Obsession

It's baking time again!! But at least it's not me. See below: Our selection of "wives" cakes. Legend has it some man lost his wife in a gambling debt (welcome to the Chinese and gambling), and to get her back, he sold lots of these cakes to buy her back. Well tomorrow I'm going up north to the Grandparents and so mother dearest baked a lot of cakes. I sat aside and let her get on with it as I'm not a major fan tbh. But check out the pictures. Sis holding pei-dan so Pei-dan is a thousand year egg. It's an egg that has become a black jellified solid. It tastes amazing in congee, but it also goes in these little cakes, in a mass of lotus paste wrapped in flakey pastry. I can't say I'm a fan of it in that form, but it's something we make. The pastry is the same as the wife cakes but they are more egg shaped. Mama-san egg washing the "wife" cakes. These are stuffed with a more melon paste type concoction. Wife cakes are flat rounds and ...

What else can I say? I've been a busy baker recently. Namely because I've been hugely antisocial of late, slight toothache and just generally sick of it all. So for the first time in ages I've been spending large amounts of time in bed curled up and so to be productive I've been baking a bit. Coconut cupcakes (which neglect to mention the chocolate factor) 175g softened unsalted butter 120g caster sugar 2 eggs 25g cocoa powder 50g desiccated coconut 150g plain flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 3 tablespoons milk Frosting: 150g mascapone 1 tablespoons icing sugar zest of 1 lemon 25g desiccated coconut soaked in a little milk Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases. Cream together the butter and sugar in the large bowl until pale and light. Add beaten eggs and mix well. Add cocoa powder and coconut. Mix together theflour and baking powder and fold it to the butter-egg mixture, and mix until smooth. Divide between t...

I'm in a petulent mood. Hmm maybe that's the polite way of putting it. Right now, I want to whip raw potatoes at the wooden fence outside. If I had superpowers and could throw fireballs I'd be in trouble right now. All in all, not feeling too Christmassy. Usually I'm really into the cooking. My only opportunity to cook the main. But I made goose last week (£19.99 at Lidl) and I suppose that might have killed my urge. I was banned from cooking goose for Xmas because it's too fatty, too expensive, may as well get duck... and when I bought it the parentals got all excited because it's not that pricy, it's huge and quite tasty. I followed Nigella's Feast to a certain extent. Stuffed it with mashed potato but also some apple wedges which did not go down too well. I also learnt that geese have some large greasy valves near the bum which require squeezing or cutting off. (Icky, but less icky than what I thought it was.) Presenting: My Goose.

I'm procrastinating as I should work (it's Sunday) but a mate said since I ate out so much I should really write reviews... well, tbh I should just write to remind me where to eat next time. Will do a round up and then try to blog going forwards. I already take bad pictures on my camera (well you're sitting on your own so being a freak isn't so weird...) Edit this as and when I can go through my receipts and remember where I was and what I ate... Brighton Hotel: Jury's Inn: Nearest to the station, clean, basic, no biscuits on the nightstand, gym or free wi-fi. God-awful food. Will explain. Unlike some of my more refined colleagues, I didn't mind Jury's Inn. I don't mind you have to go to pick up room service from downstairs. And I don't mind the minimal tv channels because channel 5 is a luxury for me (I live in a valley). The hotel is blissfully less than a minute's walk to the station. It's also about ten minutes walk to the Lanes where mos...

I think I've been failed by Nigel Slater. It's very disturbing. Now he says he's not a cake man anyway, he's predominantly mains, ice cream and the odd fruit based dessert. However, I had poppy seeds, so I decided to borrow his recipe from Kitchen Diaries and tweak. I have to say it was an easy to make, albeit I judge him for requesting 90g of ground almonds when the packets come in 1oog amounts. So anyway, the cake. Which I forgot to add the poppy seeds to until the cake was in the pan. But I digress. Why did I feel the cake failed? Well it lacked the lemony-ness one craves. But, even worse - although might be partially my fault.... it tasted quite bitter when warm. That could be because that's an entire lemon with peel sitting on the top. Or it could be that I made the syrup in the pan that held the slightly caramelised lemons. Oh well. Live and learn. And also figure out a way to use the shredded coconut that's in the cupboard...

Made them. And whilst they look okay, they taste BLEUGH!! Reason being was I didn't roast the nuts. But I didn't PLAN on using nuts. I only used them because the white chocolate stuck to the pan when you crank them off the plate. Hence they were a last minute adjustment. Recipe I used was one using Golden Oreos. But this is the UK so we didn't have those. So I used ginger nuts and digestives. But they tasted blah so I added loads of lemon curd.... so in the end I don't think it's even worth linking the recipe! Recipe I would follow (if I was sane) looks like this. Lemon Cheesecake Truffles 200g soft cheese Half the smallest pack of digestives Half a pack of ginger nuts (whatever was left over from the cheesecake!) Half a pack of white chocolate cake covering (Dr Oetekars? is about 300g in total) Bag of chopped mixed nuts. 3 large table spoonfuls of Lemon curd. 1. Bash the biscuits. 2. Mix in the soft cheese and lemon curd. 3. Roast the nuts. 4. Melt the chocolate in...

Just some random pics. I went to a friends house and did the Gordon Ramsey cookalong. Made possible by the fact he has a tv you can pause and rewind!! The starter Pea, mint and bacon soup was yummy, the lasagna a lot smaller than on screen (and sadly lacking in mushrooms). The dessert was lemon and lime syllabub and although it tasted like there was a touch too much cream, it was a good laugh to compare the pile of zest from Ramsey's lemon and what we got from our three Tesco's value ones!! It's been awhile since I've been round people's houses but that was quite enjoyable. Gordon Ramsey, bit of background, is the footballer who is now a major celebrity chef and this is his rapid fire, cook a meal for four people in an hour job. It helps if you can eat when he does the boring bits, but in all honesty, he goes so quickly you can't actually pan cook any of the stuff in the time that he does it on screen. The other picture is a pic of my rhubarb. I've never bou...

Not to sex up dessert... no, not at all. But I've always had... earth moving experiences with food. It has been noticed that I seem to inadvertantly *mmmmmm* when I eat certain foods I find appealing. Gu chocolate molten middle puddings - those ones you put in the microwave for a minute, and oddly enough Scottish Oat cakes really do it for me. Anyway today it was all about the cheesecake. I should have gone to the gym and watched a film at the cinema since it wasn't rainy, but instead me, mum and sis hit the local Waitrose for a shopping trip. Came back with the makings of cheesecake because after last year, year of the gingerbread house, this year is for cheesecake. It's a competitive thing. I think I must have mentioned. If not, here it is again, the ladies who bake are competitive. The chinese chiffon cake is the main item of choice, however my great-aunt has recently discovered the joy of cheesecake and orders it if they go to cafes. They don't know how to make one....

To remind me of the occasions where I love my family - Sunday Lunch. That's a big chicken, some sort of roast potatoes, dumplings with chinese cabbage and noodles. I say sort-of roast potatoes because I boiled them far too early because mum wanted the hob, and then I used butter to roast when I'd really prefer olive oil. Hence they are only sort of crispy in parts - namely the bits where I drizzled chicken fat over. Will do better at Christmas - if I knock mother out the way! The chicken however is majestically browned. The product of buying from Waitrose, smearing with butter and salt, shoving two quarters of lemon up it's nethers and bits of garlic all over. Yummy. I took the picture above in Bristol. It's fried tofu wrapped in seaweed with some kind of sweet soy. The reason I took the pic was because it wasn't what I ordered - but it was pretty nice all the same. That's it for savouries. Until I find a use for half a lemon in baking, plus the chicken flavoure...

List of cake places to hit (according to London Lite - I'm a London Paper girl myself...) Outsider Tart Hummingbird Bakery Buttercup cake Treacle Primrose Bake-a-boo Konditor & Cook Peyton & Byrne

Apparently this is what Bristol is famous for. Bristol Blue. I had a vaguest recollection somewhere about it but did a search today. Picture is filched from a website of the same name. In all honesty, the only Bristol Blue I've seen, is one lone bottle behind the reception of my current client. That's only because I've been storing my luggage behind there that I noticed. (Always notice breakables when you are a klutz like me!) This is an entirely non-foody blog day. My back is aching, I have eaten Japanese to the gills in Bristol. I'm debating whether tips are allowed on expenses. I'm wearing a pair of black jeans bought this week and have just realised one of the belt loops needs attaching. (But they look good and didn't cost me £81 but the bargain price of £25. Okay at Dorothy Perkins it was the pricier pair but still!!) I am still wanting the Gucci watch (Black dahhling) but since I've not been in London, none of the shops seem to carry the crazy priced w...

The extent of how much I need to invest to photograph properly has just been made abundantly clear. See that plate below? It's actually pink...

It has to be said, this baby isn't pretty. It did look absolutely gorgeous till I heaped the brown mess of streusel on top. Think next time, we'll opt for my usual sugar streusel with white sugar. This brown stuff... looks like something you scrape off a shoe. Like I said before, we had sour cream in the fridge, a glut of apples, and so I created this little number from a recipe online . The picture they had was slightly better and retrospectively that might have been because I was rough and ready with the measuring of the butter, plus I melted it rather than make crumbs from it - fridge cold, microwaving it seemed easier. Therefore there was actually butter to pour OFF the pie before it finished. Still tasted yummy and family are actually eating it. Bit OTT given the JustRol had TWO rounds of pastry. The other round I made in to a banana, apple sauce and custard topped pie. It looks as random as it sounds but very edible. However, for the picture above the recipe went like thi...

I'm a bad, bad person. I bought sour cream last week and still haven't used it. Well I was in Bristol all week. Work. Rather fabulous city although no dessert! Which is namely because of the colleague I was with. Oh well. At least I suppose I am no heavier. That might change this weekend since the sour cream is still in date so I can bake with it. I did manage to dine at the recommended Bordeaux Quay in Bristol though and it was really affordable. Well I say really - the service charge is automatically added, but they didn't charge us for water which I was surprised by. So used to water being pressed upon you for £XXXX that I actually feel bad that we didn't buy a drink or have dessert (like I said, colleague). So I will look around and see what I can make with sour cream, although I can always do my favourite cupcakes, it seems lacking in va-va-voom experimentation today. The apples by the way are the product of some man with a large organic stock who is giving them to...

So. Exam over. Friday I went out briefly for steak and lemon meringue pie. Wasn't an amazing pie but at least it was a good sized slice. Saturday featured the joys of Watford shopping centre and a fashion show. I love them. Pity the poor models who have to dance in high heels on a stage designed almost to trip them up. It's a hard life. Even if you do look hot. Sunday was rainy. So it had to be done. BAKE FEST!! I went straight for the cookies book. Fortunately there was a bit of planning involved. I spent the Saturday stocking up on flour and various chocolate chips and coconut, just in case there was an opportunity! I did, I confess, not make any of the recipes that I had listed. Instead I opted for the classic - chocolate chip and a vanilla cookie. The aim was to make use of the Hello Kitty cookie cutters I have from HK. Unfortunately, as you can see, they didn't really show up (although as I've just noticed, a ghost of Hello Kitty is in the top corner of that heart)...

One more day to revolution, one more day to... Les Mis anyone? Exam's tomorrow. I'm in denial that I don't know anything. Spent a few minutes watching fireworks on tv celebrating something to do with China and HK and possibly Samsung since their building was behind every shot. Being sent to Bristol for four weeks. What's that famous for then? I will bake. And if I'm lucky go to the meet. (FYI all "meets" are basically the British Born Chinese ones). And maybe the Barn Hotel since my brother is free this weekend (gf with a rock on finger/possible fiance has gone to Manchester this weekend). And a film. I could go see a film... and catch up with all the Ugly Betty's, Heroes and Desparate Housewives I've missed.... must.focus...

Hmm. No baking. Some forum posting. But someone posted (at length) about Maze restaurant and her birthday. It was informative. I have to try it some day. But guess where my eyes zeroed in on? Bea's Cakes of Bloomsbury . *chi-ching* Guess where I'm going hunting this weekend? :) American cakes. Which one do I try?? Debate on fried rice online at the moment. People put the egg in last? Sacrilege!! Oh well. At least they didn't say cook separately and slice into slivers and toss through *grins* Ah the yesteryears of "chinese" cookery. Beats people who would overcook the egg I suppose. Craving for fried rice now.

Today beckons the week that my exams lie... Friday afternoon to be precise. I just feel so *ARGH* *tear hair out* and all that malarky. It's the THIRD time I'm going through the question bank and that's quite extreme, even for me. Which is probably why I look at the questions and just blank in some cases. Either way, after going downstairs, eating my body weight in oatcakes and rich tea and watching some Diagnosis Murder, I'm going to officially take the next hour off. No study. Tidy room. Maybe go bask outside in some sunlight for a bit before beating the cr@p out of something. One things I thought might be interesting - an art/weird stuff blog Oh and I read the Daring Bakers bitty again. You have to "unveil" on the same day. With me in a different county most weeks I think I may have to bow out and just force myself to bake something once a month instead. Off to dive off a cliff. (Since we live in a valley that can't even get Channel 5 there are very sp...

Thanks to my friend I now have an addiction to a Korean girl band. Think Girls Aloud. Think PussyCatDolls with less gynecological cameramen. This is as sexed up as mainstream Oriental pop acts have ever been. I love the cartoon dancing (it's slightly reminiscent of dances in videogames) and evidently the fact they sing in Korean does not make a bit of difference to me. Meet.... the WonderGirls . And now to food... or reading anyway! First read of the day was National Geographic in the bathroom. That was interesting, especially when you consider the copy was from October 1980!! Apparently sis went to the second hand shops and bought a few to look at. Had to say I was mainly looking at the adverts. The height of designs that year for Cartier watches and Nikon cameras! My how twenty odd years changes things. It is amazing though. Tempted to buy some more and frame the adverts. Reading part 2: Waitrose magazine downstairs whilst I was eating my cornflakes. As a time saving option,...

I've actually had a relatively good day's study. Four hours at five o'clock in the afternoon is pretty decent. Of course I'm not entirely sure I've learnt anything. I'm doing the questions again (third? time) and it's like... yes I am still getting X wrong. Least I know what it is and I've got precise notes on what the answer SHOULD be. I have this weekend to do the questions and then four whole days to memorise the missing elements. Cake moment. Have I mentioned the Daring Bakers ? I'm still in debate on whether to join. This month's challenge was almost off-putting. Gluten free crackers? Is that my future? Spending a Saturday a month making dishes I won't really eat? Hmm. Given I've found a new love in Scottish Oatcakes when I was I was in Aberdeen perhaps I shouldn't be hasty. We shall see. But I am beginning to make a HUGE list of recipes I MUST try. Things I found reading the two books I bought yesterday - the biscuit one really ...

Think as you know I've been going a little crazy online shopping, but I was looking at baking tins on Amazon today and as usual you get a few things which are tagged so they show up in the search despite having little relevance at all. This however, made me crack up. An Optical zoom for mobile phones. Way to take on those food bloggers with their DSLR's ;)

Amazon delivers! And whilst I was being a lazy bum they were downstairs... Book1: Better Homes and Gardens: The ULTIMATE cookie book looks like something I will definitely cook many recipes from, pour over and make lots of fat friends from :D Book2: The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook was the one I bought to make the £15 threshold for free delivery (that's a skill, you aim to get £15 and then you spend £17 extra) I know I shouldn't have. Heck I remember being in NY, not loving the cupcakes, and coming back finding a few on the internet and still... mmmm I don't know. But there it was. A big coconut cake on the cover. With stiff icing. And a rich, deep devils food cake next to it for contrast. I don't think I'm sending it back somehow! It is the priciest book I've bought for ages and low value in fairness. It's relatively slender and doesn't have the multiple pictures that I've gotten so used to. Still, if I make a good chocolate cake, a good coconut cake an...

My books will arrive today... Scored myself 48-56 on my mock. Not bad with a week to go and my ruthless marking. It is precisely 7 days now. NEXT FRIDAY!! Also kind of freaky that the BBC Food forums shut down after a certain time *blink* *blink* It's as if you've woken up in a deserted ghost town. Eerie!!

Right. Quick blog as yesterday I didn't blog. But didn't study. Pathetic. Here is somewhere I really, really want to go to. I've been lusting after it for ... approximately five years? They advertise quite regularly in our local free magazine Optima and thus I've been wanting to go on the basis of two pictures. The fact it isn't really local at all and I have to beg a lift from my brother is probably why I haven't been. Plus every birthday I've had in the past two years (er that's two then) I've either been - unable to eat hard foods, or just not up for a big meal. The picture has that certain "I'm so beautiful, look at me, eat me, you want to eat me!" quality to it. Hence I've actually blown it up a bit. Here's another little teeny tiny problem with it though. There's a taster menu there. So if I eat a taster menu, will I have room for this little baby? Problem part two. There's a chocolate version... admittedly not the...

Okay I think I'm so desperate to write things that this has steered away from a baking blog to ... a blog. But much excitement - my ipod dock/alarm clock arrived!! Very happy. My laptop was designed for business use and so the speakers are abysmal. And this is coming from a girl who listens to tapes recorded from the radio on a Panasonic tapedeck still!! I feel the lack of pictures though and so here's a picture from William Curley 's in Mayfair. One of the more recent additions to my cake walk in Green Park, it's slightly more hidden away, they do cakes at John Lewis on Oxford Street too. When we went it was for the dessert bar where they make the dessert in front of you (really more of a construction job, but kind of cool watching people who actually know how to pipe stuff). It was really an effort for me to try and recreate the experience I hoped to have in NY, but since we had cool desserts every day, making the effort to find an out of way dessert bar fell to botto...

Hehehee.... just bought a cookie book and a Magnolia bakery cookbook today and just got the warm vibe on impending pretty pictures and recipes. I'm silly but it makes me happy.

Okay I have a slight... obsession with wedding cakes. In fact my friends have reached the point where they just expect me to be incredibly critical about their wedding cakes. I'm well...I keep my opinions from the bride and groom naturally but I always think a cake should reflect them and boring cakes don't hit the spot. (There is a difference between boring and classic mind!) I am happy today (despite now rainy weather) because a mate of my sister's is getting married and my sister is bridesmaid (we think - the offer has been extended and retracted before as there is a certain indecision regarding the matter.) We've known this for awhile, but basically the CAKE and the decisions surrounding it have entered my sphere. Consultancy here I come!! :P First off, it's GREAT when someone cares about the cake. My friend's couldn't give a monkeys and she was told the morning of the wedding that they got a cake arranged by dad (I'd like to say, she did get married...

Studying a bit better - got two questions under my belt today. Laziness factor is this, was making myself some humous on toast (humous from M&S and I didn't even buy it myself!) and was in the process of spreading when knife lingers over cup of fresh tea. *plop* in goes humous. Surprising bit is the fact my tea tastes fine and given the oil based nature of humous, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that it didn't stay solid enough for me to fish out with a spoon. Ah well.

I'm still wondering about what to make for pimpthatsnack.com as it's been something I've been wanting to do for agggggggges. Trouble is, most things have been done and in a spectacular fashion. Bearing in mind I'll probably do my exams and it will be forgotten as I get my life back again - kind of like wanting to learn to "crank" ala Soulja Boy whilst I was on sabbatical. It does seem wrong to write what should be a food blog without pictures - so here's a picture of some chinese egg tarts I made a long time ago. Only they're not really chinese - I cheated and used puff pastry and since I don't like to waste the trimmings, there are some in there that look like they've been through a nuclear fall-out as my friend put it. There is a chinese recipe for puff pastry which does the folding marlarky but instead of layer of butter, it's actually TWO types of pastry folded, one water-based and one oil-based. Unfortunately the oil is lard, although ...

I choose to blog instead. Ai. Two weeks to go. Then it's ALL OVER. For a year at least before I chose to inflict myself with this again. Enough of the life story, may as well get with the good stuff. Over the year I've picked up several new cookbooks - not least because my brother has a book club deal with work and therefore gets cheap cookbooks. Hence I got Delia's " How to Cheat" in my cookbook collection (and inexplicably the ready made mash in the freezer which I didn't buy!) I'm not for slating her, she made money out of it and she CAN cook. Plus one of my favourites as previously mentioned, Silvano Franco is the queen of quickie food. More interesting books however are the now very popular cupcake ones. I bought two. Not on purpose mind! I actually bought one, lost it, so bought another one (because I can, can, can...) The first is "The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake book". Personally I found the mixture too sweet and they made too many. Normal ...

Forgot that I wrote so much last time! Basically facebook took over and most my pictures are posted there as it's so easy, but in the mood to pick this up again. First of all, I've realised that I've grown attached to a few bloggers - namely the pictures, not the words - but they are somewhat amazing and very regular with their posting! Therefore it is worthy of mention. http://tartelette.blogspot.com/ Other than that my baking has pretty much gone along the same train although "Chinese Cooking Made Easy" came on the BBC for six weeks, which made for more love to hate tv. Taiwanese smiley girl dismisses takeaway food as the devil incarnate and proceeds to burn her own version on tv. Great. Check out the BBC website for some forumite bashing. Same goes for the British Born Chinese version. Speaking of which though, I have been on a hell-bent to find more chinese baking to make. As it was Harvest Moon festival for Chinese people recently (not that I could celebra...