You can imagine what a surprise it was then when I was offered a tasting of the three new flavours available in the pint-sized (not quite 500g) tubs – Phish Food, triple Caramel Chunk and Half Baked. Yes of course I would love to taste them because as many times as I’ve come across Ben & Jerry ice cream stands in my travels, I have never once had a scoop of the stuff. Why not? Maybe there are just too many flavours on offer, defying me to choose just one or two.

So, there I was one Friday afternoon trying to feed my one week old newborn when a rep rocks up to my front door with a freezer bag. There’s no time for an immediate tasting when there’s a hungry tummy to be filled. Fortunately, my parents, brother and his girlfriend were coming to dinner that night – a ready-made judging panel.

Phish Food: Too sweet and marshmallow pillows making it too gooey. Total score – 55

Half-Baked: Too sweet and a preference was indicated for cookie bits instead of cookie dough. Total score – 59.5

Triple Caramel Chunk: Lovely crunchy bits (I especially liked the chocolate covered fudge!). The most popular out of the three with a total score of 73.

Triple Caramel Chunk was unanimously voted the favourite and the general consensus was that all three could do with less sugar. It is an American brand after all, so maybe the Australia palate is not used to ice cream that is so ickily sweet, or maybe it’s just my Asian-Australian family speaking!

If you’re listening, B&J’s, next time I’d like to try the iconic Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey flavours (cheeky grin). They always seem to be the ones getting a mention in books & movies. Are they the most popular flavours I wonder…

We were told by J’s sisters to bring a dish so this is what I’m bringing:

It’s a four-layered cake (alternating hazelnut-buttermilk and strawberry-buttermilk) sandwiched with a Tokio jam and buttercream frosting as it holds better than whipped cream. I made two double batches of Nigella’s buttermilk cake, adding hazelnut meal to one double batch and strawberry puree to the other. The addition of hazelnuts has made the cake even better as it’s holding it’s moistness very well. I didn’t add enough strawberry though so the other batch is lacking in that soft pinkness that I was aiming for. I guess there’s enough pink in the frosting to make up for it. The baby blocks are sandwiched with Nutella. I’m not sure that it’s a very cohesive design but that may be because I made it up as I went along. I was going to make 3 baby blocks and have the last one sitting on atop the bottom two, but ran out of marzipan. Anyway, I wouldn’t have been able to close the cake box if I’d done that.

Off to join in those baby shower games…

This cake almost gave me a heart attack but it all turned out well in the end.

After taking it out of the oven and allowing it to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, I proceeded to lift the cake out of the tin, using the baking paper which I had layered underneath, and onto a wire tray. Next thing I know, one corner crumbled and fell off, with the rest of it threatening to do fall to pieces too.

Oh no! Did I not have enough eggs in the recipe?

I managed to get the rest of it onto the tray and left it overnight, praying that it would be okay to ice the next day.

First thing in the morning, I gingerly touched the cake to find that I had made a wise decision in leaving it alone. I would have had to cut the square cake into a rectangular form anyway so the missing corner gave me a good starting point. The cake was iced with whipped cream then decorated with desiccated coconut (dyed blue) and mango cubes to resemble a Swedish Flag cake.

As you can probably guess, it was for a birthday celebration and my friend, H, so loves sharing her Swedish heritage that it was the most appropriate cake I could think of making.

I must have been on a roll with coconut-mango that weekend because mum’s birthday cake ended up being a coconut, mango and passionfruit pavlova. I think I must be looking forward to the sunshine and blue skies!

My photos are all dim and blurry so I haven’t taken the trouble to upload them here. My favourite dish of the night was the scallops wrapped in speck, capers & raisin vinaigrette. This was followed closely by the crispy school prawns sauteed with chilli & garlic – imagine having a bowl of these in front of you while watching the Saturday night movie! – then tuna tartare with crushed green pea salad (my husband’s favourite), the boudin noir, smoked tomato & parsley salad and finally the silk purse from a slow’s ear, ravigote & green sauce.

As you can tell, I was already delighted with the meal so far however I was also getting quite full so skipping dessert wouldn’t have bothered me in the least. However, my husband overruled me and ordered two – the coconut sago, meringue, coconut sorbet and the petit fours (hazelnut chocolate, salted caramel) – and boy am I glad that he did! The coconut sago turned out to be one of the loveliest desserts I’ve had in a long time. So much that I popped into Laguna the next day to buy a pack of sago to recreate it at home.

One of the best aspects of the meal for us was being served by the staff at Cumulus. Not only were they knowledgeable but they actually appeared happy to be there, somewhat of a rarity these days in the customer service field.

Here’s my version of the Cumulus dessert. Sago drizzled with coconut milk sweetened with a palm sugar syrup served with softly whipped egg white and Serendipity’s Coconut & Kaffir Lime sorbet:

There are actually queues forming in Melbourne! We are used to seeing queues in Paris or Tokyo but today, for pretty much the first time we remember, there was a queue to get into Koko Black in the Block Arcade and the new Lindt Cafe on Collins St. The Lindt store is so new that it hasn’t made it into their website yet.

The Lindt Cafe is set in a beautiful building – high ceilings with a little balcony that runs along both sides and across the back of the second storey, book cases set along the entire length of it. My idea of heaven really – a chocolate cafe below and books above. I wonder if you’re allowed up there. Anyway, no cakes or chocolates this time as I’ve tried a few from the Sydney store. But the macarons (which they call delice) tempt me and so I ask for the hazelnut, milk chocolate and roselli. As an afterthought, I say “You should give me the broken passionfruit one too” and they do. Mmmmmmm, thin crunchy shell with a chewy interior then the creamy ganache.

I’ll make them soon, hon, I promise…

She very casually introduced herself as ‘Alannah…Alannah Hill. I’m a designer’. Then quickly moved into ‘You’re very good-looking. I think I’m going to pick you up’.

Completely distracted by the scene playing out in front of us, I could barely respond to the waitress’ question of ‘Is there anything else?’ until Alannah had left her number with the guy and driven off in her black Merc.

Almost French
138 Swan St, Richmond 3121
Ph: (03) 9429 2080
Open 7am-5pm Mon-Sat

Another clipped out recipe made! This one is from Gourmet Traveller September 2008, a dessert served at The Connaught. It’s a little more complicated than your average brownie but is also well worth the effort. It consists of three layers and is definitely not a one bowl kinda dessert.

The bottom layer is a moist chocolatey brownie studded with walnuts (macadamias if you follow The Connaught), the middle is caramelised banana slices and this is all topped with a dark (milk in the original) chocolate mousse. Here’s what it looks like:

I wanted to gift a few of these to a friend whose parents are visiting from Sweden but the brown paper casing had become saturated with oil from the butter. So, I picked up some cute fabric from Lincraft to wrap around the individual cases. One cake also went to a neighbor who is celebrating her birthday this week. That leaves two one for us!

Chocolate & Walnut Brownie

200g butter
100g dark chocolate
3 eggs
210 caster sugar
100g plain flour
100g walnuts, coarsely chopped

1. Melt butter & chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
2. Whisk eggs & caster sugar until thick & pale, fold through the chocolate mixture, then fold in flour and walnuts.
3. Spoon into individual paper cases & bake until just firm to touch (15-20 min). Cool completely

1 tbs finely grated ginger
2 bananas, sliced
100g brown sugar

1. Heat brown sugar in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until melted (2-3 min)
2. Add ginger, stir to combine, then add bananas in a single layer and cook, turning occasionally, until caramelised and tender.
3. Arrange on top of brownie, squashing to make a uniform layer & leave to cool.

2 eggs
55 g caster sugar
3/4 tsp gelatine, dissolved in small amount of very hot water
5g Pavlova Magic (or eggwhite powder)
300ml thick cream
200g dark chocolate, melted & cooled slightly

1. Whisk eggs & sugar in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until thick * can hold a ribbon (10-12 min). Remove from heat.
2. Whisk in gelatine & Pavlova Magic powder.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk cream until soft peaks form. Add melted chocolate and fold to combine then fold in egg mixture.
4. Spoon mousse over caramelised banana and refrigerate until set (2-3 hr).

I love flicking through magazines and newspapers looking at recipes but I rarely clip them out because I know that I’m not likely to get around to trying it out. However, I love banana cake and when I saw Patrick Craig’s Caramelised Banana cake recipe in one of the Melbourne papers (I forget which), it sounded so good that I had to tear it out. This was in July last year and I have only just made it today, but I DID actually get around to making it – woohoo!

This isn’t your everyday banana cake as it does include the addition of pineapple pieces, as you would find in a Hummingbird Cake. However, I couldn’t find any cans of pineapple pieces in the pantry so I decided to swap it with lychee instead. Now, that probably sounds strange initially because I certainly haven’t ever seen a banana cake with lychee before but it actually works really well as the flavours are not too dissimilar.

So, onto the recipe itself:

1. Combine 2.5 cups plain flour, 1.5 cups caster sugar, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 2 tsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt
2. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk 5 eggs and add 1.5 cups olive oil then add to dry mixture
3. In a hot pan (no butter, no oil), quickly caramelise 2.5 cups chopped banana pieces & 400g lychee pieces
4. Add fruit to cake mixture & pour into 22cm round cake tin (or a loaf tin & some muffin caese!)
5. Bake at 180C for 30 min or until cooked through (I had to bake for 50-60min).
6. Serve with whipped cream (or ice cream)

On his last overseas trip, A. had brought a bear cake tin home from William Sonoma so there was no question of what kind of cake I should bake, just how I would dress him. After receiving an inspiring idea from my websearch on how to decorate my cupcakes, I decided that the big bear would be dressed simply in a pair of blue speedos.

Balloons, sausages, tables, falafels, cupcakes, cake all made it to Speaker’s Corner at Birrarung Marr before 50 friends and 20 or so children gathered for the celebration. We ate, talked, laughed while the kiddies ran around and got grubby in the dirt. What a day! (and what a year it has been!)

You can’t see the wording, but ‘Speedo’ is written across the back of his swimmers.

The little girls at the party couldn’t decide which cupcake to pick! My niece ended up with one of the two green mermaids. I also laughed when a friend’s little boy told his daddy that there was a boy bear on his cupcake and one with boobs!

Look at what a gorgeous day we were blessed with. I love this shot of all the little girls running after and hassling the one boy.

Before EJ, I had no idea how daunting the task of motherhood is. I don’t know how I would have survived the first three months without the support of all those mums out there so this is a visual thank you.

These look really professional but are dead easy to make. Put together the cupcake batter of your choice, fill some flat-bottomed cones two-thirds of the way up and bake as usual. Whip up a buttercream frosting and decorate with colourful sprinkles, hundreds-and-thousands and cute animal or flower motifs.