Divine Dessert Tour 2008 finale - Happy Holidays!

As this would be the last entry for the year, I must firstly express my appreciation to everyone who participated in our Divine Dessert Tours.

Good things are meant to be shared. It made the sweets that little bit more delicious, the coffees that little bit more aromatic, the blue sky that little bit bluer, the winter cold (or summer heat) that little bit easier to bear. And having dessert as a way of getting people together also meant friendships are made, not to mention expansion of everyone's food experience and creativity.

Well done to those who had been there more than once, to those who came up with suggestions, and muchas gracias to people who made the effort to cook up a storm on the home-bake DDTs.

So, thanks for 11 months of great fun and enjoyment, and we'll certainly have more in 2009!!

Now to this month's home-made Christmas Dessert. We had traditional holiday desserts including
    Boiled fruit pudding (with beautiful aroma and rich flavour)
    Festive gingerbread cookies (individually and painstaking decorated)
    Chocolate apricot cardamon pistachio pudding (fabulous blend of fruit and nut and spices)

And the "just desserts":
    Fruity trifle rich in liquor and creamy custard (light and refreshing)
    Lemon meringue pie (beautifully tangy custard, crispy meringue)
    Raspberry ice cream (exquisite and hand made!)
    Ice cream xmas cake (simply amazing - fruity nutty and caramel-y)
    Fruit salad (something to take the guilt away)

Then there are the participants who wanted to be part of the indulgence but either wouldn't cook, or couldn't cook:
    A Beautiful Life from Ella's Patisserie (an encore dessert because it was so good - see details from the April DDT)
    Selection of cakes and pastries including tiramisu, pistachio and caramel tart, sticky date pudding, baked cheese cake, cannoli etc

And what's a Christmas party without a turkey! For the first time in DDT history we allowed savoury items - only because our CEO prepared a rich gooey spicy chocolate mole sauce for poultry. People who enjoy spiced chocolate will love this, and people who didn't think chocolate could possibly be savoury (which was most of the participants) were converted after one taste! And when this went on a perfectly juicy and lightly savoury 4.5kg turkey, bliss.

I the perfect hostess was left with nothing more than a carcass at the end of the day, thinking, well there goes my hope of a turkey roll for lunch tomorrow.

There were drinks too - many a participants brought dessert wines - ice wine, muscat, golden botrytis, to name a few; and there was French Brut (same brut we had from the June DDT), and a bottle of Tyrrell's Old Winery cab-merlot ('98 vintage). And as it was a nice warm spring day (not summer yet!) a sangria bianca was prepared for everyone's drinking pleasure.

An absolutely divine indulgent day! Thanks again to everyone's effort and contribution, and see you next year!

CS