Taiyaki Fish-Shaped Pastry Recipe たい焼き

For desert tonight, I made taiyaki, which is a Japanese fish-shaped cake.


The most common filling is red bean paste that is made from sweetened azuki beans. Taiyaki is made using a pancake or waffle batter.


The batter is poured into a fish-shaped mold then filled with the red bean paste and then topped with more batter. It is then cooked on both sides until golden brown.


The recipe that I used is as follows:

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 cup vegetable oil

Since the above mixture seems to have a lot of oil, I added 1 cup of pancake mix (complete) with about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water.



In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk eggs, melted butter and milk. Slowly blend the wet ingredients into the dry and mix lightly. Do not over mix.

This is where I added the extra pancake mix and water.


Heat both sides of a taiyaki mold pan over medium flame. Lightly oil with a paper towel dampened with vegetable oil.


Pour about ¼ cup of batter into the bottom half of a taiyaki mold. Place about 2 tablespoons of red bean paste in the center and then top with additional batter.


Let this side cook for a few minutes and then flip to cook the reverse side.


Cooking time will vary depending on how hot the taiyaki pan is and how thick the batter.


The taiyaki is done when it is golden brown.


Instead of the red bean paste, I recently substituted slices of banana. It tasted really good--especially when it was freshly baked.

Garage Door Project

The project for this week was to fix the garage door. Several of the lower wooden panels were rotted. 

I found some videos on YouTube that gave me some good ideas on how to fix the garage door--How to Remove and Install a Garage Door Wood Panel Replacement and Garage Door Repair Slideshow. 

As you can see, there was enough of a gap that mice were able to get into the garage.

The first thing that I did was to detach the lower section of the garage door. 

From there, I could remove the two rotted panels and sand/clean the remaining wood. 

I traced copies of the panels and cut out new ones. 

With some wood glue, I replaced the panels and reassembled the wooden frame.











I needed a little help when attaching the frame back onto the rest of the garage door because I had to pull and attach the cable back onto the bottom of the frame.

After the cable was attached, I could now operate the garage door. The first place to get painted was the bottom.

After the bottom of the garage door was painted, I nailed some new weather stripping on the bottom.

Finally, I gave the entire door and frame at least two coats of paint.