Chai Cupcakes

These mini cupcakes are quite a crowd pleaser and very simple to make! I recently made a batch for a dear friend's birthday party. If you like chai lattes, then you'll love these. It's also quite fun watching people try to guess what spices are in the buttercream. The recipe is as follows:

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

What do you get when you mash together a cake with a cookie? Whoopie pie! I came across this recipe from one of my favourite food blogs, Not Quite Nigella. The first time I tried this recipe, I used rock salt thinking somehow that the granules would dissolve...well it didn't! So, second time around I just decided to omit the salt and instead of the marshmallow filling I made a peanut buttercream. I also made them much smaller, using a teaspoon instead of an ice cream scoop. They rise and expand quite a bit in the oven, you have been warned! I used Na's buttercream recipe with some slight modifications:

Peanut buttercream recipe

• 125 g unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter
• 1 and 1/2 cup of pure icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk

1. Beat the butter and peanut butter with an electric whisk
2. Add the icing sugar, vanilla and milk
3. Beat until smooth and creamy

I love peanut butter and while I thought this buttercream was pretty good, I think I would add more peanut butter next time. Enjoy! Mi xo

The Sweet Spot Patisserie

Left: Banana Royale. Right: Apple Strudel.

Once every few months, my boyfriend and I go to the beautiful, art deco styled, Randwick Ritz Cinema. It has become somewhat of a tradition to follow a movie with afternoon tea around the corner at The Sweet Spot Patisserie, which is cutely named considering it's location at The Spot in Randwick. We often have cups of Earl Grey tea and split an apple strudel, while we pretend to be Margaret and David and discuss the complexities of the film we just saw. Apart from the delicious strudel, The Sweet Spot has an amazingly wide variety of cakes and biscuits to choose from. We've tried the profiteroles, cannoli, banoffie pie and the banana royale. I've got my eye on the sour cherry and ricotta strudel for next time! So if you find yourself in Randwick, visit the The Sweet Spot and maybe catch a movie. It might become a tradition for you too! The Sweet Spot is located at 18 Perouse Rd. Randwick. Na xo

Android Birthday Cake

It was Mr Mi's birthday recently and after our successful Red Velvet Cat Cake, I wanted to have another attempt at making rolled icing cake decorations. His favourite colour is green and Android devices seems to be his latest obsession (well...has been for a while!) so it seemed fitting that I make him an Android birthday cake. For the cake, I used the same recipe for Pandan and Coconut Cupcakes, it's so lovely and moist! I sliced the cake in half and filled the middle followed by cake top with a variation of Na's butter cream, replacing vanilla essence with 1/2 tsp pandan and 1/2 teaspoon coconut essence. The Android or "Andy" as Mr Mi likes to call him was made out of rolled icing and coloured using Wilton Gel Colours bought from The Raspberry Butterfly. Andy was then outlined with chocolate writing fudge. The cake turned out pretty well and was enjoyed by all. Happy birthday Mr Mi! Mi xo

P.S. Did I mention that I made him an Android softie too? :)

Andy softie can't wait to try the Android birthday cake!

Lamb Roast

A few Sundays ago, it was Mother's Day and to celebrate this, I decided to make a hearty lamb roast as a treat for my lovely Mum. I have never made a whole roast dinner by myself before so the task was a little daunting but after finding a wonderful recipe by one of my favourite home cooks, Sophie Dahl, I couldn't believe how easy it was! The recipe comes from Sophie's second cookbook entitled "From Season To Season: A year in recipes". I fell in love with Sophie ever since I watched her cooking show "The Delicious Miss Dahl". Her background is in modeling and writing and yes, she is the granddaughter of the renowned British writer Roald Dahl and actress Patricia Neal.

Sophie Dahl preparing a lovely leg of lamb.
Picture from her book "From Season to Season"

The recipe is called "Sheriff's Marinated Lamb" because it was passed on to her from her father-in-law who was the High Sheriff of Bath. The marinade was so easy to make and all I had to do was rub it all over the leg of lamb and leave it for 2 hours or so, to soak up all of the delicious flavours. Then I just put it in the oven and like magic, a couple of hours later there was a juicy lamb roast! I served this bronzed beauty with roasted potatoes, steamed peas, carrots and pumpkin, garlic sourdough bread and a leafy green salad. Pick up a copy of Sophie Dahl's From Season to Season. I absolutely love her and I hope you will too! Na xo

         Roald Dahl. Photo source.          Patricia Neal in Hud. Photo Source.

Hong Kong Dim Sum

Tim Ho Wan, 2-8 Kwong Wah St, Hong Kong, China

Images from top to bottom and left to right: steamed vegetables and crispy BBQ pork bun (cha siu bao), steamed dumpling Chiu Chow style, eggplant, spinach and mushroom dumplings, prawn dumpling (har gow/xia jiao), crispy BBQ pork bun (cha siu bao), pan fried turnip cake, pork and prawn dumpling (siumai).

WARNING: Be prepared to wait for a table! We came early one Saturday morning (or so we thought) to have dim sum for breakfast, we were there by 9:40 am and the restaurant opened at 10:00 am. By then there was already a line up that went down the block and around the corner. Mr Mi collected at an order form and we ticked off the dishes we wanted, seemed easy enough. When we finally arrived at the front of the line we were given a number (36) and asked to come back two hours later. What? Did I hear that correctly, two hours? Yes, two hours. According to Lonely Planet and a number of other review articles, this place has the best dim sum in Hong Kong so we thought to ourselves sure let's just wait it out. Meanwhile, we head down the road for a couple of egg custard tarts to see us through. Two hours later, they were only up to number 23...waiting, waiting finally sat down at 1:30 pm! By then, I was thinking these dumplings had better be the most amazing dumplings I have ever tasted.

Ginger Nut Biscuits

This recipe comes from a book published in 1987 called "Cakes and Baking" by Australia's culinary superstar, Margaret Fulton. My sister found this piece of written treasure hiding in the corner at an old book fair. It's full of recipes for traditional sweet treats such as vanilla slice, queen cakes and coconut macaroons, but the recipe that I knew I had to try first was for ginger nuts. I love ginger because it gives you such a warm and comforting feeling, which is perfect for colder days. In the book, Margaret says "Once you have made these you will never want to buy them again". Well said Margaret and so true! The recipe is as follows: