Saturday, July 17, 2010

Vanilla and Mudcake Cupcakes


Vanilla Cupcakes and Mudcupcakes or the story of how Buttercream is the bane of my existence and should die, immediately.

60 cupcakes, on the whole are not terribly difficult to make, especially with trusty recipes from yours truly, exclusivelyfood.com.au. My old singing teacher-turned-friend asked me to make pink cupcakes for her twin daughters 21st birthdays, a challenge that I was super excited to tackle after not decorating cupcakes since last years wedding.

But who knew that buttercream consistency could be so darn hard to get right? It was either too dry or too wet, and was never smooth but lumpy. Sigh. Take it from me to you, please don't ever attempt to do something fancy for an event that you've never tried before, it only results in stressful disasters. One of my problems is that I always try to jump ahead of myself, and dive elbow deep into the cheese. Or in more coherent language, I bite off more than I can chew, ie, the great croquembouche disaster of '09 and the curryless curry (a story for another time) of spicy doom.

So 2 days, 12 blocks of butter, and 1kg of icing sugar, and 750gms of cream cheese later I present to you deliciously not-perfect cupcakes!







Which cupcake is your favourite? :)

And on an excited sidenote, you can do general Eds at COFA! (Since you have to do 12units of other faculty general education subjects/courses during your medicine degree), I really want to do some funky design courses, or fine arts, or languages (french or mandarin?), thoughts?

Monday, June 21, 2010

Garlic Butter

Trying out a new thing - recipelook:


It's not terribly clear, but if you have any questions about ingredients buzz me a line, and I'll post up the recipe later. Though I think that picture recipes are pretty cute idea: recipelook.co.uk inspired me!
Not much to say here, but love you all, study hard and good luck for exams :)

xx

Monday, May 31, 2010

cakes galore :)

HELLO HELLO HELLO :)
Been super busy and tired and generally falling asleep all over the place, but thought that I hadn't updated in a while so pulled out some gorgeous cakes I photographed in London :)







Whee :) Penguins! My favourite is the mahjong cake, what's yours?

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Lindt Cafe + Soul Kitchen


On a spontaneous Tuesday, me and a friend (Minna) went to Lindt Cafe @ Martin Place, after uni. We walked up and down Martin Place a few times, and completely missed it - had to ask several newspaper seller stands where it was, only to have it pointed out that we were right in front of it.

Funnily enough, we didn't have any chocolate (gasp) but instead ordered Iced Coffee, Ice tea and two delices. aka. MACARONS. The Iced Coffee was fantastic, creamy and just enough bitter - but the Iced tea was a tad bit strange. Though it was advertised as being made fresh daily in store from high quality tea, it was really just chilled tea in water with a wedge of lemon and maybe a drop of honey. Macarons were beautiful, and tasty - but still not as good as Adriano Zumbos or the Renaissance Bakery at the rocks. (speaking of which I ALMOST drove to balmain today to buy Macarons but fought the urge :)) I'm still curious though, what are they filled with? The filling isn't creamy enough to be buttercream, and it's definitely not ganache. Any ideas people?



Also, as you may or may not have read on Bosco's blog, Christine, Bosco and me went to watch German Film: SOUL KITCHEN! It was pretty good, very dramatic and overall a fun fun movie. It gave me mixed feelings about becoming a chef though - crappy hours, stuck in the kitchen, dangerous environment - oh but the glory of knife chopping skills!

Aha - dramatic lighting from Circular Quay's Dendy Cinemas.

Love you all :) Have a fantastic weekend kiddies!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The theory of MAX OUT

When you’re sitting on the train (like I am now) and can’t remember what you were doing on Monday, then you know you’ve taken the theory of MAX OUT too far.

The theory of MAX OUT – when you squeeze as much as possible into every minute of every hour, living life so insanely that you need multiple coffees and that when you collapse into bed at the end of the day you don’t regret a single second.


Let’s have a look at the week in review, shall we?

LAST THURSDAY: Skipped UNI and stayed home to cook dinner for the family with Ally, drove out to GREENWOOD for her 18th with her MeCo friends and met an asian Male Model Home at 1am
Spotted: Nate, Jeremy and Peter from Med

FRIDAY: Slept in and missed a morning coffee meeting with sim (died a little inside), instead rushed to SYDNEY UNI to meet up with CHRISTINE and BOSCO – had lunch at Loving Eden in Glebe, walked Christine back to her quiz and had coffee with Richard for an hour (who showed me around the vet building, and Sydney uni is so beautiful it’s unfair). After meeting up with Richard, walked to Newtown (one of my favorite suburbs!) and bought shoes and a dress for Integration party later that night. Rushed off to the 3:45 HOT YOGA class, finished at 6, and then immediately went to a 6:30 hiphop class at Dancekool. Gussied up in the change room for integration, but coming out felt so tired that had to collapse at home, around 10pm
Spotted! David Tang, Shaun, Caroline Banh

SATURDAY: Left house at 8:30 to start working at 10. Arrived at tutoring only to have one of my students say F*ck you. Lovely. Drove to Newtown straight after work for Ally’s Thai La Ong 2 Dinner, and got stuck in one way side streets. Almost parked on Raper st, but decided not to tempt fate and parked on Church St instead. Had a delicious dinner, and was awesome seeing everyone again – some more than others. Sent Ally, Minoli and Michelle to Epping, where Jen called with cravings – so went into Coles and bought so midnight munchies for her and June – we stayed up talking. Home at 10:30

SUNDAY: Church! Lunch, Grocery and Microwave shopping. Fell asleep in the car on the way home and woke up 2 hours later alone, disorientated in the garage – was not very pleasant. Dragged myself awake and picked up Emmy and met Carmen to eat dinner at hOOters (yes :P). It wasn’t bad, but dessert at MAX Brenner was so much more amazing. Emmy and Carmen are beautiful souls. Arrived home 11:45pm

Monday: New day, new course – decided to actually get my ass into gear after a dismal foundations exam. Two crazy lectures with the second years, an amazingly fun contraceptive tutorial (yes we put condoms on crazy man penis bananas) and meeting with our new SG. Worked for 2 hours before catching a bus with Grace to her house and then a lift to Bible study. Got home at around 10pm (pretty early!)

Tuesday: Two more insane lectures on the Pelvis and Female Reproductive System, finished at 11am (yay!) went to CBS, had lunch with Minna and Michael, circled the law library for a bit before finaly figuring out the entrance, and studied for 2 hours. Caught a bus to HOT YOGA with MInna (yay, still my friend even after the torture J) and had a cheap dinner at central and caught a bus back to uni to watch Med Revue – some memorable moments – my personal favourite – it sucks to be me! Home at 11:35pm Not bad, not bad.

Wednesday: Wow. Okay, I really took this day to the next level.

9-11am Two lectures
11-1pm An anatomy practical on female reproduction system (really really not pretty!)1-3pm Scenario Group meeting
3-5pm Histology Practical
5-6pm NOT DEAD YET

met up with Christine at Sydney Uni to go to Newtown for free food at the People’s Kitchen (when I go again, I’ll post more aboutit!), couldn’t stay long because I was just too exhausted 6:30 left for home
8:00 Got home (so early!)
Baked WHITE CHOCOLATE, CRANBERRY and OAT COOKIES again, until 10pm(so no new post there, since the recipe is already up! But it does fulfill my one week baking quota :P)aaaaand slept . zzzzz.

THURSDAY, TODAY: 2 lectures in the morning, Lunch with Michelle and attempted studying in the Library until 5pm, went to a 6:30 FUNK dance Class at Sydney Dance Company and two coffees and 2 hours later, sitting on the train, so ready to get home. Was considering going to an 8 o clock hot yoga class tomorrow, but decided that I wanted to still be alive for my lunch with SIM and meeting up with Phil and Christine for Finders Keepers Markets. Hope I’m still alive by the end of next week.

So, what did you do this week?

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

What English Teachers live for . . .

I was trying to teach my tutorees creative writing on Saturday, and I remembered the most awesome analogies I had received ages ago in my email. I present to you the 25 funniest Analogies, which can also be found here: http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/the-25-funniest-analogies-collected-by-high-school-english-teachers/

And though the story goes that these were collected by High School teachers when they marked creative writing, it turns out that they were actually entered in a Washington Post Humour project way back in 1999.

The 25 FUNNIEST ANALOGIES EVER

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.



My favourites are: (I died laughing!) 4, 7, 12, 16, 22

What are your favourites?

Friday, April 23, 2010

Hello, my pretties

Thought I'd share this somewhat interesting tidbit I experienced when eating in China. We went into the rural outskirts of Guilin for hot springs! Famous for the 'Guilin Gao' - or strange grass turtle jelly you can get in a can, rice noodles and scenery, it is also my Mother's hometown.

Most of their restaurants were by the side of the road, with fresh produce displayed out the front. Normally, you have chickens, and preserved pork, vegetables and even honeycombs - but this restaurant had an adorable creature sitting outside in a cage.


It was an adorable squirrel of some sort! I was immediately suspicious and horrified - of course, you're all thinking it as well - it was going to be eaten. But, I quickly asked my Aunt, who talked to the owners and assured me that it was merely a pet and a side attraction.



So adorable! Just look at its expression :) In fact, we loved it so much we were considering buying it to take home. Our Aunt asked if it was for sale, and they replied yes it was - BY THE KILO.

D:

For some reason, I don't think it's there anymore . . . .