Chocolate Pavillion

Last weekend, we visited Westfield Carindale to check out their new wing. Not being a regular shopper at Carindale, I can’t really comment on what had changed. However, the only thing I can say is that it is starting to look a lot like Westfield Chermside.

Their new food court featured quite a number of restaurants and cafes. Since we have already had lunch, we decided to try out the dessert at Chocolate Pavillion.

Our first impression was that it was quite an impressive dessert bar with a ‘dessert train’ concept. However, upon closer inspection, there weren’t many dessert options on the train which was a bit disappointing.

There is a chocolate store at the front of the shop and some emphasis that they were selling Mary Chocolate from Brussels. Reading reviews online, some called it the ‘best chocolate in the world’. However, I didn’t get to try that and might check it out another time to see if it lives up to the hype.

We ended up ordering the Jaffa Dome ($13) and a Chocolate Butterscotch/Caramel frappe? ($7.50). Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get the exact name of the drink. Gosh, it sounds like I was rather disorganised that day.  :)

No doubt, the Jaffa Dome was rich and flavoursome - chocolate and orange are a perfect match.

Overall, the experience didn’t really ‘wow’ us. We found the menu items to be slightly overpriced and menu options quite repetitive (with minor variations). The service was alright and some staff was more attentive and friendlier than others. Would I go back again?  Hmm...maybe not.


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Last Meal at Bretts Wharf

Last week we received an email stating that Bretts Wharf will be closing down on the 2nd September 2012. Their business had suffered since the announcement by council to resume the land and then cancelling the plan later – when their other bookings had already been cancelled.

We go to Bretts Wharf annually and have celebrated several special occasions there. This was not the first time we received news about their closure, but we felt like we are really going to miss this place.

We decided to make a trip there for a last meal before they close. They seemed very busy and the restaurant was 'almost' full.

For starters we order sourdough with hazelnut dukkah ($3). The sourdough was hot, straight out of the oven (or reheated). It was a great way to start the meal.

We then moved on to the next appetiser, barramundi and tiger prawns spring roll with garlic ginger dressing and lime ($16). It was my first time eating a seafood style spring roll and I really liked it. The lime and ginger dressing cut through the fishiness of the seafood and was perfect.

For mains, I was looking for the seafood platter that I had almost every year, but it was not on the menu. The closest thing was the seafood platter for two. I somehow managed to convince D to share it with me. :)

It was a plate of Chermoula prawns, grilled Moreton Bay Bugs, crispy squid, grilled Kilpatrick oysters with lemon butter sauce ($94). I have to admit the price has gone up by a lot since our last visit. The prawns were a bit salty for me, but the rest was great: squid was light and crispy, bugs were perfectly grilled (just wished it was bigger) and oysters were just delicious. D doesn’t really like oysters so I had most of it to myself. Yay! :)

That brings us to the end of dining at Bretts Wharf. I also found pictures of our first dinner at Bretts Wharf back in 2008, to give this post a closure. Enjoy!

Grilled Moreton Bay Bugs

Seafood Platter

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Strawberry Cupcake in Icecream Cone

It is Ekka week (Brisbane Exhibition) and I am craving the famous Ekka Strawberry Sundae.  I heard on 96.5fm earlier this week that Ness made strawberry icecream cupcakes. That inspired me to try it out at home.

I adapted the recipe from Woman’s Weekly Raspberry Swirl Cake.

Ingredients:

125 grams of butter
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
150 grams of castor sugar
2 eggs
185 grams of self-raising flour
80 ml milk
2 tablespoons of strawberry jam
1 teaspoon of poppy seeds
A drop of pink food colouring

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C
2. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy
3. Add in 1 egg at a time and continue beating
4. Stir in sifted flour and milk in batches and continue mixing
5. Add strawberry jam, poppy seeds and pink food colouring and continue mixing until the colour is even

6. Pour the batter to the icecream cone to 2/3 full. I noticed that it will overflow if you pour it too full. The batter on the front right was too full and overflowed.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cake is cooked

I was initially sceptical about using an icecream cone to hold the batter, but it turned out very well.

I was going to cover the top with white chocolate ganache or buttercream, but didn’t have the ingredients to do so. So, my healthier option is to top it with a strawberry. Enjoy!

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Giggle and Hoot 1st Birthday Cake

Last week, I was approached by a friend to make a single-tiered fondant cake for her daughter’s upcoming 1st birthday.

The brief given was to make a 1 tier cake, covered with fondant. The cake had to be at least 9 inches to fit the toppers provided.

As this was my first cake ‘job’, I was very excited and wanted it to be perfect. I started writing down the order of work and shared the workload with my helpers (a.k.a. my husband and my cake buddy).

I created a 3-layered cake alternating between butter cake and chocolate cake. I used the 5-star Buttercake recipe from my recent cake class and the chocolate cake recipe from inspiredbymichelle.

The cakes were sliced into half and layered with white chocolate ganache.

Then, the whole cake is ganached using the upside down method taught by Eleanor Heaphy.

It was my first attempt ganaching without supervision. I must say it wasn't too bad for a amateur. :)

Next, with the help of my cake buddy, Ingrid, we kneaded, rolled, laid and smoothen the fondant on the cake.

Finally, we got to do the fun part which was to put the toppers on. This is what the end result looked like.

Hope you had a wonderful and blessed first birthday Eliana!


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Olympics: Ancient to Modern

In the spirit of the Olympic Games, the most talked about topic this week, I have decided to share some pictures from my trip to Greece last year.

Our tour group explored the ancient ruins of Olympia, where I stood on the first Olympic Stadium. This was where the first Ancient Olympic Games was held back in 776BC. It started off with running as the ONLY event in the Olympics.

The ancient game was held to honour the mythological Greek God, Zeus. The game lasted until 394AD when Rome reigned over Greece and Christianity became the state religion of Rome.

The Modern Olympic Games was revived in 1896AD in Athens. A young Frenchmen, Pierre de Coubertin brought revival to the games to inspire sportsmanship. Our tour group made a stop at the Panathenaic stadium where the first modern Olympics took place.

It was an incredible experience to go back in time and appreciate the sights from different era in history. 

Back to the topic of Olympics,  I have never been to a real game.  If you have any pictures or stories to share, feel free to me drop a comment.


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