossom inspired dessert each week in March. There's nothing else to do and I'm a little burnt out on macarons so let's go!

Supplies

First off, the cherry blossoms. I did not pick or pickle my own! It's a bit impractical. Pickled cherry blossoms can be obtained as a tea on the internet. The blossoms will need to be cleaned and soaked in cold water to remove the salt. Steeping in hot does indeed produce tea!

Next, the cherry blossom flavor. Pickled cherry blossoms alone are generally not enough to add solid flavor to foods. I picked up a flavored syrup when I was last in Japan which I added through out each of my recipes, but it does look like flower syrups can be obtained online as well.

The recipes

I made 4 items total. Some I used specific recipes and others I just adapted existing recipes.

• Cherry blossom milk pudding recipe from just one cookbook. No adaptations.
• Cherry blossom cookies recipe from just one cookbook. I did not top my cookies with blossoms, only incorporated into the dough. I also added pink gel color, sugar sprinkles to the top and cut into an appropriate shape.
• Cherry blossom doughnuts I used a standard homemade doughnut recipe and glaze. I simply added a bit of flavored syrup and pickled cherry blossoms to the glaze.
• Cherry blossom swiss roll I used a standard recipe and simply added syrup to the cream filling and pink gel color to the cake.

The results