Once you’ve met someone you never really forget them. It just takes a while for your memories to return.

—Zeniba, Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し)

Happy Halloween!

I can’t help but keep the awful tragedy in Seoul this weekend at front of mind… My heart breaks every time I think of the young people lost while they were out having fun and celebrating, full of life. So, so sad.
May they rest in peace. I hope this tragedy begets change to protect others in the future.
I hope you and your loved ones all had a safe Halloweekend.

When I started thinking of Halloween bakes, I decided I wanted to do a Studio Ghibli themed piece.
As I’ve said before, I am a big fan of Ghibli, and my most beloved movie of the set is, without a doubt, Spirited Away.
It was the first Miyazaki movie I saw—when I was 6, my parents took the whole family to ?Cinemapolis or ?Fall Creek Pictures, one of the two old art-house movie theaters in Ithaca (both have subsequently closed/combined into the modern Cinemapolis).
I was entranced with fear and amazement at the beautiful colors, sounds, and intricate animations.
I resembled Chihiro more than a little bit, with my blunt bangs and stubbornness.

Having arrived at Spirited Away as the inspiration for this post, I thought about the scariest character to me at the time, one who has become beloved and better understood as I grew. (“No… I’m lonely… I’m lonely…”)
No Face (Kaonashi) is a spirit that represents loneliness and searching for self-identity. They are anxious and in need of friendship, desperate to tag alongside Chihiro, desperate to feel something by filling themselves up.
This anxious attachment is so viscerally human, such a distinct component of growing up and finding yourself, that I can’t help but identify with No Face now as much as with Chihiro when I was younger.

Overall, this project has been nearly a month in progress hands-on and two months in planning and conception.
Sculpting all these miniatures was a test of my patience, steady hands, and neck strength.
It took around 20 hours in total.
Dyeing the marzipan to the correct colors, painting details, and affixing all the little pieces together was made enjoyable by listening to audiobook after audiobook. That said, certain pieces (read: No Face’s teeth) nearly sent me into spasms trying to get them positioned and affixed just right. I used micro tools made for clay work + tweezers + breath holding + praying.

When embarking on these types of large projects, it’s best to keep organized. I used a large cutting board as my main station and had toothpicks, parchment paper, gloves, paper towels, plastic wrap, and powdered sugar in a mini sieve all at hand.
Since marzipan can stay out at room temperature uncovered once sculpted, making the miniatures in steps is easy—just be sure to wrap up any unsculpted marzipan with plastic wrap overnight, and leave whatever pieces are finished open in an area with good air circulation and low humidity. I left marzipan wrapped well in plastic wrap for over a week and it was still soft and pliable when I returned to it.
The smaller sculptures start to dry out in a matter of days, but I had to let the Kaonashi/No Face figurine harden for over a week in a sling made of parchment paper and magnets that hung, chrysalis-like, from my fruit basket so that it would not droop down under its own weight. After about 10 days, it was solid enough to continue.

The tart itself is quite lovely, and I plan on making a version of this for my family’s Thanksgiving.
The base is a crisp, buttery, lightly chocolate pâte brisée. It forms the wooden walls of the “tub.”
Inside, a vibrant, cardamom- and ginger-spiced sweet potato filling, beautifully purple and with a pleasant earthiness, is hidden beneath a thin skim of sour cream topping, which provides a smooth “water” surface for decoration as well as a finely balanced acid component.

If you want to make this, make sure you cook your sweet potatoes in advance, since it’s easier to peel them once they’re fully roasted and cooled and they can be saved in the fridge for a few days.
The tart also benefits from an overnight stint in the fridge, but be sure NOT to place any marzipan decorations on until after it has been chilled, because the sour cream topping needs to be fully set.

Halloween, previously:

Pumpkin Milk Tea Cake with eenie-meenie piped decorations
Brown butter pumpkin cake with chocolate chili ganache with teeny marzipan pumpkins
Pumpkin and condensed milk cakes, à la tres leches
Edward Gorey-inspired skeleton cat and bat cookies
Ghosts trapped in chocolate ganache on a pumpkin cake
Bats, eyeballs, and pumpkin-moji cookies
Old, old peanut butter cup cake with Reese’s
Of course, this ludicrous bleeding heart cake

Ghibli, previously:
Totoro and soot sprite cookies from way back when

Kaonashi/No Face’s Feast Tart
filling recipe adapted from King Arthur Baking Company
makes 1 8-inch round tart

ingredients:
for the decorations:
2 x 7 ounce tubes marzipan
gel food coloring
light colored alcohol+gold luster dust
white food coloring or food-grade titanium dioxide powder
miniature konpeito

for the crust:
100 grams (7 tablespoons) butter, room temperature
pinch sea salt
75 grams (3/4 cup) powdered sugar
20 grams (3 tablespoons) almond flour
40 grams (1 small egg or half of a large egg, whisked well) egg
30 grams (1/4 cup) corn starch
120 grams (1 cup) flour
50 grams (1/2 cup) cocoa powder

for the sweet potato filling:
225 grams (1/2 pound) purple sweet potatoes
55 grams (4 tablespoons) butter, melted
100 grams (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
55 grams (1/4 cup) whole milk

for the sour cream topping:
225 grams (8 ounces) sour cream
25 grams (2 tablespoons) sugar
drop blue food coloring

directions:
Sculpt figures and items of food as desired (sorry I can’t be more helpful than this…).
For larger figures, make sure to let them dry in a sling or supported for at least 2 days so that they don’t droop.
Before making the tart, prepare the sweet potatoes: prick whole potatoes with fork all over.
Wrap well in aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F until completely fork-tender, about 35 minutes depending on the size of your potatoes.
Make the crust: mix butter, salt, powdered sugar, and almond flour together.
Whisk flour, corn starch, and cocoa powder together, then add to the butter mixture.
Add the egg and carefully cut in the egg and dry ingredients until the dough comes together in a crumbly mass.
Form a disk and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Then, roll out to 1/4 inch thickness.
Fit into tart pan.
Keep leftover dough aside in case of cracks.
Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Meanwhile, make the filling: skin the sweet potatoes once cooled.
Mash well with a fork until completely smooth, then whisk in the remaining ingredients.
Spread into the parbaked crust.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F; the filling should be firm.
Meanwhile, whisk ingredients for the sour cream topping together.
Spread over the warm tart and bake for another 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Allow to cool completely, then refrigerate at least overnight.