High Tea at My House!

Look how beautiful our macarons turned out..

High Tea!! Its one of the most exciting things to be excited about since macarons hehe my family decided that we would have our own high tea at home! It was a really exciting day, everyone was busy taking care of their one dish to be placed on our 3 tier stand! Couldn't have been more please with everything that we made! Haha as usual, there was way too much food and everyone stuffed themselves to the point that no one could move for the rest of the night hehe

Our High Tea menu...

Our 3 tier stand filled with delicious goodies...

 Mini scones...mmmm so cute and yummy! It the background you can sort of see the marshmallows dipped in chocolate fondue and sprinkle with crushed peanuts!

 Roast Chicken & Avocado, Salmon & Cream Cheese, Egg & Mayonnaise sandwiches...with crusts removed of course hehe

 Home made Sausage Rolls, a Masterchef recipe!

 Candy Glazed Chorizo...inspire from a Jamie Oliver recipe! So yummy

 Quiches...this is a family recipe we have been making for years...mmm

 Pink and Blue French Macarons, so adorable and delicious!

Oh how could I forget tea... you can't have High Tea without tea!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch a perfect picture of our Pumpkin Soup, Deconstructed Lemon Tart and Fondue made by the boys in our family, but they were all super delicious and worthy of a special thanks for their efforts...yes boys can cook in our house!! :D

Why not do your own high tea at home with some of your family and friends? it is just as much fun, if not more then the real thing...you can even dress up and have a glass of champagne at home!!

Lots of Love,

Fat Pom Pom

Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Hi guys!

I made some Sticky Date Pudding for desserts on Sunday Night. I must admit sticky date puddings are one of my favourites desserts to eat, well besides cheesecakes, red velvet cupcakes, carrot cakes and a whole heap of Vietnamese puddings! Haha well to be honest, I just like desserts in general :D Sticky date puddings are perfect for winter, and yes even better with ice-cream on the side!

The first time I had sticky date pudding, it was my boyfriend that made them for me. I am still using his recipe up to this day and its definitely a keeper, just like him! hehe

Anywhos, heres my simple recipe for Sticky Date Pudding:

Ingredients:
1 and 1/4 cup of pitted dates, chopped
1 and 1/4 cup of boiling water
1 teaspoon of baking soda
60g of butter, cubed
3/4 cup of brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup of self raising flour

Butter Scotch Sauce
1 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cups of thick cream
50g of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Combine the dates, baking soda and boiling water in a bowl. Stand for 5 minutes, and blend or process the date mixture with butter, brown sugar until smooth.
3.  
4. Pour mixture into a large bowl, add the eggs and flour and mix well until just combined.
5. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until cooked through. 
6. Stand the pudding for 10 minutes before turning out of the tin.
7. To make butter scotch sauce, combine all ingredients for butter scotch sauce in a small pan over low heat and stir until sugar has dissolved and butter has melted.
8. Served cake warm, drizzle with sauce and icecream on the side.

Enjoy your masterpiece hehe well actually it was quite simple but not to say that it was not delicious, cause it was, tasted even better the second day when I microwave a small portion to reheat...there's never enough desserts to go around in my house!!

Keep warm and happy eating!
Lots of Love,
Fat Pom Pom

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake

Who doesn't love cheesecakes? well you certainly ain't my friend if you don't...heheh just kidding.

Hope everyone is keeping warm as Melbourne is heading towards another cold winter. Brrrrrr. I'm please to say that my appetite for making desserts is back! YAY. I've always use to make desserts after dinner everyday, but I don't know what has happened in the past few months but I just didn't have the drive that used to be in me. Well it has finally come back and I couldn't be more happy!

Some might say "what...cheesecakes in winter...and frozen berries...you must be joking" hehe no in my house, we can eat anything for desserts, even icecreams in winter hehe

This cheesecake recipe is really simple yet the finished cheesecake tastes absolutely delicious!!! One of the best cheesecakes I have ever tasted! It surprised me because it was so easy to make. I will definitely be making this recipe again and again, next time with other seasonal fruits and berries, eg. Passionfruit, strawberry, lemon...you can be really creative and use any fruits you want!

Heres the recipe:

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake

Ingredients

Base

1 1/4 cups shortbread biscuits, crushed

75g butter, melted

Filling

500g block cream cheese, softened (i used Philadelphia)

3/4 cup white sugar

2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

2 teaspoons gelatine dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water, cooled slightly

200g white chocolate, melted

3/4 cup thick cream, lightly whipped

1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

To garnish

200g fresh or frozen raspberries, extra

Icing sugar

Method:

Combine the biscuits and butter and press into the base of a lightly greased 22 cm spring form pan. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and lemon rind with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in the gelatine mixture and fold in the melted chocolate, cream and 1/2 cup of raspberries.

Pour the filling into the prepared base. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set. Garnish with extra raspberries and dust with icing sugar before serving!

I hope you guys enjoy this recipe, its sure to be a crowd pleaser, tastes delicious and looks beautiful! Almosts too pretty to eat.

Keep warm and happy eating!

  

Lots of Love,

 
Fat Pom Pom

Anzac biscuits for Anzac Day

Hi Guys,

My sister made some Anzac biscuits to celebrate Anzac day and they turned out delicious!!! They are really easy to make and super yummy : )

Here's the recipe:

1 cup of plain flour
1 cup of rolled oats
3/4 desiccated coconut
3/4 cups of brown sugar
125g butter
2 tbsp golden sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp water

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degree C. Line two baking tray with non stick baking paper. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the oats, coconut and brown sugar.
2. Put the butter, golden sugar and 2 tbsp of water in a small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until melted. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda.
3. Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.
4. Roll level tablespoon of mixture into balls. Place on the trays, about 5 cm apart.
5. Press with a fork to flatten slightly. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Set aside on the trays for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack so it cools completely.

Thanks all there is to it! I love eating the biscuits when they are still warm...mmmmmm : )

Keep warm and enjoy work off today!!!

Lots of love,

Fat Pom Pom

Best Friends

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.
-Douglas Pagels

 

Nilla and B.B...just hanging out as usual!

To all my friends, thanks for all the love, laughter and support throughout my life!

Lots of Love,

Fat Pom Pom

Hong Kong!

                                                 YUM CHA!!!!

Hi everyone,

Hong Kong is finally here. To end my wonderful holiday in Asia, our last stop was Hong Kong. The land of Yum Cha, shopping and the TVB series that I grew up watching. Hong Kong was somewhere my family and I have always wanted to go, it was holiday trip 6 years in the making : ) Not until my youngest sister finished year 12 last year did we finally make the family trip there! Well we've got one younger brother left who can't wait to grow up fast enough so that he could come with us on our next trip. He has only started year 7 so lets see if we could make the exception so we don't have to wait another 6 years for another family trip. hehe

Anyways, first night we landed in Hong Kong...what do we eat? it was 11pm and we headed for KFC...lol
I know what you are thinking...yes, it was crappy and unsatisfying but it was the closest place to our hotel that was still open besides the 7/11 and we were all starving and dead tired from the flight.

Our real adventure in Hong Kong began the next morning. Hong Kong was everything we thought it to be, everything we saw in the TVB series and Hong Kong movies, the streets, the buildings, the taxis, the people, everything was there. I could cry from excitement. There was so much to do and so little time hehe

Well where do I start..oh yes YUM CHA for brunch of course!!!! We didn't bother to research where was the best Yum Cha place in Hong Kong for obvious reasons...we were in Hong Kong, the land of Yum Cha, I don't think you can really go wrong hehe

We went into the first restaurant we saw, the Shamrock Seafood Restaurant which offered Yum Cha up until 11am (I think). We went overboard with the amount of dumplings that we ordered LOL: )
They had everything a normal Yum Cha restaurant would have in Australia, best thing was the price, at about $1-$3 AUD per dish. We were in food paradise!!! All the dishes tasted awesome but the best part would have to be it came up to about $7 per person. You can't get better then that!

From then on, the food just kept getting better!

Another neat little place that we spent alot of time at was Toast Box. Its a bakery / Cafe that serves really neat sweet and savory food!

Some sweets we had.....

Strawberry Danish....mmmm

Milo Dinosaur....LOL very satisfying

Hong Kong milk tea...

Hainamese Chicken lunch at Toast Box...mmmm

Noodles with eggs and luncheon meat...

Oh we also had to try the desserts and icecream on offer at the Haagan Daz cafe...mmmm sooo yummy and satisfying...

Another dessert place offering awesome strawberry sweets...called Strawberry Forever Dessert Cafe! mmm

Along with a whole heap of cool franchise restaurants including, New York Fries, Mos Burgers and heaps more but I can't remember! haha

Just some New York fries...

The Mos Fish burger and The Mos burger

 The Yakiniku burger

We also ate at a whole heap of local Hong Kong restaurants including all the traditional Chinese food and banquets, Hong Kong breakfast which consists of lots of variety of dishes that includes Luncheon meat (similar to spam), the occasional Mcdonalds, lots of street food and random restaurants, Yakult, 2 minutes noodles and loads of snacks from 7eleven,  Milk tea and more milk tea and of course lots of bubble tea, and lots and lots of asian desserts!!

Peking duck banquet with Peking duck and Duck San Choy Bow....yummo!!

Soy Chicken...have to eat this when in Hong Kong! Yummmm

Apparently this restaurant below... lots of famous Hong Kong stars eat here...we had a few of their signature dishes...quite yummy!

How could I forget about the awesome desserts in Hong Kong...makes me cry thinking about it...:(

Oh and the street food....the wonderful aromas of the street food at night...

Boy do I miss Hong Kong. Everyday I would hear my family complain about how much they wanted to go back! Hong Kong was awesome and everything that we hoped it to be...including being jib on taxi fair haha Hong Kong to me is a food and shopping paradise, so if you love both, you will definitely love it!!

 The best part about Hong Kong...game machines...human vs machine...human-1

 Hersheys for the WIN!!!!

Celebrating the victory with more junk food!!

Next time I have a very special posts about two of the most popular Yum Cha places that you must try while in Hong Kong which I had the privilege to eat at both! Until then, eat well and sleep well my friends...winter is coming! haha

Lots of Love,
Fat Pom Pom

Lemon Meringue Pie!

Hi Guys!!!

Sorry its been the longest time since I have posted anything. I feel so bad since I promise that I will be posting on Hong Kong next. Its just that I've been so busy with work and other things at home. It didn't hit me that its been over a month since I last posted :(

Well to make it up to you, I have a very special recipe to share with you guys. In fact, this is a friends recipe : ) A good friend of mine who I might say is the best amateur pastry chef I've met hehe I invited her over to my house over the weekend to make her recipe of Lemon Meringue Pie! mmmmmm

The outcome.....the best Lemon Meringue Pie I have ever eaten hehe the pastry was crumbly and perfect, the lemon filling was delicious and the meringue....welll what can I say, it tops it all ; P hehe it was a delicious pie and leaves you drooling for more!

I have the privilege to share this recipe with you:

Pastry Base:
1 cup of plain flour
90g of unsalted butter, chilled and diced
1-2 tbsp icing sugar
1-2 tbsp of cold water

Lemon filling:
1/4 cups of corn flour
1/4 plain flour
1 cup of caster sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
3 tbsp grated lemon rind
40g unsalted butter
6 eggs yolks

Meringue topping:
6 eggs white
1 and 1/2 cup of caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon cornflour

Method:

1. For the base, sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter using your fingertips, until the mixture is breadcrumb like. Stir in the icing sugar, and add about 1 tbsp of water into the mix, kneed gently and if dough is still dry, add a little more water.
2. Gather the dough together roll between 2 sheets of baking paper until large enough to line the base and side of pie plate. Line the plate with the pastry and trim off any excess pastry. Fork the edge and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line the pastry shell with baking paper and pour in some baking beads or uncooked rice. Bake for 10-15 minutes, then remove the paper and beads. Return pastry to oven for another 10 minutes or until cooked through. Cool completely.
4. For the lemon filling, put the flours and sugar in a saucepan. Whisk in lemon juice, rind and 1 and 1/2 cups of water. Whisk over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens. Then reduce heat and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat, then whisk in butter, and then egg yolks one at a time. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and cool. Spread the filling into the pastry shell.
5. For the Meringue topping, put the egg whites and sugar into a clean, dry bowl. Beat with electric beater on high for 10 minutes, or until sugar is almost completely dissolved and the meringue is thick and glossy. Beat in the cornflour. Spread the meringue over the top of the pie, making peaks by drawing the meringue up with a knife, piling it high towards the center. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before serving.
6. Enjoy!!!!!

Feast on yours on how perfect the Lemon Meringue Pie turned out!! Can't be more pleased by the outcome!

I hope you enjoyed this post!! Thanks again Ninh for making some of the best desserts I have ever eaten! Well people, don't just sit there and drool over our pie, make yourself one :D

P.s. Hong Kong will be coming soon!


Lots of Love
Fat Pom Pom