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Cupcake Camp Adelaide – Eating Cupcakes to Raise Money for Charity.

Cupcake Camp Adelaide – Eating Cupcakes to Raise Money for Charity.

March 29, 2011 by · 2 Comments


Cupcake Camp is coming to Adelaide! I first heard of this through Monique who is the founder of Cupcake Camp Adelaide and was immediately taken by the idea. It’s already pretty darn brilliant to be able to eat cupcakes, but to be able to eat cupcakes for charity? Bring it on!

I caught up with Monique in an attempt to learn more about Cupcake Camp Adelaide. Hope you’ve had lunch because after going through all these, I was hungry for cupcakes!

C: What is Cupcake Camp and how does it work?

M: Cupcake Camp is an event where a group of volunteers come together and bake cupcakes. The concept wasn’t always for charity, but when I started it up in Adelaide I thought it would be a good idea!

C: As Cupcake Camp is for charity, have you decided on which charity you will be doing fundraising for?

M: This year we are fundraising for flood relief – they still need our help long after the media have forgotten them.

C: You mentioned that Cupcake Camp inspired you to start your own cupcake business: how did the whole process come about? And why cupcakes specifically?

M: When I first ran Cupcake Camp in 2009 I was really starting to get into cupcakes, the previous Christmas I had been given a cupcake making set! I then came across the idea of Cupcake Camp and the event was such a success I thought I could probably make it into a part time business idea.

I love cupcakes because they’re an individual portion of a cake that can be custom designed for the person eating it – and it still retains its beauty right up until the moment the person starts eating it, unlike slices of cake!

C: What is your favourite Cupcake?

M: Red Velvet! It’s a vanilla/choc buttermilk cupcake with deep red colouring, topped with a cream cheese frosting. Amazing.

C: What sort of cupcakes can we look forward to at Cupcake Camp?

M: Here’s some of the coolest flavours: Pumpkin Spice, Peanut Butter Choc, Apple Toffee, Lemon Meringue and Rocky Road! Of course we’ll have all of the originals vanilla/choc/strawberry and also lots of dietary requirement cupcakes (dairy free, vegan, gluten free).

C: Are you still looking for help of any sort to support this amazing event?

M: We’re still looking for any raffle prize donations. Our tea/coffee/sugar was donated to us already and we have a couple of prizes but we’d still like some more! Also anyone can donate a prize they think is suitable. We’re also accepting any additional bakers, and they can register up until Thursday.

Okay, I don’t know about you, but those flavours that are going to be available at Cupcake Camp already have me drooling big time. I may live 2.5 hours away from Adelaide, but I’m so getting there. Especially the Apple Toffee Cupcake. That has my name all over it!!

If you are able to, do come down to Cupcake Camp Adelaide!

Thanks Monique for being so generous with her time and letting us learn a bit more about Cupcake Camp. Hopefully I will have photos to share with you next time we talk about Cupcake Camp!


Filed Under: Events, Things to do in Adelaide Tagged With: , , , , ,

Event: Taste of Melbourne 2010

August 31, 2010 by · 17 Comments

Last weekend, twitterverse was abuzz with the hash tag #tasteofmelbourne. It was, of course, referring to this amazing event: Taste of Melbourne, held over a period of 4 days at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.



I’m sure many of you are already familiar with how Taste of Melbourne works, but if you aren’t, then very quickly:

From the Taste website:

Taste of Melbourne is unlike any other food and drink event.

For four days, selected restaurants will set up full professional kitchens to deliver a degustation menu like no other. These restaurants are offering over 40 of the city’s most tantalizing signature dishes and this is just the start. It all takes place under one roof at the fabulous Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton and will be the ultimate dinner party experience.

These taste-sized signature dishes are purchased with “Crowns” – the festival currency which can also be used to buy fine wines, champagnes and specialty beers from a range of bars and quality drink purveyors. Each signature dish will cost just 8-12 Crowns ($8 – $12).

A Taste Session lasts for 4 hours (5 on Sunday) and allows you enough time to browse around the event and enjoy the various features such as The Australian Gourmet Traveller Taste Kitchen, Taste Wine with Gourmet Traveller Wine, the Australian Gourmet Traveller Chef’s Table and the Producers Market with over 100 fine food and drink exhibitors.

Let me just begin by saying that 4 hours is hardly enough to eat AND browse through the event. I didn’t get the chance to go through all the different stalls and try out all the different wines! That said, I did enjoy myself incredibly. Here are the dishes I tried on the day:

Menu for Taste of Melbourne 2010

Maze Restaurant and Maze Grill


Seared cured Marlborough King Salmon, warm sweet corn and potato salad

This was amazing. The salmon was melt-in-your-mouth awesome and every little bit of this dish just screamed magnificent. Done to perfection and I’d be very happy to pay the full price for this dish at Maze anytime. If it was based on this one dish alone, I’d be very happy to make a booking for a dinner at Maze right this instant. It was that good.

Charcoal Lane


Wallaby Tataki, ginger soy, horseradish

This was my first time tasting wallaby, which was part of my reason for picking this dish. Kangaroo, wallaby, kangaroo, wallaby… I think I can’t quite pick a favourite between the two and having tasted both now, I like them equally. It was good! But the soy sauce was just a tad too salty. Not enough push factor from this dish to start seriously contemplating going to Charcoal Lane though. Having said that, this restaurant does come highly recommended, so I might add it to my restaurant list anyways.

The Palace


The Palace Wagyu Burger

I didn’t actually try it myself but I have it on good faith that this was really really good. It did sell out on opening night after all! I heard that it was a little dry on the Saturday so obviously there’s some lack of consistency going on. I wish I had tried the eye fillet from The Palace. Maybe next year!

Mezzo Bar & Grill


Organic slow braised pork cheek, white polenta, raisins and marsala sauce

Having heard so many rave reviews on twitter for this dish, it was with high expectations that I handed over my 8 crowns for this. Unfortunately, despite claims of how amazingly tender the pork cheek was, mine was like a brick. The spork that I use to jab at it bent upon contact. It was with great effort that this dish was finally finished, after having been tried and rejected by everyone in our group. Perhaps the one I got was a dud. Who knows? It was definitely a waste of 8 crowns.

Stokehouse Restaurant


Wagyu Beef Cigars, artichoke tapenade and horseradish

Definitely one of the highlights of the evening. Stokehouse shone like a bright star on a dark night and for me, this was the restaurant that was King. The Wagyu beef cigars were a true stroke of genius and we had lots of fun posing with the cigars before devouring them like a small child. The artichoke tapenade and horseradish went beautifully with the cigars and I cannot wait to try them again. In fact, I’m eagerly awaiting the reopening of Stokehouse as I’d love to make a booking for the later part of this year.

The European


Duck Tortelloni with pea puree and truffle oil

This was a downright no for me. Cold and clammy, the pasta was also thick and chewy. The duck filling was indeed very tasty and it would have been a pleasant dish if not for the fact that the pasta ruined it all. I am keen to give The European the benefit of the doubt tho, and might try to book myself in for a night there. Maybe. Does anybody have any opinions on them? Like them, hate them? Let me know!

Sarti


Pistachio ‘panna cotta’, caramel salted popcorn

The panna cotta was creamy and rich and every bite was luxurious. But there was one pertinent problem – I couldn’t taste any pistachio in it. When I spoke with some other stallholders who had tried this dessert, they too said that they couldn’t taste the pistachio in it. Did you try this at the event, and if you did, could you taste it?

The popcorn on the other hand was worth every single crown we had paid for it. I’d have dearly loved a larger quantity as it was incredibly satisfying to eat! My mission now is to make popcorn like Sarti. I could live on a diet of caramel salted popcorn.

Charcoal Lane

Raspberry & Rosella Flower Cannelloni, Strawberry & native mint salad

It was pleasant but not particularly attention-grabbing. 2 out of 3 of Charcoal Lane dishes and both had failed to impress. But as I mentioned before, the recommendations behind this place are solid. Perhaps I just need to find the dish that has my name written all over it.

And for the rest of the event, I did heaps of wine tastings, cheese tastings and even managed to score some of my favourite Kiwi wine from the Yarra Valley regional producers. I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Taste, and if you went to this year’s Taste of Melbourne, I hope you did too!

Thank you to 65degrees, Green & Black and Penny for the tickets to this event. You made me and my friends very happy!

Here are some other bloggers who have covered the event:

Jeroxie
Iron Chef Shellie
My Food Trail
Off the Spork
Kitchen Wench

See you at Taste 2011!!

Filed Under: Events, Melbourne, Restaurant Reviews, Socializing & Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Masterchef Finale Party! Complete with Macarons!

August 17, 2010 by · 28 Comments

Okay, let’s try this blogging consistently thing again. Ever since my holiday, my blogging schedule has gone out of whack and I’ve been falling in and out of the habit. I will try harder, I promise.

Now, let’s talk about Masterchef. Even if you don’t watch it, you probably know what Masterchef is. If you still don’t know what it is, that’s alright. It’s just a reality tv cookshow that happens to broadcast during dinner time so I’ve been following it faithfully.

The Masterchef Finale was really just an excuse to have a dinner party. To make things slightly themed, we agreed that only masterchef dishes would be on the table for the night. So the night’s menu looked like this:



The guest list was filled with amazing guests. We had the beautiful Violet Le Beaux filling our house with pink and amazing macarons, along with Jimmy America who played photographer for the night and K who I’m currently missing so much, so hurry back to Melbourne, gal!

No recipes with this post, though if you went to look on the MC website, you’ll find them all there. I will be sharing the recipes later this week, but for now you get photos!



Prawn Scotch Eggs: I didn’t make the sambal that went with this, but that’s because the guests don’t eat spicy food. (Blasphemy!) Making this wasn’t quite as easy as it looked on TV, hats off to Adam!



Beef Stroganoff: Unfortunately we don’t seem to have a photo of the pasta. Next time! The stroganoff was yummy! It was my first time trying any sort of stroganoff and I was told by my housemate that this wasn’t the traditional stroganoff as this had the addition of tomato paste in it. I liked it!



We had leftover Beef Bourguignon from the previous day’s cookoff so I plated those up too. It was even nicer the next day! But not officially on the menu as Masterchef never did do beef bourguignon.



Why hello there, macaron towers! Violet and Jimmy did an amazing job with the Macarons! We had Green Tea with Pistachio ganache, raspberry with white chocolate ganache and chocolate with beuno flavoured ganache. I can’t pick a favourite! They were all so amazing.



And if the sugar high from the Macarons weren’t quite enough, have a piece of decadence: Opera Cake. I wish I had more of that cake. I really do.

I have fond memories of the night, but don’t believe me. Go check out what Violet had to say about the night. Be warned tho! There’s a really unglamorous photo of me stuffing my face with a massive wine glass. Teehee.

Recipes to follow! And are any of you planning to apply for Masterchef Season 3?

Filed Under: Baking, Cooking, Cooking & Baking, Dessert, Events, Fusion Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Afternoon with the girls: Hakka Yam Abacus Beads and Baked Yam Ring

August 6, 2010 by · 7 Comments

Remember my friend who got married? She didn’t just get married, she also moved into her new house the day after the wedding.

A new kitchen is so much fun. To prod and poke (with the blessings of the mistress of the house, of course) so when my lovely girlfriend said yes to Elsie and my suggestion of cooking up a lunch at her house for the girls, we were in 7th heaven!

It ended up being quite the ‘kitchen baptizing’ as a massive cookfest unfolded. I have photos and recipes to share, but because the chef of the day was Elsie, I’ll be sharing her recipes, not mine. But Miss Elsie is an amazing cook, so rest assured that these dishes came out brilliantly and absolutely delicious.



Baked Yam Ring

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

250-300g taro, peeled and finely sliced
3 tbsp of wheat starch flour
½ tbsp of sugar
½ tbsp of salt
½ tbsp of 5 spice powder
1 tbsp of (olive) oil + extra for brushing

Method

1. Steam the peeled and finely-sliced taro until soft, approximately 15 min. Allow to cool.

2. Once the taro has cooled just enough for you to handle it (it should still be warm/hot, not cold!), begin mashing. Add the other seasonings to the taro. Mix well until you have a reasonably smooth dough. It should also be dry but not crumbly. Adjust the consistency of the dough as necessary with flour, oil or water.

3. Start pre-heating your oven at 200 to 220 deg C. Put the dough on a greased baking tray and begin patting your ring into shape.

4. With a pastry brush, brush your ring with oil. A fair amount of oil will need to be brushed on to achieve the beautiful golden crust.

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden.

(5a. Alternatively, be authentic and deep-fry the ring.)

6. While it’s baking, begin preparing your stir-fry of choice.

7. When the ring’s done, pour the stir-fry into the centre, and serve.







Hakka Yam Abacus Beads

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
200-250g taro, peeled and thinly sliced
200g tapioca flour
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of oil
White pepper and/or Chinese 5 spice (optional)

* A note about the flour: It can be difficult to gauge how much tapioca flour you’re going to need. Variables such as the degree of moisture in the yam post-steaming will affect the quantity of flour needed. The point of the exercise is to achieve a balance between fragrance and bite: the more taro there is, the more fragrant it will be, and the more flour there is, the chewier it will be. To be safe, use a weight ratio of 1:1. My personal preference is to start with a taro-flour ratio of either 2:1 or 3:2, depending on how moist the taro is, and slowly adjust accordingly until the dough feels right.

Method

1. Steam the peeled and thinly sliced taro until soft, about 15 min. Allow to cool.

2. Once the taro has cooled just enough for you to handle it (it should still be warm/hot, not cold!), begin mashing. Add flour, soy sauce, oil, and spices. Knead till the dough is smooth and elastic.

3. To shape the beads, pinch a bit of dough and form into a disc. Press your forefinger and thumb into either side to shape the disc into a bi-concave shape. (Think of a red blood cell.) Alternatively, roll the dough into long strips and slice them into discs and shape as above.

4. Cook the beads in boiling water. They are done when they float. Immerse the beads in cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain and set aside. Drizzle in a bit of oil to prevent the beads from sticking to one another.

5. Stir-fry the beads with your stir-fry of choice.

The beads are usually stir-fried with a mix of ingredients that have a bit of a crunch to them. This serves as a contrast to the chewiness of the beads. A typical stir-fry combination will include dried shrimp (soaked until softened), dried black Jew’s ear fungus (soaked until softened and finely diced), minced pork, minced garlic, and chopped spring onion. Other possible options include mushrooms, cuttlefish, coriander, or even chilli if you like things spicy… the possibilities are endless!


Rather upsetting was the fact that I couldn’t find other photos from that afternoon’s lunch. I distinctly remember taking other photos but it seems to have gotten lost somewhere as I can’t find them on my computer nor my camera’s memory card. So have a photo of the end result of Hakka Abacus Beads from the chef herself.



So, so, so incredibly good! I cannot thank Elsie enough for having shared her beautiful dishes with us that afternoon, and to dearest Stephie for opening up her house and her kitchen for us to mess up. Not forgetting as well, the rest of the girls who patiently waited for lunch without (much!) complaints despite it being rather late. (Whoops!)

I’ll be making my own versions of these dishes the minute I get some free time (haha, right!), so do stay tune! Meanwhile, I hope you get the chance to try these dishes – even if you don’t like taro. These might just be the dishes to convert you!

Filed Under: Chinese, Cooking, Cooking & Baking, Events, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

A fairytale wedding (lunch) at Swissotel Stamford, Singapore.

July 12, 2010 by · 8 Comments

I always look forward to coming home, but it’s not just the food that beckons. My beautiful girlfriends, my family, and the shopping are just some of the few big reasons for coming home. But this time, there was more to it than just those reasons. The big event of my homecoming this time was a friend’s wedding.



Weddings are joyous affairs, even more so when it’s a close friend who is the one getting wed. The ceremony itself was held at the church and I was trying terribly hard not to shed tears so my makeup wouldn’t run. It was so incredibly beautiful! Even the sky wept at the beauty of it all.

The ceremony was a touching affair and I had to pinch myself to stop myself from letting tears roll down my face. I couldn’t afford to have my eyeliner running! Stephie was incredibly beautiful and HH couldn’t have looked more happy.

But this is a food blog, so let’s roll along to what this blog post is really about. Because let’s not kid ourselves, of course I’m going to talk about the food! But before that, here’s a photo of the lovely bride:



Oh steph. *hearts*

The wedding reception was held at Swissotel Stamford. Taking a look at the dainty menu that was available on each table, it definitely looked like a feast was to be had, and I couldn’t wait to get started! Of course, there’s also that dessert buffet right at the end for a massively grand finish. Dessert Buffet doesn’t that phrase just rolls off your tongue?



Jasmine tea smoked duck with goose liver terrine and apple relish, japanese egg chawan mushi with pan-seared scallop, and red onion with sundried tomato chutney.

Goose Liver Terrine! My very first time. I know, I know the issues and animal cruelty issues behind this particular dish, but I wanted to try it at least once before I made my decision to say yay or nay to eating anymore of it.

And I liked it. I really, really did. So I still haven’t been able to make up my mind. Eat it, don’t eat it?

The Chawan Mushi was soft and amazingly genteel. And the seared scallop in the middle was also a pleasant find. It’s like a treasure hunt when you find extras in your food!



Bread to go with the soup, and the soup was….



Light lobster bisque with lobster crystal dumpling, water chestnuts and tobiko pearls.

And what else would you do with the bread? Dunk it in soup of course.

Also remember what I said about finding treasures in your soup? Halfway through the soup and I managed to fish this out:



Yay, the lobster crystal dumpling!

I’ve been cradling (more than one glass of) french red wine (Chateau Bellevue 2001 Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classe to be exact) since the start of the reception and was mightily glad when the mains come out. We were given the choice of Beef or Fish and considering the red in my glass and the red(s) sloshing about in me, I went with the Beef.



braised angus beef cheek in a red wine reduction, grilled angus ribeye, truffle juice, and edamame pea mouseline.

Can I say that this is the most most amazing Beef course I’ve ever had? Angus beef has always been a steady fave, but those beef cheeks were just divine. And of course, you can’t beat truffle juice. My compliments to the chef, I really enjoyed this main.

Thanks to my dear friend, Elsie (who also took these food shots, more on that later), I was able to sample the Fish course.



Baked black cod mignon topped with macademia crust, fresh herb beurre blanc and crushed kiffler potatoes, and white asparagus with sweet hollandaise sauce.

The crust, the crust! The macademia crust was a really beautiful contrast compared to the silky smooth texture of the fish. The white asparagus had been beautifully done though the hollandaise sauce wasn’t quite what I had come to expect from hollandaise sauce. Can’t quite put my finger on it, but it was still pleasant.

With the mains done, it was time to move on to the grand finale. The dessert buffet! Here, have an avalanche of photos:



Roasted Cocoa Nib with Caramel Coffee Supreme




Sweet Basil Strawberry Heart




Rose-perfumed Meringue With Forest of Fruits Trifle



Red Velvet Cupcakes




Vanilla and Chocolate Macaron Tower




Hot Yam Paste with Gingko Nuts




Chestnut and Passionfruit Custard




Hong Kong Egg Tart




Chocolate Lovers with Raspberry

Phew. Did you get through all those sweets? Stephie wasn’t kidding when she said it was a Dessert Buffet. Scrumptious! My favourite was the Chocolate Lovers with Raspberry and it was really amusing to see the Macaron Tower being so quickly ‘destroyed’. It went quite bald really fast!

Thank you to Han How and Stephie for inviting me to your beautiful wedding. I am honoured to have been able to be a part of this incredibly memorable day for the two of you. May the both of you live long and happy lives together and never stop being cute and and adorable!

I must also say thank you to my lovely friends who played photographer on the day: Elsie and Shu. Without the two of you generously taking shots, I wouldn’t have been able to write up this epicly long post today!

Till next time, girlfriends. Hopefully I’ll be back in Singapore really, really soon!

Filed Under: Events, Fusion, Singapore Tagged With: , , ,
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