Cake anyone?

Finally... this is the result of my 7 week cake decorating course! So, what do you think??? :) Underneath the fondant is a rich fruit cake - which we are eagerly waiting to try but that means cutting the cake - which means have to take this cake apart! This cake is still sitting on my dining table - not sure for how much longer though! :)


I have to say I was very pleased with it and to my delight and definitely I felt very encouraged, I had friends placing advance "orders" for their future wedding cakes!!! :) Hahaha! Not sure if I'm ready for that huge step - especially imagine doing your friends' cakes - the pressure you would put on yourself!!! :)


These sugar roses are definitely the star of the cake - the end result of the cake definitely made all the hard work of moulding each and every petal so worthwhile! :)



This is likely to be my entry for 2007 - so just wanted to say thank you to all those who have read my blog this year - and I hope to entertain your tastebuds more in the New Year! (I am also intending to go for Level 2 cake class - stay tuned for more amazing sights... I have been promised...)


Have a blessed Christmas everyone and a fantastic and joy filled New Year!!!

Love, Elizabeth

Cake decorating classes!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been eagerly waiting for the time and opportunity to enrol in a cake decorating class! and the time has finally come! Now that CA has been completed and done (praise God!!!), I can start these cake classes :)

This week will actually be Week 5 of the course - there are 7 weeks per level (I just havet got round to blogging earlier!) This is Level 1.

Above is a bear that we made out of icing :))) Cute huh!!! :)


It has been really fun - we have been taught to make sugar roses - made out of fondant and let me tell you - it is hard work!!! No wonder wedding cakes can cost thousands of dollars! I will never look at a wedding cake in the same way again. I love the end result though - at the moment, our class is struggling to find the motivation to make these roses as they are so delicate and time consuming. But they are so pretty!!!


Last week, we were taught to ice kids' birthday cakes! So here is Elmo. Apparently there was something not quite right with the texture of the cream (to do with the manufacturer) so the cream was a little softer than usual (hence the white parts appear a little "wobbley"!) and didnt seem to absorb the colours as it normally does! But here is Elmo - a mud cake Elmo cake :)

There's 5 levels to these classes, and I'm already thinking of signing up for Level 2 in 2008 :) The classes are fun and the teacher is fantastic!!! Whilst it is definitely hard work and I dont think I will go into this full time, it is nice to have a new hobby and learn an extra skill!!! :)

Breakfast in Leederville!

Good morning all!!!

There is something exciting about breakfasts.... I don't deny it is a pain to roll out of bed in the morning, and you may even question yourself why you promised your friend to meet for breakfast on a Saturday morning when all you want to do right now is sleep in!!! This is usually what goes on in my head in the morning, but I never ever regret rolling out of bed and getting ready for a proper breakfast (out of the house).

A few weekends ago, we went to Cafe Villa for breakfast. This is quite THE place to be for breakfast - it was pretty crowded, the aroma of coffee was in the air, and attractive breakfast food was being served to tables.

What's also great about this place is that it serves breakfast all day - so if you wanna have a bit of a sleep in and still grab breakfast, you've got it! :)



I had their famous Eggs hollandaise, yep pretty nice... the muffin was toasted to perfection, had a bit of a crunch yet still soft. Recommended (although have you tried the eggs hollandaise at Dome? Now, that's really nice too). I can't remember how much it was... I think $15-$16.



Adrian had the omelette with duck :) Interesting hey!!! I think we thought the egg was a little on the dry side, but it was definitely something different! I can't remember the exact price but it was probably around about the same price as the eggs.

And... an added bonus... if you have the entertainment card, it is 25% off!

Hope you had a great breakfast this Saturday morning - or made up for it by having a good sleep in.... I did! :))

Pandan Panna Cotta!

As I was thinking what to call this blog entry, I contemplated "Green with Guilt" but then I thought, is guilt green? No jealousy is green... so anyway I thought as well that is perhaps not such a nice title for a lovely dessert! Although honestly this is quite the guilty dessert to consume!

I made these individual pandan panna cottas for a potbless we went to a couple of weekends ago! :) I stumbled upon this recipe from "Smell & Taste are my memory"'s blog (http://jinhooi.blogspot.com/) - and thought it was a great asian twist to a traditional western dessert! Check out the blog for the receipe :)

It worked out well - however the only difficulty is finding the gelatine sheets - Adrian found some from me from a chef friend of his! This is a rich, extremely creamy dessert and the pandan hint is just perfect :) I loved that the colours separated a tiny bit at the moment (somehow it just happened!)

I drizzled some coconut milk for the colour contrast, and decorated it with half a fresh strawberry and some coconut husk pieces (sold in most Asian grocery shops).

[p.s. Big thanks to G for the photos!]

Taiwanese Cakes!

The bubbletea craze that originated in Taiwan in perhaps the early 21th Century has not only toured Asia, but also Australia! There are a couple of popular joints in Perth that asians can get a taste of being in Asia.

One of the more popular, and older chains called "Utopia" recently opened up in the Myaree area. I have to admit, it's actually pretty okay. They serve bubble tea and these really cute cakes! And they have Karoke (Im not one for singing but a lot of asians do like it!).

For those from Asia who are homesick, you should come here! Not only can you purchase these asian delights (which have a selection of green tea, taro (yam) delights), you can get your favourite bubbletea (try the red bean sago - it's different - a huge sago with one bean inside!) and you are "blasted" with asian music.

The above dessert (left) is the Mango mousse with the rice cake skin - it's a good concept. Outside is this sticky, elastic pastry (which is meant to be mango I suspect but doesnt really taste like it!) and inside is layers of mango mousse and chocolate sponge. Separately they are all probably good, but a combination of them in a mouthful is kinda weird. Your tastebuds are not exactly sure where to start from. I think its about $3.50

The dessert above (right) is actually quite pleasant. A very light sponge, very prettily decorated (although I kinda think it is weird to use parsley as part of a cake decoration) and layers of cream and fruit. Well presented for $3.50.



Left - this is the green tea bun with a red bean paste inside. Not bad. $1.80 - I like the asian breads, they are a little different to the western ones in that they are softer and have a bit more flavour to it - usually have a hint of sweetness to it.

Right - again, a green tea swirl with a thick green tea paste. Not bad. $2.20



The cakes are packed in this cute little box for you to take away!

Oh and one great thing about this place is that they are open till 12am on weeknights and weekends till 2am. An additional place you can add to your list of hang out spots should your local cafe close its doors on you! :)

Cooking catch up! From Japanese to Western!

I'm going to be making up for my blogging absence of recent times! :) Hence the double entries in one night!!!

Last weekend was full on cooking *claps*! I had some of my old girlfriends over for dinner, and what's really unique about our bunch is that

1) we never fail to arrive late,
2) never fail to COOK AMAZING food
3) Always cook enough to feed an army,
4) have more courses than people at dinner :)

We always have way too much food but that's what I love about it - everyone seems to always be able to throw something tog really quite amazing! The theme was "Japanese" - see pictures below.



On Sunday (the same weekend), our cell had a BBQ. Adrian and I made a roasted vegetable, with bacon and chorizo pasta salad. It was really yummy! Really easy - literally chop the eggplant, pumpkin, and cherry tomatoes and the fetta cheese, season and drizzle with oil, bake in the oven. Cook the pasta will al dente, and toss the roasted veggies with the baby spinach and olives. Best eaten chilled. Especially with a BBQ.


Okay - this was dessert on Saturday night. I LOVE strawberries... I saw a huge pile of them at the shops yesterday and that made me happy. Bizarre but true. It's just so sweet, so nice... hard to describe *sigh with happiness* I'm going to try and make full use of the strawberry season!!! See future entries :)

This is one of my latest favourite crowd pleaser and also chef pleaser desserts! Why? Because it is so simple to do and looks fantastic! Just melt some chocolate in the microwave (Warning: be extreme careful and watchful as you do this - otherwise you may set your smoke alarm off!) and dip the strawberries in, place them on baking paper and chill them.


I hadnt made this in ages... but now I remember why I like cooking it! It is fast to cook, tasty and really quite healthy! (besides the salt content :P) because you dont use oil at all. I think the proper name is Oyaku Don - the non-katsu version.

Don't overcook the egg - pour it over at the last minute, let it cook for a couple of minutes, till the edges start to cook, turn off the heat and cover for a few minutes then serve immediately on top of japanese rice.

Gyoza! Japanese dumplings! I am so grateful to this japanese book for teaching me in simple terms how to fold these dumplings. I have never been good at folding but I think this method (although not visible here) was good - take a piece of pastry and put in a bit of the meat filling, fold it over and wet the edges to seal the dumpling, and then crimp/fold the edges to form a fan shape.

Okay that's about it for now! Hope you all are doing well! I will blog again soon - I do have quite a few entries more to go!!!

Have a great week - those in Perth, hope you did not melt in today's 39 degree heat!!!

Wedding Bells Again!!!

Yes wedding bells again! Infact 2 more wedding bells!!! My good friend Cheryl got married over a month ago - I was honoured to be her maid of honour! :) It was so much fun! We had a lovely time before and during the wedding. I took a day off during the week leading up to the wedding, and we went to this lovely spa place in Observation City Hotel - called Vanilla Spa. We had the Vanilla slice package! Wow what a treat!!! We then went to Trigg Cafe for lunch - I have heard so much about it, and did it meet expectation? Well the view was amazing - and unlike Cottesloe, it was "untouched" - it wasn't touristy and didnt have heaps of shops or anything around it. Will blog about it next!

Anyway, back to the wedding! The day was fun! It was tiring - I can't imagine how tired Cheryl and Michael must have been! but hey I was so glad and honoured to be a part of their special day. I couldnt imagine a better way to have spent a day with such a good friend!

Check out the photos below... :)

Mirrin and I

Me, Cheryl and Mirrin

Cheryl's lovely bouquet!!!
I was SO delighted to have my own fresh bouquet! :)

Edwina, Holly, me and Sasha! UWA Uni mates! :)

So what's the OTHER wedding bell??? I'm going to be Bridesmaid again!!! Yay!!! For a really good friend - Eehui! Remember my gardening, rose farm and weeding buddy? Yep I'm going to be part of another wedding in 2008! Stay tuned!!! :)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and stay COOL! It's going to be 39 degrees tomorrow (Monday) in Perth, Western Australia!

(p.s. I made a couple of new things over the weekend - will blog them soon!!!)

Lamb Cutlets & Creamy Pasta!

A couple of weekends ago, for the first time, I cooked lamb cutlets! I have never cooked lamb before... I'm not sure whether it is an asian thing, but we were never really brought up to eat much beef or lamb - we ate pork or chicken much more! Asian people often think lamb and beef have a "smell". Anyhow, these cutlets were easy to cook! You should try it sometime!

Taken from Jamie Oliver's cookbooks, he suggested to marinate the cutlets with olive oil and thyme leaves (I added in some garlic myself :P) and then for medium cooked lamb, 3mins on each side. Talk about accurate! The cutlets came out just right! :)

The recipe also suggested field mushrooms which I chucked dry over the pan to heat it up and then once warm to put it into the bowl, which the cutlets went into when cooked and to squeeze lemon juice (weird you might think but it was an excellent touch! Probably took away any potential "lamby smell"!), swirl some olive oil and to season with salt and cracked pepper.

To accompany the cutlets, I made a creamy garlic, mushroom and spinach seeded mustard pasta! Yummy! I received an excellent review from my dinner partner! Haha! :)

Hummingbird Cake!

This is called a Hummingbird Cake! Huh you might say?! Where is the bird?! No bird... just some yummy cake! I'm still not sure why it is called a Hummingbird cake - since there are no seeds or any bird related ingredient!!!


A colleague at work brought in a cake his wife baked - and it was YUMMO! He was so sweet, totally promoting his wife's cake and he was right - it was lovely! A very nice home baked type of cake - the ones that make you feel totally comfortable as you take a huge bite out of it! It's a very homely type of cake, and the beauty of it is that it is SO simple to bake. The ingredients are banana, crushed pineapple and chopped up walnuts. I always have my doubts when a recipe is too easy - esp with desserts - so I decided to give this a go! They were right - this one was literally throw everything in the mixing bowl, do a few swirls and DONE! :) and it worked!!!

It was a heavy dense type of "afternoon tea with a good friend and cup of tea" type of cake! :) It was a very satisfying bake! :) The cake rose perfectly and ahhhh.... talk about a wholesome type of cake!

Talking about cakes - I am starting cake decorating classes this Thursday for 7 weeks - so I'll try to post some pictures up! I have been waiting for YEARS to do this - super excited! :) Let's see if it's everything I've imagined it to be! :) Hope you are all doing well - drop me a line sometime! :)

I'm back! - with a little Japan!

Hihiii!!!

I'm back! Well I have heaps of entries, so stay tuned... although I might appear to have been MIA - I have lots of pictures to post and things to write about, so thank you for being patient! And thank you to all those who have asked where I have been! Hope you all have been doing well!

Okay a few entries ago, I mentioned that I had something a little Japanese to post! (sorry title may be a little misleading... I didnt go to Japan :P)

So here it is... green tea cookies! Have you ever felt that green tea tastes like fish food? It's bizarre, but it actually tastes like the smell of fish food! The odd thing is that I still eat green tea stuff! By the way, Baskins and Robins has some great green tea ice-cream!

Anyway these cookies were a little different - I was a little too generous with the matcha (green tea powder). This cookie had a bit of a different texture - it isn't crispy and light like choc chip cookies, in fact it felt a little denser but still a nice change! And it's green! Try it for a change!

Receipe courtesy of this fantastic food blog called "Lovescool" : http://www.lovescool.com/

Green Tea Sweets

Ingredients
Yield (2” leaf shape): Approx 25

3/4 cup (2.25 oz) Confectioners sugar
5 oz Unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 3/4 cup (8.5 oz) All-purpose flour
3 Large egg yolks
1.5 TBS Matcha (powdered green tea)
1 cup Granulated sugar (for coating)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Whisk the confectioner’s sugar and green tea together in a bowl.
• Add the butter and green tea/sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until smooth and light in color.
• Add the flour and mix until well combined.
• Add the egg yolks and mix just until the eggs are fully incorporated and a mass forms.
• Form the dough into a disk and chill in the refrigerator until firm (about 30 minutes).
• Roll the dough out to ½” thickness.
• Cut the dough with a leaf cookie cutter.
• Toss each cut cookie in a bowl of granulated sugar to coat.
• Place the sugar-coated cookie on a parchment lined pan. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges.

First Day of Spring!

After recently acquiring the "gift" of flowers, gardening and even weed appreciation, a trip to the Araluen tulip festival was indeed on the list of "Things to do".

Many many years ago, my family made a trip to Araluen, but I think I was obviously young and immature and did not appreciate nature and must have declined the trip. I think. I wasn't in any of the family photos. I suspect I was in that stage of life where a trip to a park to me was just a larger version of my backyard was not how I wanted to spend an afternoon.

However, now obviously a lot more matured *ahem*, and with much influence from my friend EH, who has taught me to become friends with my garden rather than the enemy, I looked forward to checking out the tulips!

We arrived at about 930am on Saturday morning, and the air was crisp, a little chilly but extremely fresh. You could almost taste the clean air! :) There were these people that must be keen photographers out with their huge cameras... G, you could have been one of them! :P

Anyway, check out the tulips below - the festival runs till the end of Sept, so be quick and make a trip up there! The bright pink tulips were my favourite...! The tearoom at the Araluen Park is really nice too - it's an old wooden house, up in the hill... ahhh homely kinda cool! :)

There is also a tearoom and potted tulip place on Croyden Rd on the way to the Araluen Park where we stopped on the way back to buy a few tulip plants (*Note: Araluen Park doesn't actually sell tulips) Unfortunately, they did not have any of these pink ones, but I bought 2 red ones for Mum (oh my gosh, they are amazing.... I am not sure whether I love roses or tulips more now!) and an orange and yellow one for EH :)

Make a trip there within the next month if you have the time! It's only about 45mins away from Perth, a quick getaway and you get to enjoy Spring in its truest form!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Ooohhhh.... cherry blossoms.... and we didnt even have to go to Japan!!! :) This is such a pretty tree!!!

(http://www.araluenbotanicpark.com.au/)

(P.S. sorry no food pictures this weekend!)

The Harvest, North Fremantle

This is ONE great restaurant you should visit! As you can tell, it is a "house" restaurant, located in North Fremantle, in a location that could be easily missed (we almost did!). However, do not let the looks of this house deceive you, because behind the doors a cosy, homely dining experience awaits you!

This is "The Harvest", a very cosy, personal restaurant in North Fremantle.... the minute you step into this place you know you're going to have a great time! They had really nice funky type of music, and the place was buzzing! We went there for breakfast on a Saturday morning (quite a few weeks ago! This is a very overdue entry!) and no bookings were allowed, but we took the chance.

The door is old - infact you might have thought this was one of those unkempt houses, but once you open it, it's a whole other world! The walls are lined with flowery wall paper, coffee aroma and the happy clinking of utensils. We had to wait for a bit, and they have these large homely leather sofas for us to sit on. Wooden floor boards, bold coloured walls and funky music.

Scrambled eggs and salmon on toast, with little bits of shaved truffles

"The Harvest" - instead of hashbrowns, they served cubed roasted potatos

Waffles with stewed pears and very decadent chocolate mousse.

Unfortunately, the food for its price was not as fantastic as the actual restaurant's atmosphere itself. It was rather pricy for the quantity, and taste wise, it was nice, but nothing I would really rave about. However, I would recommend this place just for its atmosphere and the coffees were served really fast, and the service was pretty good too. They do open for lunch and dinner too, I would like to go back and try that!

(Photos courtesty of G - many thanks!!!)

The Harvest
1 Harvest Road
North Fremantle WA 6159
Phone: (08) 9336 1831

Chorizo Pasta & Caesar Salad!

Despite it being a weeknight, I just could not resist cooking! Had some friends over for dinner, and we said that we would just do a takeaway because we work and there would be no time to cook.... but as the dinner day came closer, I couldnt resist a chance @ cooking! So whilst this is nothing fancy, it is pretty delicious, wholesome and a great winter comfort dish!

Chorizo sausages, olives, semi-sun dried tomatos, fresh basil, cans of tomatos, fresh garlic and onion and pasta! Honestly, that's it! You basically fry up the garlic and onion with the sausages, add in the cans of tomatos, season to taste and chuck in the fresh basil and the al dente pasta! Mix all together and serve! This is a great combination - lots of different bits to eat in one mouth full!


Caesar salad - tossed to perfection by Shona! :)

I just found a new recipe I'm dying to try out - so I shall attempt to do it this weekend, will keep you in suspense for now...:P and a couple of outstanding restaurant reviews will be coming up soon too.... Have a great week all!!! :)

"Man" Biscuits!

Now you boys can bravely eat these Pocky sticks! We figured it must be "men" biscuits because it was a dark chocolate pocky stick! haha!

And boys, incase you wanted some advice, wisdom and encouragement.... turn to Pocky! :P