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It's starting to get cold here in Sydney. Cold and wet, and then cold and sunny. It poured with rain for half of yesterday before the sky decided to somewhat reluctantly let the sun come through. Literally hot and cold. I hate it. Click for more »
It occurred to me as I was looking through my previous posts that I haven't posted a cookie recipe for a month. One whole month. This might be a record. Click for more »
I have never understood this whole 'raw foods' trend. Suddenly everything's being converted into what is essentially its 'healthified' version - vegan, gluten free, sugar free and raw. It's been everywhere lately in the form of cookies, bars and even brownies. And while a part of me thinks it's great to focus on using natural, pure ingredients to achieve a sim
I don't know about you, but I love discovering new kinds of food through books. Literature has a way of making you look at food differently. In the particular case of jaffa cakes, I discovered their existence when I was about eleven through a book I was reading at the time which unfortunately I can't remember the name of - the protagonist was a young girl who got a role in a thea
Afternoon tea is a tradition that's been ingrained in me since primary school. At least one afternoon each week, my mother would pick me up and we would go to McDonald's for a teatime treat of french fries, cokes and cheeseburgers (the stuff every kid dreams of). I'm not even kidding; I visited Maccas so often as a kid I managed to collect their practically their entire stuffed
Do you have a cafe that you go to frequently as a meeting place? Somewhere that you can call the 'usual place' and others will know what you're referring to? For me and a small group of my closest friends from high school, that would be Le Pain Quotidien, or as we like to call it more simply, the French cafe. Click for more »
It's Monday again. It just insists on rolling around every six days, doesn't it? I've been fortunate enough to be on a two week break from classes, but as it's Monday, it means it has officially ended. It's sad news, people. Luckily I've got something to give you that isn't so sad. Right the opposite. Especially if you love nutella - and come on, who do
It took a while, but it's finally starting to feel like fall here in Sydney. The trees are turning red and fading brown; there's the sharp crunch of dried leaves under your feet as you walk down the street. In the supermarket, piles of apples tower above everything else. Click for more »
I went to Orange last weekend on a road trip which, while woefully lacking the presence of real oranges, did have plenty of beautiful fall colored trees in various shades of orange, brown and red. It's known as the 'color city' and you can see why. Click for more »
One of my favorite quick snacks when I'm hungry but lazy is to spread cream cheese on a digestive biscuit and add a dollop of jam on top. What you get out of this is a mouthful that tastes almost exactly like cheesecake. I thought posting about that would be just too little effort for this blog, even for me, so I fancied it up a little bit to get this cherry cheesecake trifle. Click
Everyone has a Pile of Deadlines. Mine is usually split into "Work I Want To Do" and "Work I Will Do Anything To Avoid". Well, the latter pile is just starting to explode on me this week. Click for more »
I needed a break from sweet things. Click for more »
I wasn't going to bake anything for Easter this year because this month has already been pretty full of sweet things. Except, well, I can't quite pass up an opportunity to bake on a long weekend. So here are some last minute cookies to sweeten up your Easter holiday! Click for more »
It was my dad's birthday yesterday. Since I started this ever time-consuming and money-draining little hobby of mine called baking, it's become a sort of tradition for me to bake a cake for my parents on their birthdays. For me, it's a great excuse to try new recipes or experiment with flavor combinations and go crazy with cake decorations. (As you can probably tell here by t
I was scouring the internet for quotes on chocolate cake to start off this post (oh, the life of a food blogger) and I came across this: "He showed the words "chocolate cake" to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. "Guilt" was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of the French eaters to t
Here's something I've observed in the past week: there has been a sudden new found popularity of scooters. Yes, scooters. The last time I remember riding one was when I was in year 5. And now, all of a sudden, I see adults and kids alike rolling away on their scooters down the street. I can't decide whether it's the businessman I saw in a suit and tie or t
A few days ago I really, really wanted blueberry muffins, but I didn't want to have to go through the whole process of scrubbing clean a muffin pan. Because, well, that's just a pain. Admit it. I know you've been there. Click for more »
[Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers' host and she challenged us to use our creativity in making our own Crisp Flatbreads and Crackers!] I missed last month's DB challenge, so I'm making up for it this month by being extra organized. I actually made this two weeks ago (before my agonizing teeth surgery) so I could have a chanc
Anyone remember their wisdom teeth extractions? I had a rather fun start to the week pulling one of mine, which had decided it would prefer to grow horizontally rather than vertically. So now one side of my face is swollen to the point where it looks square. The best bit? I get to do this all over again at some point later in my life to remove the others. Not that I'
Happy Chinese New Year! Which is... tomorrow. Ah. I meant to publish this a lot earlier so that people could have a chance to try some recipes if they wanted. As usual, my sense of timing is warped. But better late than never, eh? CNY is a week of family meals and visits, gift-giving and money-receiving. Cookies are abundant. The ones that I'm writing about today aren&#
I've been bedridden with a bad cold for the last couple of days, and apparently being drugged up with cold medication isn't really inspiring for blogging, so it's been a while! I was trying to squeeze this post into January although looks like I've missed it... Anyway, please don't let the bright green color of this cake scare you, this recipe is rather good, if I do
Who read Enid Blyton as a kid? Her books were definitely some of my favorite stories growing up. I still remember the Magic Faraway Tree, Mr Galliano's Circus (which instilled in me an unfulfilled desire to run away and live in with a travelling circus) and of course, The Book of Brownies. Because the entire concept of baking was pretty much foreign to my family before I started doin
I love quick breads. Most markedly because of the pointed word quick. I love that you can whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl, mash around the wet ingredients in another, combine them, dump the whole lot in a loaf tin and you're good to go. Like muffins, but even lazier. Click for more »
When I was a kid, I ate copious amounts of rice krispie treats, chocolate chip cookies, cornflake clusters and s'mores - the microwaved and campfire type (this was back when I had to do compulsory camping in high school - it was torture, except for the s'mores bit). These were the treats that would disappear quickly off the tables of bake sales, paying HK$5 for a baked treat. T
I made cupcakes. For no reason in particular. Well, no, okay. Not no reason. I have officially kept this blog for 1 month! And while this seems like a really tiny thing, no big deal at all to most people, it's a major thing for me because usually by this point in time in my history of 'let's-start-something-new!' I would have gotten bored/gave up/moved on to ot
I'm not one for New Years' Resolutions. Oh, I tried. Once upon a time, I sat down on January st and wrote out an actual list of resolutions with a pen on a piece of paper, numbered in order of priority. I lost the list about four days later. Click for more »
I know what you're thinking. Why are you posting a cookie recipe five days after Christmas?! I know most of you are all cookie-d out, but cookies seem to be all I've got at the moment. Lots and lots of cookies coming at you in the very near future. But these ones aren't just good for Christmas - and to be honest, they were made a day after Christmas, anyway - they
[The December 2012 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by the talented Marcellina of Marcellina in Cucina. Marcellina challenged us to create our own custom Panettone, a traditional Italian holiday bread! Thanks Marcellina for a great challenge!] Hello, hello, hello! I'm back to blogging with a big backlog of posts to catch up on. Christmas for me this year meant m
Once upon a time, I had a blog post schedule. Like most things with the word 'schedule' in my life, it's fallen out of existence. This was originally meant to be two separate posts; the first about the mincemeat, the second for the pie pops to coincide with the Christmas blog hop. Except I didn't quite get around to doing that and I'm not quite
It's probably not the most enjoyable or easy-going thing to be sitting in a car with your L-licensed daughter at the wheel... at anytime, really. Especially when she misses the exit on a roundabout and does a full 360 - without signalling - with the foot on the accelerator. Yet my parents have managed to live through every one of my driving mishaps so far and in doing so have perfe
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. -- Macbeth, Act IV I'm not sure why, but the thought of making jam has always made that verse in Macbeth jump into my head. Something about the thought of standing over a big pot of boiling fruit and sugar for hours reminds me of the three witches surrounding their bubbling cauldron full of far less pleasan
My posts have been lagging lately - I'm not losing interest, I swear, but December is hectic. What with the holidays, Christmas, plane trips, family obligations and that ever-looming apocalypse, I have to plan ahead to find time and bake. And let's face it, I'm not good at planning ahead. Click for more »
I'm currently writing this post on the plane. The good thing about writing blog posts on the plane is that you get a lot of time to think - the combination of being unable to sleep on planes and being confined in an economy class seat for 9 hours where the area space is made even smaller by the fact the person in front of you has absolutely no qualms about squashing yo
Get ready for a mega-long post. This week, I've been in Tasmania. Family trip #I've-completely-lost-count. Hobart, Swansea and Launceston. Because I now have a blog as an outlet for my ramblings with which I can do whatever I like, I thought I would share some photos. If you're only interested in the recipe, skip on ahead, I promise I don't mind. Click for mor
Up until a few years ago, I didn't like dates. As a kid, I would think of them as giant raisins, a cousin to prunes, and that alone was enough to put me off. But it's true that as you grow up and grow older, your taste buds change, foods that tasted horrible before may undergo a miraculous transformation on your tongue and you find that you actually really like them. I can
I'm off to Tasmania in a couple of days, which means I'm going to disappear from this blog for a week or so. Not to worry, though, I've had a rather full sweet-filled weekend, so here comes an overload! Click for more »
The weather has been annoyingly erratic lately, as it usually is this time of the year. Last week was positively screaming summer beach time with the sun blazing and everyone walking outside in tank tops and shorts. Today, the temperature dropped 20 degrees, the sky turned a murky grey and then it decided to pour with rain. It's the kind of rain that the small just-in-ca
My family's been on a new found health kick. You know those nutritional facts on every boxed processed food you get at the supermarket? Every single one of those has been torn apart and deeply analyzed this past week. Monounsaturated fat, saturated fat, trans fat - yes I can indeed now tell you the difference between these, although I'm doing my best to forget it
Let's talk cake. Of the chocolate variety, since there hasn't been one on this site yet and it's been over a month and that is just crazy. Exams are over. Yes. After a hellish week of sleep deprivation, countless midnight instant coffees and the overwhelming desire to start a bonfire with my textbooks, I've managed to survive yet another year of law school.
I seem to be on a cookie craze. What can I say? Cookies are the perfect thing to bake during my exam induced hibernation period. They're fast enough so I don't feel guilty procrastinating and are the perfect incentive to keep working. Click for more »
This morning I woke up early and made butter. Yep. I woke up at 7AM on a Sunday. If you know me at all, you'll know this does not happen - ever. And I did it to make butter. I'm just a little bit worried proud of myself. Let's make butter then, shall we? Click for more »
It's approaching exam time here at Words & Cake, so it's going to be short posts for the next two weeks or so. This is that time of the semester where everyone starts feeling really tired. You walk around campus and it's noticeably quieter than three months ago, the library is full at 9 in the morning and the majority of people in class are keeping their head down a
To me, making bread is the epitome of home baking. Plenty of people before me have waxed poetic about the old-fashioned comfort of kneading, the tranquility of waiting for dough to rise, and the satisfaction of eating freshly baked bread that is really unlike any other. That's all true, so let's leave the lyrical stuff to the poets and just get to the recipe, shall we? Click
There is something incredibly satisfying and strangely idyllic about seeing a tray full of cookies cooling next to a window. A picture immediately springs to mind of a middle aged, jolly, plump housewife in an old fashioned English cottage with a thatched roof and yellow door, pulling a pan of generously proportioned and puffed up golden brown cookies from the oven with a pair of blue-a
What do you do with leftover pumpkin puree? For me, it's easy. I turn it into pancakes. And I think you should too. And then I think you should stack them high, drizzle drown them with maple syrup and top with a generous pat of cinnamon brown butter spread. Can I just repeat that last bit? Cinnamon. Brown. Butter. Yes. Click for mo
The first time I ordered chai tea in a cafe in Sydney, I was surprised. I had been expecting a pot of black tea and a small pitcher of milk. Instead, what came to the table was a pot of fragrant, soothing tea brewed directly in whole milk. Obviously, I was living under some sort of rock until then because it had never crossed my mind I could brew tea this way. The result,
For a blog that's meant to be mostly sweet, I seem to be posting quite a bit of savory things. But this is one of my very favorite breakfasts (since I can't always eat cake). So I thought I would share it with you. Click for more »
Food photography lesson learnt #1: use natural light. That was my conclusion a few nights ago after my seventh consecutive rejected photo from Foodgawker and Tastespotting. This is probably obvious to everyone else out there, but I hadn't realized what a massive difference it made taking a photo of something using natural sunlight and taking a photo of something a
And we're back to savory again! Here's something about me: I have a fear of deep frying. It's not so much that I'm scared I will accidentally burn myself with hot oil, it's more to do with the fact that I'm terrified of emptying half a bottle of oil into a pot just to cook something. Let's not be mistaken here - I love deep fried foods
