Flower Pot

I forgot to upload this... Oooops..

I organised an afternoon for Be Gorgeous to a tea in October. An event which they raise money for a project called A-21: against human trafficking.

This cake was up for auction, which to my surprise, it was sold for $75 :) extravagant!!!!!!!

It is CHRISTMAS time!!!

Christmas time is by far the BEST time of the year. People are very generous about giving gifts, lots of yummy food, family and friends gathering together, and of course, our Father God gave his Son Jesus, so that we can have an eternal life and a relationship with Him!

This year, Shisei and I organised all the dishes. There wasn't a lot (I thought), but everything was prepared perfectly and extravagant!!

Watermelon and lychee cooler

Japanese egg salad - something that I just made it up LOL

This is really delicious and so simple - all it takes are cupee mayonaaise, egg yolks, salt and pepper. "SO SIMPLE, ITS PERFECT."

Garden Salad

Salmon Ricotta Rosti Stack

Dessert - Raspberry Splash

Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!!!!!

Australia's famous Pavlova!!

This is my first Pavlova. Ha ha.. now that I can make this Aussie favorite, I can really call myself a true blue LOL.

Wendy's Birthday/Be Gorgeous to a tea party 2010.

I believe I can fly

Le Papillon - The Butterfly

I watched Poh's kitchen few weeks ago. Emmanuel Mollois made this cake for Poh. It was just simply BEAUTIFUL. The chocolate mousse looks so sweet, the glaze is so glossy, the butterfly is so delicate... ALL I wanted was to put my hands in the TV and grab a bite to eat.

I modified the recipe a bit and did not use the exact ingredients, but everything is perfect! All I can say is - The acidity of the strawberry balanced perfectly with the bitterness of the dark chocolate mousse, the Papillon is a slightly big, but that's the title of the cake, it's gonna be outstanding!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PASTOR DREW!!!!

Macaroons

I have never tried a macaroon before. The reason I made these was because of Masterchef... getting a bit obsesse with this show. Anyway, they taste great.. a bit sweet, I think!!

I can't wait until next week. I am going to visit Adriano Zumbo's patisserie XD woohoo

Master Pasta

Salmon Ravioli with mushroom tomato sauce

I am in love... in love with my pasta machine!!

I was inspired by the Masterchef to make fresh pasta. (I was addicted!!) I bought the pasta machine for about 4 weeks now and have been make fettuccini and I was wanting to do something different..

Cath bought some smoked salmon and she wanted to have it with pasta. She gave me 2 hours to prepare the dish. So the clock started ticking, "chop, chop"...

With the freshly grown dill in our backyard, I added the dill in the pasta dough to make "dillie" pasta. With a twist, I then made ravioli.

The mushroom tomato sauce: fresh tomato, mushroom, bulb spring onion and garlic.

I left a bit of a mass in the kitchen at the end, but it was ALL FUN and tasty!! The other good news is that I made it in time with 1 minute to spare!!! AWESOMENESS

First time Pasta

Pasta - here I come...

I just bought a pasta machine - WOO HOO..

First time making pasta, it was LONG... it took me almost 2 hours to make 3 serves of pasta - the dough was too sticky and the rolling pin kept falling out, it was exhausting!

At the end I made carbonara, something simple. It was all worth it, the pasta was fresh and well cooked... LOVE IT!!

Chocolate Fondant - Masterchef style

My heart melts...

Chocolate Ganache tart with raspberry

Masterchef's Chocolate ganache, lavender cream and raspberry tart WITHOUT the lavender cream :S

Insipired by Masterchef, I attempted to make pastry... it was a disaster!

First, it was too dry, it did not shape properly and crumbled as soon as you touch it. Second time, it was over cooked, it was burned. Third time, it was a little better.

However, our lavender bush died, so this Chocolate ganache, lavender cream and raspberry tart was in fact - Raspberry chocolate ganache tart WIHTOUT lavender cream!

My top tips are - never, never, never, ever give up!!! And use fresh raspberry (for freshness and for presentation sake!)

Be Gorgeous chocolate biscuits

Be Gorgeous

Some gorgeous ladies included myself, baked these Be Gorgeous "very" Chocolate biscuits for the annual Be Gorgeous sunset walk this year.

After burning off some calories from the 2.75km walk, having one of these babies... well, I think they worth it!

Sushi, tempura and green tea almighty

We are turning Japanese, we really think so!!


It was Cath's birthday on ANZAC day. "Happy Birthday Cath!!" We had a really good time at the Be Gorgeous walk and ended the day with pizza, movie and Magum. And of course, we made her dinner the next day!


Instead of baking ANZAC biscuit, I made her a very Japanese dinner (Not that I wanted to remind myself how the ANZAC fought against the Japanese.. Just that Japanese food is Cath's favourite!)



Main courses were sushi and tempura.

I made sushi before, so it wasn't too much trouble. Ps Chris loved the egg boat and of course we had Cath's favourite fish eggs! I loved the "Japanese ginger rose".


Dessert was Opera with green tea ice-cream.

The Opera cake was made up of layers of Jaconde and green tea buttercream, topped with chocolate sauce/ganache. This delicious cake was served with homemade green tea ice-cream. (Finally got to use my ice-cream maker which I got it for my birthday last year :D)

Rich Chocolate Cake

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...

It was Vanes' bday on Wed, I made this chocolate cake for her. Nothing much special about this cake, other than I added a bit of coffee in the mixture - so really it was a mocha cake!

Saucy Wings

Impossible sauce

Chicken wing is one of my favorites. I created this "Impossible" sauce few years ago for it - my secret recipe!!

The reason I call it "Impossible" is because it is made up of many different sauces. I think I perfected it by adding spring onion.

I would love to tell you how I mix the "Impossible" sauce, but I really don't know the measurements, I just go by the taste as I mix it. HAHAHA!!

A Very Chocolatey Chocolate cake

Cover up

This cake was a miracle!

I used a "buttomless cake tin" my mom gave me. Without any instructions of how to use it properly, the mixture spilt everywhere and some of the mixture was "double baked".

However, instead of feeling like a failure I thought I would decorate the cake anyway to practice my skills. This very chocolatey chocolate cake has white, milk and dark chocolate AND Maltesers!!

When Shisei and I tried the cake - it was GREAT! Very moist and very chocolatey!!!

Orange Chiffon Cake

Poh's Cake

When I was watching Poh's kitchen on ABC, I almost dribbled as she was making this amazing Orange Chiffon Cake.

I have already made this cake FOUR times, it is very easy, and everyone loved it. Shisei and Ps Drew wanted to claim a whole one (not successful), but they did get a good share.

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT.

Lamb Shanks with tomato and rosemary

Worthy is the Lamb

This mouth watering Lamb took nearly 8 hours to cook with the slow cooker!!! The Lamb is worth our time, patience and all sacrifice because as soon as we put it in our mouths, it melted and we felt the love.

The lamb was served with creamy mashed potatoes and caramelized carrots.

The family loved it, and we can't wait to share this dish with you!

Text 'Lamb Shanks' to Mandy now to secure your place at our home restaurant!!!

Chocolate Orange Meringue Gateau

Irresistible Easter Treat

I made this on Easter Sunday for my lovely family. Shisei and I started cooking at 3pm and it only took us 3 hours to bring heaven on earth!!

This deliciously yummy and irresistible dessert is a must have for Easter.

When we were decorating the cake with chocolate, it reminded us of the TV series MasterChef, when Poh was making her chocolate pipe (and sadly failed). Fortunately, ours turned out alright.

The fact is that we had a lot of fun making it, and we forgot that we had put in so much love (=chocolate), patience (=sugar) and creativity (=cream)!!

Heaven on a Plate

Shisei (my Aussie bro) had this brilliant idea after I made a yummy dinner and dessert for Easter - create a Blog about my cooking. A bit scary, because that sounds like a commitment to me... but I love cooking food for the people I love and cooking is a wonderful therapy and is a relaxing way for a workaholic + chocoholic like me.