ningyo-yaki It is a Japanese sweet made of cake with anko filling kasutera which is a type of baked cake that originally came from Portugal, but developed exclusively in Japan.
Ningyo-yaki was born in the Meiji period in ningyochoight, a town named for its history as a theater town, where many small theaters showing puppet shows were performed during the Edo period. For traditional Ningyo-yaki, the shape of Shichifukujin (seven gods of good luck) and bunraku puppets have been used in their making as figures in cakes.
And in the shops in Asakusa started by those who learned to make Ningyo-yaki in Ningyocho, the cakes are molded into the shapes of local landmarks in Asakusa, such as the Kaminarimon gate and the five-story pagoda. Some stores on Nakamise Street in Asakusa still show the Ningyo-yaki making process in front of customers.
The recipe includes dough made of wheat flour, egg and sugar and cooked in a mold that traditionally has the shape of one of the seven gods of fortune or the Kaminari-mon lantern in Asakusa, but lately there are also those shaped like popular animation characters.