Spiderman Cake

Last year it was a Batman cake. This year it is Spidey. How time flies. C & SL's son celebrated his 6th birthday yesterday. It is still so clear in my mind when I could actually pick him and his brother up with both hands and run around the park. He is now up to my chest! 

I have been out of practice for a while now. But I somehow still got 'it'. The ganache layers were smooth and the fondant covering was smooth with equal thickness throughout. The  flourless orange and almond cake was moist and not too sweet so that it could be eaten with the fondant (usually people just remove the fondant because it is too sweet to eat). And no oil/butter in the cake recipe as well. Not to mention I boiled 3 large oranges and pureed them to add into the cake batter. Yes, I am trying to make healthier cakes :) And most importantly, I got 6 kisses from JR for the cake!! (soon enough there will be no more kisses for Aunty Lay...so better take advantage now hey! hahaha).

There you have it. A simple Spiderman cake. I took a shortcut with the figurine because I had a sore back. But looks alright yeah? :) Could be better (the perfectionist in me talking!). Maybe next year..hope it doesnt get harder year on year.

Cheers.

Three Blue Ducks @ Bronte

I read about Three Blue Ducks cafe some time back from notquitenigella's food blog and wanted to try out the place but somehow it got lost in the super long list of mine. Then when Masterchef had the 3 chefs from Three Blue Ducks participate in a challenge, 'ting ting ting', I remembered and immediately suggested to Ms J to meet there for lunch on Saturday. We were lucky, got there about 12.15pm and only had to wait 5 mins to get a table. Unfortunately, we missed the breakfast menu by 10 mins, and so we went for the lunch menu instead. I was eye-ing other table's food and the baked eggs with chorizo looked amazing. I didnt catch anyone having the pancakes but it sure sounds delish.

Service was prompt. Drinks were served fast, coffee was good.

single origin coffee - skim flat white $4

Mr R ordered the crispy skin ocean trout with wakame & cucumber salad with wasabi mayo, Ms J ordered pork belly with chilli jam, enoki mushrooms & asian greens, babs got the braised beef cheek, burnt onion, mustard seeds & celery and I got the steak sandwich with red pepper mayo, tomato, onion marmalade & rocket. I managed to snap some photos with my iPhone camera but they didnt come out too good..arghhhh!!

crispy skin ocean trout with wakame & cucumber salad with wasabi mayo $24

pork belly with chilli jam, enoki mushrooms & asian greens $26

braised beef cheek, burnt onion, mustard seeds & celery $26

steak sandwich with red pepper mayo, tomato, onion marmalade & rocket $16

Everyone let me taste a small bite of their dish and I was really liking them all. The ocean trout was still pink and that's the way it should be served. The pork belly was so soft as melted in my mouth! The beef cheek needed no effort, it was braised beautifully and tender was an understatement. The 2 ladies next to me ordered the calamari with pearl barley and roast pumpkin & goat's cheese salad, and they looked beautiful. 

Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed with my steak sandwich. I was so looking forward to enjoying a beautifully cooked piece of steak (expectations of ex-fine dining chefs) but I was served the total opposite. I was told by the waiter that the steak would be served medium rare, what I got was 3 mini slices of over cooked pieces of beef. What happened to the juice piece of medium rare steak? :(  I was so disappointed, I stopped, wiped my fingers and peeled open the sandwich so I could take a photo of it. Ms J asked about the flavours, and although it tasted fine, I couldnt comment as I was still imagining that piece of juicy meat that was at that point... imaginary. Sadly but truely, I have had much better steak sandwiches served in pubs. Three Blue Ducks - if you read this, please serve a nicely cooked medium rare juicy piece of steak :) And I will for sure come back and re-order :)

Not the kind of steak sandwich I would expect :(

After lunch, I walked over to the other side of the restaurant and ordered 3 pieces of dessert - baked chocolate tart, lemon meringe tart and a slice of chocolate brownie. The chocolate tart was interesting, it had some kind of alcohol in the filling - I suspect it was rum, Mr R said brandy. It could be Kirsch or even chocolate wine....hhhmmmm....anyways, the lemon meringue tart was nice, it had a good balance of flavours. The only comment on the 2 tarts were the tart shells were thin but hard. I had to use 2 hands to cut it through with the fork. The chocolate brownie is ok.

The 4 of us chatted until 3pm. Had lots to catch up hehehe. Total bill came up to $140. I suppose it was ok since babs and Mr R had 2 coffees, and I and Mr R had a juice on top of the coffees. 

So, dear readers, tell  me where did you have the best or the worst steak sandwich?

Details:

Three Blue Ducks
141-143 Macpherson st
Bronte NSW 2024

Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Sunday - Breakfast: 7am - 11:30am; Lunch: 12midday - 2:30pm
Dinner (wed, thu, fri, sat) - 6pm - 11pm
Dinner bookings only

Cheers.

Hummingbird Cupcakes

It was Ms. Nat's birthday and I thought it was a great excuse for me to bake. The last time I baked was when the cake took 3 days to finish! Ms. Nat wanted hummingbird cake, so she got just that. Instead of the usual large cake, I decided to make cupcakes, it's cuter too!

I used the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook but as usual, modified it according to my taste.

To make 34 cupcakes, I used the following proportions:

Ingredients

• 450g caster sugar
• 4 extra large free range eggs (room temperature)
• 450ml sunflower oil
• 400g peeled super ripe bananas, mashed (approximately 5 large bananas)
• 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 430g plain flour
• 1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g tinned crushed pineapple, remove syrup
• 250g shelled pecans and walnuts, roughly chopped
• 34 paper cups
• muffin tray

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170C
2. Put the sugar, eggs, oil, banana and cinnamon in large mixing bowl - mix with wooden spoon until ingredients are well combined
3. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and vanilla extract and continue to mix with wooden spoon until everything is well mixed.
4. Stir in the crushed pineapple, pecans and walnut until evenly dispersed.
5. Spoon mixture into paper cups 3/4 full and place into muffin tray
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown 
7. Remove cupcakes from muffin tray and place on  wire cooling rack to cool completely
8. Once cooled completely, ice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting 

• 600g pure icing sugar, sifted
• 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 250g cold cream cheese, cut into small cubes

1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together until it's well mixed. 
2. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. 
3. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. 
4. Do not overbeat as it can quickly become runny
5. Place frosting into piping bag with the desired piping tip
6. Ice cupcakes

Have fun!

Cheers.

Menya Mappen

I had read about Menya Mappen in a few food blogs and thought it would be great to try this place out. Not heading some of the bloggers advice - not to over do it with the selections, I did exactly just that - I took way too many sides!

The concept is simple. There is a range of noodles to choose from. Order the noodles of choice, and make your way down the self service line where you can pick any sides you like - tempura prawns/vegetables, fish cake, sausages etc.

The soba was alright but the tempura items were quite disappointing. The tempura batter was soggy and way too thick. I couldnt even taste the prawn from the tempura prawn - all I could taste was the soggy batter.

I would however come back to try the restaurant next to Menya Mappen which serves food of a similar concept - but rice based instead of noodles. It's called Menya Oiden.

Cheers.

Details:
Menya Mappen
11/537-551 George Street  Sydney NSW 2000