Deceive me .... if you can!

I felt the need to emphasise how far the dessert home bake had come, and how much effort it was for the participants who could very easily have said to me "its too hard, I can't think of anything, so I won't be coming". But no, people embraced the challenge, in return had some fun (I hope) and an eventual sugar high. Thank you very much to those who made such an effort, the research, making multiple batches before presenting the final optimised versions (you geeky scientists you)!! I hope you are not so traumatised by the experience as to shy away from any future bake-offs! 

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Creating something outside the realm of normalcy is expectedly tricky but what people won't realise is that it took me a LONG time to decide on the theme. With the inspirations from the great chefs like Heston and Adriano, we decided on messing with our senses … so, here's an invitation to deceive.

Over the past 4 weeks I discussed and brainstormed with the eventual brave participants, scoured the internet for "desserts that look like something else", had excited lightbulb moments, then the logistics of how to achieve what was imagined… dare I say this was definitely the most demanding theme ever for a home bake. Flowers were tricky, but as they were generally a flavouring element (as were savoury or spiced desserts) it was not too complicated to create a dessert flavoured with floral, or savoury, or spice elements.

My default deceptive dessert would have been one borrowed from Zumbo. A long time ago I had a "chocolate hamburger" composed of chocolate macaron shells as burger bun, chocolate ice cream as the meat pattie, raspberry sauce as tomato sauce. If I couldn't come up with any other ideas, that'd be it. But I had always wanted to come up with something I can call my own, and this obsession consumed me (my precious...). Then one night as I lay in bed (when my mind is most active… go figure) and had enlightenment. Kept me awake for at least an hour as I was so excited.

So what were the offerings on the day? First to arrive was pizza. Then fresh mushrooms. And a plate of sushi. And my pride and joy - Peking duck in pancake. This was followed by drink of iced coffee to wash it down.

The pizza looked so real - excellent choice of "cheese"!! It felt like all this needed was to go into the oven. It was made of a sponge cake base, raspberry jam, yellow and green snakes cut to look like capsicums, red fruit roll-ups for salame, and marzipan for cheese. Good work Kaitlin and Martyn! (NB: it even looked like left-over pizza on the next day!!)

I love mushrooms. I can have them any way. Even better when it's made of meringue and chocolate ... just take a look, how realistic are these! Just like they were picked fresh from the forest floor! And when packing up the left-overs, I somehow smelled mushrooms in the kitchen... either I've lost it, or it had successfully messed with my head!! Thanks Dave!!

Move over Kobe Jones, here are some sushi you will never beat. Beautifully moist cakes with chocolate icing, wrapped in green marzipan and topped with coconut and 'caviar' of chopped up jelly lollies. There's even a small blob of "wasabi" on the side!! Served with chopsticks and 'soy sauce' (chocolate ganache). Nice one Annika!

Here's my Peking duck. I love duck. Give me duck prepared in any way I would be happy. But this ain't duck. It was chocolate sponge topped with creme brulee ('crispy skin' and the delicious fat under that skin) with chilli chocolate ganache and julienne of green apple soaked in salt water to keep it from going brown and to give my 'duck' a sense of savouriness, wrapped in crepe. I had so much fun making it!

And the black iced coffee - 決明子 for those of you who can read Chinese (click on text for link of an image of the drink). Tastes like coffee. Smells like coffee. But it really wasn't coffee. My mum used to brew a big pot and I'd drink it cold when I was little, she used to call it Chinese coffee. After some Googling I found out its name - cassia senna obtusifolia (family, genus, species, for the geek scientist that I am). That explains the "do not over brew or over consume as it has a mild laxative effect" on the packaging. Senna tablets are available in the health-food section .... It was a natural thing that perfectly fitted my deceptive theme so I had to offer it. And hey, it was well accepted! Just don't overdo it :p 

But of course I did offer up some real coffee. As a coffee buff I can't live without the real thing myself. And that some of us really needed a mid-afteroon pick-up!! Espresso - no deception there! 

And so it was, the end of the year, another fabulous and relaxing day thanks to great company and lovely desserts. Hope this challenging theme had inspired you dessertees and the closet master chef in us all!

CS

PS so some say the world will end in a few weeks time. Oh well, I have no regrets. If we should all die at least we should all die happy (and high on sugar!)