How to Make Perfect Taiyaki, Japanese Fish-Shaped Cake

Thursday, March 31, 2022

How to Make Perfect Taiyaki, Japanese Fish-Shaped Cake

Last week, I finally uploaded this video, How to Make Taiyaki, on my YouTube channel.

Have you ever had taiyaki (鯛焼き, たい焼き)? Taiyaki is a Japanese fish-shaped cake filled with sweetened red bean paste and is one of the most popular street snacks in Japan. When I visit Japan, I sometimes purchase taiyaki there. You can check out my previous entries, What I Ate in Asakusa and The Best Places to Eat in Tenjinbashi in Osaka. If you are in Japan, it's easy to find taiyaki stores. However, obviously, it's very hard to find freshly made taiyaki in the U.S. That's why I used to purchase expensive frozen taiyaki at Japanese supermarkets and toasted them in my kitchen.

Taiyaki Store in Asakusa, Tokyo

Taiyaki Pan, Taiyaki Maker

Taiyaki Pan

This is my taiyaki pan, which my husband and I purchased in Japan in 2018. The reason why I chose this taiyaki pan, made by Pearl Metal (パール金属), was that it has a lot of positive reviews in Japan. It's the most popular taiyaki pan on Amazon Japan.

Pearl Metal Taiyaki Pan

You can not make taiyaki without taiyaki pan nor taiyaki maker, but even if you are in the U.S., you can still find taiyaki pans on Amazon and eBay, and many of them are around $20 to $30. 👍

Taiyaki is a good luck fish-shaped cake!

Taiyaki

Tai (鯛, たい) means a red snapper, sea bream, in Japanese. People in Japan eat a broiled red snapper on happy events such as on a wedding day, baby's 100th day, New Year's day and etc. Auspicious is called medetai (めでたい) in Japanese. "Tai ha medetai (鯛はめでたい)" means tai is a good luck fish. That's why taiyaki is a kind of a good luck fish-shaped cake and can be eaten all year round.

How to Make Taiyaki

Anyway, I'm going to share how to make taiyaki with you. I think that it's so much easier than you think. 😉

What You'll Need to Make Taiyaki

■What You'll Need■　（8 Servings）

150g of All-Purpose Flour

3g of Baking Soda

3g of Baking Powder

20g of Sugar

A Pinch of Salt

1 Egg

100 ml of Milk (Soy Milk or Cow Milk)

100 ml of Water

2 Teaspoons of Oil (Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil)

300g of Anko, Sweetened Red Bean Paste

Anko, Sweetened Red Bean Paste

Our Homemade Sweetened Red Bean Paste

This time, I used our homemade sweetened red bean paste, which my husband made, but you can use any tsubuan (つぶあん) and koshian (こしあん) you can find at Japanese supermarkets or Amazon. Tsubuan is sweetened bean paste containing whole beans, and Koshian is smooth and fine textured sweetened bean paste.

Morinaga Ogura-An

By the way, my favorite tsubuan is Morinaga Ogura-An. I also used this one in my previous entries, How to Make Easy Matcha Green Tea Warabimochi and How to Make Japanese Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream.

How to Make Perfect Taiyaki, Japanese Fish-Shaped Cake

■How to Make Taiyaki■

１．Put all the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt) in one bowl. Whisk them together.

２．Put all the wet ingredients (egg, milk, water and oil) in another bowl. Whisk them together.

３．Mix dry and wet ingredients together. Stir all the dry ingredients are moistened. Try not to overmix. Let the batter sit in a refrigerator for 30 to 60 minutes.

４．Divide the anko into 8 portions.