the girl turns (almost) 21 :)

2 days ago, my darling-est partner in crime turned 21! or not quite. 'Part 3' and I threw her a surprise birthday party 10 days before the actual date itself since I was going home for easter break.

our elaborate plan involved a test trial for the cake - which unfortunately, failed the taste test by the birthday girl. making the cake a week before the actual day, and presenting it to her as some cake we bought from 'the cake shop around the corner', she said it was not that fantastic. I swear, my heart literally sank. Then again, it was indeed constructive criticism, and no one is ever that perfect on first attempt. So, second attempt at the cake is the one seen above! Looks-wise, I believe this is one of my best decorated cake to date, taste-wise, it was not bad. I made a chocolate-banana cake (inspired by 'Part 3.5' nonetheless), before coating it with delish chocolate ganache. And in a bid to cover the ugly un-frostable (i ran out of frosting - big mistake) sides, I ran down to get some cadbury chocolate fingers. So, using melted chocolate as glue, 'Part 3.5' and I spent a good half an hour 'gluing' and pasting. It was great fun as we reminisced about the days where we would watch 'Dessert Circus'!

so 8 hours later, with a lot of breaks in between, the cake was done! transportation of the cake proved to be another challenge! For some strange reason, not a single cake shop in Chinatown would sell us cake boxes. And on top of the irate, resounding 'No', I would get a glare that almost rendered me helpless. So. Chinatown is definitely NOT the place to buy cake boxes sans cake. However, because I had to continue with the original plan to go shopping with the birthday girl, Part 3 had the daunting task of the logistical aspects! (doesn't this sound like a huge project?)

Amazingly, jia did not for a single moment suspect anything. Not when we bumped into almost every single person that we invited to the dinner over the course of the day. And, not even when Part 3 and flat boarded the same train AND the same carriage as the one we were in- carrying both the cake and the present. Imagine my sheer horror and thought bubbles going 'Ok. This is IT'. But, my dearest kitchen partner STILL failed to detect any conspiracy.

While we successfully surprised her with both the dinner with close friends, and 'the present of the year- DS lite (in Pink, no less)', the best part, for me at least, was seeing her face when I brought out the cake. The look on her face, when she realised that I had not been spending the past 10 hours watching Korean dramas, but baking the cake for her, was priceless.

If you are reading this hun, I hope you enjoyed the night. And even though you are turning 21 soon, you will be, always and forever, 18!

Rome II

As promised in an earlier blog post - more of Rome in pictures. The food, that is.

Following our little guidebook on the best eats in Rome, we started our hunt for the elusive hangouts. The trail included pizza at Baffeto, pasta at Isodoro, gelato at San Crispino's (mentioned earlier), and of course, 2 of the best recommended places: Panella and San Eustachio's.






























Panella is almost like a neighbourhood bakery, except, when you take your first step in, it seems almost too-cool to be like the old fashioned ones back home. Being an institution on its own for a gazillion varieties of bread, Panella seemed to attract the yuppie crowd- and random tourists like us! With trays and trays of delectable eats everywhere, I spent close to an hour simply just picking what I wanted to eat. They had everything - from middle eastern sweet bread to sachertortes and of course, bread :) Just looking at the baker carrying that surfboard-full of crusty bread made me want to live there forever. Carbs? what Carbs?












































And of course, there was San Eustachio. The renowned establishment located just behind the Pantheon was rather difficult to locate, unless of course, you were a local. Everyone seemed to know the place. San Eustachio is famous for its Coffee - and it apparently has been accoladed with the coveted Best Coffee in Europe title! So, despite not being a coffee fan (i get headaches just by the mere whiff), I decided that I simply had to try it. And I did. We got a shot of some of their good-stuff(I can't remember the name of it), and Boy! was it good! But with the jostling crowd, I won't be surprised if people just ordered, collected, gulped and left. While I did get a slight headache after (which I insist was a result of the crowd. Okay, I am also claustrophobic), it was well worth it! yumm.

lemons make the world go round

Lemons, I feel, win hands-down the award for best ingredient. I am always in a 'let's-make-something-lemony' mood. be it tarte au citron, or lemon pound cake, or even in its supporting 'role' for my banana cake recipe- lemons never fail to make me happy. maybe its the colour, an amazing Mr Happy yellow together with its smell of summer permeating my/jia's kitchen, that leaves me in a good mood all day.

We had 5 organic lemons leftover from our banana muffin experiments and we decided to make the first thing that came to our minds- the lemon meringue pie! I mentioned it earlier in the blog that i really wanted to try my hand at it, and voila! several months later, we did it! While we didn't have a proper pie dish (we are poor students, what extravagance!), we substituted for a rectangular-ish 1 inch deep cookie tray which worked just as well. With the remainding dough and lemon curd, we made mini lemon meringue tarts.

I've never tried lemon meringue pies before, and after we made this, I wonder why. The soft, fluffly and sweet meringue perfectly complemented the tart lemon curd - just about the best pairing since roti prata and curry met (that's a completely different issue, but you get my drift). The buttery tart shell acted as the perfect denominator, allowing the explosion of flavours to come together. And while the pie-top was browner than usual, it actually was a very nice golden-sand like brown which up-ed its wow-factor.

so, lemons lemons lemons- perfect for every season, every month, and every day baking!