With just a small bit of ingenuity, turn everyday food into something cute using Kaori’s recipe series! With a few simple ideas, an ordinary recipe magically transforms into a cute dish.

For this recipe, you’ll learn how make mini Pompompurin pumpkin tarts! This is a simple recipe you can make with just a blender.

1: Ingredients

12 Tart shells

150g Pumpkin (deseeded, skin taken off and made soft)

50ml Fresh cream (In this recipe I used soy milk)

20-30g Sugar (Depending on the sweetness of the pumpkin)

1 Egg yolk (small egg)

Sliced Chocolate

Tinned yellow peach

2: Steam and make the pumpkin soft in the microwave. Place the softened pumpkin, sugar, fresh cream (or soy milk) and egg yolk into a blender.

3: Blitz until it’s mixed like in the photo above.

4: Pour the mixture from Step 3 into the tart shells and place into a 180℃ preheated oven. Lower the temperature to 140-150℃ and cook for 10-15 minutes. (You don’t want to brown anything, so we cook it on a low heat.)

If it looks like it’s about to start browning, cover with aluminium foil as this will prevent it from burning.

5: Once your cooked tarts have fully cooled down, use a round cutter to make a hat out of chocolate and a tear-drop cutter to make ears out of the yellow peach. The round ball on top of the hat can be made by breaking off some sliced chocolate and rolling it with your fingers.

Finally, drawn on the eyes, nose and mouth with a warmed chocolate pen!

The crunchy tart shells and moist pumpkin paste go pair together wonderfully! And the sourness from the yellow peach is perfect, making is really tasty♡

Kaori invites you into her world of character-themed food dishes in her recipe series!

Please check out her Instagram where she has uploaded many pictures of her character dishes!

This feature is made possible by Arisa Shirai, a cooking specialist who posts regular photos of her gorgeous food via her social media. She makes every day recipes look photogenic with her small twists.

This recipe shows you how to make a “Strawberry Cup Parfait.”

■Ingredients (serves 2)

・4 slices sandwich bread

・200g fresh cream

・25g sugar

・120g yoghurt

・8 strawberries

■How to Make

①Use a cup to cut circles out of the bread.

②Mix the fresh cream and sugar until they become frothy, then add the yoghurt and mix again

③Thinly slice the strawberries

④Add a piece of the bread you cut out and the remains, then the strawberry slices, and finally the cream you made in step ②. Repeat this until you reach the top, then finish it off by adding some more strawberries to decorate.

Doesn’t it look cute! The yoghurt and cream go perfect together so you can just scoop and lick everything out. It’s worthy of posting a photo of too. Be sure to try making it yourself.

■Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & charaben researcher.

Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.

Instagram: arigohan

Blog: http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/ 

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■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #13 “Marshmallow Pops.”

With just a small touch, you can turn everyday food into a gorgeous dish worthy to be part of your SNS thread. This is the continuation of Arisa Shirai’s recipe series! With just a few ideas, an ordinary recipe can be shaped up to produce a photogenic masterpiece! Today we’ll be looking at a recipe for cute, round sushiー “Prosciutto ribbon sushi”.

■ Ingredients (Serves 4)

・ 4 Dry-cured ham slices

・ 1/5p Radish sprouts or salad cress (Kaiware)

・ 200g Japanese sushi rice

・25cc Sushi rice vinegar

■ How to make:

① Mix the vinegar with the rice.

②Roll and press the rice into a sushi shape.

③ Cut the ham into rectangular pieces

④ Make pleats in the centre of the rectangle and then use a remaining strip of ham to tie the middle to create a ribbon out of the ham.

⑤Add the Kaiware sprouts/salad cress to the top of the rice and wrap a remaining strip of ham around the rice. Finally, place the ham ribbon on top.

The sweetness of the rice and the saltiness of the ham are an exquisite match.

Although this sushi may look small and cute, it holds a lot of volume and is surprisingly filling!

■ Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & Kyaraben researcher Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.

Instagram: arigohan

Blog：http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/

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■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #7 「SUSHI CAKE」

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food＃3 “Japanese Style Onigiri Pinchos”

This feature is made possible by Arisa Shirai, a cooking specialist who posts regular photos of her gorgeous food via her social media. She makes every day recipes look photogenic with her small twists.

For this recipe, we will take a look at how to make “Marshmallow Pops.” They might be simple, but they look gorgeous, and are a perfect Valentine’s Day gift!

■Ingredients (serves 6)

・6 straws

・6 marshmallows

・50g chocolate

・Your favourite chocolate pens and toppings

■How to Make

①Pierce the marshmallows with your straws

②Dip the marshmallows into the melted chocolate

③Decorate with chocolate pens and toppings to make different designs

If you use giant marshmallows, then one will be enough to fill you up. And all the different ways to decorate them are limitless! You can even finish them off by tying the straw with a ribbon.

■Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & charaben researcher.

Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.

Instagram: arigohan

Blog: http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/ 

With just a small touch, you can turn everyday food into a gorgeous dish worthy to be part of your SNS thread. This is the continuation of Arisa Shirai’s recipe series! With just a few ideas, an ordinary recipe can be shaped up to produce a photogenic masterpiece! Today we’ll be looking at a recipe for “Japanese-style Avocado Gratin”. This recipe is as simple as putting the ingredients together and grilling!

■ Ingredients (Serves 2 people)

・ 1 Avocado

・ 1 Egg

• Powdered cheese　—　to your taste
• 20g Cheese
• 20g Bacon

・ 1/3 teaspoon olive oil

・ Soy sauce — to your taste

・ Salt — to your taste

・ Pepper — to your taste

■ How to make:

① Cut the avocado into two equal halves then scoop out the insides of each avocado half using a small, round measuring spoon. Make sure that you scoop out round balls of avocado and save these for later. Do not throw away the skin of the avocado.

② Pour the egg, soy sauce, salt and pepper into the avocado skin and mix.

③ Add the cheese, bacon, round balls of avocado (from step ①), powdered cheese, salt, pepper and olive oil to the avocado skin.

➃ Grill in a toaster oven for 7 minutes (Wrap in aluminium foil when the top turns golden brown).

And you’re done!

The bacon and cheese combination is perfection. Enjoy your hot and creamy avocado dish!

■ Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & researcher of colourful bentos. Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.
Instagram: arigohan

Instagram：arigohan

Blog：http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/

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■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #7 「SUSHI CAKE」

■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #6 “Potato salads parfait”

With just a sprinkle of inspiration, create gorgeous dishes worthy to upload on your SNS stream! Welcome to Arisa Shirai’s recipe series! With just a few ideas, turn ordinary food into a beautiful photogenic dish!


Today, we will be looking at a recipe for “Kohaku-tou”. Literally translating to “amber sugar”. These traditional Japanese sweets sparkle like jewels.

■Ingredients

・Powdered agar —　3g

・ Sugar — 140g

・ Water — 150ml

・Your favourite fruit sauce, liqueur or syrup—　1tbsp

（I will be demonstrating today’s recipe using a teaspoon of the following: strawberry syrup, blueberry syrup and Blue Hawaii.)

・Tupperware

■How to make

① Pour the water, sugar and powdered agar into a pan on medium heat. When the mixture starts to form strings, start to mix thoroughly.

② Add the syrups to your Tupperware container.

③ Pour the mixture in the pan into the Tupperware container from a spoon and mix well. Once mixed, smooth out the surface of the mixture and leave to set at room temperature for more than 2 hours.

④ Once the sweets are fully hardened, remove the block from the container and using a kitchen knife, cut the block at an angle to create uneven cuts, enhancing the jewel-like texture of the sweets.

⑤ Leave the sweets in a ventilated environment for more than two days to dry the sweets, enhancing the crunchy texture. You can also eat them before drying them.

A mild and sweet taste, crunchy on the outside, yet soft on the inside — a wonderful combination! Switch the syrups for juice or alcohol for new fun flavours!

This feature is made possible by Arisa Shirai, a coking specialist who posts regular photos of her gorgeous food via her social media. She makes every day recipes look photogenic with her small twists.

This recipe takes a spin on nabe (hot pot) dishes to create the cute “Rose Nabe”

■Ingredients (serves 4)

・1/6 cut Chinese cabbage

・1 negi

・1 bunch shimeji mushrooms

・2 bunches mizuna

・1 carrot (this recipe uses 3 different varieties of carrot cut into 1/3 each)

・1/2 daikon

・130g pork belly

・Tsumire fish balls (to taste)

・1 block grilled tofu

・600ml soy milk

・60g miso paste

・1/4 teaspoon Japanese dashi

・Pinch of salt

・Pinch of pepper

■How to Make

①Cut the negi, mizuna, Chinese cabbage, shimeji mushrooms and grilled tofu into easy-to-eat slices.

②Peel the skin of the daikon and carrot(s) and slice them thinly.

③Fold the daikon in half from step ② by putting together 4 slices and rolling from the end. Without folding the carrots, put 2 slices together and roll from the end to make a rose.

④Fold the pork belly in half and roll from the end to make a rose.

⑤Pour the soy milk into a pot and bring the heat to a boil. Take the milk off the heat immediately and add the salt, pepper and dashi. Finally, mix in the miso paste.

⑥Put the cut ingredients from step ① into a different pot from step ⑤. Pour in the broth from the pot in step ⑤

⑦Put on the rose shaped daikon, carrots and pork pelly, and finally top with the mizuna leaves.

⑧Serve once heated through properly.

No special ingredients were used and yet we were able to make such a cute nabe dish! It’s lovely to look at, and worthy of being posted on your social media.

■Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & charaben researcher. Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.
Instagram: arigohan
Blog: http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/ 

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■ Related article: A recipe for photogenic food #5 “Snowman Fromage”

■ Related article: A recipe for photogenic food #6 “Potato salads parfait”

■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #9 Flower Jelly

This feature is made possible by Arisa Shirai, a coking specialist who posts regular photos of her gorgeous food via her social media. She makes every day recipes look photogenic with her small twists.

Today, Arisa introduces her recipe for her beautiful “Flower Jelly”. It’s such an elegant dessert that when you make it for yourself, you’ll involuntarily want to take photos of it!

■Ingredients (to make 4)

・4 egg shells

・5g powdered gelatin (prepare by soaking in 1 tablespoon of water)

・40ml white wine

・120ml water

・30g sugar

・Edible flowers (to taste)

■How to Make

①Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the sugar, gelatin and white wine in this order. Mix each ingredient as you add them and then remove the pot from the heat.

②Break the top of the eggs with a spoon. Remove the egg whites and yolk and wash the shell out with water.

③Place the shells in cups, or something similar, to keep them upright. Add the edible flowers into the shells (place the petals facedown inside the egg shells for the best end result).

④Place the mixture you made in step ① into the egg shells and allow to cool for 4+ hours in the refrigerator.

⑤Once the mixture has set, break the egg shells and serve them on a plate. And you’re done!

This recipe is a perfectly hospitality treat too!

And if you substitute the wine for juice, then children can enjoy these delicious flower jellies too.

■Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & charaben researcher. Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.
Instagram: arigohan
Blog: http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/ 

−−−

■ Related article: A recipe for photogenic food #4 “Cheese Fondue & Veggie Boquet”

■ Related article: A recipe for photogenic food #5 “Snowman Fromage”

■ Related article: A recipe for photogenic food #6 “Potato salads parfait”

■ Related article: A recipe for photogenic food #7 「SUSHI CAKE」

This feature is made possible by Arisa Shirai, a cooking specialist who posts regular photos of her gorgeous food via her social media. She makes every day recipes look photogenic with her small twists.

This time, Arisa will change SUSHI into a stylish looking cake with her idea♪

■Ingredients

4 slice of roast beef

Osasimi(raw sliced fish) that you like(This time, she choiced tuna, shrimp, greater amberjack, salmon roe, crab and salmon.)

1/4Avocado(thinly sliced)

Broccoli sprouts 3g

A piece of rolled egg

Sushi vinegar 50cc

Rice 300g

Cupcake mold

■How to make

1)Mix rice with sushi vinegar.

2)Put osashimi that you like, roast beef and rolled egg in the cupcake mold.

3)Put rice thinly on it.

4)Repeat this 2 times and make the layer, and push from the top with shamoji(push the salmon roe sushi with the strength that salmon roe will not be broken).

5)Turn over and take out sushi from cupcake mold, and put the broccoli sprouts on the roast beef.

6) Decorate them on the plate and it’s all done.

This recipe is recommended when you want to make SUSHI for guests.

Let’s prepare sashimi that you like and make colorful SUSHI cake♪

■Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & charaben researcher.

Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.

Instagram: arigohan

Blog:: http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/ 

—

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food #1 “lollipop” sandwiches

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food #2 Bruschetta for Christmas

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food＃3 “Japanese Style Onigiri Pinchos”

■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #4 “Cheese Fondue & Veggie Boquet”

■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #5 “Snowman Fromage”

■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #6 “Potato salads parfait”

With just a small touch, you can turn everyday food into beautiful and perfect dishes worthy to be part of your SNS thread. Arisa Shirai continues to teach us her cuisine! With just a few ideas, an ordinary recipe can be shaped up to produce a photogenic masterpiece! Today we’ll be looking at her savoury parfait recipe that offers a new wonderful sensation —　Potato salads parfait, the “Shopparfait”

■ Ingredients

・Macaroni　20g

・Potatoes　3

・Tomato pasta sauce　　20g

・Ketchup　10g

・Fresh cream　20g

・Consommé 1g

・Basil sauce　20g

・Salt (to your tasting)

・Powdered parmesan cheese　5g

・Cherry tomatoes　8

・Cream cheese  25g

・Preboiled and peeled shrimp　3

・Baguette/ crackers 2

・Mint　A small amount

・Bubu arare (If you can get your hands on some)　2g

■How to make

➀ Bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the macaroni. Once drained, add half the basil sauce (10g) to the macaroni.

② Remove the skin of the potatoes and after boiling, crush them and add salt, the consommé and fresh cream. Mix well.

③ Pack 1/3 of the mash potato made in step ② into a piping bag.

④ Mix the remaining 2/3 of the mashed potato with the ketchup but do not mix too much — mix lightly until a marble pattern of ketchup appears.

⑤ Now you are ready to layer the parfait into the glass! First lay down the basil sauce at the bottom, then macaroni from step ①, followed by 6 cherry tomatoes, cream cheese, the tomato sauce and then the slices of baguette/ crackers in that order. Make sure the layers are distinct.

⑥ Using a scoop, take a ball of the mashed potato ketchup made in ④ to top off the parfait!

⑦ Add the shrimp and the remaining 2 cherry tomatoes to the top of the parfait and squeeze out the remaining mash potato from the piping bag for decoration.

⑧ Finally, garnish the parfait with parmesan cheese, bubu arare and mint!

When it’s cold outside, you have the perfect opportunity to enjoy making these wonderful party foods ♪

■Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & colourful bento researcher. Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.
Instagram: arigohan
Blog: http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/ 

—

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food #1 “lollipop” sandwiches

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food #2 Bruschetta for Christmas

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food＃3 “Japanese Style Onigiri Pinchos”

■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #4 “Cheese Fondue & Veggie Boquet”

■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #5 “Snowman Fromage”

This feature is made possible by Arisa Shirai, a coking specialist who posts regular photos of her gorgeous food via her social media. She makes every day recipes look photogenic with her small twists.

Today we will be looking at a simple recipe that requires no heat, is easy to make and looks like a snowman!

■Ingredients

120g Cream cheese

200g Fresh cream

40g Sugar

4 Giant marshmallows

A bit of orange peel

12 Biscuits

1 Chocolate pen

Appropriate number of Gummy belts

A small amount of powdered sugar

■Direction

① Beat the fresh cream and half the sugar in a bowl until firm peaks form.

② In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese and the remaining sugar until smooth.

③ Fully mix the contents of bowl ② into bowl ①.

④ Turn your plate upside-down and place 3 biscuits inside the rim. Use cream to secure the biscuits together where they overlap.

⑤ Pile up the cream mixture from ③ onto the overlapping biscuits and use a knife to form the blob into a mountain shape.

⑥ Place a giant marshmallow at the peak of the mini mountain of cream.

⑦ Cut out a teardrop shape from the orange peel to make the snowman’s nose.

⑧ Use a bit of cream mixture from ③ to attach the nose to the snowman.

⑨ Wrap the gummy belts around the base of the snowman’s neck and use the chocolate pen to draw its eyes, mouth and hands.

⑩ Move the snowman to a beautiful plate ready to serve and finally dust some beautiful powdered sugar over the snowman to resemble snow!

When it’s cold outside, you have the perfect opportunity to enjoy making these wonderful sweets! ♪

■Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & charaben researcher. Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.
Instagram: arigohan
Blog: http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/ 

—

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food #1 “lollipop” sandwiches

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food #2 Bruschetta for Christmas

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food＃3 “Japanese Style Onigiri Pinchos”

■Related article：A recipe for photogenic food #4 “Cheese Fondue & Veggie Boquet”

This feature is made possible by Arisa Shirai, a coking specialist who posts regular photos of her gorgeous food via her social media. She makes every day recipes look photogenic with her small twists.

In this installment, Arisa makes the perfect party salad. Simple but looks gorgeous!

■Ingredients

・1 carrot

・4 Brussels sprouts

・1/4 broccoli

・3 baby corns

・1 endive

・3 sausages

・5 mini tomatoes

・3 radishes 

・1/2 cucumber

・1/8 red paprika

・1/8 green paprika

・1/4 daikon

・1 Camembert cheese

・10g white wine

・black pepper

■How to Make

1）Boil and cool the Brussels sprouts and broccoli. (mixed vegetables can be used only if defrosted naturally; do not boil)

2）Cut the sausages into an octopus shape and fry.

3）Place the daikon into a big container and surround it with endive.

4）Make flowers with the vegetables.

→Carrot: Slice the skin thinly with a peeler and twist with your hands.

→Radish: Slice the radish into thin circles and slide them onto a bamboo skewer one by one.

5）Serve up the vegetables and octopus sausages on bamboo skewers.

6）Use a spoon or kitchen knife to make a well in the Camembert cheese. Pour the white wine into the well and place the pepper corns into a heat-proof dish. Heat for 20 seconds at 500W, take out and stir. Heat again for another 20 seconds on 500W and then return to the cheese.

7）Done.

Vegetables and Camembert cheese fondue go so well together! Not only does it look good, but it tastes good too. You can use whatever you like in the recipe to make completely different salads. It doesn’t take long to make, so if you’re one for frozen foods, even the busiest person can make this. If you tried this at home, be sure to post it on your social media!

■Arisa Shirai

Visual food creator & charaben researcher. Arisa Shirai shows how fun it is to make and eat your own homemade food.
Instagram: arigohan
Blog: http://ameblo.jp/arinko0917/ 

—

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food #1 “lollipop” sandwiches

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food #2 Bruschetta for Christmas

■Related Article: A recipe for photogenic food＃3 “Japanese Style Onigiri Pinchos”