These bitches just had to. Forks ready y’all! #redvelvet #cake #phwat #pbg #foodporn #malaysia (at Coffea Coffee)
Growing up eating marble cake I always marveled at how they made those swirly patterns so beautifully. I had this idea in my tiny head that the method was a secretly guarded technique only taught to the highest order of pastry chefs.
Who knew it was that easy! All you need is a decent recipe and a youtube video to help you on your way. I used buttermilk instead of sour cream, mixed instant coffee powder and coffee essence along with the cocoa powder and added a tbsp of hot water to the batter and the cake turned out crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside!
I know I’ve put this on my FB already but it just looked so cute that I couldn’t resist posting it here as well. Besides you guys get to see what I do with my spare time whenever I’m not outside stuffing my face for my reviews.
I first saw this on Frankie magazine’s blog a couple months ago. It also happened that I was compiling material for my Battle of the Burgers series and I thought what a perfect compliment this little project would be. And so for months I obsessed about it, researching recipes for the best combination and scouring Melbourne for the best ingredients.
For the buns I used a basic sponge cake recipe, covered it with butter cream icing mixed with a little cocoa powder to give it that beige breadish look, and sprinkled some grated white chocolate on top as sesame seeds.
The melted cheese/mustard and lettuce is just plain colored butter cream icing and arguably the most fun to do. It’s also the most important components of the whole recipe as the icing serves to bind the layers together in addition to creating the illusion of ‘real’ burgers.
The patty and tomatoes I made from rum ball recipes, I just mixed the batter and flattened them out like pastry and cut them out with any round shaped utensil I could find. The tomatoes were a bit of a bitch to make as I wanted to coat them in white chocolate, and because melted chocolate hardens when in contact with water I had to buy a special oil-based food dye for the job. Turns out there’s a little cake supply store in the city just opposite Flinders station and which is now my favorite haunt when I’m bored or in search of inspiration!
I added the toothpick flags just for the novelty of it and also coz I love Andrew’s Hamburgers so much!
Review: Chimmys
342-344 Bridge Road,
Richmond VIC
Having gone through so many breakfast menus I thought for a change I’d review a place that does great tea. When I suggested the idea to a friend she recommended Chimmys for an arvo session of high tea.
We had to make bookings ahead of time because apparently weekends tend to be fairly backed-up with reservations that stretch on for months. We managed to squeeze in a little time out of schedule and booked ours on a weekday which turned out for the best because the place was fairly quiet.
Chimmys high tea sets range from prices as low as $30 to $50 per person depending on how elaborate you prefer it. The basics lean towards traditional tea time selections like scones, eclairs, mini tarts and of course a selection of tea, coffee and sparkling juices. We didn’t really fuss over the selections and just let them surprise us with whatever was available that day.
I was pleasantly surprised that the selections were not as sweet as conventional bakeries. Some bakeries over-compensate quality by drowning the actual taste with too much sugar, risking episodes of diabetic seizures onto their customers. The only exception was the raspberry macaroon which looked like something that came out of Charlie’s Chocolate Factory.
The only downside of the wide selection (which sadly is not highlighted on their website’s menu) offered is aside from the scones there’s only one of each type of pastry so those looking to try every single one would have to negotiate and bargain with their respective tea partners. Some people can get very possessive when it comes to cannolis.
Overall a worthwhile experience if you’re looking to satisfy your sugar cravings or treat someone special. Am looking forward to trying their breakfast menu next.
Strawberry Buttermilk Cake
I felt like I was having an early Christmas after making this one. I’ve made buttermilk cake before but this was the first time I used icing. It was fortunate too that the local supermarket was having a sale for strawberries and I managed to snag a few boxes.
The recipe for buttermilk cake can be found HERE.
I used less sugar in mine because I also added some canned pineapples which go really well with the strawberries!
For the icing I used this easy recipe.
I know it’s called Seven-minute Icing but believe me it took way longer than that. I guess it depends on how good you are at whisking. Me and a friend took turns stirring the mixture and took us roughly 12 minutes to get the right texture.
A word of caution when you’re doing the frosting, it hardens fairly quickly so you might just wanna do the top layer of the cake so that you have time to decorate with strawberries.
Don’t get too ambitious unless you’re a pro at icing unless you wanna end up with a cake like mine:
