Strawberry Puffs with Grand Marnier Mousseline

I was browsing through my current favourite blog which I have only recently discovered in Tartlette. I can't believe it's taken me this long to check out Helen's blog. I mean I had heard about it for ages and just never bothered to check it out. I've been missing out on numerous fantastic photos, stories and recipes. I'm slowly going through the archives but the first thing that I decided to make was the Strawberry Puffs with Grand Marnier Mousseline. My previous attempt at Choux Puffs were a delicious, if not quite asthetically perfect, treat.

Last time, the choux puffs were a little flat. I believed that at the time, I didn't dry out the batter enough before adding the add. It did look a bit runny. Instead of trying out that recipe again, I decided to give Helen's one a go. I made sure that I monitored the consistency of the batter this time so that it wasn't too runny. The batter looked good, and I piped them all into these little mounds.



However, when I baked them, they rose up nicely, but once I took them out of the oven, they deflated quite a lot and didn't look anywhere near the nice round balls that Helen got. Can a baking expert (Vida, Duncan, Sarah, anyone) tell me what I'm doing wrong? I didn't check the temperature of the oven with a thermometer so maybe it was a little under the required temperature? Or did I not dry out the mixture enough again?

Taste wise, these puffs are amazing. I never thought you could get better than a durian puff, but these are. This puff recipe tastes better than the previous one I made. It's got a nicer more buttery flavour and is also lighter. The Grand Marnier cream with the strawberries is genius. The cream is fantastic on its own, but combined with the crisp flavours of the strawberry, it is indeed "Strawberry Shortcake Crack". Everyone at work chomped these down so quickly that those who were late got none. I ate four myself, such is their tastiness. I must make more soon. I just want to perfect them so they are more puffier. Let me know if you have any idea what I am doing wrong.



Strawberry Puffs with Grand Marnier Mousseline
Makes about 12-16 depending on the size

INGREDIENTS
For the Choux:
85 g all purpose flour
75ml water
75 ml milk
65 g butter
3 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
Pearl Sugar

METHOD
1. Sift the flour and set aside.

2. Heat the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt to a full rolling boil, so that the fat is not just floating on the top but is dispersed throughout the liquid. Stir the flour into the liquid with a heavy wooden spoon, adding it as fast as it can be absorbed. Avoid adding it all at once or it will form clumps. Cook, stirring constantly and breaking up the lumps if necessary, by pressing them against the side of the pan with the back of the spoon until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan, about 2-3 minutes.

3. Transfer the dough to a mixer bowl. Let the paste cool slightly so that the eggs will not cook when they are added. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, using the paddle attachment on low or medium speed. The dough should have the consistency of thick mayonnaise. Pipe big rounds on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, sprinkle them with pearl sugar and bake at 175C for 15 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven and let cool. Split the choux in half.

INGREDIENTS
For the Grand Marnier Mousseline:
300ml milk
zest of one orange
3 egg yolks
120g sugar
25 g cornstarch
115 g butter, cut into small chunks
30ml Grand Marnier
1 tsp gelatin and 1 tbsp water
120ml heavy cream
1-2 cups of fresh strawberries, sliced

METHOD
1. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Let stand until ready to incorporate into the pastry cream.

2. Bring the milk to a boil with the orange zest.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until pale. Slowly pour the milk over it. Add a small amount of milk to temper the eggs and make sure all your ingredients incorporate smoothly and them continue to add the rest of the milk.

4. Return the whole thing over medium heat and cook until thick for about 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the butter and the Grand Marnier.

5. In a microwave, dissolve the gelatin for 15 seconds. Quickly mix into the pastry cream. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap (make it touch the cream so it does not let a skin form on top) and refrigerate until cold.

6. Whip the cream to stiff peaks and gently fold it in the pastry cream. Pour into a piping bag and divide among the choux. Arrange some strawberry slices over the cream and put the hats back on.

Buttery Almond And Coconut Cake

This Buttery Almond and Coconut Cake is once again from Belind Jeffery's Mix and Bake. She can do no wrong. I've yet to make anything from this book that was good or great. This cake is so simple but is definitely in the great category. As Belinda writes, don't let looks fool you, this cake definitely has the best flavour. I guess you can't really go wrong with almonds and coconut together.

It's an extremely easy cake to make. You just pour everything together basically and bake. It's a very moist cake and if ever you were to describe something as moreish, this cake would be it. It's very easy to eat a slice without even realising it, such is the ease in which the smooth buttery flavour melts into your mouth. So be warned, either make more or control yourself.



EDIT
I added raspberries to this cake and it is awesome. The raspberries add an occasional sour note to this sweet cake and the raspberries combines perfectly with the almond I believe.



Buttery Almond and Coconut Cake

INGREDIENTS
180g almond meal
2/3 cup desiccated coconut
1/4 tsp salt
250g castor sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond essence
200g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tbsp flaked almonds
icing sugar (optional) for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a 24cm springform tin and line with buttered baking paper. Dust the the baking paper lightly with flour.

2. Put almond meal, coconut, salt and sugar into a bowl and mix together with a beater. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla extract and almond essence until combined. Then mix in the cooled butter until it too is combined. Tip the wet butter mixture into the dry almond mixture and stir together. It should be a fairly loose batter. Scrape into tin, spread out evenly and scatter flaked almonds on top.

3. Bake for 40 minutes or until the cake springs back slowly when pressed.

4. Cool on rack and take out of tin to serve. Dust with icing sugar if you want, but I think it doesn't need it as it's quite sweet already. The cake stores for a week in the fridge or 3 weeks in the freezer, but I think it'll probably be gone in 2 days.

Dinner Party By Jo

Despite having some tennant issues to deal with, Jo still managed to whip up some great food for a dinner party at her place.

I arrived to the house with the beautiful smell of a roast cooking away. After consultation between Chefs Jo, Paul, Phuong and myself, we decided the roast wasn't ready yet and covered it with foil to cook a bit longer. While we all sat down to cocktails made by Jo and Moscato wine and watched the Olympics, the roast continued cooking.


We were so caught up in the Australia versus Argentina soccer match that we forgot about the roast a bit.


When we finally got the roast out, it was a bit overcooked. The flavours were good, but the meat was a tad tough. Not to worry, everyone still enjoyed it. I really liked the sweet potato and the really well cooked onions and garlic at the bottom of the baking tray.


Finally, as Australia was losing the match, we dug into a Apple and Pear pie, with lots and lots of ice cream.


It was a good dinner party and everyone was stuffed by the end. Thanks to Jo for cooking everything and Kin for letting us watch the brand new plasma TV.

Afghan Village

With the Olympics on, I have literally been glued in front of the TV. A hard drive recorder is a fantastic thing, not only can you watch some less interesting sports in double speed, you can skip through all the ads by using the 30 second skip button. Anyway, this meal at Afghan Village on Burke Road in Camberwell was eaten over three weeks ago. This means that my memory of some of the dishes isn't so clear but I'll try my best to remember them.

The restaurant is a small place and has a really intimate feeling. The rugs on the wall, artwork, candles and low lighting (but not too low) all help to make you at ease the moment you step in. We are greeted by a waiter and before I could even open my mouth to say that we had booked, he showed us our table. We were brought menus and iced water immediately, a good start. Also, without us needing to ask, he brought wine glasses and opened the wine for us. Now that's what I call service.


We were discussing which banquet option to go for. Some of us wanted to go for the banquet with 4 entrees and 3 mains while others wanted 4 entrees and 4 mains. We asked the waiter if we could order separate banquets so that they made one of the mains a bit smaller, but instead he offered us the larger banquet for the cheaper price. Deal.

First off we were presented with Nan with a selection of dips, including yoghurt and cucumber, a spicy chilli dip and a seafood dip (salmon) from memory. Then we got Pan Fried Eggplant with a tomato and yoghurt sauce. I really liked the way the eggplant with its charred flavour worked well with the cool yoghurt. The Dahl was enjoyed thoroughly by Kin, while everyone loved the Meat Dumplings, again served with a tomato and yoghurt sauce.

For mains, there was Lamb Korma, Chicken Korma, a Sizzling Hotplate of Chicken and Kofta, a Sticky Rice, Rice with Sultanas and Carrots and Plain Rice. The kormas had a slight kick to them and had very tender meat. The sizzling hotplate was my favourite, with vegetables that carried a smoky flavour and the koftas were a beautiful blend of meat and spices. Suprisingly, the rice with sultanas and carrots really worked and I like the sweet burst of flavours from the sultanas.


After the mains, we were all really full, but dessert looked so good that we couldn't resist. The dessert platter consisted of Biscuits that had rose water and cardamon, Baklava and a Panna cotta style dessert served with Peach or Apricot jam, I can't remember. The biscuits were quite dense and floury and went well with the coffee. The baklava was quite good, not as good as the ones from El-Fayha that I have mentioned a million times on this blog. The best though was definitely the Aghani Panna Cotta, since I don't know exactly what it's called. It was smooth and had a light flavour of the rose water and tasted great with the jam.


As I mentioned earlier, service was really good. All night the waiters were efficient and attentive. They were friendly without being sugary. They just got on with their jobs and made a couple of jokes throughout the night.

I liked the ambience as there was a good buzz in the room. People were chatting freely and food was just a part of the conversation. The rugs on the wall helped to make the place look good, but I think it also helps to absorb a lot of noise as well.

Overall Rating: 15/20, Good tasting Afghani food that you don't get to try everyday with good prices and service.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Vanilla Cupcake With Violet Buttercream

I was first besotted by Violet back at the second bloggers banquet. I had never heard of Violet before. But now I shall never forget Violet. Duncan first introduced me to Violet. Violet was definitely a stunner, with a refined beauty and so much inner charm. I was taken aback, how come I'd never heard of violet before.

Well, the "Violet" I speak of is none other than the essence and flavouring of violet flowers. The violet macarons that Duncan made were so addictive. I'm sure I ate the most out of anyone, ok maybe Vida might have eaten just as many. The violet flavour is a really strange fragrant flavour that is rather hard to describe. It's like a strange light mix of those pink musk sticks that we used to all eat as a child and a light floral note to it.

So my search was on, I had to find violet essence. Duncan got his bottle on his trip to France. I won't be going to France anytime soon, so I needed to find it here in Melbourne. He suggested I go to The Essential Ingredient, since they're not called the essential ingredient for no reason. I might be able to find a violet syrup there.

So off to The Essential Ingredient I went. I searched high and low (I'm not very good at finding things) but could not find it. I asked a shop assistant as I knew the syrup version was called Monin as Duncan showed me the bottle. However, she said they didn't have it. I was dejected and looked around a bit more. As I was about to leave and browsing the silicone madeleine trays, a shop assistant came up to me and asked if I needed any help. I thought I would give it one last go and asked her if they had violet syrup. She said she wasn't sure but took me over to the syrup section. And low and behold, there was a bottle of violet syrup.

I bought the bottle and was already thinking of a million things to make. I was going to make violet cupcakes, violet macarons, violet profiteroles, violet cakes, violet mousse and anything else I could possibly put it into. I thought I would play it safe and try a violet frosting before doing a macaron. So I decided to try a plain vanilla cupcake recipe that I saw by Ellie at Kitchen Wench and do a violet buttercream.

The cupcake part was really easy to make and tasted very good, awaiting some more flavour via a frosting. I did a butter cream and then added my violet syrup. I put in 10ml as the recipe instructed. Hmmmmm, no violet flavour. I put in another 10ml, no flavour. I kept going, and about 70ml later, the buttercream had split and still hardly a violet flavour. I gave up and left it as is.

This violet syrup is nowhere near as strong in flavour as the violet essence that Duncan brought back from Paris. I need to get my hands on that. So unless I rob Duncan in the middle of the night of his violet essence, or I go to France one day soon, I need another option. Does anyone know any food importers who may be able to get their hands on some (for a resonable price, I don't want to pay a few hundred dollars for a bottle) or know of any other places that may sell violet essence?

Anyway, the cupcakes tasted quite nice still, with a tiny hint of violet flavouring. I think I will use the rest of the violet essence to make cocktails as the back of the bottle suggests.



Vanilla Cupcakes
(makes approximately 24 cupcakes)

INGREDIENTS
225g cups self-rising flour
190g cups all-purpose flour
225g unsalted butter, softened
360g caster sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

2. Sift the flours together in a small bowl and set aside. Measure out the milk into a cup and stir in the vanilla and also set aside for now.

3. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, approximately 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Add the flour in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat (this will make them very tough). Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

5. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

6. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing with buttercream frosting.

Buttercream

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
1 egg white
80g sugar
230g unsalted butter, softly whipped
10ml water flavouring (choose whatever flavours you want)

METHOD
1. Over a double boiler, beat the eggs, white and sugar until it is thick and frothy.

2. Take egg and sugar mixture off heat. Let it cool until it's warm to touch. Then beat in the butter.

3. If the mixture is still a bit rough, put back over hot water and continue beating until it is smooth.

4. Add flavouring.

Cassata Alia Siciliana

I first saw this recipe, or a description and wonderful photos of the final product over at one of my favourite blogs, Cream Puffs In Venice. Ivonne and other bakers had made this Cassata Alia Siciliana over a Skype conference. I'm not sure how that all works, whether one person leads and says to add things and everyone does it and they continue, but it sounds interesting. What was even more interesting was the mention of a rum syrup. I was sold instantly. I love rum in anything sweet, with rum and raisin ice cream being my favourite all time flavour. Ivonne had linked to a detailed description of the recipe by Lis at La Mia Cucina. When I read the recipe, I wasn't so sure that I should make it. It seemed very complicated, for my inexperienced baking skills anyway. There were quite a few components and it would take some time to make the whole cake. But having just read about Duncan's forays into the Daring Bakers challenge, I was inspired to give this cake a go. It's not quite as hard as a Filbert Gateau, but it's my own Mount Kosciuszko.

As I was about to start making this cake, I also found another recipe write up of this cake by Helene of Tartlette. The only difference was that Helene used a cream frosting rather than an icing frosting. I also decided to go with the cream as I thought it would cut back the sweetness of the rest of the cake. In the end, the cream frosting was a great choice as the cake was quite sweet already.

So, how hard was it to make this cake? Well, it took me about 3.5 hours on day one to pretty much finish the cake and assembly it. Then on day two, it took another hour to try and frost it nicely. The components of the cake itself are not too hard to do. The only slight worry I had was that I thought my sponge cake batter looked a bit too dry and lumpy, but after it baked, it was perfect. The rum syrup was very easy to do, and the most annoying part of the buttercream was grating the chocolate and chopping the pistachio nuts.

The frosting part with the stabilised whipped cream looked really good. The extra gelatin gave it the firmer look and feel, like a professional cake that I'm so used to buying. Now I know how to achieve that look. However, trying to frost it nicely was still so hard. I have no idea how people get those cakes looking so smooth and flat. Maybe I need one of those cake turntable things and a big big frosting knife. Anyway, I tried my best to get it smooth.

The taste of this cake? Utterly divine. The combination of flavours works a treat. The rum is definitely there and is bold and assaults both your sense of smell and taste. Whilst there is a whole half cup of rum, the alcohol is mostly gone from the boiling I think so it's just this smooth flavour without the kick of the burning from the alcohol. The buttercream is a beautiful mixture tasting of the classic combination of chocolate and orange. The pistachios shine through occasionally as you bite into a piece. The sponge cake is very moist with all that syrup through it and holds everything together physically and flavour wise. Finally, the cream, as I said earlier, was a good decision as it helped to cut all that sweetness. And the decorative almonds did provide a nice crunch and flavour.

Lastly (yes this is a long post, but I'm really proud of this cake), the appearance is quite good I think. It's definitely nothing amazing, but it's the first time I've made a multi layered (more than two layers anyway) cake that has been properly decorated. I'm rather happy with the final result in terms of the look.




Cassata Alia Siciliana

makes one 9-inch cake, 10 servings

INGREDIENTS
Sponge Cake Layers:
2 cups bleached cake flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt, plus a pinch
8 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick/4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Rum Soaking Syrup:
2 cups granulated sugary
3/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup rum

Cake Filling:
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup shelled whole unsalted pistachios
3 cups fresh, whole-milk ricotta
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting:
2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/4 tsp powdered gelatin dissolved in 3 Tb. cold water

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 350°F and position a rack in the center. Lightly grease two 9-by-2-inch round cake pans with butter or nonstick cooking spray, line them with parchment paper, then grease the parchment.
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and 1 teaspoon salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks and sugar on medium speed until very light and pale yellow in color and doubled in volume. Beat in the vanilla extract, followed by the melted butter. Transfer the egg mixture to a large, clean mixing bowl. Fold in the dry ingredient-quickly and lightly, stopping just before they are fully incorporated. Clean the whisk attachment and mixing bowl.
Place the egg whites and the pinch of salt in the cleaned bowl of the electric mixer. Using the whisk attachment on medium-high speed, beat the egg whites until firm peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter quickly and lightly, incorporate any streaks of dry ingredients that remain.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared pans, rap the pans against the counter top to eliminate air bubbles. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until they are golden brown, a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, and the cakes have begun to pull away from the sides of the pan. Allow the cakes to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then carefully unmold and set them out to cool on a a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooling, prepare the rum syrup: In a medium saucepan, stir together the sugar, water, and rum. Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring the contents to a boil. Lower the heat and allow the syrup to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool.

Filling: using a microplane or box grater, grate the chocolate into fine, feathery shreds. Using a sharp knife, finely chop the pistachios. Place the ricotta, confectioners' sugar, and cinnamon in the bowl of an electric mixer and, using the paddle attachment, beat until the ricotta is creamy and soft (it will remain slightly gritty due to its original consistency). Add the grated chocolate, chopped pistachios, and beat just until combined.

Assembling the cake: Have ready a 9-inch springform pan. Using a serrated knife, carefully split each cake layer in half horizontally to make four layers. Place one of the layers in the bottom of the pan and, using a pastry brush, moisten it generously and evenly with some of the rum syrup. Spread the cake layer evenly with one third of the ricotta mixture. Repeat twice with another cake layer, more of the rum syrup, and another third of the ricotta mixture. Place the final cake layer on top and generously brush with the rum syrup. Wrap the springform pan tightly in plastic wrap; this helps the layers fit snugly on top of each other. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Whipped Cream Frosting:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream with the sugar until soft peaks. In the meantime, dissolve the gelatin in the microwave for 10 seconds. Mine broke so I set the cup where the gelatin was in a large saucepan filled with a couple of inches of water, brought the water to a simmer and waited for the gelatin to melt. Slowly pour the gelatin in one steady stream over the whipped cream and continue to whip until firm. If you add your gelatin a little cooled and before the whipped cream is still at soft peaks stage, it should not clump on you.
Decorate your cake with the whipped cream and return the cake to the refrigerator to chill until you are ready to serve it, at least 3 hours.

Movida Steak Tartare

Movida is one of my favourite restaurants in Melbourne. I just can't get enough of the tapas that they serve. I only wish it wasn't so hard to get a booking there. One of the dishes that I really liked when I was there last was the Steak Tartare. It also looked like one of the easier dishes to make from Frank Camorra's Movida book.

I got all the necessary ingredients, some of which were a bit harder to obtain than others. The hardest thing to get was the Spanish sweet smoked paprika. A trip across town to Casa Iberica on Johnston Street previously had provided a big fiery looking packet of the paprika. All that needed to be done was to combine all the ingredients.

The taste was very good. I didn't have any quail eggs so used a regular chicken egg. This helped to coat the beef and gave it a very smooth mouth feel. I could still taste the flavour of the scotch fillet I used, as well as the other flavours all poking through. I added a lot more tabasco than a few drops, as I like it with a bit more of a kick. At Movida, they use Wagyu, which I should try next time. I think that would make this dish even better.



Movida Steak Tartare

INGREDIENTS
200g day old pasta dura or other firm crusty bread, very finely sliced
200g fillet steak
4 tbsp very finely chopped red onion
few drops of Tabasco to taste
2 pinches of Spanish sweet smoked paprika to taste
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp finely diced cornichons
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp chopped flat leaf parsley
pinch of sea salt flakes
sea salt flakes, extra, to serve
extra virgin olive oil, to serve
1 quail egg (I used a regular egg and that tasted good too), to serve

METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Put the bread slices on a baking tray and bake for 5-10 minutes until crisp and golden.

3. Using a sharp knife, cut the meat into very tiny dice.

4. Put the meat, onion, Tobasco sauce, paprika, mustard, cornichons, extra virgin olive oil, parsley and sea salt in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

5. Serve in a bowl with a sprinkle of sea salt flakes, a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, raw egg on top and croutons. Mix the raw egg into the mince and spoon onto croutons to eat.

Happy 2nd Blog Birthday

Like A Goddess In The Kitchen, this food blog has also reached a milestone this week, two years old. Woohoo. This blog started out as an idea from Alan of Photo Finish. He said that we should start a collarative group blog across the globe. He suggested that I should organise it as I already had some connections to other bloggers. Hence, I thought about it a few nights as to what to do. Eventually, I noticed that everyone had some food related blog posts, and since that was what I liked too, that food shall be the topic of our group blog. Everyone started off enthusiastically and posted about their food adventures. But soon, the other contributor's enthusiasm waned, and people stopped posting.

In total contrast, I found that my enthusiasm for this blog actually increased as I made more and more connections with other food bloggers. The blog turned from a global one, to a more localised one about Melbourne. The moment I found Tummy Rumbles was when it all really clicked for me. I got advice and encouragement from Mellie, and found that there were so many other Melbournian food bloggers out there. Not only could I make connections with people online, I could also share the same experiences with others in Melbourne who had dined at the same restaurants or visited the same festivals. And to finally meet a few people at Enoteca Vino Bar and then a bigger blogger's banquet was such a thrill.

I've decided to post the photo of the Custard Birthday Cake as a celebration of two years of this blog. I think this cake sums up this blog and myself rather well. The cake definitely wasn't perfect, much like myself and this blog. I did learn a lot from making that cake, such as I have from this blog and all the contributions from other food loving people. The cake contains chocolate, which I love. The cake has hundreds and thousands on it and looks a bit silly and fun, which I think this blog and myself are. The cake is a bit messy, which again describes the blog and me.




Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way, in regards to content, technical issues, encouragement and just being enthusiastic about food. It's been a pleasure to write about food and have feedback from others. May we all continue to keep writing and enjoying food. See you all around Melbourne, eating away. I'll be the one holding a chocolate profiterole in one hand, and a camera in the other hand.