Finding products in Japan - Whipping Cream

Its nearing Christmas-time here in Tokyo, which means signs for Christmas Cakes are up everywhere!  You can get Christmas Cakes from almost anywhere -- tiny expensive ones from fancy hotels, tiny moderately priced ones from the grocery store, and tiny not as expensive ones from convenience stores.  Signs have been up in my local grocery store for ordering Christmas Cakes since November.  Christmas Cakes are pretty simple, usually just a vanilla sponge cake,strawberries, and a sweetened whipped cream for frosting.

If you're like me and like making your own whipped cream, you might be a little overwhelmed at the grocery store when you're looking for heavy （or regular) whipping cream.  You want to look for 生クリーム, and you'll find the creams in the milk section most likely, usually in very small (200ml / less than 1 cup) packages.  They'll look something like this:

Now cream is differentiated by fat content.  In the U.S., regular whipping cream is usually in the 30-35% range.  Heavy whipping cream is 36% fat or higher.  This cream here is 47% fat, and whips very very nicely.  But they also have heavy cream in the more normal 36-40% fat range.  (Interestingly, 47% cream is considered manufacturers cream in the US and is not usually available in grocery stores but used in professional settings.  Its very close to the British double cream, which is 48% fat.) I should add that creams with more fat in them whip up better and are more stable when whipped.

 In any case, this particular brand  has the fat content right in the title, 純生クリーム４７.  But if your cream doesn't have that in the name, you want to check the ingredient list.  

The characters read 乳脂肪分, which means butterfat amount.

As I said before, most ingredients in Japan are expensive.  At my supermarket in Azabujuban in Tokyo, which is known for high prices, this ran about ￥130 (or about $1.30 with today's exchange rate).  Not bad, but keep in mind this is a very small amount of cream.  Good enough for adding cream to something, but not enough to ice a cake with whip cream instead of frosting.  I've found bigger cartons (800-1000 ml?) of whipping cream at higher end grocery stores, but those were about ￥1100-1200.  Pricey compared to the U.S.

On a fun note, perhaps because its Christmas time, this particular whipping cream came with a nice surprise.  If you look at the first two pictures, you'll see a funny tube attached to the cream.  I opened it up and its actually an icing bag, icing tip, and instructions for usage and for making whipped cream.  What a nice addition! :)

And just for fun, here's my version of a Japanese Christmas Cake, made for a child's Christmas party.

If you like the design you can find instructions at http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/742875032/strawberry-santa-cake/

Konnichiwa!

Welcome to the first post of Baking in Japan!

Coming from the United States where baking is easy with a plethora of English recipes, cheap (usually) ingredients, large ovens, and easy access to supplies, baking in Japan can be a bit difficult and overwhelming.

From what I understand, baking in Japan is not extremely popular.  In fact, there's no word in Japanese that means "baking" as we understand it in English. The closest I've come up with is 甘いものを作る, which means "making sweet things."  That's not to say that the Japanese don't like baked good though (although my Japanese teacher was very shocked every time the adult men in my class ate sweet things during break).  There are bakeries, cafes, and cake shops on almost every corner in Tokyo. Walking three minutes in any direction from my apartment, I can easily find four bakeries, two doughnut shops, at least five cafe/coffee shops, in addition to more traditional Japanese sweets and soft cream shops.

I think this prevalence of sweet shops is one of many reasons baking is not a common hobby in Japan.  Also complicated things is a general lack of ovens.  I'm lucky to have a small oven in my apartment, probably a third the size of my oven from Washington, D.C.  However, my apartment is the exception to the rule.  Most apartments and houses do not have an oven, probably because that kind of cooking is just not common in Japan.  Instead, most people use a combination microwave/convection oven to meet those needs.  Other complications?  Ingredients in Japan come in small, rather expensive packages.  For foreigners in Japan, baking is also complicated by the language difference when it comes to products, measurement differences (if you're American), and perhaps a lack of knowing where to go to find supplies.  As I continue to learn about these differences, I hope to share my knowledge with others trying to bake in Japan!