Cakes and Sweets

Wagashi (Japanese cakes) are an art form in themselves. They are extremely beautiful creations of both ingenuity and observation of nature that only the Japanese could dream up in such a meticulously detailed way. Flowers, petals, foliage and birds are all featured in wagashi from season to season. There are basically three types of wagashi available at Japanese wagashi shops: namagashi (raw, wet cakes) are made of fresh ingredients that do not keep long; han-namagashi (half raw cakes) made of fresh ingredients that are hardened by long cooking, so keep well for a few weeks; and higashi (dry cakes and sweets), which are made from sugar, bean flour or jellies and keep well for a few months. Namagashi and han-namagashi are very dense and sweet, and mostly made of glutinous rice flour, azuki or other bean paste, chestnuts, sweet potatoes and kanten (agar-agar). Higashi are blocks of sugary bean flour and come in many shapes.