Chocolate Cake with Fresh Fruits

I usually make decoration-cake with vanilla flavour – vanilla sponge cake, whipped cream and fresh fruits.  But, this time, I was asked to make it chocolate flavour.

I know chocolate and strawberries go very well, so strawberries were the first thing I put on the shopping list.  Some fruits wont’ go with chocolate, so I sticked with just few fruits to decorate this cake.

It’s a layered cake with chocolate sponge, strawberries, cocoa cream, and thin layer of rich Italian style chocolate cake and ganache.  Not much sugar it used, so this cake is not too sweet.

The side of the cake is covered with dark chocolate.  It will keep the cake moist, and has a good eye-appeal.

I was asked to make this cake for around 15 people, but I think I made it too big :p

Finished with piped cream, strawberries, peaches, apples and mints from our garden.

The smell of chocolate and strawberries was so irresistible…..  I nearly poked my finger into the cake!

Taiyaki

Taiyaki, fish-shaped baked Japanese sweet, is one of my favourite snack.  This is a kind of stall-food you buy at festivals or shrine on New Year’s Day, but now you can also buy from the food courts in shopping centres or some convenience stores across Japan.  The original filling is azuki an - red bean paste, but there are more varieties such as custard cream and chocolate.

At the shop they use this type of big grill to make taiyaki, but there’s a small version of this to use at home.

The weather like today makes me miss taiyaki. It should be eaten warm, and is kind of a winter sweet.  I don’t have a taiyaki maker at home, so I bought a pack of frozen taiyaki from an Asian grocery shop.

I warmed it up in the microwave, then toasted in a toaster oven to make it crunchy outside.  Eating it with vanilla ice cream gives you the contrast of hot and cold, and the texture of crunchiness of the skin and melty ice cream.

Yuuummmm!

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Happy 10th Birthday!

On the weekend I made a birthday cake for 10 years old girl!

As it’s for a girl, and she is turning 10, I made the cake into “10″ shape and decorated with pink cream.

It’s a sponge cake layered with fresh fruits and whipped cream.

It was very rush, actually.  I told the father to come to my house to pick it up around 11 am, but I woke up at 9 am!  All the ingredients were ready – the sponge cake was baked, cream was whipped, and the fruits were washed and dried already – I just had to assemble all of them and create a “10″ shaped cake.

When I was covering the sponge with cream, I realized I will need more cream- the amount I whipped last night wasn’t enough to cover this huge cake!  I was panicking a little, but tried to calm myself down and whipped another pack of cream.  Lucky I had bought 2 packs of cream!

I layered lots of fruits inside.  I wanted to make the surface simple so I just decorated the side of “0″ with sliced strawberries, and I decorated the top of cakes with pink cream flower.

Hope she had a wonderful 10th birthday

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Bakar Chicken and CORICA Apple Struddle

My in-law made ayam bakar (grilled chicken), sambal kan kun and stir-fried kairan with oyster sauce.  Kan kun is my favourite Chinese vegetable!   Every time I go to Hawker restaurant I order stir-fried kan kun.  I just love the slimy and crunchy texture.

“Bakar” means, according to my husband, “burned”.  I assume it’s a similar word to “kogeru” or “kogasu” (焦げる) in Japanese.  The process of “bakar” enhances the flavour of the dish (meat/seafood).

The chicken was marinated in some kind of Indonesian spicy sauce, then grilled.  It was so yummy that I ate 3 pieces!

Sambal (chili paste) kan kun (front) and stir-fried kairan with oyster sauce (back).

It was a hot day!  Eating spicy food in such hot day is so perfect…

My husband’s friend from Malaysia had been here for few days, and he just left to the airport.  They are such close friends… it made me jealous sometimes! (>0<)

He left a box of Corica apple struddle for us in the fridge.

The sweet custard cream and crispy pie sheet….   It was a perfect dessert after the spicy Indonesian dishes!

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Icey Ice Snow Ice

After a little shopping and printing a photo of father-in-low with the Indonesian Comedy Singer at OfficeWorks, we took a dessert break at Icey Ice in Northbridge.  It was a slightly hot day and I was little thirsty, and I was craving for the cold snow ice to chill my throat.

When D and I arrived the shop, the sweet delicious smell hit my nose and I wasn’t sure if I wanted snow ice or sweet crape anymore.  In the end, we ordered 2 crapes and 1 bubble tea (there was a deal of “buy 1 Icey Ice crape and get 1 bubble tea with one filling for $2.00″)  

Their crispy crape is pretty huge, and I realized that ordering bubble tea was a mistake!!  Super sweet….  Besides, I was eating Icey Ice green tea crape, and D was eating condensed milk and white choco bits!  The sweetest crape ever…

Their crape is different from normal soft crape and is certainly different from those you get in the crape shops or summer festival stalls in Japan.  I’m not talking about only the crape skin, but also the contents.  Banana & Peanut Butter, Nutella & Rainbow Sprinkle,  Condensed Milk & Crushed Oreo…  They might be a good snack for a sweet fix though.  

I’m also curious about the eel crape, by the way.  Has anyone tried the grilled eel crape?   

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