Farewell 2010.

The last week of every year is always an insanely busy time in my life. This might have something to do with the fact that there is Christmas, followed by my sister's birthday (which always leads to lots of celebrating) and then of course more celebrating to ring in the new year.

Christmas was a super quiet affair this year, in fact if it didn't really feel like Christmas time at all. My sister and I have a tradition of watching 'Meet Me in St Louis' and baking Christmas cookies together every year - sadly this year I baked by myself, and we simply never got around to watching the movie. I did however hang out with some of my favourite people on the day AND I went to the movies. I don't know why I've never thought to go to the movies on Christmas before, it's fantastic! You get to see new releases without the accompanying first-week crowds. Think I know what my new Christmas tradition is going to be :P

The rest of the week has pretty much been spent helping my sister celebrate reaching the quarter century milestone in her life - and it has been lots of fun! I don't like to get too sentimental when blogging but I have to say I am so lucky to have such a great sister and am so proud of all her achievements this past year.

I must admit the highlight of my sister's birthday (aside from spending it with her, of course) was the cake. I absolutely love chocolate, so by default I absolutely love Lindt's cake collection. The birthday cake selected was the Chocolate Hazelnut Gateau. It is three layers of vanilla bean cake soaked in frangelico, layered with roasted nuts and gianduja (a hazelnut and chocolate paste). I highly recommend it...so delicious!

The day after my sister's actual birthday, the celebrating continued with a day of shopping, and this is where we finally tried this American-style diner that I've wandered past countless times over the past year but have never had the time to stop in and eat. The decor screams American diner with booths lined all along the walls, and the menu has typical diner fare with extensive burger and fries options, as well as all-day breakfast (featuring a dozen or so pancake options). We opted for pancakes, which were absolutely delicious and completely transported me back to my time in the States where I consumed insane amounts of pancakes (though the portion size was considerably smaller than American standards).

While I would definitely return, I have to say Melbourne has much better options when it comes to American-style diners. Guess I'll just have to get my year's worth of diner food fix when I return to the States.

***

Well, I can't believe 2010 is about to come to an end. While it hasn't always been great, I have had some of the most wonderful times of my life this year. Thank you to all the wonderful people in my life that have made it a pretty awesome year, I'm so lucky and grateful to know you all. I hope 2011 brings good health and happiness to all!

Happy New Year!!

Another Birthday, Another Cake

Today is my mother's birthday. Amidst all the chaos that was my first day of classes back at Uni, I came home early to run some errands and then bake a cake for my mum. I decided on a Carrot Cake as, a) that is my mum's favourite cake flavour and b) this particular recipe has proven to be a success in the past.

Part of me wasn't looking forward to baking despite it being one of my favourite pastimes, as I am incredibly tired from this bookstore gig. However, my close friend S stopped by to catch up and helped me out with the cake. We pulled it out of the oven to cool a little while ago and it looks pretty great (even if I do say so myself). I was undecided on whether I could be bothered to ice the cake, but since it's a special occasion I think I will...plus S said I should, so who am I to argue :P

The recipe itself is from my favourite food magazine Bon Appetit. I have been a subscriber to this wonderful American magazine for over 2 years now but have been hunting down and using their recipes for years.

The version I made today is half the quantity and only one-layer. Also, I substituted the pecans for walnuts, and left out the cinnamon because of my sister's allergies. It looks like this (it's currently cooling down in the tin):

Ladies who Lunch.

Amongst all the misery of yesterday, it's easy to forget all the great things in my life, and the wonderful people in my life.

So this post is dedicated to my wonderful friends. They remind me that for every negative person there are several great individuals in this world.

During the course of celebrating my birthday this week, I was taken out to lunch by my lovely friends. Making for one of the most fun Fridays I've had in a very long time. We ventured away from our usual haunt, the Max Brenner cafe, and tried a new place called Sahara Restuarant. The food here was surprisingly good, the portions from the "light lunch" menu were decently sized (nice and hearty). It was great catching up with the girls :) Though I did miss our friend B, who is currently in Italy.

Upon returning home from the fabulous lunch, I went to visit my cousin R who has finally returned home after a long stint in hospital. I took some cake to cheer her up as, let's face it, who doesn't smile at the thought of a slice of delicious cake. Plus, we're currently drowning in left over birthday cake at my house. Apparently during her time at the hospital (or "asylum" as she has aptly named it) she snuck out to go shopping, and after conspiring with my sister bought me this beautiful necklace for my birthday.

Despite the negativity that was yesterday, I must say I have been absolutely spoilt this past week. So a big thank you to my family and friends, I'm so lucky to have you all in my life :)

The Beginning of the End

The celebrating continued on Sunday, with a high tea at Crossroads Bar @ The Swissotel. Unfortunately the day started off on a bad note, and what was supposed to be a fun day out with my sister and a friend only proceeded to get worse.

Our beloved high tea has changed drastically with the service and quality here dropping considerably. It seems that they have attempted to squash more people into the bar, increase the prices and serve rather sub-standard food. Since I absolutely love all things sweet and have expectations of a certain level of deliciousness, I was not happy.

(A pic from the good old days. These delicious treats were nowhere to be found)

To make it even worse, yesterday marked the beginning of the end of my friendship with this particular friend. It was bittersweet. I've known it was a long time coming, I guess yesterday was the final straw.

The 2 hours were so uncomfortable. This person has made me so miserable over the years and despite my attempts to pretend like it's not that bad, sadly, things will never change. So like the other people that have slowly disappeared out of my life, it would seem another one bites the dust :(

Saturdays.

The weekend marked the end of my week of birthday celebrations.

Saturday was spent indulging at a wonderful seafood buffet at Cafe Opera @ The Intercontinental Hotel, Sydney. Desserts are what make or break any restuarant experience for me, and I must say the desserts here were divine!

To make it even more fabulous, the waitstaff were incredibly attentive and nice, and having found out that we were celebrating birthdays they brought me out a special little cake.

We followed lunch with a much needed walk to work off all the sugar, and as usual (when my mother, sister and I are together) the walk led us straight to the shops. Surprisingly, I was quite restrained and avoided spending too much money, but we couldn't resist one big splurge...

It's a Panasonic Lumix and I love it! It makes my old camera look so ancient, and makes me wonder why an upgrade was not sought sooner.

With great food, great company and a side of shopping, I could not have asked for a better way to celebrate.

The Cake.

Okay so here it is, my version of Magnolia Bakery's popular three-layer Red Velvet cake. It tastes delicious (even if I do say so myself :P) and my dad was suitably surprised :) He didn't expect a cake this year with my injured hand and all, so it definitely made all the time and effort worth it.

I must say it's definitely not an everyday cake. It has so much sugar and butter that I can still feel my arteries reeling in shock.

The frosting is by far my favourite part of the cake (aside from the beautiful red colour). It's a butter roux frosting, where you cook flour in milk and then add it to an incredibly large amount of butter. Was a bit hesitant to try it as I always go with a standard butter cream icing but I will definitely be icing more of my cakes with this. Love it!

Let Them Eat Cake continued...

So the cakes are finally in the oven. Preparing the batter took me longer than expected, using a hand-held mixer with one hand and attempting to grip the bowl with the injured other hand is harder than I thought it would be. Then, I had to contend with the red food colouring which went EVERYWHERE...just finished mopping up the mess!

The batter is looking good. It's smooth, super red and velvety :)

Let Them Eat Cake.

Today, as "Birthday Week" continues, my family is celebrating my dad's birthday. Being that I haven't worked for the past month and am strapped for cash, I've decided to take charge of organising a cake.

Since I absolutely love baking I'm thinking this will be fun (even though my right hand is still out of action for the most part). So after consulting my extensive library of cookbooks I've settled on a classic all-American recipe from Magnolia Bakery.

Magnolia Bakery is somewhat of an institution in NYC. They make the most divine Vanilla Cupcakes and Breakfast Buns!

The recipe I've chosen to recreate is a classic Red Velvet Cake with a Creamy Vanilla Icing, and can be found in The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook by Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey.

Hopefully it will taste good and look like this:

Wish me luck!

"Birthday Week" begins.

Although there are only two birthdays in my family during this week of July (my dad's and my own), we inevitably spend an entire week celebrating with various lunches, dinners and cake-cuttings.

Yesterday I was absolutely spoilt, so a big thank you to all my lovely friends and family for all their birthday wishes :)

One of the highlights of my day was receiving this box:

Without fail Tiffany & Co.'s tiny blue boxes always fill me with a sense of indescribable excitement. In this case I must admit I had a tiny clue that they contained a gorgeous pair of diamond earrings (what I didn't know is that my parents had been harbouring it for 6 months!!). So thanks Mum and Dad!

I also got a beautiful Cellini ring, DL clutch and a sky's-the-limit shopping spree at Sephora from my sister. But the best present of all is my Academy Award for being the "World's Best Sister". I don't know how true that is but I'll take it :P

This is particularly special as it comes from Disney's Hollywood Studios and was somehow purchased and smuggled back home without my knowledge (but now explains why I was constantly getting snapped at when I offered to carry or open F's bags). So thank you F, it certainly made my day!

And with that "birthday week" has officially begun...