It's TEA TIME! End of year Homebake!

There's a tea temptress among us - guess who, it's our CEO! It was bewildering that over the many years of conjuring up ideas, we have never thought to use tea .... When we finally did though we had quite some time to contemplate as we started informing the potential DDDs (mostly my lovely co-workers who are willing to experiment both at work and at home) while we indulged during the October good food month.

And as we gorged ourselves during October, we met Kylie Millar, the dessert goddess at Pei Modern. We were immediately hooked on her beautiful desserts and the Hsinner spun her magic and sweet talked Kylie... 

Long story short, our idea of a dessert tour, and the half yearly homebakes appealed to her that she found time from her busy schedule to join us! Although ..... As soon as she confirmed, the news spread and the general responses from the DDDs were "oh sh!t... the pressure is on!" 

We gathered at Hsinner's lofty place (many thanks to S&P for letting us take over!) and showcased our amateur goods. There were many offerings and, I swear we did not coordinate ourselves - they were all different teas, ingredient combinations, presentations and styles! It was a dessert smorgasbord and it was divine! 

Let's start with the lighter flavours first: CEO's star tea jelly with osmanthus and goji berries - light and refreshing, and oh-so-pretty! And there was another tea and taro jelly offering, which unfortunately didn't handle the warmth so well but the flavour was there - just think MeetFresh taro and jelly! Serve chilled and it'll be fine!

Green tea and white chocolate mousse cake (welcome KP to your first DDT!) served in a glass: green tea cake, white chocolate mousse, green tea mousse, topped with meringue. I'd pay for this at a restaurant!



Petit "Kelly's Infusions" - inspired by the cranberry and pomegranate tea infusion (but much less fake) - served in espresso cups, pomegranate, chocolate mousse and tea biscuits. Tangy, chocolatey, sweet, morish, fresh.

The Hakka people of China has an interesting subculture and they serve a wholesome and filling tea (usually a green leaf tea with ground peanut, sesame and toasted rice that is ground up and drank together) that is warming and welcoming. I turned this into a macaron. Don't mean to blow my own trumpet but this flavour is a keeper! And to use up the excess yolks - Oolong crème brûlée.

MJ's jaffa and tea mousse - rich velvety chocolate with a great citrusy fragrance but only a small hint of tea in the after taste. Guess the chocolate overpowered the subtlety of tea... subtleTea... Geddit? (Oh I so funny)

English breakfast tea with honey and lemon was served in the form of a cake - great lemon icing, moist and fluffy cake, the tea was somewhat weak though. Good first home bake effort though SS and NM!

And Kylie's creation - drum rolls - compressed pear infused with tea, chewy caramel, earl gray meringue sticks and yogurt ganache, oh so pretty ... interesting texture of the pear, loved the flavours! We were sort of fighting over it but wanted to look somewhat civil, so everyone did get a taste!

And in between our multiple courses, we cleansed our palate with Moroccan mint tea granita created by our CEO .... refreshing and pretty, perfect for a warm day, but we all agreed that it could be immensely improved with a squeeze of lime and a splash of rum.....

A long but incredibly indulgent and fun day, I hope everyone had a wonderful time, I certainly did... I hope Kylie did too and really wish to have her become one of the regulars! She was so lovely and cheerful ... and she loves desserts! This world seriously needs more people like her to make it sweeter. And thank you everyone for the amazing effort you put in - so if our current career doesn't work out, I think we have a second career waiting already! 

With that, we bid you farewell for 2014, and look forward to seeing you back in the new year with new sweet adventures!

Cinned x

PS welcome KP, who chose to come to a Homebake as her first DDT and also brought us a restaurant quality dessert! And of course Kylie for sharing her beautiful perfectly summery dessert - I'm gonna steal what I can from your dish... muhahhahahhaha!!!!! 

Christine Manfield at Nomad

October is over, but our desire for the goodness in life doesn't magically vanish. Sugar is addictive! Well my belief is if we must indulge, we may as well go all out and consume "quality calories"!

After a hot day out at Vino Paradiso (much wine, cheese and other goodies later) we re-invigorated ourselves at Nomad to catch the last day of Christine Manfield's desserts. We informed our lovely waitress Rose that we'll have all the desserts on the menu, followed by something from their entree and main menu.

I'm sure this amused her. Then again, the kitchen would have had to cater to patrons with special dietary needs, this is easy for the kitchen staff!! So what's on offer? "Gaytime goes nuts" - Golden Gaytime is one of our favourite ice blocks, to reinvent it will certainly be popular; "Mocha Bomb" - any combination of coffee and chocolate wins my heart; "Tropicana" - think tropical fruits on a plate, icy summery desserts; and "Mister Fawlty" - seen Fawlty Towers? What's Mr Fawlty's first name? ;)

"Gaytime goes nuts" - caramel ice cream, honeycomb nougat crunch, salted hazelnut caramel, hazelnut chocolate mousse. Absolutely delicious! Now I am craving Golden Gaytime!

"Mocha Bomb" - chocolate mousse dome, date espresso caramel bombs, espresso ice cream. Rich and decadent - especially the bombs hidden in the dome.

"Tropicana" - passionfruit curd, coconut and nougat crumble, mango, coconut cloud, caramelised white chocolate ice cream and passionfruit sorbet. Mouth-watering tang, tasty mix of smooth and crunch.

Mister Fawlty - his name is Basil, by the way - Basil panna cotta, strawberry jelly, raspberry and orange croquant wafers. Smooth and light in flavour, with a mild but distinct aroma of basil. 

Oh the indulgence. Everything was delicious! It simply came down to personal preferences, however it appeared that we always have a unanimous (or one that is a definite) favourite - this time it's Mister Fawlty! We loved the use of herbs in desserts, earlier this month we experienced an amazing sorrel ice cream (at Pei Modern), then a basil and lime sorbet (InterContinental), now a basil panna cotta. We could eat this one all day!

We then followed desserts with entree and main. Yeah we do things differently .... and what did we love best? We could have more of the chargrilled wagyu tongue, and the pork crackling ALWAYS wins us over! The delicious menu is tempting us to return one day - who's coming? ;)

Cinned

Good Food Month ends with a bang at Bishop Sessa

This October started with chocolate explosion at the inaugural chocolate festival. Then we started our mad weekly SugarHits where we ordered everything on the dessert menu if we could. Plus the impromptu dessert night at the amazing Pei Modern.

SERIOUSLY praying to dessert god that my blood test will come back all clear!

So our final dessert destination for this year's Good Food Month was Bishop Sessa, where we also visited in 2013. This year their SugarHit offering is chocolate and wattle seed parfait, salted honey ice cream and candied popcorn. And to mix things up (becoming a new favourite DDT tradition!) we also selected 4 out of the 5 dessert items (goats curd cheese cake didn't really appeal...) plus 2 cheeses and we braced ourselves for one last sugar high of the month!

When everything arrived at the same time, it was chaos once again - yours truly demanding photography prior to consumption, while others scramble to fit everything on the table that is simply too small for our appetites.

The cheeses were gorgeous - that delicious, mouldy, pungent Fourme d'Ambert bleu, and the Italian washed rind - smooth and creamy. Eat. Every. Day.

Start with a drink - appetising Amaretto sour getting our tastebuds ready for the sweets

Blood orange parfait - refreshing and tangy 

Peanut butter bavarois with caramel jelly, banana, and white chocolate biscuit - You'll love it like I did if you like eating peanut butter out of a jar; chilled chocolate and hazelnut torte with lavender ice cream and poached pear - decadent, rich, one small mouthful is enough. Good thing we shared.

The official SugarHit (ok, Let's Do Dessert") item - smooth and delicious, excellent with caramel popcorn!

Roast pumpkin and chilli sorbet with olive oil and pistachio cake - sorbet with a nice kick at the very end 

The verdict?

My personal favourites were the peanut butter bavarois (anything peanut butter for me, thanks!) and the roast pumpkin and chilli sorbet, both of which sweet-savoury, different but well balanced (in my mind). Not saying the other desserts were forgettable, but we just had to pick favourites, didn't we!

That wraps up our jolly October 2014 ... next, the end of year DDT HOMEBAKE! Who's ready to come to TEA? ;)

Cinned

Impressive and ingenious InterCon

Initially we booked in for The Cortile and were told that Let's Do Dessert was the only dessert available. Then people pulled out last minute, leaving us with having to pay for those we booked for and didn't show up (HATE this policy, by the way). Our luck changed when the hotel put us in Cafe Opera where we could order other desserts ... which meant we could make up the minimum spend with something different.

So we did!

We started with the dessert wine that comes with the dessert special - assumed we'd get the standard Yalumba, but were pleasantly surprised with the bottle of De Bortoli Nobel One. Then our eclairs came - pretty, but hard to photograph because of the similar palate of colour and texture under the dim light: Double eclair of passionfruit and milk chocolate ganache with chantilly cream, roasted pineapple, passionfruit jelly and hazelnut crunch. Because it was hard to do justice by photo, it is very important to highlight that it was light, beautiful smooth texture broken up by the delicious crunch of hazelnuts, and the roasted pineapple! The touch of ginger added nicely to the complexity - good kick in the end, not overpowering. Thumbs up!

Then the madness began..... the menu desserts came all at once, so again we found ourselves in a frenzy - not knowing where to look, what to photograph first, then which one to eat first! Of course the poor DDDs had to wait until the OFFICIAL photos were taken (by the perfectionist yours truly).

The Fairy Floss sans fairy floss - chestnut cream, cassis, shortbread, French meringue, vanilla chantilly delight, basically a trifle; and the Heilala vanilla creme brulee with raspberry and yuzu marshmallow - creamy smooth, couldn't taste the yuzu though. 

Peanut butter chocolate bar - milk and dark chocolate ganache, cocoa and vanilla swirl ice cream, candied peanuts - Fancy Snickers with ice cream! Decadent.

Spring Forest - griotte compote, pistachio dacquoise, mascarpone cream and heilala vanilla foam. How gorgeous was this! Reminded us of Om Nom at the Adelphi Hotel in Melbourne. Very pistachio, smooth and delicate. 

One of the favourites for the night - the rhubarb souffle with hibiscus berry compote, strawberry sorbet. It was sitting tall and proud until the compote and sorbet were gently placed on top, then it started to slowly sink ... it was airy and flavourful, really a lovely dessert to have any time of day.

My personal favourite was the Fresh and Sweet - compressed watermelon, ginger lime drink espuma, lime basil sorbet and strawberries. The drink was so refreshing, if this became a soft drink brand I would declare this my favourite soft drink! And then, the lime and basil sorbet was a flavour punch! Very similar to the Jamie Oliver's watermelon and fetta salad with mint and herbs (minus the fetta, of course). Simply spectacular!

It was another exciting night for our taste buds, though we're still thinking about Pei Modern and Ananas. Next time we make bookings we'll know to book for a couple short, particularly when there's policy such as it was at the InterCon where we have to pay for those who pulled out. And really, how can anyone say no to good dessert (and great company)?!!

Cinned

A little gardening at Signorelli Gastronomia

The second instalment of our October dessert indulgence had a lot of expectation to meet ... after the breathtakingly spectacular selection of desserts at the uber chic Ananas, we had to remind ourselves not to demand something like that everywhere we go!

We arrived at Signorelli Gastronomia - annoyingly they don't take bookings for dessert. A table was easily secured though. But also unfortunate for us, their kitchen was closed (due to a private function) so we weren't able to order other desserts from their menu! Sigh. However there's the cheese selection - doesn't require preparation in the kitchen - which was available for our enjoyment.


I kept looking for the vertical garden, until the Hsinner reminded me that the dessert is called Vertical Garden. Oops ... that'll teach me to read thoroughly!!

Ah this dessert was a beautiful model - standing tall and proud, delicate and elegant. The photography must do it justice! And we being the dessert bloggers we MUST have the BEST photo EVER. The pressure is on! Took me quite some time to capture all the angles I could think of ... what do you think? Did I do it justice?

And the taste? Subtle and light, much like a semifreddo but it wasn't cold; smooth creamy texture in the creme but we love the crunchy nougat accent. Very lovely and beautiful dessert!

But what got us hyperventilating wasn't the dessert offering ... The cheese was simply gorgeous! Truffle pecorino, truffle honey, gorgonzola, goat cheese and a soft white cheese similar to a fresh brie, served with muscat grapes. We would have been happy to lick the dish that held the honey ... and consuming the blue cheese with truffle honey was one of the most indulgent joys in life. And the wine - We LOVE Pedro Ximenez! It is a Spanish dessert wine made of a white grape into a dessert sherry, sticky sweet wine that tasted like a plummy muscat grape, very fragrant, not that easy to drink because of the sweetness but it was just divine!

Thank you Signorelli G! Hope to taste your other desserts another time ... and maybe your food too - your staff dinner had us drooling!!

Cinned


[Hsinner: Grazie a Nico & the team, we had a fun night and can't wait to experience the entire menu in the cozy private dining room ;)]

The dessert goddesses at Pei Modern!!!

Wow.

It is not usual for us to visit a restaurant just to eat through their dessert menu. We visit bakeries, patisseries, cafes. However the Good Food Month gives us an opportunity to be even greedier and order the entire range of dessert offerings when we go for Sugar Hits (Let's Do Dessert 2014). And after Ananas and this, it will become a regular theme.

What is another first for us this month is being eager beavers and visiting Pei Modern on their 3rd night of business just for a dessert sitting. Our heads and palates are still reeling! We feel pretty special to be watching the action front on, hearing the distinct yet harmonious claps from around the space (as opposed to the dinging of the office reception bell). Six desserts for six excited sugar heads means happiness. Then there are the cheeses, ice wine and Pedro Ximenez. It reads euphoria.

Vanilla ice cream with tamarillo is the perfect finish to an evening: just the right amounts of creaminess and sweetness in the ice cream, complementing the tart tamarillo which lingers on and reminds us that it is the centre of attention. What a characteristic combination!

Duck egg sauternes custard and crostoli, made famous by the big name at the helm, Mark Best (Marque) and thanks to chef Phillip Searle, is concentrated decadence. Although 1.5 spoonful is plenty for each one of us, we can't help but imagine licking the egg shell clean of its sauterne quackness...

Meringue, white chocolate ganache, blueberries: sounds simple but the surprise in the "savoury" white chocolate ganache, scented by lime zest. It keeps us confused and content in the same mouthful! The blueberries aren't overpowered by the usually death-by-sugar white (*cough* fake) chocolate. Meringue is meringue and we love merinque. KM giggled at her idol KM's creation - how profound!

Spiced doughnuts, blood orange, whey butterscotch: we know for a fact that these two-mouthful-sized babies are there to keep us comforted. The blood orange pops out because it isn't the usual suspect (caramel, chocolate, creme patissier). Some say the blood orange is a little grainy but personally the balls hit the right spot by being unique.

Chocolate tart, eucalyptus, cream: so we declare the BEST tart shell/dish/pastry EVER and it is only 3mm thick. It cuts the rich but oh-yeah-baby dark chocolate. The gold-dusted salty flakes, are they the "eucalyptus"? Or it's the sinusitis? We must have been distracted by the non-conformist chocolate tart and missed the gum tree element. Yes, it is an excuse to revisit.

Sorrel sorbet, honeycomb: OH MY G... Who would have thought!? It reminds us of having tomato sorbet for the first time on an antipasto plate at La Brasserie. This is by far the most popular dessert of the evening. It feels like drinking homemade mojito and sitting barefeet on the grass in spring - refreshing! And that honeycomb, again, is perfect on its own. So is the sorbet. We want to eat this on tap!

Cheeses: Brigid's Well Holy Goat, Benison Blue and Pyengana 20-month clothbound cheddar. As our token Argentine cheese-Hoover dances tango, we consumed on his behalf these moreish dairy products, accompanied by quince and honeycomb. Our tastebuds are cleansed by the Canadian Ridgeside Vidal ice wine and NV Romate "Cardenal Cisneros" Pedro Ximénez. Life is best at moments like these...

Wow. From booking to saying goodbye, we are overwhelmed by the extended familiarity. Mr Best says he knows who we are. Uh-oh... We don't much enjoy being too famous like him but the apron that he is wearing again after faux retirement does suit very well. Kylie Millar clearly has the talent to impress, mentored by Dagmar Slobodnikova, the behind-the-scene head pastry chef with 20-odd years of experience. You are now the dessert goddesses and we are eternally grateful!

Yes, we will definitely return to eat real food - that is, the entree and main plates. After all, desserts are fairy food: it keeps us high in la-la-sugarland and the calories are not real. The calories are not real. The calories are not real...

Hsinner

Going Ananas!

Has my body recovered from the chocolate weekend? Certainly doesn't feel that way ... At least, my jeans are still a little tight. We're dessert obsessive compulsives but Good Food Month being in the middle of spring? Beached whale season is just around the corner ... no hiding behind layers of clothes anymore!!!

The goodies!

OK, whinge over, need sugar to make me happy.

We cherry picked four places out of a long and impressive list of Let's Do Desserts. Here's the first one - Ananas Bar & Brasserie's "Les Desserts Four Play". BUT have you looked at their menu? Being compulsive gluttons we wanted variety, so we had EVERYTHING (except the cheese plate)!

Yalumba FSW8B Botrytis Viognier,
and Campbells Classic Muscat.
Excellent muscat! Botrytis was lovely 
though too sweet for most of us!

The moment the first dessert arrived, we were in awe. And we were in awe 8 times. It was spectacular and exciting, with angels singing and I swear there were hyper little fairies fluttering about. Every single dessert was presented beautifully and full of character, each one saying EAT ME EAT ME! The most painful part was the photography, actually. Chefs around the world hate it - everyone whipped out their smart phone and running around madly trying to capture the masterpieces on a plate, letting the food go cold or the ice cream melt ....

But once the kerfuffle is over, heaven on a plate was found. Most of them induced a "oooh" or a "mmm" or a "oh my god" or a combination of these. At one stage the general consensus was along the lines of "better than sex". Of course, each of us had our favourites and different preferences of flavours, but on a whole, no duds. And we're a tough group of experienced desserts!!!

Ananas 4 ways (spectacularly delicious), Trio of Ananas Eclairs (mixed reviews by dessertees), pistachio and citrus crème brûlée (creamy custard, delicious grapefruit milk sorbet)

Pineapple Yogurt Popsicle (possibly the most popular dessert, served with popping candy!), The Snicker's Revolution (excellent peanut ice cream, light chocolate mousse),  Chocolate Festival Exclusive (crunchy and creamy and chocolatey, cut by salt!)

The Black Swan (chocolatey hazelnutty gooey)

Let's Do Dessert - Les Desserts Four Play of triple chocolate fantasy tart, earl grey and rose eclair, mango passion and coconut entrement, and an absolutely gorgeous exploding black forest!

Les Desserts Four Play's exploding black forest

So Ananas has set a very high bar for the rest of the month ... And we may have to come back to indulge on our personal favourites another time!!

CS

Inaugural Smooth Festival of Chocolate!

The month of October is synonymous with over-indulgence, being the good food month. This year it is all the more special as we have been invited to partake in the smooth FM's Festival of Chocolate!!!

It started with the hamper to prepare ourselves with the upcoming chocolate attack. And as we were invited to the event, we felt obliged to make a thorough report ... and for the first time we started tweeting and instagram'ing and posting in real time - so start following us NOW!! 

Like a kid in a candy store ... well we're kids at a chocolate festival! So much to choose from, but we only have a stomach each! [KT: but a bottomless one at that!] So we went for the more unusual looking dish - what is a Knafeh? Let's try it for breakfast. The shop was housed in a container adorned with street art, it is a commercial mobile kitchen that prepares one thing only - a lovely pudding of semolina, cheese, pistachio and rosewater syrup. Simple but tasty street food from Jerusalem - LOVE! [KT: and they won Best of the Fest! We knew it was going to happen ;)]

The Test Kitchen was a series of cooking demonstrations hosted by the charismatic Cameron Daddo. We started with MakMak and the "5 textured chocolate macaron".  We followed this with the demonstration by the head chef of our favourite French patisserie - Jean Michel Raynaud of Baroque, presenting a sophisticated chocolate mousse dessert "Sputnik" (??!!). It was decadent, delicious, delicate and of course, divine! He also demonstrated a chocolate and mandarin ganache, which was splendid and changed my mind about using mandarin, which is more subtle for a citrus, as a dessert flavour. 

The other demonstrations we attended were by Food to Nourish, with a smooth and intensely flavoured 'raw' chocolate and orange tart. Then a popular chocolate peanut butter slice by Tamas Pamer of InterContinental, and finished with a venison burger with chocolate aioli created by Bar100's head chef. And .... it was getting so hot with the afternoon sun, the energy level was nowhere near that of Saturday. Hats off to the presenters, our lovely host, and the audiences who stuck till the end!!

When we wanted/needed a break from the hustle and bustle of the festival, it was the VIP Lounge at Bar100 that provided our chocolate cocktail or chilli chocolate martini, chocolate canapes and selection of gourmet lunch. It was particularly appreciated because of the 34 degree heat on the next day! 

So we spent our Labour day long weekend getting fat. It was so much fun, and still flabbergasted that despite doing eating and blogging our sweet experiences only because we love it, someone thought what we were doing was special enough to deserve an invitation to the event as VIPs. We will certainly keep it up and share the love wherever we go!!!

Hsinner and Cinned xxx

[KT: DDT continues this month each Thursday at a sugar hit, RSVP to the one you'd like to attend here. Note Ananas on 9 October is full.]