Bernard's Birthday at Pier Nine

Molten Lava Cake

Sometimes my uncle and aunt really pamper us too much. In just one year they have brought me to Pier Nine for dinner again. This time the occasion was B's birthday.

Initially, on the day of his birthday, that was the 1st of December, we were not able to make it to Pier Nine as my uncle and aunt now reside in Redcliffe. So we ended up patronizing one of the boat clubs on the peninsular. The setting was very informal and we were in our formal clothes so my aunt and I felt very out of place. My aunt was so unhappy with the ambiance that she insisted we go to Pier Nine the very next day.

In actuality, even though the ambiance wasn't all that great, the food was good and we even got a free plate of seafood risotto as it was our first time there.

So off to Pier Nine the next day and this time we were seated immediately. We had oysters and went to main course straight away. I ordered the quail, B the Asian noodles, K the lamb, Uncle Y the Atlantic salmon and Chitti the quail as well. In the end, K was not too happy with the lamb as it was sweet and so he switched with me and Chitti switched with B.

After main course, surprisingly everyone had dessert. It's surprising because only K and I are dessert crazy. So Bernard and I had the Valrhona molten chocolate cakes, K had cider jelly that looked like a pyramid, Chitti had the cheesecake and Uncle Yo a coffee inspired dessert.

Of course we had to do the sparkly thingy and so B's dessert came with a sparkle, song and smiles from everyone. Our molten cakes had an additional chocolate fudge sauce poured all over it and was accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was divinely rich and chocolaty. Look at how well Bernard cleared his plate. Giggles.

The family

It was a wonderful dinner and we had our usual walk by the Brisbane river. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all and thank you Chitti and Uncle Y !!!

March Babies' Treat at 61

The treats

Woo Hoo i love my office !!! Every month, babies of that month get some monetary allowance to treat other colleagues to a feast. ( Well that depends on how many babies there are that month ) So for March, there are 12 of us ( including me ) and we decided to get Singapore's latest craze Chewy Donuts, some éclairs and mufflins from Delifrance and some Chinese kueh.

To be honest i was not expecting so much food to be there. Just look at the spread. The winners were definitely the chocolate mufflins and the éclairs. The chewy donuts were okay. I mean those in Australia would know of Dreamy Donuts and oh my god their Raspberry Dream, which is a raspberry filled donut coated with Lindt white chocolate ... oh my god i' m moaning now... sigh .. well i haven't tried Krispy Kremes , so i'll evaluate those donuts later. So back to the chewy ones, i think the only appeal was its variety. There was chocolate, oreos, nuts, plain cream cheese (unsweetened), blueberry, strawberry, apples, kaya and the list goes on. But they sure look good don't they.

Look at everyone indulging themselves. Ha ha ha ... t'was a delightful display !

The office

Daddy's 49th

The Cake

Daddy turned 49 last Sunday and i made him a chocolate cake. Phew ! Thank god it turned out good. I had to go through a whole other cake before this one. I started planning what to make him about a week in advance. Just sitting in the office and thinking. Even Yiwen helped me out by sending me a picture of the cake she did. Thanks gerl ! Then i decided on a vanilla blueberry cake since he liked blueberries. So i bought a box of vanilla cake mix (big mistake) and the blueberries, marshmallows , cream and gelatine.

I had planned to bake the cake on a Friday and frost it the following Saturday, but i got busy with tuition and ended up baking it Saturday. To my utmost horror the cake had this very artificial smell, not the buttery goodness that cakes usually emanate. This smell just made me sick to my stomach. Then i stopped and made the blueberry filling which was another disaster. I think i added too much sugar and so the filling was ruined !!! The consistency was perfect but it was too SWEET !!! Sigh i was really annoyed and frustrated, Even the cream that i whipped started to curdle.

That was it, i never wanted to bake again ( not really ) but i was seriously thinking of buying a store bought cake and just shoving everything i had done into the rubbish bin. But i really wanted to bake something for m y dad. Baking something for someone is an intimate and fulfilling endeavor. Well at least i think so.

So i turned to plan C (honestly i had no plans) i made a chocolate truffle cake with my trusted recipe that i have used many times. I made two layers individually because the batter yields too much for one tin. Then i mixed my almost curdling cream with melted chocolate to make ganache. I sandwiched the cakes with a generous amount of ganache and finished the decoration with whipped cream and silver dots. ( The store didn't have cherries )

My family enjoyed the cake and even complimented me for controlling the sugar in the cream as (i anticipated) the cake was sweet. Yay ! A wonderful and sweet finish to a disasterous beginning.