Taiyaki Japanese Fish-Shaped Hot Cake Maker

Tasty Taiyaki at Home!
I searched online for quite a while before finding this taiyaki-ki (taiyaki cooker). All the others I found were either in Japanese-only site or much too expensive. I stumbled across this one by accident, and a happy accident it was!

Taiyaki are tasty little fish-shaped cakes with red beans in the center. That doesn't sound that good, but Japanese red beans - anko, or adzuki - are sweet and quite suitable for snacks and desserts. Taiyaki are easy to make, which is good considering that the packaging and documentation for this cooker is all in Japanese.

Basically, you heat this over your stove. I tried using it on an electric burner, and believe it or not it works just fine that way. Heat the taiyaki-ki up on both sides until water sizzles on the cooking surface, then give it a light dash of cooking spray and spoon in a thin layer of batter, working from the tail to the body. (You can Google up a recipe, but I'm lazy and use pancake mix.) Add some red beans to...

Upodate: So cute and very functional!
After I recvd this one, I asked my Korean friends to read the instruction for me. I am quite sure any items to be sold in the US, one needs to have instruction in English. This is not the case. Anyway, the instruction was to tell you to be careful in handling this pan - they will be come very hot during cooking.

I used waffle mix and put some red bean paste (Oriental store) as fillings and make some fish cake, very cute. I also used raspberry and blueberry as alternatives. I am going to let my imagination juice flow and seek for some other fillings. (Chestnut paste, sesame paste, berries w/marmalade, custard cream........) Um..... they are so yum yum.

I'd recommend using waffle mix rather than pancake mix - waffle mix gives you a much lighter and fluffier texture. However, if you'd like to have a fish with substance (smile), use pancake mix - the texture is much more heavy. Just like a pancake fish and fillings cannot be easily put into the fish...

Just as advertised...
I live in Japan and my kids love these 'cookies'. The item did seem a little flimsy because the hinges are loose; but as I've used it I understand now that it has to be that way to accommodate the rising batter that is cooking inside. There are no directions in English on the box, but a Korean friend of mine translated for me, and everything is as you would expect (not too high of heat, don't heat the handle, don't let children use it, etc.) All in all, it is exactly what I paid for and it works great!

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