Hello everyone,
You can really feel the signs of spring more and more with each passing day.
On March 25th, we held a wagashi (Japanese sweets) workshop with a spring-themed focus.
This time, we made two classic seasonal sweets: Ichigo Daifuku (strawberry mochi) and Sakura Mochi (cherry blossom rice cakes).
For this session, I intentionally skipped the usual prep work and waited until arriving on-site to measure ingredients and prepare. However, I couldn’t quite get everything ready before the scheduled start time, so things were a bit hectic at the beginning… Even so, we managed to kick things off safely!
We started with making the dough for the sakura mochi.
Participants split into pairs and worked together to heat the domyoji-ko (glutinous rice flour) dough in small pots.
While the dough was resting, we moved on to making the Ichigo Daifuku.
We used the microwave method to heat the dough for these. While it was heating, we prepared the anko (sweet red bean paste) into small balls. Once the dough was ready, everyone focused intently on dividing it and wrapping the anko balls. Once wrapped, the Ichigo Daifuku were complete!
Next, we returned to finish the Sakura Mochi.
We wrapped the anko with the rested dough, then finished them off with a pickled sakura leaf. Everyone looked like they were having fun, chatting and working in a relaxed, cheerful atmosphere.
The freshly made wagashi were enjoyed on the spot with some tea.
We heard many comments like, “Sweets I made myself taste extra special!” The rest were packed into boxes to take home—a lovely souvenir.
Despite the somewhat rushed start, thanks to everyone’s cooperation, the workshop went smoothly. Every class brings new lessons, and this time was no different. I personally gained a lot of insight, especially on how to give clearer instructions and explain important points.
I’ll continue working to make future workshops even more fun and easy to follow.
If you’re interested, I’d love for you to join us and enjoy making wagashi together!
Thank you so much to everyone who participated!