Blueberry sour cream sponge with lemon cream cheese frosting

Ingredients:

Cake - 

175g soft butter

175g golden caster sugar 

3 large eggs

200g self-rising flour

25g almond meal

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla essence

142ml sour cream

250g frozen blueberries

Zest of 1 lemon

Frosting - 

250g Philadelphia cream cheese 

300g icing sugar

50g soft butter

Juice of half a lemon

Decoration - 

1 egg 

1 x 125g punnet fresh blueberries  

50g caster sugar

Fresh mint leaves

Method:

Cake -

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
2. Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.
3. Beat together the butter and sugar until it is whippy and pale. Take your time over this as your cake will be lighter for it.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time. 
5. Beat in the vanilla extract.
6. Fold in the flour and baking powder.
7. Fold in the soured cream.
8. Dust blueberries with a spoonful of flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom. Carefully stir in the blueberries.
9. Spoon into the prepared cake tin and level the surface. 
10. Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
11. Leave to cool, in the tin, on a wire rack. Remove the cake tin when it is cool enough to handle, and place the cake back on the wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting - 

1. To make the frosting, beat the soft cheese, lemon juice and butter with the icing sugar in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Sieve to remove lumps.
2. Spread a thin layer over the top of the cooled cake (don't be impatient as the frosting will melt if the cake is too warm). Refrigerate for an hour or until the frosting is hard. Spread rest of frosting over the cake.  The cake will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. Bring it to room temperature for about an hour before serving.

Crystallized blueberries - 

1. Separate the egg white, put the caster sugar into a bowl and lay out a sheet of grease proof paper.
2. Dip the blueberries into the egg white and then into the sugar. Lay on the paper to dry for 60 minutes or refrigerate until hard.

Finally, top cake with the crystallized blueberries and a sprig or two of fresh mint.

As you can see, my frosting skills need work! But I like the effect the sugared blueberries give the cake; very pretty and elegant. The cake is very moist, and I love the bursts of blueberries with every bite!

Hong Kong Egg Tarts

My last attempt on egg tarts were... kind of a disaster. I was trying to make Portuguese egg tarts, and cheated with store bought puff pastry, ahaha... BUT! This time I made everything from scratch. It gives me more of a feeling of satisfaction than if I used store-bought pastry again.

Also known as 蛋挞 (dan tah in canto), these mouth-watering gems are apparently listed number 16 onWorld's Most Delicious Foods, LOL. Guess what's number 1? I'll tell you at the end of this post. =D

My little babies baking in the oven. Yes, your eyes are not tricking you. I actually used muffin tins to make these. They worked out surprisingly well. The hardest thing about this was probably shaping the dough into each hole. Especially with the hot weather today, I had to work quickly or the dough would lose its shape.

Here they are fresh out of the oven! The tarts are ready when the custard gives a slight wobble when shaken, and the smell of butter fills the kitchen.

I was kind of worried that the tartlets would be stuck in the tins, but they popped out easily with the help of a butter knife.

Best eaten when fresh, piping hot out of the oven.

The pastry was crusty and flaky, crumbling in the mouth, matching perfectly with the jiggly egg custard. Delicious!

World's Most Delicious Food is.... Massaman Curry from Thailand. Interstingly, Chocolate made it to number 3, and Chilli Crab from Singapore is number 35.

Eat Out: CNY @ Tao's Restaurant

Happy Chinese New Year! This year is the year of the:

DRAGON

祝你龙马精神 ~!

On Chinese New Year eve, my family and I decided to spoilt ourselves. Since all our relatives are overseas for CNY, there's not much point cooking a CNY dinner for only three people, is there? We went to Tao's Restaurant, where one can experience a fusion of Asian and Western flavours as well as modern and traditional twists in their food.

Their menu is a multi-course selective set menu, so we get to choose our entrée, soup, main and dessert. It was also a special menu just for CNY. We went there for lunch, so our choices were much more limited compared to the dinner service. But we still had trouble deciding what we wanted to eat. All the choices were so tempting!

First Course: Starters

A plate of miniature dishes made from the Chef's hand-picked seasonal ingredients.

The waiter told us to start from the left dish first, and finish to the right. Interesting, I've never been told how to eat my meals before, haha.

Tomato in red wine vinaigrette. It had a sweet-savoury taste.

Next was the pickled calamari. The calamari was so fresh, it was almost crunchy. Even my brother, who usually hates raw food, finished his happily.

The potato salad was creamy and well seasoned. The person dicing these potatoes into tiny uniform cubes must be some pro knife skills.

Second course: Entrée

Each of us ordered a different one, so we get to see what each dish looked like. =D

Raw beef tataki with Wa-fu dressing. Wow, don't you just love the chinese character on the side? Summer (夏) for the season in Melbourne right now.

Kaiseki style sashimi. I had my first taste of caviar and sea urchin! But the winner in this dish was definitely the scallops. Absolutely melted in my mouth.

Marinated chicken with ginger onion.

Third course: Soups

Steamed assorted meats in Chinese casserole. Also known as 'Buddha Jumps Over Wall' (佛跳墙)

Korean style seafood consommé. Flavoursome and spicy, with well done seafood like prawns, scallops and generous meat from a crab claw.

Fourth course: Palate cleanser

A refreshing drink of mango nectar, a cool relief after the steamy soup.

Fifth course: Mains

Hot stone sizzling steak.
Salmon with pumpkin sauce.

Pan fried duck with red wine vinegar sauce.

Korean BBQ pork chop with mustard paste.

Sixth course: Rice of the day

Sakura ebi rice. The rice is tasty enough to eat on its own. The small spoon on the side is just adorable. Although my brother expressed his frustration with eating with such a small spoon, lol.

And finally, seventh course: Desserts

Crème Brulee.

And... hahahaha. Guess what this is? A potted plant for dessert??

Home made mint ice cream with chocolate soil. Such genius and playful presentation, keke. My Mum and brother had a good laugh watching me eat out of a garden pot. But I know their secretly jealous of my dessert, mwahaha. It was deliciously creamy, paired with the coarse texture of the cookie crumbs, so lovely!

The entire meal came to $48 per person, which was actually pretty reasonable given the quality and quantity of our meal. We were very impressed with the elegant presentation, faultless food, romantic ambience and attentive service. The waiter even pulled out my chair for me! * squeal*

So this ends my very first degustation meal, with hopefully more to come! Maybe with every special occasion we shall go to fine dining instead, haha.

Lemon almond honey cake

I baked this cake for my Mum's birthday. It's a gluten-free cake, made with simple healthy ingredients, like honey, almond meal, lemon zest and egg whites. Only four ingredients, wow, so easy!

The almond meal mixed with honey and lemon zest.

I cut out the letters and heart from paper, placed it on the cake and dusted it with icing sugar. Taa-da!

Then I dipped strawberries and almonds in dark chocolate and decorated the circumference of the cake.

The cake was delicious, if I do say so myself, haha. Lovely lemon tang and nutty taste with every bite.

Eat Out: Joomak + Giraffe Cafe + Living Room

Recently we've just celebrated my brother's and mother's birthdays. Usually we would cook up a feast and invite all our relatives over to celebrate, but this year they've all gone overseas for Chinese New Year. So sadly, it was only Mum, bro and me for their birthday celebrations this year. Not that that's bad, because we decided to go out for dinner for both their birthdays. Less stressful, and it's nice when someone else does the cooking anyway. =P

For my brother's birthday we went to Joomak, a Korean restaurant. Firstly, I don't know how anyone could find this restaurant without having someone to guide you directly to its doorstep. It was the most nondescript restaurant I've seen, and that's saying something when you live in Melbourne. Located at the basement of a chiropractor clinic, stepping inside was like being transported to Korea. The ambiance was great, from the dimly lit cottage booths to a drinking corner just for ajjushis and their soju, it really was authentic to the tee.

We had braised chicken, beef bulgolgi, both delicious.

The fish roe stew was not spectacular, but the soup was tasty. I think the let down were the fish eggs being too cooked, becoming sort of rubbery.

The kimchi pancake was really addicting. Crisp, thin and not too oily either.

The portions of the dishes were small, the price a bit expensive, but with the quality as great as it was I can't say I really mind. Plus they don't use msg in their food! For real authentic korean, come to Joomak.

After that, we went to have cake. What's a birthday without cake, right? I finally get to try desserts at Giraffe Cafe. The famed baked berry cheesecake really lives up to its reputation. Smooth, creamy, oh-so-good. My brother was guarding it with his fork, and we let him have the rest of it only because it was his birthday. Hmph.

The sticky date pudding came with honeyed walnuts and butterscotch sauce. The pudding was nice, but I've had better ones. Still moist and warm though.

The finishing drool-worthy shot with butterscotch streaming down the sides of the pudding... Tell me you're not licking the screen right now.

For my Mum's birthday, we went to the Living Room, a modern Australian restaurant. I only took pictures of the entree and desserts though.

Pumpkin souffle with prosciutto on salad. The souffle was yummy, it had the flavour of a rich pumpkin soup. The prosciutto, however, was burnt. It didn't look burnt, but man, it tasted of charcoal.

This was the vanilla panacotta with mango coulis and almond tuile. The panacotta was delicious! Not too sweet, slight tang of citrus paired beautifully with the mango.

The hazelnut chocolate cake with poached pear was awesome as well. Dense and wonderfully moist, it reminded me of eating nutella out of the jar. Yum.

Christmas Desserts

This year, Christmas dinner was spent at our house. So all our relatives gathered there for a festive feast. My mum trusted me with desserts (as she always does), so I made a tropical trifle and christmas pudding.

The trifle was made by layering sponge rolls, passionfruit jelly, custard, mangoes, peaches, then cream and chocolate shavings on top.

It was really delicious, I especially liked the creamy custard with sponge rolls and fruit.

The christmas pudding was made quite similar to the christmas cake I made previously last year. Only thing different was that it had to be steamed in a pudding basin, for five hours!

We also lit it up while pouring brandy over it, and it looked spectacular! The blue flames licking and engulfing the pudding was a sight to see. I took a video of it, but not a picture. =(

Pour some custard over it and slice it to serve. Compared to Christmas cake, the pudding is much denser, richer and chock full of fruit. I would prefer pudding to cake any day.

Christmas @ Melbourne

Melbourne city was all decked out for Christmas! My friend and I went to the city for some Christmas shopping and to admire the xmas decos.

In Royal Arcade...

And LOTS of pine trees scattered about Federation square. Quite random, but pity they are all bare and plain. Should be decorated with pretty baubles and sparkly tinsel...

Gingerbread village created by Epicure. It was quite a big village too, and lots of effort went into making it.

The whole place smelled really comforting, full of gingerbread which makes you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Lastly, I had the Passionfruit Waffle Sundae at Max Brenners. What's an outing without some sweets? Sinfully delicious, MB's waffles are to die for.

It even comes with a pot of melted chocolate on the side! As well as praline nuts. So SO good.