sweeet!

Vanilla and Mudcake Cupcakes

2010-07-17T04:38:00.001-07:00

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?

Garlic Butter

2010-06-21T05:15:00.001-07:00

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 :)

cakes galore :)

2010-05-31T05:48:00.000-07:00

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?

Lindt Cafe + Soul Kitchen

2010-05-13T04:13:00.000-07:00

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!

The theory of MAX OUT

2010-05-06T04:35:00.000-07:00

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?

What English Teachers live for . . .

2010-04-27T03:07:00.000-07:00

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?

Hello, my pretties

2010-04-23T03:11:00.000-07:00

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 . . . .

Oat, White chocolate and Cranberry Cookies

2010-04-21T02:45:00.000-07:00

No words from me today :) The pictures speak for themselves!

Chewy Oat, White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup of butter

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of white sugar

1 tsp vanilla essense

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 tsp baking soda

3 cups of rolled oats

3/4 cup of cranberries

3/4 cup of white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180 Celcius

1. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla essence.
2. Mix the flour, soda, rolled oats in a separate bowl.
3. Mix the flours and sugar mixture together and stir in chocolate chips and cranberries.
4. Form little heaped tsp balls and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until the bottoms are just starting to brown. Do not overbake!

Really. Must. Study.

Oh for the love of Jam!

2010-04-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

Jam Jam JAM! The butterfly cakes went down quite well, but I discovered another 6 tiny jars of scottish preserves and so the quest for Jam recipes continues.

Let's be honest; our family is not a jam family. We're not even a toast or scone family. In fact, being Chinese, we are a strict rice family. My Dad eats rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Recently, however, my Dad has also become a health nut and has swapped our fluffly, fragrant jasmine rice for the dreaded low GI Basmati rice. For someone who loves the short grain sticky rice of Japanese and Korean food, the long, spindly and dry grains of Basmati are awful. It's not so bad though - there was period where our poor rice cooker was churning out Brown rice, Red rice, Wild Rice, Black rice, Millet and even Barley.

It's become a constant battle of jasmine vs. basmati rice in our household. But we've reached a compromise of mixed jasmine and basmati rice.

But where was I? Oh yes - Jam!

Anyhow, I whipped up this super easy and tasty, batch of Jam Drop Cookies. Or thumbprint butter cookies - they can be whatever you like.

Jam Drop Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of plain flour
1/3 cup of jam that you love

Preheat Oven to 190 degrees celcius
1. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in eggs until combined.
3. Stir in flour until a soft dough is formed.
4. Roll into 2cm balls and place 3cm apart on a baking tray, and place in the fridge for 10mins.
5. Take out and form little holes for jam, using fingers, spoons or any other round pointy ended utensil.
6. Place teaspoonfuls of jam in the cavities.
7. Bake in oven for 8 - 10 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown. These cookies will turn out very white so don't worry if they seem undercooked at the end of 10 minutes - they aren't!

Eat a delicious soft, slightly crumbly, buttery cookie with a dollop a jam in the centre - yuum! Also these cookies are excellent for when you're feeling down - but also dangerously addictive. I inhaled like 3 in one go, and Jen was sneaking them past me as well :)

End of foundation exams coming up too. Trying to fit more study in these days, but it seems that whenever I start studying I get distracted by baking.

Ah well, at least it's tasty procrastination ;) God bless and good night.

The Easter Show, Jam and Butterfly Cakes

2010-04-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

The Royal Easter Show is one of those events that I always though of as a huge commercial scam determined to rip off young families through show bags, carnival rides and shockingly overpriced water ($3.50 a bottle for Mount Franklin!). After staying away for a few years, I decided to give it a go again with Shaun, Ally, Chris and Vicki - it helped that Shaun got us free entry (thanks Shaun). It was a good thing I did, because it turned out to be a Super Fun Day.

The best attraction is definitely the Woolworths Fresh Food Dome. It's a huge dome containing the vegetable and fruit exhibits from each state, but also showcasing small and specialty stores selling their wares from all over NSW. We went around filling up on free samples; a sausage here, a friand there and somehow, a cup of butter lettuce which seemed like a good idea at the time. . .?

Also, on recommendation from Chris I tried the COON toasted cheese sandwiches - two slices of white bread and cheese, toasted. So delicious, yet so simple! - Isn't it funny how most things are? Then there was the iconic CHILLI sauce store, with ominous 10+++++/10 chilli sauces. However it was the homemade jam store that enchanted me and I'll admit, I was suckered into buying these tiny sample jars of jam. Which upon coming home, was told that there was plenty of jam at home and why did you buy more?

Determined to use my super cute, and not completely-useless at all jams, I decided on making Butterfly Cakes. Super easy to whip up, they are vanilla butter cupcakes with jam and cream. Based on this recipe: www.exclusivelyfood.com.au/2006/07/butterfly-cakes-recipe.html

Butterfly Cakes

Makes 12.

Ingredients
115 gm unsalted butter

125 gm white sugar
1/2 ts vanilla extract

2 large eggs

225gm self raising flour

150 ml milk

Topping:

60 g of your favourite jam!

3/4 cup thickened Cream

1 teaspoon Icing Sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius

2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.

3. Beat in eggs until combined.

4. Add half the flour and stir in by hand. Then add half the milk and stir in again, by hand.

5. Repeat step 4, for the rest of the flour and milk.

6. Stir until smooth and combined.

7. Divide batter between 12 cupcake cases.

8. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until inserted skewer comes out clean.

9. After letting cupcakes cool completely, use a sharp knife to cut out a round from the top.

10. Cut the round in half.

11. Add a 1/2 teaspoon of jam into the hole and fill with whipped cream.

12. Arrange the two halves of the cupcake pieces like so, and add a dollop of jam in between!

Eat with love :) The jams are amazing!

Just got back from Benny's Birthday Bash. I think it's funny how some people have changed a lot and others haven't changed at all since starting uni. I've gone from struggling a lot at uni to getting some semblance of order in my life though, I think I really just have to stop trying to cram so much into everyday and take it slow sometimes. I'm home early for tutoring tomorrow. Sigh. Still the countdown is on! 4 weeks until I finally quit my job!

sweeet is undergoing renovations!

2010-04-14T02:44:00.000-07:00

I've decided it's been a fair while since I've baked anything (failed macarons don't count), and that there has been enough fluffing around. Yes, there have been assignments and soon to be exams at uni, but I'm always going to be busy and there is never a better time than now. My soul has been crying out for a good cake to decorate and I hear medicine is only going to get tougher.

My dream was and is to become a pastry chef, and even though I'm really not fantastic at baking, I love it. Yes, I do! So, here's my promise to myself and you all, I'm going to try to bake at least once a week and keep this blog updated.

Love you all (heh, do I even have readers?), and wish me luck!

Pauls' macarons at St. pauls

2010-04-11T06:23:00.000-07:00

Pauls Macarons at Pauls. - So. damn. delicious.

We decided to go visit one of London's most beautiful cathedrals - St Pauls. And it just so happened that French Patisserie Chain store PAULS, had a bakery right next to St Pauls (how fitting!). We bought a huge chocolate macaron that was amazing - it had a crisp and crunchy outer shell with a soft and chewy centre, topped off by a smooth and rich chocolate ganache.
What are macarons you ask? Macarons are deliciously delicate petit fours, made up of two almond meringue biscuits sandwiched together by heavenly ganache or buttercream.

The cathedral was breathtaking as well. So St Pauls is famous for the whispering gallery up near the top of the dome. Its a perfectly circular dome inside and high up in the church, where you can whisper your words into the wall, and it'll travel to the other side sounding as clear as if they were standing next to you! It actually worked - if you put your ear up to the wall you can hear everyone's whispered conversations.

Mmm. Food/travel blogging reminds me of happier days when life was eating and seeing the sites. Today was first day back at uni after an amazing mid-sem break. . . still unsure about medicine and whether I'd actually want to be a doctor. . .? Ah well, I guess we'll see. In the meantime keep posted for the next foodgasmic experience!

the Rootmaster in London

2010-03-06T22:43:00.000-08:00

When I think London - I think red double decker buses! This charming restaurant tucked in the corner of the Old Truman Brewery off Bricklane has converted your typical 'routemaster' to The Rootmaster - London's Original Vegan 'Bustaurant'. The bottom level is their kitchen and we were led to the top level, where there were several cosy tables and chairs. It was surprisingly roomy for a 'Bus'taurant, and since we had already eaten, we ordered two glasses of mulled wine and an icecream dessert plate.

Too bad we didn't try anything else on the menu, it looked really good (we were hungrily devouring our next-door diner's food with our eyes).

Anyone know of creative restaurants in Sydney?

Food Halls At Harrods - London!

2010-03-04T01:00:00.000-08:00

I'm not dead - hooray! After two exhilirating months in Europe and China, I bring you my food adventures from all corners of the Globe aaaand first stop: London. Though London isn't known for it's amazing food (bangers and mash, anyone?) we went to visit the food halls at Harvey Nichols and Harrods.

One word.

Amazing. A-MA-ZING!

I'd like to think it was what Food Heaven would look like. They had everything you could think of- seafood bar, oyster bar, bakery, patisserie, chocolatier. . .etc, and we were there just in time for everyone's Christmas Shopping. To get some idea of the sheer mindblowingness of Harrods food hall, think of our pitiful imitation; the David Jones food hall in the city, but times a thousand, and mixed with a cocktail of steriods and pure luxury. Below, was a chocolatier carefully glueing on chocolate stars to a chocolate ball in the midst of hundreds of bustling Christmas shoppers - now that is some killer concentration.

So I was wandering around, awestruck, and feasting with my eyes and not my stomach (since the price range was something ludicrous) when I stumbled across this jar of vegemite. Though excited to see Australian Food being represented, the price made me very very sad. Yes. $7 for a jar of vegemite.

And now that I'm back in Australia, I'm feeling pretty good with myself for buying a $3 jar of vegemite twice this size, as opposed to $7 dollars for some salty goodness (great with western star butter and cruskits .... In fact, I'm eating one right now :) )

In addition to ridiculously priced vegemite, there was also the debut of $10 Arnotts Cheese and Bacon Shapes (another favourite munchie), starring alongisde the $8 packet of TimTams. And honey, not surprisingly is expensive all over the world. So moral of the story: bring your own timtams, shapes and vegemites overseas - especially China, where you can't actually find them.

Also, in danger of being extremely blasphemus, the food halls did give me pause for thought. As you may have gathered, I am a foodie. Possibly even a food whore. I know, shocking, considering I'm writing a food blog :). But I felt like these food halls were so luxurious, possibly even too luxurious, because even though I am deeply in love with food (yes, we have a torrid relationship and often argue about whether of not it has a place in my life - namely, my hips), it almost seemed like it was such a waste. That people with too much money were spending so much on delicious, granted, but expensive and unnecessary food - which lets, face it, is consumed and later forgotten about. Though to be unashamedly honest, I remember almost everything I eat.

You may be shaken at the thought, but if we could take all the money and wastage that this insanely luxurious food hall was generating - we could even stop world hunger. Yes, I'm a bleeding heart. But isn't it better to have children eat food in destitute countries, then have 20 different kinds of handmade chocolate counters?

... and let me tell you, this is huge, because I LOVE my chocolate.

Oh, and as a disclaimer; this could be stemming from the fact that I wasn't able to eat/afford any of the food and was thus, unconciously bitter. Had I actually tasted the food, I may very well be singing a completely different tune, something along the lines of ... 'wow.'

Anyhow, barring all that, if you do happen to visit London and even if you aren't a foodie, definitely go visit the Food Halls in of Harrods, and in Harvey Nichols, Fortnum and Masons and even Selfridges. You won't regret it :)

Geoff and Tiff's Wedding!

2009-11-06T16:23:00.000-08:00

So after three days of baking and decorating I finally made 180 cupcakes! (Yes I know the original aim was 200, but I may have eaten, one or two . . . or several :P)

It was actually really tiring, but also really fun and thanks so much to Michelle who helped me bake, and Amanda and Ally who helped to decorate! By the end, I was so tired, that some of them turned out really quite dodgy, but ah well :P I'm still learning, which is what counts! While I was baking them all, I was thinking though, if this was what it was like for professional cake decorators. Do they have to stand all day and make hundreds and hundreds of cupcakes? Or cakes? And I realised how tricky it was trying to make a perfectly square cake, which is still didn't really manage, but oh well.

Visual Arts. Sigh. The bane of my existence. Yes, the HSC LIVES ON. Speaking of which, does anyone know when nominations for Art Express come out? I'm rooting for you Janette!

And also! It's official! I'm headed to Europe to meet up with my sister mid-december :) I timed it well, so I can miss out on all the hoo-haa when ATARs come out hopefully :P If all goes to plan, I'll be leaving Sydney on December 15th arriving in London on 16th, travelling around Paris, Spain, Italy before going to HongKong and flying back to China to visit relatives and then getting back to Australia in FEB 17th! 2 months, hurrah!

Korean Pancake!

2009-10-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

After much frustration, hair tearing, and general wailing about formatting and deleted posts, I've finally learnt to upload pictures first, BEFORE writing anything.

Ah. All is right with the world.

Anyhow, my Aunt and Uncle came to Australia on Wednesday to hopefully collect their visas. They're staying at our house at the moment, which has actually turned out to be quite interesting ;) (I often emerge from my room and notice that suddenly parts of the house seem a lot cleaner xD) Everyone knows that studies in China are krazeh, and in a country with that many people, getting into university is one step closer to job security and a happy lifestyle. They have university final exams that go for a whole three days that basically determines the rest of their lives. So you can imagine, everyone gets pretty stressed out.

Once they heard that I was doing my HSC, they shoo'd me away from doing anything. It was basically, 'Go study! Go study! GOOOOO study!' Which was kinda nice at first, cause they'd bring me fruit and water and do all the chores. But then, I realised I didn't want to study, and so I was basically confined to my room. Damn.

But teehee, I snuck out into the Kitchen at 11pm and stealthily prepared ingredients to make . . . (dun dun dun) KOREAN SEAFOOD PANCAKE!

Korean Seafood Pancake

Ingredients:

Korean Package Flour Mix (The yellow thing in the picture it tells you how much water to add on the back, but in Korean :P )

250g Pancake Mix

420 ml Water

Seafood: 2 prawns and 2 octopi (clearly, I didn't have a lot of supplies)

Your Choice of Vegetables:

Shallots/Spring Onions

Carrots

Capisicum

1. Mix the flour and water until combined.

2. Stir the other ingredients in.

3. Add oil into a griddle/pan and fry each side on medium heat for a minute or so

4. Serve with YUPPIE mayonnaise, and Okonomiyaki sauce (optional, but makes it ohsoyummy)

:) Can you spot the sideways smiley? (still doesn't know how to rotate pictures D: sigh.)

TADA!!! Pancake :)

5 days and 24 cupcakes!

2009-10-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

4 DAYS TO GO! And still not studying properly. (And Back on blog and baking, even after a super long hiatus) It's like the amount I get done is inversely proportional to the square root of the amount of time to exams (teehee, see if you can figure that one out! and apologies in advance for nerdiness.)

Yesterday was the first day I stayed home for the whole day in a long time. I think, during these holidays I've managed to go to every library in a 10mile radius. Carlo, Penno, Castle Hill, Parra, Epping, Eastwood, West Ryde, Hornsby ... and even Dundas (which really, is just one large room). So today also gave me the perfect opportunity to make cupcakes for Richard's 18th birthday! Spent three days doing this, baking the cupcakes, ganaching the cupcakes and then decorating them :)

Check it:

I know pink and yellow are a bit girly, but I thought it was a suitable match for his *ahem* bright shirts. And really, how can you make cupcakes manly anyway? It was also a good excuse for me to test run making cupcakes for Tiff and Geoff's Wedding :) (200 cupcakes in 2 days baby :P It's gonna happen)

Yes. A wedding. They weren't going to have a cake, so I offered to make them one. I was fully ready to make a three tier and gorgeous cake, but realised that making three huge cakes and fondanting them without any prior experience AND during my HSC was just asking for trouble, so instead I settled for wedding cupcakes. And forgoing the opportunity to make wedding cupcakes in order to study for HSC ? Nonsense :P What HSC? What is this HSC of which you speak?

Also, the picture quality is pretty shoddy, because I took them with my mobile phone, since Jen still has the camera in Europe. (sigh). However I'm really excited because I might be going to join her in January! EUROPE! Can you imagine? Think of all those lovely pastriesss :P Maybe I can run away to pastry school and not come back.

Anyhoo, though it's too late for me, STUDY HARD EVERYONE!

AZA AZA FIGHTING! (:P Just rewatched full house - great for procrastination)

P.S. Cupcake designs were also shamelessly ripped off from my idol Su Yin, (http://www.cookingismypassion.blogspot.com/) who incidentally, after finishing a bachelor degree in Sydney, went to America and did a pastry course before returning to her home in Malaysia and starting up her own designer cake business. Neat, huh?

Mmm... shoes?

2009-07-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

Mm. I love cake. And I love shoes. Have you seen those pretty babies at Peeptoe? I popped by Castle towers today, and man are they just the most beautiful things I've seen! Too bad they're $250 each :(
But normally, cake and shoes don't mix. I mean, how many times have you dropped that gorgoeous cream sponge cake on your shoe? (Actually, I don't think I've ever done that . . . yet)
Anyhoo, I present to you cake in a shoe
This was my first foray into fondant, and I have to say, it was really fun! fondant = playdough for aspiring chefs. It was a late birthday present cake for a friend who loves her converse, and I was pretty pleased with the result. I wanted to make the converse shoe box, but I ran out of fondant

(The cake was a rich chocolate cake covered in ganache)

dinner

2009-06-27T04:38:00.001-07:00

I made dinner today for the first time in a looong time and probably the last time too, (darntrials). Massaman curry, Chicken Stirfry, Stuffed bitter melon and Stirfried vegetables, mmm yumm. TOok the whole day though, it always takes me forever to cook ;P I'll never make it to masterchef at this rate.

There goes the neighbourhood . . .

2009-06-27T03:01:00.000-07:00

Ah, look who's finally hopped on the bandwagon. It feel so bizzare blogging your thoughts and feelings, especially in full sentences! But I wanted to share my journey through cooking, love and christianity and have a little corner in cyberspace where I can store recipes. Mm, I made these mini cheesecakes a while back, but I found photos and wanted to share these cute pictures with you!

Mini Marbled Cheesecakes

Crust:

200g of your favourite biscuits (I use timtams!)

1/4 cup dessicated coconut

50g chopped macadamia nuts

50g melted butter (more if you use drier biscuits)

Filling:

500g or 2 blocks of cream cheese, softened

1 x 400g condensed milk

3 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla essence

100 g white chocolate, melted

100g dark chocolate, melted

This was inspired by Lori's recipes http://dessertcomesfirst.com/archives/424 which is really great, but I find that coconut and nuts in the crust just make this cheesecake heavenly!

Method.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius, and line cupcake tins with foil cupcake patties.

For the crust, break up the biscuits into large chunks or smaller chunks depending on what kind of crust you like. Add the coconut, chopped nuts and mix in the melted butter. Press the base into the patty cases and pop it in the fridge to firm it up a little.

In the meantime, beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add the condensed milk gradually until well mixed. Add eggs one a time, and the 1 tsp of vanilla. Separate the batter into two halves, and beat the white chocolate and dark chocolate into one each. Carefully dollop separate batters into each patty case, mixing them, marbling them (by running a knife and swirling it to make patterns) or use toothpicks to create cute pictures!

Before baking, gently tap the pan to get rid of air bubbles in the batter. place the pan in a waterbath (a tray filled with water) to prevent overheating and cracking in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes about 18-24.

PS. The cheesecakes actually shrivelled up in the oven and air bubbles came up when the water in the waterbath ran out, so make sure it doesn't dry out!

Hehe, me, my sister and her friend had a lot of fun with these! Enjoy!

And does anyone know how to rotate pictures?