Greetings my beautiful lovelies! Welcome
back to another post-apocalyptic meal --
these are meals that come in a can that
have a very long shelf life.
If (you) missed my previous episodes, including breakfast and lunch,
I will put those episodes above and down below.
Today, I'm going to be tasting cupcakes in a can.
Yes I'm gonna have some post-apocalyptic cupcake desserts, and these come from Japan.
Now these are Japanese emergency
rations, and they are cupcakes that come in a can.
Amazing, right!? There's no reason why you can't have dessert after the apocalypse --
you can have them canned!
These were very graciously found and sent to me by Paul over at Critical Eats Japan --
I'll put a link down below to his YouTube channel
where he tries all kinds of Japanese treats because he lives in Japan.
So big thanks to Paul for finding
these and for sending these to me,
but I'm super excited about tasting these
because this is dessert in a can.
Japan is located in an area where there
is a lot of earthquake activity,
so there's a whole section of food
dedicated to emergency food rations,
and that's where these fall in -- these are
little desserts that you can keep
in your pantry for quite a while although
now that I look at the date they say 2022
and 2021 -- so the shelf-life is a few years,
not so long; but they are still breads in a can they have this little kind of cocktail/
tuna fish little pull release here. And I
have three flavors :I have chocolate,
I have maple, and fruit mix. So the only
other bread product that I've had canned
is the New England style brown bread --
it's made by B & M I believe, and you can
find it here locally in the supermarkets.
And I had never heard of it
until I moved to New England, but it's a pretty
classic bread but that is the only one
that I've ever found in a can, so I'm
very curious to see what these are like.
Oh, I take that back!
I also have had a hamburger in a can
which did have some bread in it, and if
these are anything like those I am about to
be disappointed, but I'm keeping my hopes
up because cupcake in can sounds
terrific, right!? So Paul translates this
to maple cupcake, but on the picture here
they have a picture of honey -- interesting.
For reference this can is about the size
of a Vienna sausage can, maybe a little
bit wider in diameter, but similar kind
of height and similar way to open it.
We've got this little pull tab here....
Oh.
Oh, it smells very maple-y. It smells like a
bear claw.
It smells quite nice. I do believe that's the
bottom of the cupcake,
so let's invert it on the plate, and get it out.
Ooh, it doesn't.... Come on, come on little cupcake.
Now getting it out of the can...seems to be tricky.
How'd they get it in there in the first place!?
So, getting the cupcake out is proving to be a little tricky, but I think I'll manage.
Oh I don't want to break it.
Oof -- it is proving quite challenging to get
these cupcakes out -- I don't want to mess
them up. It's a very tight fit. Look at
that. OK. Come on! Come on cupcake-y!
Come out! It's a very tight fit. Oh, come on!
Hah!
There it is. Hehehehe!
It actually looks a bit more
like a muffin, and when I imagine cupcake
at least in terms of the American sense
of cupcake that means copious amounts of
buttercream frosting and without it and
in this kind of paper liner it looks
more like a muffin to me although it
smells very strongly of artificial maple
flavor -- it smells good.
So why don't we unbox or un-can all these first,
and then I can do a little taste
comparison. So that is the maple;
this is mixed fruit cupcake.
So, same thing -- ooh, I hope this paper liner is gonna be green --
that would be cute yellow green and that would be brown...
let's see mm-hmm this one doesn't have
that much of a smell -- it smells like a
baked good but nothing distinctive, not
like the maple. Ooh, and this one too is...
tricky to take out. I'm trying to shake it. Ooh, ooh! I tore the paper on that one.
It's really difficult to get it go rip on it.
Pull this out -- come on!
Like the pull-tab is easy enough to open
the can, but then to get the cupcake out
is just really difficult. How did they get them in here in the first place!?
Oh maybe they bake them?
Ooh, okay.
Oh!
Oh man -- a very snug fit.
Okay there's the fruit. It looks pretty similar to the maple.
It doesn't smell similar though. Saved the
best for last -- chocolate!
Same yellow liner, and same
difficult to get out.
Ooh!
This one smells nice -- nice and chocolatey!
So you got a tug pretty firmly on the wrapper here...
to get the cake out. Okay, here
it comes!
There's chocolate. It's a little bit of
cake on the bottom there. Ooh, I've
loosened that one a lot from its paper
liner. So there we have it --
the three cupcakes in a can.
So I'm going to taste these in order in
which I open them so maple first so
looks quite oily this is kind of
interesting look at the honeycomb
pattern of cake that's left on the liner
here that's beautiful
and that's actual cake crumb so that
leads me to believe maybe the vessel
this was cooked in had this kind of
honeycomb pattern absolutely beautiful
alrighty so let's look at the crumb here
it looks to be quite dense we have some
larger bubbles here but pretty dense
small bubbles very strong smell of maple
extract and let's give us a taste let's
cut this one more time and look at that
crime again a couple large holes but
generally speaking pretty small holes
Alrighty, let's give that a taste. Itadakimasu!
That's actually quite nice -- the crumb is
small and tight and kind of airy;
the texture reminds me a bit of Castella
cake -- a very popular cake in Japan that
uses a lot of meringue or egg whites to
kind of leaven and lighten the cake.
There's a little bit of sweetness in
there, but it's not overly sweet -- very
typical of Japanese sweets --
very very different than a typical
cupcake you would find here in the US;
not nearly as sweet and of course we
don't have the frosting on top, but a
very nice little dessert -- very pronounced
flavor of maple extract kind of similar
to a maple bearclaw -- it's quite cloying
and lasting. I still taste it. It tastes a
little bit nutty too -- a little bit like
butter pecan, but quite a nice little cake:
very, very moist as well. Mm-hmm.
It doesn't taste tinny at all, and doesn't
taste like it has a ton of preservatives in it either.
Now let's try the fruit mixed one. So this one too is wrapped in this little paper doily;
and again you've got this little honeycomb pattern --
interesting. So let's cut this open and
see if we can see any fruit. Ooh,
indeed looks to be some candied dried
fruit in there. Let's give this one a
taste. It smells sweet; doesn't smell like
anything distinctive. Alright, here we go...
Hmm, so the texture of this cake is very
similar to the first one: light and airy,
while simultaneously being very moist; the flavor is not as distinctive; I do taste the fruit.
Hmm.
I can't really pinpoint what kind of fruit that is -- I think it's candied because it has a bite to it.
It almost feels like walnuts, but doesn't taste like walnut.
I'm not such a big fan of
this one. The first one I liked even
though it had a very strong artificial
maple flavor because I felt like that
flavor combination with the cake texture
worked really well. This one, not so much.
So I saved the best for last: now we have chocolate.
This one also has this really
beautiful honeycomb pattern.
And let's cut this one in half. Let's take that little bit of fruit off.
All righty, so although this is chocolate
and is darker than the other cakes...
it's still pretty light for a chocolate. Cut
this in half again.
but again we have that similar kind of crumb -- mostly a tight, small crumb but an occasional big pocket....
but has really nice chocolatey
smell to it. Alrighty, let's give this one a taste.
Mm-hmm!
Mmm!
That's nice! It has a very rich
chocolatey flavor to it; but it's not
heavy -- it doesn't taste fudgy or feel
fudgy. It doesn't feel heavy or overly sweet;
but a nice little kiss of chocolate in there. Mm-hmm.
Moist yet light and not overly sweet
I quite like that. The texture is very
similar to say like a chiffon cake -- not
as tender as say an angel food cake --
there's a little bit more density to
these but there's similar kind of airy
quality to them; but I really enjoy the
level of sweetness. If you're a fan of
traditional American cupcakes you may
not like these as much because these are
significantly less sweet and of course
you don't have the frosting on top,
and the crumb is very different -- it doesn't
tear or crumble nearly as easily as a
cake or cupcake would if you have an
American-style cake.
Look at this -- this is brilliant!
These have a safety edge on them, so you won't cut yourself.
That is so smart! TYpically when you open these here at
least U.S.-style cans, these are almost
razor sharp -- you have to be very careful
but these have a nice rounded edge. How
considerate! I love that!
Not surprisingly, of the three cupcakes chocolate was my
favorite; and then I would say maple is
next; and a distant third the fruit mix.
That one I didn't care for much of at all.
On the picture here it has a picture
of melon and mango, neither of which I really tasted.
Alrighty, so there you have
it: the post-apocalyptic dessert,
Japanese emergency ration style. Let me know in the comments down below if you've ever
had bread in a can, let alone
cupcakes in a can. If you have, I want to
hear all about it.
Big thanks to Paul for sending these to me.
Thank you guys so much for watching! I hope you guys enjoyed that one;
and I hope you guys learned something. Please share this video with your friends;
follow me on social media; like this
video; subscribe; and I shall see you
in the next one. Toodaloo! Take care! Byeeee!!!
Wa, wa -- wa, wa -- wa,wa.....
