About Me

Tucked away in my recipe file, I still have the apple pie recipe from my high school days. The recipe is a little brown around the edges now, but it still works. I have not always been that successful in the kitchen but I have tried to improve my skills along the way. I took many informal cooking classes as I have moved around and finally, I took the plunge and enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Tokyo and graduated with the Grand Diploma. Le Cordon Bleu was a huge eye opener showing me dishes and techniques I had never experienced and those learnings will stay with me forever. Needless to say, I ate very well for the three years I was in cooking school!

Maybe it is my sweet tooth, but I enjoy making desserts more than cooking so now I spend more of my time rolling dough rather than making sauces. After cooking school, I started to teach baking in my home through Niki's Kitchen (based in Tokyo) and have been doing this for over ten years. I know that not everyone is striving to be a first-class baker so I have learned to adjust recipes to fit home kitchens so that baking can be a fun and successful experience.

I live in Japan and kitchens are not large here so I cannot collect lots of equipment & other items which take up counter space so you will see me use basic equipment throughout the lessons.

I hope to share with you some new recipes to expand your comfort zone past just the usual cookies and brownies. Hopefully, you will be able to add some of these recipes as part of your 'go to' dessert for the next potluck get together or home party.

Let's Get Started

I realize one constraint everyone may feel about home baking is lack of time. Hopefully, you will see through the lessons that baking does not have to be an all-day affair. Most of my recipes start with making everything from scratch but, if time is limited, please feel free to take short cuts with the recipes as needed based on your circumstances.

I have provided detailed recipes and videos for all of the desserts in this lesson and hope you can easily prepare these at home as well.

Enough talking, let's get baking!