Raspberry trifle Cupcakes AND Nutella Cupcakes!!!

(Note: Had heaps of problems putting pictures up... so this was written like nearly a week ago... on Sunday!!!)


The smell of chocolate is DIVINE.....!!! My nutella cupcakes are currently happily baking in the oven and wow.... I can really smell the chocolate!!! Yummmyyyy!!! Boy, have I missed my oven and kitchen! :)

This weekend was a food feast!!! Eulynn organised a really nice steamboat dinner last night (forgot to take pics!) for a few of us - such good fun! Loads of food and fantastic fellowship! Friday night we had 2 birthday surprises - which funnily enough I missed both of them by about 5mins! Hahaha! But yes there was more food.... and more laughs and tons of fun!!! This is what is called "home"!!!

Raspberry trifle cupcakes turned out pretty nice, except that I misread the custard icing method and hence it didnt quite have that nice peak form... but it was still pretty yummy! Bought REAL vanilla bean paste (@ $10 a jar! TINY jar too! yikes!) to use as well... :) Anyway, they look a lot prettier than the nutella cupcakes... and it was nice and moist, and not too sweet. This recipe was taken from Donna Hay's magazine... she has some really nice pretty cupcakes in there!

My nutella cupcakes are DONE! I was going to make some pretty decorations and cover it with chocolate frosting, but I think that is going to be an overkill by the smells of it! So perhaps next week we'll do something pretty, for now... we'll enjoy the cupcakes in its natural form, hehe!!! :) (Recipe courtesy from "Baking Sheet" http://bakingsheet.blogspot.com search for "Nutella")

Taste verdict: The recipe was not wrong when it said it would be a little bit tricky to swirl the nutella as the cupcake base is very thick and rich!!! My family enjoyed the cupcakes very much (yay!) - I think it was a rich and solid cupcake, but unfortunately, I think it could have been a bit more moist... it was a little bit more dry than I would have liked it to be! I think it's fairly ordinary... the raspberry trifle one was a little more special! :)

I think next weekend will be proper savoury cooking..... stay tuned!!!

Famous Sydney Sights!

Check out the awesome Sydney weather!!!

Some famous sights as follows.... love it love it love it!!!

Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Martin Place!

(Martin Place was where I saw the famous korean actress from "Autumn in My Heart" - she really is very pretty looking! She was shooting a commercial for a drink/juice! - no wonder there were so many asian people around Martin Place that day!!!)

This is The Rocks Market, which is open every weekend! Pictures of the buildings were around Kings St Wharf area... really nice looking buildings, which house cafes! :)

Stay tuned for my afternoon cupcake creation - Raspberry Trifle Cupcakes!!!

It's ready, I gotta go dress it up now! :)))

Japanese pizza & Award winning Corn?!!!

Yes, Japanese pizza... it really was a jap pancake with noodles, cabbage, prawns and meat! It was really yummy! Gotta try to make it sometime! This place in Chinatown also sold the japanese pancake filled with custard, red bean or green tea or chocolate paste :)

Yes apparently this corn has won some prices! It is this stall at The Rocks markets and all they say is cooked corn on the cob, and you can have it with butter, salt and pepper! It was pretty nice! $3 for one tho! :)

Lindt Cafe @ Martin Place!

Ahhhhh..... yes made it to the Lindt Cafe, which is on Martin Place... it is a pretty nice cafe, and between the 2 of us, Cheryl and I ordered a dark hot chocolate and a piece of their Lindt chocolate cake. Ok, ordinary you might think, but the cake was superb! I was immediately thinking how I could replicate it... it was dense, rich, tasty and absolutely satisfying for any chocolate craving!

We were so glad we didnt order more than that, or we would have had a chocolate heart attack! The cake was only $5.50, the hot chocolate was about that price too... but it was more than enough! Despite some bad reviews that I have read, we were quite lucky, we didnt have to wait for more than 5 mins for a table, and the service was relatively normal! They sold some nice different types of Lindt choc balls (I'll post them later) - mocha, peppermint, cookies and cream for $1 each... a little pricey! But yummy!

Sydney Fish Market!

Yum yum yum! Check out the seafood platter! It was from the main fish market - I think it was called Pete's Grill. You can actually pick your seafood and get them to cook it for you! We opted for the yummy seafood platter, which was $60 for 4 people, but you could easily stretch it to 5 people and still be really full!

Sydney Fish Market is a little bit like Freo, but I think Fremantle is nicer and a lot more spacious. Everyone there was chinese! And it was like in Asian countries, people stand around trying to get to the table as soon as you finish eating!!!

Darling Harbour!!!

Darling Harbour, like the Opera house, is beautiful both during the day and at night! There is so many different cafes, all look equally good! Gloria and I made our rounds around Darling Harbour before we decided on one... actually I think I was probably the fussier one! We had a fantastic dinner, great conversation and so many laughs!

Here's the evidence:

Pancakes @ the Rocks and Passionflower @ Darling Harbour!

Pancakes at the Rocks is also ANOTHER famous Sydney thing to visit and eat! It is located at the Rocks, which is where the Sydney Harbour Bridge is, and it is actually pretty cool how this restaurant is hidden away! It's not by the water, it's actually in a building near the Rocks Markets which are open on the weekend.

We attempted to eat Pancakes at about 1030pm on a Sat night but the line was long! At least a 45min wait type of line! So we went on the Sunday morning for breakfast... and look at what I ate... quite disgusting hey! :P (No, I did not eat it all!!!) - and best of all, no line at all :)

It is called Devil's Delight... pure sin it was!

Passionflower is the name of this gelato place at Darling Harbour - where Durian, black sesame, taro, green tea flavours are sold! So yes, a bit of an asian ice-creamery! Quite pricey... but I think quite worth it, considering you have a fantastic view of Darling Harbour. This is the first time I had the Black sesame... first taste is like the asian hot dessert, but funny thing is that after a few tastes it begins to taste a little bland... the durian was good, tasted like durian alright!!!

Harry's Hotdogs & Pies!

This place is apparently very famous! They are famous for their pies with mashed peas on top. I'm not exactly sure where it was... I can't spell nor pronounce the suburb. It's open 24 hours!!!

Not being a fan of peas, I was uncomfortable with the idea of ordering such a pie. But I did try a bit of the peas and it was actually really not bad at all! It tasted a bit like those dried pea snacks! The chilli hot dogs were good! The combination of beef con carne and the american hot dogs on soft rolls is great... yum yum yum! And at about $4 each, it's not bad at all!

Wedding bells!

Ok, this is random - esp since I am supposed to be blogging on Sydney... but I have so much to catch up on! After my exam, flew straight to Syd and had no time to blog about the prior events!

Anyway, seems like this is the year to get married! Everyone seems to be ringing wedding bells! Went to 2 weddings in 2 weeks, and for the first time, got to be bridesmaid!

My fan-ta-bu-lous friend and beautiful bride and me! :)

My good friends Gen & Gloria and I at Wei & Cheryl's wedding! :)

Anyone else getting married??? :)

I'm back!

Hihi! I'm back from Sydney!

Ahhhh..... so many things to say, where do I start? I was there for exactly 19 days! And yes I even managed to throw an Adelaide stop on my way to Sydney - thanks to me missing my plane! ARGG! Thank God that was the only bad thing that happened! I got there, 1.5hours past my scheduled time (btw Adelaide airport IS nice!) - and managed to check into the hotel, shower quickly and rush to work!

Anyway, since it was a business trip, I should say something about it.... hmmm... I worked longer hours, but the funny thing is that time seemed to past real quick! Not sure whether it was because my laptop clock was on Perth time (I apparently cannot change it - only the administrator can!) or whether because everything was new?! Anyway yes time really flew... my Syd colleagues were nice, the office was nice, work was the same as Perth and yes that's about it.......

Here's the view from the office (Oops I forgot to take a picture of the office building!):

I really liked Sydney! The city is huge! There seems to be shops and eating places everywhere! The weather was so nice whilst I was there as well, I think it rained maybe a couple of times and it only ever lasted for a couple of hours at the most! Perth's city is prettier, the swan river is nicer, but really... Sydney is pretty amazing too. It's crowded, it's alive, and I love how George St is still crowded @ midnight and how Woolworths is open 24 hours. Yes, Cheryl and I bought fruit @ 11ish pm! We were thrilled... :)

My favourite part of Sydney was the Harbour bridge, the Opera house, you have to see it both at night and during the day! It's completely different, but both times amazing :) You have to have dinner around there... it's so nice... very cool! Unfortunately, night shots didn't turn out too well!

Anyway, I'm going to start posting up pictures............