Pudding Pie Lane

Matcha Green Tea and Raspberry Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 22:28:00 +0000

Follow me on Twitter (@puddingpielane)! I have finally made the transition and I'm (shock!) quite addicted (shock!). Well, it's really just another excuse for me to post food photos everywhere.

It's just a good thing my photos are so beautiful. Ha.

Speaking of, I recently discovered the Foodspotting app. Have you heard of it before? The concept is to upload photos of food you have tried at various restaurants, tagging the restaurant and dish that you had. Then, when someone else is around the area and looking for particular dishes, they can search through the 'database' to find recommended dishes around the area! Or... if you're just looking for photos of dishes in a particular restaurant you're going to, you can bet you'll find it on Foodspotting.

Oh, and don't get me started on Pinterest or Instagram...

Now whilst I do not claim that this is the prettiest photo I have on my blog (photos taken hastily on phone during dinner as I could not wait any longer to eat), I do promise you a damn good recipe. In fact, a damn good recipe from a friend! I hosted a dinner party last weekend with Chinese food (I cooked my singature dongpo pork) and two of my friends made this matcha and raspberry cake, and whilst matcha is Japanese I guess I can say we're doing a pan-Asian meal.

I've made a matcha cheesecake before, which you can see here.

Oh my, I do love matcha. Yum Yum. Plus its healthy! Double bonus!

It was delicious. I was told that it was a combination of two recipes (matcha green tea cake and the raspberry filling of a roly poly) which I thought worked very well. Moist, but not wet and chewy. I havea feeling the cake was baked at a higher temperature than supposed to as the crust was quite, well, crusty, but I really liked that! It was like having a cake inside a biscuit wrapper. Anyway, the cake will go very well with some vanilla ice cream or cream. And maybe a Hello Kitty decoration :)

Have a great week and enjoy the nice weather! Finally!

Matcha Green Tea and Raspberry Cake

Serves about 12

For the cake

175g/6oz/¾ cup caster sugar

3 free-range eggs

300ml/10½fl oz / 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

150ml/5½fl oz/2/3 cup Greek-style yoghurt

450g/1lb/3 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

5 tsp green tea powder

For the raspberry filling

2 cups frozen raspberries

1/2 oz (2 envelopes) unflavoured gelatin

4oz/ 240g/ 2 cups whipping cream

100g / 3½oz / 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line two 23cm/9in cake tins.

2. Beat the sugar, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla seeds together in a bowl until leight, fluffy and well combined. Stir in the yoghurt.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and green tea powder together in a separate bowl.

4. Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture.

5. Pour the cake batter into the two cake tins, shake gently to level out the mixture, and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and set aside to cool.

6. For the filling, puree the raspberries in a food processor or blender until smooth.

7. Place 4 tablespoons of drained raspberry liquid into a small pan and heat until boiling (be careful as it can boil fast)

8. Pour raspberry juice into a medium metal mixing bowl. Add the gelatin and place the bowl over a larger bowl full of ice and water. Stir until the puree starts to thicken a little.

9. Mix the sugar, vanilla and whipping cream in a medium bowl. Beat until soft peaks starts to form. Gently fold in the cherry puree.

10. Once the cakes have cooled, cut each cake in half and spread with the raspberry filling.

11. Serve with cream or ice cream.

Afternoon Tea at The Ritz, London

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 06:00:00 +0000

Let me tell you a little bit about the story behind how this afternoon tea came to be.

Four years ago, I was accepted at Cambridge to study Economics. Of course, my parents were delighted. And as a reward, my dad was going to take me for afternoon tea! And at The Ritz! Somehow, we never really looked into making a booking. Actually, I think the word I'm looking for is that a certain someone had 'tactically forgotten'. And then I graduated and started working and that was that.

But aha! 3 months ago I was browsing the booking website at the Ritz (as you do) and it seemed someone had made a cancellation... so before any more forgetting could be done (because by the time we got round to it I have have retired... Who knows?) I made a booking for three.

Oh my, I do love afternoon tea. And thank you to my wonderful parents for taking me! :)

Before I go on, let me set the scene a bit. The Ritz is beautiful. Afternoon tea is held in the Palm Court, which is between the hotel lobby and the Ritz restaurant. Men must wear a jacket and a tie and women the equivalent (although I did see some dodgy shorts and tights combination when I went...), and the waiters are all dressed impeccably in red waistcoats and tails. And long gone are the days when guests would arrive in their horse drawn carriages, now your reservation is checked on an iPad and you are showed to your table.

And what a beautiful table it is.

This is one of the centrepieces in the Palm Court. We know nothing more other than it's a 'reclining female figure wrought in gilded lead'.

And a beautiful ceiling too. I think this may just about beat my living room ceiling right with the fly stuck in it. But only marginally.

Our waiter promptly brought us our teas - I tried the Silver Needle tea with 'notes of fresh, honeydew melon and a pleasantly sweet aftertaste'. Which I agree with, until it has brewed too long and then has more of a Chinese medicine aftertaste. I would recommend the darjeeling though (known as the 'champagne of tea'), that's my favourite. And we were also brought the three tier stand with finger sandwiches and a selection of pastries (more about that later). The scones where to come 'in a short while' as we were told it was still being baked.

Oh, you mean freshly baked scones straight from the oven? Yes please!!

However, it did make for an incomplete photo, which the food blogger inside me was ever so slightly disappointed with.

As soon as we had eaten a few finger sandwiches (the classics such as cucumber and cream cheese, smoked salmon with lemon butter, egg mayonnaise with chopped shallots, cheddar cheese and chutney) a waiter promptly came to replenish the stocks on our stand with more.

And then our scones came! Now I'm not just saying this because it's The Ritz, but it was one of the best scones I've had. Very soft and fluffy like how you would imagine a cloud would taste like. Not that you would (could) do that. But you know, metaphorically.

And like a good foodie I executed The Proper Way To Eat A Scone. Please, treat your scone with respect! I tore my scone in half in stead of cutting it. However, I forgot all of my manners, and squished the scone halves back together. Like a McSconewich. Oh dear.

That was just wrong, and I apologise profusely to the world of sconetiquette.

The pastries we had were a selection of chocolate cake, mille feuille and a white chocolate and passionfruit (or raspberry? I didn't quite catch what the waiter said) macaron. The chocolate cake was a bit too rich for me but I had to fight over the mille feuille with my mum :)

Oh! There's also a piano and harp playing in the background. So imagine that too. I could hear some Les Mis, Phantom of the Opera....Lion King.. and.. Bruno Mars? At the Ritz?

Hm. Okay. The piano version of 'When I Was Your Man' is very soothing. If only we had Bruno's dulcet tones too...

During the service, a waiter comes round with a trolley offering more cakes. Somehow it worked perfectly with three selections and three of us! Almost fate, I would say...

These were lemon pound cake, rhubarb crumble and a walnut and date cake with a walnut cream. Top points for nom goes to the rhubarb crumble. There was just that something about the vanilla cream.

Well, probably the vanilla.

But that's just too easy. I'm going to put it down to some magic ingredient.

Probably the rhubarb.

I'll stop now.

By the end of the sitting, we were very content (i.e. full!). So, a couple of things if you ever go...

Traditional afternoon tea is currently £45 per person. You go in the Ritz entrance and ask for the Palm Court (which is on the right). On the left, there's a cloakroom to check in your coats before being seated. And opposite the cloakroom is the ladies 'Powder Room'. Even the toilets (sorry, Powder Room just doesn't slip off the tongue) have full length mirrors, water and sofas inside. Maybe just in case you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and have to sit down before in case you faint. After the tea, the waiters will clean your plates and cutlery (unfortunately you can't take any leftovers home, only if it's a birthday cake) and bring the bill. They're all so polite and friendly, and are happy to take a photo of your group (so don't be afraid to ask! Everyone does it!).

And enjoy!

And lastly, I've finally moved my blog onto Twitter! So please follow me @puddingpielane.

But beware! This means you will be subject to my Random Rants. And photos. And that I still don't understand the difference between using @ and #. I know, I know, I'm generation 'y' therefore I should....but I don't.

I just don't.

And it's stressful.

Thank goodness for afternoon tea. It just has a habit of making everything better.

Have a good week and a lovely Easter!

Feast Food Festival, London

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 12:41:00 +0000

So the joy of living in London is that there is a lot of stuff going on. Good stuff. Foodie stuff.

Good foodie stuff.

Stuff that makes me very, very happy.

Like the Feast Food Festival in the Tobacco Dock Wapping last weekend, which was named one of the 10 best food festivals by The Independent (along with the Galway Oyster Festival with a 'speed shucking' fete...? Hm. Hmmmmmmm.)

I went along with a few friends, armed with our empty stomachs and ready to eat. But there's just so much choice! See, the thing is, I have a list. A list of places I want to try in London, and I think a pretty good proportion of those places were here tonight. So my dilemma was how to try a bit of everything? And that's where a group of foodie friends are the best thing ever. Divide and conquer girls.

I got majorly excited about the burgers at Patty and Bun. So much that it warranted 6 photos. So yes, I was that girl who refused to leave the stall until I'd photographed every stage of the burger making process.

It was just SO GOOD. There's something about melted cheese on a very juicy medium-rare beef patty and a sweet and soft broiche bun that you just can't get enough of. Especially when it oozes a bit of burger juice every time you bite into it. Yum.

Patty and Bun Ari-Gold burger: Beef patty, Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Pickled Onions, Ketchup, Smokey P&B mayo, Brioche (£7.00 + 50p for bacon).

Bone Daddies: Tantanmen, with sesame, chilli, pork mince, bok choy in chicken bone broth and egg (£5 for the taster pot I had).

I'd read a lot about ramen last year, including Tonkotsu and Shoryu, and I was pretty excited to try the broth that has been simmered in bone broth for 20 hours. But I was quite disappointed that the only dish available was not their signature dish but a taster pot of the 'tantanmen', which is simmered in chicken broth (and not for 20 hours!). And when I did taste it, the noodles weren't much different from the Nissin (出前一丁) instant noodles that I have. Hm. Hmmmmmmm. Not convinced.

Le Petit Paris Milkshakes and macarons.

Meringue Girls. I didn't get to try any of these, but brownie points for the prettiest stall.

Ceviche - the Last Day of Pisco. This is a Peruvian seafood dish which is made from fresh raw fish which is then marinated in lemon juice, lime juice some chilli. Ceviche dishes from £7-£11.

So that's it! We paid £9 for entry and then paid for each individual dish. The atmosphere was pretty cool, with a live band and that whole 'we're in an old industrial building' vibe to it. But then again, you can do this at Borough Market for free entry. It's not a kind of food show where you walk around with lots of stalls selling their products and you can get full trying tasters, its more of a 'lots of places to buy lunch' kind of food show. The crowds weren't as bad as Borough Market on a Saturday, but there was still a 15 minute wait for Patty and Bun. The best thing was that there were so many different 'hyped up' food stalls there. But after about 2 hours there was not that much to do, so after much chatting and drinking and trying (poorly, I must add) to tear bits off our food to share, we went home to watch Suits.

Flowerpot Cake for Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 15:20:00 +0000

I love flowers.

But you what I love even more than getting flowers? Getting flowers that I can eat.

Especially when you can eat the pot too.

Nom nom nom.

So are you looking for a Mother's Day present? Look no further! See Pudding Pie Lane's step by step instructions on how to make a chocolate cake flowerpot...

(Many thanks to my friend Ashley who helped me make this cake. You're awesome.)

Flowerpot Cake

You will need:

Chocolate cake (any recipe is fine, you'll need about enough to make 2 large cakes...something like 8oz flour, 8oz sugar, 8oz butter and 4 eggs, and chocolate, of course)
Icing (buttercream, marshmallow fluff, stuff like that)
500g marzipan
About 1kg royal icing
Gel food colouring (Wilton's is good). I used red and blue. The other colour icing I bought pre made in different colours.
Chocolate (to melt over the cake)
Various leaf and flower cutters

1. Bake a generic chocolate cake. Ideally, you want about cakes that you can stack on top of each other.

2. Cut cakes to flowerpot shape. Glue together with marshmallow fluff (or buttercream, or anything that's sticky really. Just not real glue. Because that would be stupid.) I know it's tempting to eat all of the leftovers, leave some cake left for crumbs for another step.

3. Roll out a layer of marzipan. Place the cake on top of the marzipan (top side down) and brush the cake with apricot jam. Fold the marzipan over the cake. This will prevent any bumps when you cover the cake with icing for the pot.

4. Colour icing to get a terracotta colour. I didn't have this, so make the pot orange instead.

5. Roll out the icing and place on top of the cake. Smooth the sides and trim the excess.

6. Roll out a thin layer of icing to make the rim of the pot. Make sure the rim goes over the pot slightly so that you can pour a layer of melted chocolate over the top and it won't seep down the sides. Crumble some leftover cake on top of the melted chocolate so make it look muddy.

7. Start decorating! I made roses by rolling pink icing into a small tube and then wrapping round 'leaves' around it.

Chinese New Year 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:40:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

The best part of Chinese New Year? The food. Hands down. The bringing together of families over sticky rice cakes and dumplings, the smell of delicate steamed buns and spicy lions head meatballs, the effort put into cooking fabulous feasts for your loved ones.

And the inevitable part where you stuff your face and can't move for hours for fear of exploding.

And boy, did I experience a lot of the inevitable.

Last weekend, I came back from China after spending New Years there with my family for the first time since I can remember. So what do we do at New Years, you ask?

Well, the first thing I did as soon as I got of the plane in Shanghai was to find the nearest restaurant in the airport that served xiao long bao (steamed buns), shove about a dozen in my mouth, and only then was I able to carry on with my life.

So, let's start with food. In fact, let's begin, middle and end with food. That sounds good.

1. Chinese New Year eve dinner. This is a tradition. The big dinner that brings back all of your family to one place. Usually, most families spend the whole of new years eve preparing food for dinner at home. Some families (like us) go to restaurants.

It's like Christmas, but more awesome. And less washing up.

Fish balls, prawns, bamboo pak choi, mushrooms and a radish decoration. Try saying that with your mouth full.

That afternoon, I also spent a long time playing sanguosha. What, you don't know what this random word that I've just spewed at you is?!?! Okay, so its a pretty geeky (but fun...) card game. You know when pokemon cards were a craze? Like that, but uh, much cooler. And well, also strategy based, as the aim is to defeat the other players without revealing who you are. You have to be good at playing the players. So sit down, grab a bowl of peanuts, and deal some cards. This is what the new kids on the block are doing.

2. I ate snake! I ate snake! I ate snake...in the year of the snake!

Wait. Does that mean I've jinxed myself now?

This is deep dried snake. I was quite reluctant to eat it. I ate all of the crispy bits first, as I was a little teeny bit very scared to try it. When I did, it was an anti-climax. I half-expected the piece of snake to start jumping around and try biting me. Yes, I know this is ridiculous. Don't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing.

3. These were the cold starts for a lunch my grandma cooked us. You see that in the middle? That's drunken crabs. Poor crabs, they probably only wanted to get a 4am burger and chips after a night out and look where they ended up.

By the way, I had a friend asking if they were cooked drunken crabs.

Well, no, not really. They're raw. Soaked in rice wine.

It look me 19 years before I dared to eat one. Wohoo!

4. Oh! And you should watch this. It's called 'A Bite of China', and it is one of the most beautifully filmed documentaries about Chinese food I have ever seen. It goes into how the food is produced, made, served, in all different Chinese cultures around all of China. After watching this, you'll feel guilty about the Ken Hom wok you own and will want to go and buy something proper.

(By the way, the documentary is available with English subtitles or a English translation.)

6. I cooked! I felt very Chinese. I also managed to almost choke on the smell of the half-pound of chilli sauce I put in the mapo tofu I was cooking. Not very Chinese, I need to man up.

7. I visited too many nice places to put in a post alone. I'm going to leave you with a few more photos and wish you all the best for the year of the snake!

And what better way to leave you guys is with a photo of me with oranges for eyes...

Gong zi fa cai!

Model village, Jiangsu, China

Zhonghua Traditional Snacks, Cambridge

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:28:00 +0000

I miss Cambridge.

I miss being a student. I miss the may ball chat, the not being allowed to walk on the grass, the tourists with the big cameras who wander around looking lost, and yes, even the supervisions (!).

I mean, where else will it be acceptable to cycle around wearing a gown and black tie??

So, last weekend I went back to Cambridge for a friends birthday, and we went to formal at Trinity College. Which was fun! Aside from the part where two of us got on the wrong train, ended up in Biggleswade, taking a 45 minute taxi to Cambridge whilst changing into black tie in the back of said taxi, and running into formal hall 15 minutes late.

At first I got angry. And then I got sad. And then I got hungry.

So the next day (after formal hall and a few bad headaches), a few of us wandered over to Zhonghua Traditional Snacks, a new(ish) cafe that opened sometime after I graduated in June. I've heard a lot about it from my Chinese friends in Cambridge, so here is the rundown!

(Please excuse the photo quality, I only brought my point and shoot to Cambridge.)

Zhonghua Traditional Snacks serves Chinese dim sum including jaozi (dumplings), bao zi (steamed buns), noodles and wontons.

The food is good, quite traditional in that I would expect this on the cafes in China. I don't think the food alone is enough to rant and rave about but I would definitely recommend purely because its such great value - one of the great points about this cafe is the price. You'll struggle to spend more than £10-£15 per head, with drinks.

Well, I mean, unless you're reeaaaalllllyyyy hungry.

The cafe is quite small, located near the Grafton Centre off Newmarket Road. We came at about 12pm and managed to get a table, although it got quite busy afterwards. The owners were really nice though and tried their best to fit everyone in. On the walls inside there are posters showing how to make dumplings, which was pretty cute.

We ordered dumplings off the main menu, with a another friends ordering noodles and me ordering wonton soup. There was only one typo on the menu, and since I generally keep to a mantra of 'the worse the English on a Chinese menu, the better the food', I can take this as a good sign. Well, it's not always a linear correlation, but I think the R-squared is pretty high...

Picked cucumber (~£2). This i cucumber marinated in soy sauce, sugar, a little bit of salt and a little bit of vinegar. It was pretty standard, as many Chinese families make this at home. Taste was good, but I couldn't taste the difference.

Prawn wonton soup (£6.50). Could have done with a teeny bit more salt (and some pepper), but otherwise yum! And the prawns were pretty good - I got big chunks of prawn and non of that teeny tiny chopped up shrimp stuff. I helped myself to the garlic and chilli sauce on this one :)

S ordered noodles in a 'egg and tomato sauce'. This looked a bit like pasta sauce to me, but she said that it was a bit sweet, although children might like it.

Next came all of the dumplings (£5.00-£6.50 for 12 depending on the filling). Seriously good value! We all went for steamed but I saw on another blog that someone had them fried (like a potsticker), so I'd ask about that next time.

R had the beef and celery, nice but not anything special although he did say that he was comparing these to some seriously good jaozi restaurants in Beijing! Unfortunately I think the Beijing chefs win in this case.

Another friend had the lamb and coriander and described as 'not too stodgy and seemed like good meat too'. I think this net net positive.

O had the chive and tofu dumplings. These were a 'lovely texture and tasted delicious'. I've never had tofu in dumplings before but for vegetarians this is an excellent choice!

The home made siken tofu (£2.50) I'd definitely say is an acquired taste. We ordered the salty version with Chinese pickled cabbage (please correct me if I am wrong!). I can see why its called silken. The texture is pretty soft. All wobbly like you forgot to put gelatin in the jelly cake. I would have preferred a little firmer tofu, so I probably wouldn't order this again (saying that, I dish eat most of the dish...!), although I'm not really sure how 'silken' traditional 'silken' tofu is meant to be. I will investigate on my trip to China and get back to you.

Verdict

7/10

Overall, I think the food is good, and does deserve the 'best cheap eats in Cambridge' award it has won. Choice of dim sum isn't huggeee but for this price, there isn't really a comparable in Cambridge. Service was pretty friendly and efficient too. Would I come back? For dumplings and wonton, yes! And I'd make sure to try the bao zi next time too.

My guess is that Cambridge Chinese students will descend upon here en mass. Worth the trek, plus you're close to Mill Lane! Double whammy!

Zhonghua Traditional Snacks
13 Norfolk Street
Cambridge
CB1 2LD
Tel: (01223) 354573

2013 Sprinkles and Sparklers Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 12:16:00 +0000

Whether you're riding up a ski-lift in the mountains, scrubbing off the mulled wine stains on your Christmas jumper or crawling behind the sofa for that last Articulate card, l hope that you've had the best Christmas. May 2013 bring you love, happiness and...

...lots and lots of sickingly sweet spongey gooey fluffy DELICIOUS cake.

Happy New Year!

***************************************

This Christmas, I was a bit ill. I had the kind of cold that needed 20 packets of tissues, 10 sachets of lemsip, and lots and lots of strepsils. I was happily minding my own business sniffling and snuffling around the house. My dad, however, decided I could do with a DIY treatment.

"Xinmei, do you like wasabi?"

"Um. It makes me cry."

"Okay, we're having lots of wasabi tonight - it will burn your nose and clear it right up!".

"Uh, right."

First lesson learned in 2013: cure the common cold with wasabi. Or even better, snort it.

Duh.

This cake is a victoria sponge with raspberry jam swirls, with buttercream filling and icing. I was originally going to go for an egg white icing sugar mix which is nice and fluffy, but there were going to be young children eating this and I didn't want to be liable for salmonella poisoning. (This, however, has never stopped me from eating raw cake mix.)

*Edit: Disclaimer! Don't eat raw cake mix - you may get salmonella poisoning!*

But I digress.

The decorations are Hundred and Thousand and Wilton's Sprinkles, which you can buy on Amazon for about £7.50 per 100g. I think it was that price anyway... although I may be wrong by a few decimal places....hm. You can find the recipe for the cake at the bottom of the page :)

By the way, I should mention that I was awarded DotComGiftShop's fave blog a few weeks ago :) This means someone liked my blog - hurrah! You can see my little bloggy icon for them on the sidebar here somewhere ---->?

And speaking of, they are having a winter sale to kick off 2013, with at least 40% off many items (here's the link!). Might I mention that I love the kitchen range? Not that I'm fishing for any late Christmas presents or anything... :)

***************************************

I'm going to dedicate the rest of this page for a few posts that didn't quite make the blog in 2012:

1) Cupcakes. Lots of them. Because I only had an instagram photo, and an instagram photo can not replace a real photo. Oh yes, I just went there.

2) Apple and Blackberry crumble. I think I never got round to writing anything in this post. Think of the countless iPhone and RIM jokes!

3) Mexican Mole Muffins. These were from the Green & Black's cookbook....mole as in chilli and chocolate. So, I decided to try and make a mole topping.

It came out more as an evil looking fat rat with very big hands. Like Wario from Mario. Not really the look I was going for.

So that's it! R.I.P...

******

Enjoy your New Year's celebrations, wherever you are!

Victoria Sponge Confetti Cake with Jammy Swirls

Takes about 15 minutes to make the cake batter, 25 minutes to bake, and 30-40 minutes to make the icing and decorate

Serves 8

For the cake

4oz / 175g butter (must be at room temperature)

4oz / 175g caster sugar

3 large eggs

6oz / 175g self-raising flour

6 tablespoons raspberry jam

For the icing and filling

8oz / 250g icing sugar

4oz/ 100g butter at room temperature

Hundred and Thousands

Wilton’s Sprinkles

Candles, sparklers, chocolate stars etc.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3, 325F (170C). Line the bottom of two 20cm / 8 inch with baking paper and grease the edges with butter/margarine.

In a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon or spatula, cream together the sugar and butter until fluffly. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and add to the mixture, a little at a time. It may look like its curdled, but that’s okay. Sift in the flour a little at a time and fold in with a metal spoon (this cuts through the mixture better than a wooden spoon. (You’ve just spent 10 minutes beating air into it, don’t flatten the mixture with a wooden spoon now!). Once incorporated, the mixture should be smooth and drop off the back of a metal spoon easily. If not, add a teaspoon of milk at a time and mix in.

Divide the cake mix equally between the two tins. Level with a metal spoon. Then, put about 3 dollops of raspberry jam on each cake, and drag a knife/chopstick through the cake mixture until the jam creates a swirly pattern through it.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a wooden skewer once inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool. (This is important! If you ice a cake when it is hot the icing melts and drips off. Messy kitchen = unhappy flatmates.)

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into the butter and cream together using a wooden (or metal, or rubber) spoon or spatula. The icing should be soft and fluffy. Once the cake has cooled, spread the icing on top of one of the cakes and sandwhich both together. Then, spread the icing across the top and sides of the cake. Before the icing has set (i.e. preferably immediately), sprinkle hundred and thousands and sprinkles across the cake.

Insert candles and sparklers.

Sit back and watch the pretty cake sparkle away.

Gingerbread House

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 22:58:00 +0000

Dear Santa:

I've made a gingerbread house. Do you like it? I promise to be good and not eat it all in one go.

So, can I have a real house for Christmas? Pretty please?

***

Have a great week and Merry Christmas! You can see below step by step of how I made it =)

******

And here is how I made it - I used the recipe from BBC Good Food - you can find it here.

1) Make the recipe mixture in a suitably large bowl. Yes, I did use a wok. Woks are the best thing EVER.

2) Using the template on the recipe, cut out house sections and bake. They burn quite easily - so be careful to watch the timing carefully.

3) Stick the parts of the house together using icing sugar paste (icing sugar + egg whites). You may need some mugs for propping up the sides whilst it dries. (Did you notice my elephant mug??? I love my elephant mug).

4) Keep on sticking.

5) Don't give up now!

6) Decorate! I used peanut m&m's for the roof, white chocolate fingers for the door and glace cherries for the door frame. White marshmallows make up the side windows and the rest is writing icing =)

Soooo....I hope I've shown you it's not too hard to make a gingerbread house - this is my first time and I think it turned out okay! So try it try it try it =)

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Strawberries and cream cake

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:27:00 +0000

Is anyone else gutted that James didn't win the Great British Bake Off?? James, you were my favourite. So to keep in theme with the baking, I've given some pointers on how (I do this) to channel your inner baker. This doing the following:

- Think about food all of the time.

- Think about baking food all of the time.

- Think about ~~scoffing~~, ahem, 'taste checking' all of that food you've just baked. All the time.

- Write a food blog...? ...Nope, just me? Am I alone on this one?

So I was googling around to provide you guys with an interesting fact about Strawberries. They weren't very interesting. So somehow, I ended up finding myself googling 'anyone died eating strawberries?', and wooooaaahhh, revelation!

******

No, you can't die from eating too many strawberries. What did you think I was going to say? :-)

Also, I know summer's gone, but I'm desperately clinging on to what's left of summer (what is left of summer?)! Think of it as a light alternative to those big winter roasts you will be having =)

Last weekend a friend very generously invited a bunch of people and I over for Sunday lunch. The plan was to eat until stuffed, wait a bit, eat a bit more, wait a bit, eat a bit more, wait a bit... (you get the gist). So naturally I announced I was going to make a cake to add to the festivities!

With the amount of food we had (we cooked for about 10, even though there were about 6 of us eating...error? Yes, but a yummy one!), it was like Christmas had come early =)

Lastly, some tips:

This cake is quite dense, I'd even go as far as to say its cheescakey. So maybe cut the cream content in the cake a bit.
Don't overwhip the cream! And also don't ice the cake with the cream until the cake is cold... for obvious reasons... (apparently not obvious enough for me, hm)

Have a good week!

Strawberries and cream cake
Adapted from ‘Eton Mess Cake’ from BBC Good Food

175g unsalted butter

5 tbsp double cream , from a 300ml pot

1 tsp vanilla paste or extract

225g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

200g golden caster sugar

5 large eggs , at room temperature

400g strawberries ,½ roughly chopped, ½ finely sliced

Grease a deep, 20 x 30cm traybake or roasting tin, then line with parchment. Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Melt the butter, take off the heat and stir in the cream and the vanilla. Mix the flour, almonds, baking powder and ¼ tsp fine salt and set aside for later.

Put the caster sugar and eggs into a large bowl, and whisk with electric beaters until very thick and foamy, about 5 mins. Pour in the butter mix, whisk briefly, then add the flour mix and whisk briefly again until even. Stir in the chopped strawberries, then pour the batter into the tin and level the top.

Scatter the sliced strawberries and meringue over the cake, then bake for 40-45 mins until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. When its completely cooled, whip the remaining cream and dollop around the cake. Place strawberries on top.

Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies (Green & Black's recipe)

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 20:42:00 +0000

So I don't know how long (if at all!) you've been following my blog, but I've kinda cheated.

On Green & Black's =O There used to be a wee list on the right ----> which had all the recipes left to make from the original Green & Black's cookbook that I vowed to cook through blood sweat and tears.

Well, um, I gave up on that. Because although I'd made about 102 recipes, the 4 left were all 'chocolate rabbit stew' and 'cocoa roasted turkey' and 'vodka chilli chocolate'.

To be honest, if I'd made them, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Eat it? Hm...doubious. Bring it to work and share it out? ....unlikely vodka in the office will go down well (you don't agree? Now where do you work?).

Soooooooo, I started on the new Green & Black's Ultimate Chocolate recipes cookbook! And this is the first one =)

(I must thank my flatmate for buying this recipe book as a housewarming present - thanks and I hope you liked the brownie!)

I brought these into work yesterday :-) For all of the 4 minutes that they were out, I was suddenly the most popular unknown person on the floor.

Actually, I lie. They were out for 4 hours, and I'm already the most popular person on the floor =p

By the way, that last part may also be a lie. It's a personal judgement.

...if you value payment in brownies, I know you know (that I know that you know) what to say.

I took some photos whilst I was making it. These are pretty self explanatory - but the recipe is at the bottom of the page :)

Although one thing:
This needs a lot longer baking time than stated in the recipe. I've amended the recipe below for my baking times. I also cut the sugar, as it was a bit sickly.

I like mixing stuff with chopsticks. It runs in my blood.

And here is the before and after (a visit to Mr. Temperamental-Oven-Man-who-doesn't-quite-stick-to-the-temperature-that-you-say-you-are-and-you-know-you-are-a-nightmare-to-clean-right?, that is).

Thanks for reading and have a good week!

Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

Adapted from the Green & Black's Ultimate Chocolate Recipes Book

Takes about 1.5hrs, including baking time

For the brownie part

170g / 6oz/ 1cup 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces

150g / 5oz / 1½ sticks butter , plus extra for greasing

300g / 11oz / 1 1/3 cups caster sugar

75g / 2½oz / 2/3 cup plain flour

Pinch of salt

5 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

100g / 4oz / 2/3 cup white chocolate, chopped/broken into pieces about the size of the nail on your little pinky (best size analogy I could think of)

For the cheesecake part

350g / 12oz / 1½ cups full-fat soft cheese

75g / 2½oz / 1/3 cup caster sugar

3 medium free-range eggs

1 punnet fresh raspberries, about 200g (can use frozen if cheating, but I will frown upon you)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/ gas mark 4/350F. Grease and line a 20cm square brownie tin.

To make the brownie mixture, melt the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (or microwave them together if feeling lazy). Stir until melted and combined. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Combine the sugar, flour and salt in a large mixing bowl, pour over the cooled chocolate and mix until smooth. Beat the eggs separately before adding to the mixing bowl along with the vanilla and the white chocolate. Blend together until you create a shiny chocolatey mixture.

Pour this into the prepared tin.

Next make the cheesecake mixture. Whisk the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and eggs until smooth and creamy. Pour this over the brownie mix in an even layer. Drop the raspberries evenly over the tray. Use a fork (or chopstick, in my opinion) to drag the cheesecake mix through the brownie mix to create a marbled effect. Try to ensure that all the raspberries are almost fully pushed into the mixture.

Cook in the preheated oven for about 50-60 minutes. After 45 minutes remove the tin and check to see if the brownies are set but still have a slight wobble to them, return to the oven if they need a little longer.

Cover the brownies with foil and leave in the tin to cool, before turning out and cutting into squares. Pat yourself well done and eat.

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Pistachio and Rosewater cake

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:43:00 +0000

"At University, 70% gets you a First. At work, 70% gets you fired".

Soooo..... I've started work! I've officially made that transition from rock-up-to-lectures-in-pyjamas (don't ever do that) to turn-up-for-work-in-a-shirt (don't get those mixed). This is Scary Stuff. And, so far, I have discovered:

1) The tube kinda smells in the morning.

2) The tube kinda smells in the evening.

3) Coffee! I love you. We shall become best friends and I promise you will always be in my life. Earl Grey, you're not too bad either.

4) Hi Microsoft Excel! We are going to come to a good understanding over the next few years.

5) Sitting around all day is actually quite tiring (no, really!). So, last weekend, I decided to go for a run. It was a nice sunny day and I was ready to run off all those cappuccinos. As I left the flat and started jogging, I felt energised, I felt motivated, I felt totally refreshed. This was great!

For the first 30 seconds. And then I got a stitch.

And then I went home.

And then I went on to do what I do best - baking! (Oh, and my job too, I hope.)

This cake was actually made by two of my best friends and I a while back (so photo credit for the photo above goes to one of them :) It has rosewater icing, chopped pistachios and a moist and fudgy centre and oh my now I'm hungry I want some cake...

You can tell that one of my friends is also Chinese because we chopped up the hazelnuts using a MASSIVE MEAT CLEAVER! Yeah, don't mess with us.

It's an Iranian cake from my 'A World of Cake' cookbook. Apparently 'Iranian cakes are influenced by the traditions of India, the Middle East and Europe'. It's clearly very multi-cultural then!

Tips when making pistachio and rosewater cake:

Rosewater is very delicate, you may need more than the recipe states especially if you really like the taste
When beating the egg whites, make sure the bowl is completely grease and water free
As the book suggests, you can vary the recipe by putting in chopped apricots and almonds

This is the cake we were trying to make...

And this is the instagram shot of what we made!

Sorry guys, but I'm going to have to go now. I'm off to watch Suits (haven't heard of it? Where have you been??) =) Have a good week!

Pistachio-Rosewater Cake

From ‘A World of Cake’ by Krystina Castella

Serves 6-8

Pistachio Cake

200g / 7oz / 1 ½ cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

225g / 8oz / 1 cup unsalted butter, softened

225g / 8oz / 1 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon rosewater

1 teaspoon lime juice

6 eggs, separated

125g / 4 oz / 1 cup pistachios, toasted and chopped

Rosewater Icing

300g / 11oz / 2½ cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons rosewater

2 teaspoons lime juice

Toppings

50g / ¼ chopped pistachios

To make the cake

Preheat the oven to 175C/350F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cumin and allspice in a bowl and mix. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the honey, rosewater, and lime juice and mix. Blend in the egg yolk. Gradually mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture, until fully incorporated.

Beat the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Fold the whites into the batter, followed by the chopped pistachios.

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the cake and let it cool.

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar, milk, rosewater and lime juice. When the cake is cool (and only when it’s cooled!) spread the rosewater icing over the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle chopped pistachios around the edge and add a rose petal in the middle!

Blackberry & Almond Meringue Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 23:02:00 +0000

Quickly! Quickly! Make this before summer is over!

Because, frankly, it's going to be another 11 months until we get weather over 20 degrees again.

****

I've seen some posts about cakes and cookies and baking-in-general being the perfect cure of POB (Post Olympic Blues)... but, wait! Is that the sound of the Paralympic Opening ceremony? Surely we can't forget that!

Well, it won't actually be the sound of the Paralympic Opening ceremony, seeing as it's not for another two days and all. But you get my gist.

So, I totally thought I was good at sports. I never really dreaded sports day that school. Except that one fateful day in year 7 when I fought another girl to run the 1500m (for an 11 year old, that's like running the marathon), because I thought I was though (come on? Have you seen me? I don't know what I was thinking). So... after being lapped the first time, the sneering cheering started. After being lapped the second time, I'm pretty sure the cheering was just out of pity.

Man, that was awkward.

...I now play the piano.

So, back to cake (it's ALWAYS back to cake). I've wanted to make this cake ever since it graced the front cover of my copy of BBC GoodFood magazine August 2008. I've finally gotten round to it. You could say that I'm a good procrastinator.

Oh and a word of advice! One mistake that I made, and advise you NEVER to do, is to put the cream filling in whilst the cake is warm, since it will melt and you'll have to save it by eating the squidgy bits of cream that ooze out of the sides (hey, someone has to clean up the mess). Really, eating the squidgy cream sounds yummy (okay, it IS yummy) but the cake will probably collapse.

The cake's also a little complicated to make if you haven't made meringue before, but it's definitely worth trying! One tip for whisking egg whites well (for the merginue) if to use a clean grease and water free bowl - it helps the eggs volumise better when you whisk it.

Have a great week!

Blackberry & Almond Meringue cake

From BBC GoodFood

Cuts into 8 generous creamy slices

For the cake

200g/7oz/1 cup butter , softened

200g/7oz/1 cup golden caster sugar

200g/7oz/1 1/3cup self-raising flour

50g/2oz/ ½ cup ground almonds

2 eggs and 2 egg yolks, beaten

2-4 tbsp milk

150g/5oz punnet blackberries

For the meringue topping

2 egg whites

100g/4 oz golden caster sugar, plus a sprinkle

2 tbsp flaked almonds

For the filling

200ml/7 fl oz/¾ cup double cream, lightly whipped

4 tbsp bramble/blackcurrant jelly

Line the base of two loose-bottomed 20cm non-stick sandwich tins with baking parchment. Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3.

Put all the cake ingredients (except the blackberries and using just half the milk) in a bowl, then beat until creamy and well mixed. Stir in 100g blackberries, along with the extra milk if you need it to loosen the mixture a little. Divide between the sandwich tins and level the tops.

Quickly whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl, adding the 100g sugar, a spoonful at a time, until really thick and glossy. Lightly spread onto one of the cakes, then sprinkle with the flaked almonds and extra sprinkle of sugar. Bake both cakes for 40 mins, then take the cake without the meringue out of the oven and set aside. Bake the remaining cake for 30 mins more until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Carefully remove cakes from the tins and cool on a wire rack. When the cakes are cold, peel off the paper.

To serve, spread the cream on the plain cake right up to the edges. Spoon over the bramble jelly, then sandwich with the meringue-topped cake and decorate with the remaining blackberries.

Olympics Sports Bento Box

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:54:00 +0000

On Saturday I went to see the (amazing) rhythmic gymnastics final, and whilst it did inspire me to dance and twirl, I didn't get much further than going into the splits before almost pulling a muscle.

Sooooo, I decided to cook about the Olympics instead!

I've got badminton in my bento box as it's my favourite sport. And I also made a football, because well, this is probably the only opportunity I'll ever take to get close to any type of football.

Yes, even the ones made of rice =O

To make the Olympics rings, I used:

Yellow - lemon peel
Green - spring onion
Red - tomato
Black -suhi nori
Blue - um, a piece of blue card cut out from an Oxo cube tox (please don't judge me, I had no blueberries to hand)

Hm, the blue ring does stand out a bit oddly doesn't it? Oh well, not everyone can be a winner in the Olympics.

For the rice, I coloured them using:
Yellow - asafoetida powder
Red - ketchup

What did you think of the Opening/Closing ceremonies? Can I admit that I screamed when One Direction came on? And for the Spice Girls too... and who knew Taio Cruz was British?

Anyway, enjoy the bento box :) You could make it for the Paralympics, Winter Olympics or just wait till Rio!

Lemon Getting-What-You-Want Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:07:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I found a (fiction) book called 'Meet Me At The Cupcake Cafe', by Jenny Colgan.
It's about a girl called Issy, who works in the City, but loves to bake. She is made redundant from her job and then ends up setting up her own bakery in London, led with the advice of baker grandpa Joe.

Do you know what this means? I have found my biography! The author doesn't know this yet, but in 20 years I may follow in the footsteps of Miss Issy - clearly this book was written for me!

Except for the bit where my grandpa is called Joe. And hopefully I won't get made redundant, seeing as I haven't even started my job in the City yet.

Oh dear, maybe I've just jinxed it...

The book starts each chapter with a recipe, and this is one of my favourites in there, called 'Lemon-Getting-What-You-Want-Cake'. The idea is that you make this cake, you feel empowered, you give people this cake, they go yuuuummmm and then they do whatever you want.

This has yet to work for me. But, using cakes for bribery is something every baker should use to their advantage ;-)

I don't really have many baker's notes for this cake, it's pretty much a sponge cake flavoured with lemon. I was supposed to use a loaf tin, but I couldn't find mine, so a round cake tin did very nicely.

I strong advise you to read the recipe written by Jenny Colgan, it's really cute! Unfortunately, I'm afraid that if I reproduce it here I will get sued by her publishers. So, please have a generic lemon cake recipe instead =)

Lemon Cake

Cake

4oz/115g self-raising flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

4oz/ 115g softened butter

4oz/ 115g caster sugar

2 large eggs

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

Icing

2oz/ 60g icing sugar

2 tsps water

1 tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Grease a loaf tin. Sift flour and baking powder, then add the rest of the ingredients and beat well. Spoon into the loaf tin (or cake tin as I used).

Cook for 20 mins, or until the cake is yellow (not brown), and not damp inside. A skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean.

Whilst the cake is still warm, spoon the icing on top, so that is drips onto the sides and into the “pores” of the cake. This may look ugly, but the best cakes usually do, right?

This may or may not get you what you want after giving someone a slice. But either way, it’s pretty tasty nonetheless :)

Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:56:00 +0000

Whoopie! Whooooopppppieeee! These pies make me happy just by saying the name.

(Oh, I've also just realised - my blog is two years old today! Whoopie to that :-)

So what is a whoopie pie, you ask? They came from Pennsylvania and are sort of a dense cake/fluffy cookie, with a frosted filling sandwiching (usually marshmallow fluff) two cakes together. I guess they must be like some sort of pie, seeing as that's where the name came from, but these are as far from apple pies as apples are from oranges. But more.

According to Wikipedia (but isn't everything these days?) when farmers found these in their lunchboxes (baked by Amish women, obviously), they would shout 'whoopie!'. My theory is that they're whoopie 'pies' because the farmers would shout whooo....ppiiee! Whoop..piee! Whooopie...piee! Whoopie pie!

When I first saw these in the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, I thought they were macrons. They are not macarons! These are bigger, denser, chewier and gooier (although I am torn between which one is yummier). The filling is made from Marshmallow Fluff (the stuff of gods), which you can buy online from Ocado, but more recently I've found that ASDA stocks it too =)

I made these to bring to the badminton social club yesterday, so uh, sorry guys but you were the guinea pigs for my whoopie pie experiment, as I have never made these before! I also did not know that there were such things as 'whoopie pie pans', so I didn't use one and that' why mine came out in a few shapes that some may describe as 'weird'. But I'd like to think that not using a whoopie pie pan separates out the men from the boys.

I made (the more popular) coconut and cherry cupcakes too. But they were kinda ugly so I didn't photograph them.

Now, I got many jokes about spiking these cakes so that other people would play (badminton) badly. I promise I didn't :p If anything, it made me play worse (than usual), because all I could think about were cakes, and if anyone liked the ones I brought. The shuttlecock had practically turned into a cake in my mind. So obviously that's why I kept missing the shuttle, because, well, when it's an imaginary cake who would want to destroy such a beautiful work of art?

So... that's my excuse anyway.

A couple of notes when making these:
- I halved the recipe for the marshmallow filling which was plenty for the whoopie pie filling. Otherwise you end up with excess chocolate goo (not that this would be the worst thing to happen to you).
- If you don't have a whoopie pie pan, these whoopie pies expand a bit so if you want to keep them a dainty size spoon the batter into very small circles before baking.

p.s. if you were wondering I got the cake stand from eBay but I think they're being sold for about £5 on Amazon too :)

Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies

From the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, with the filling recipe halved

Makes about 10

For the Sponge

1 large egg

150g (5½oz) caster sugar

125g (4½oz) plain yoghurt

25ml (1floz) whole milk

¼ tsp vanilla essence

75g (2½oz) melted unsalted butter

275g (10oz) plain flour

¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

¼ tsp baking powder

150g (5½ oz) chocolate chips

Filling

75g (3oz) unsalted butter

2 tbsp cocoa powder

140g (5oz) icing sugar

110g (4oz) vanilla marshmallow fluff

Using a hand-held or freestanding mixer, cream the egg and sugar until pale and fluffy. Pour the yoghurt, milk and vanilla essence into a jug and stir together then add to the beaten egg and sugar. Add the melted butter and mix in thoroughly on a medium speed.

Sift the remaining sponge ingredients together, then add to the creamed mixture in two batches, mixing well on a medium speed after each addition. Place the batter in the fridge to cool and set for 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170C, (325F) and line two baking trays with baking parchment or grease whoopie pie trays.

Once the batter has cooled down, spoon it on to the prepared trays, dividing the mixture into 16-20 rounds (8-10 per tray), each 3-5 cm in diameter and spaced 2-3cm apart.

Bake in the oven for 10-13 minutes or until springy to touch. Remove from the trays and place on a wire rack, allowing them to cool completely before sandwiching together.

While the sponges are cooking, make the filling. Using the electric whisk or freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and the icing sugar on a low-speed until well blended. Add the marshmallow fluff, and lightly mix it in, then increase the speed to high and continue mixing until light and fluffy. Place in the fridge and leave for about 30 minutes to firm up slightly.

To assemble the whoopie pies, take one of the sponges and spread about 1 tablespoon of the filling over the flat side, adding a little more if needed. Then stick another sponge, with the flat side facing down, on the filling to make a sandwich. Repeat with the remaining sponges and filling.

May Week in Cambridge

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:03:00 +0000

After the last Economics exam - this photo was taken by my very talented photographer friend Oliver Crawford =)

This post is a little overdue, but better late than never, right? May Week is (bizarrely) held in June anyway, so I'm not actually that late.

So what is May Week? It's the week after everyone's finished exams and Cambridge hosts all of the May Balls, garden parties and other (sometimes strange - yes, I'm looking at you cardboard boat race!) traditions. It used to be held in May before people started taking exams seriously (when was that? Like 800 years ago, probably).

BUT I bet 800 years ago they didn't spray champagne (um, well, cava) at their friends after coming out of their last exams! So ha to you, Mr. 13th century monk man.

May Week is usually good for injecting the fun back into Cambridge life after its all been sapped out by exams, and you can usually tell when the celebrations begin because Sainsbury's starts stocking ~~champagne~~ cava in place of the healthy brain food and energy drinks!

But *sob* alas, this year will be my last.

So seeing as Oxbridge is known for rowing and so on and so forth, something much more fun is the cardboard boat race that I mentioned before. Instead of using real boats, teams enter their own cardboard boat! The winners are the ones still afloat with unsoggy boats and unsoggy butts at the end of the race. This, in my opinion, is total genius. Why spend hours training and huffing and puffing to row a real boat when you can row a cardboard one that will sink in 5 minutes instead?

Keep on paddling, mate.

I was particularly impressed with the improvised paddles, including - but not restricted to - tennis rackets, serving trays, a slip hazard sign, and the strength of one's own beastly hands. And hats off to the guy wearing a Trenton Oldfield mask!

And then comes the May Balls. First, I went to Trinity College May Ball. I would quite like to rant about how wrong the Daily Mail's article about it was but I think I shall just say 'Tally Ho old chap!' and continue letting them call us toffs.

Tickets are £290 for a pair and £410 if you choose to have a dining tickets. We started the night with fireworks and champagne is unlimited and served from a punt (here is my video of the guy last year cutting champagne bottles open with a saber). But hey, if I'm not going to be able to afford food again for the next 3 months I might as well get the most out of my ticket :p Oh, and that's me in the pink dress.

Oh, and one of my best friends was the food officer for Trinity May Ball committee, who did an amazing amazing job and we had the yummiest food and I was really stuffed and very happy. Well done!

My food officer friend choose the most amazing menu of:

Amuse Bouche - Chilled Watermelon and Ginger Soup
Starter - Crab, Avocado and Spiced Tomato Jelly with Sardinian Flat Bread

Main - Canon of Lamb with Must & Herb Crust, Rosemary Jus, Fondant Potatoes and Baby Carrots

Dessert - Trinity Crème brûléewith Stewed Raspberries and Flatbread

And then we all munched on cheese and figs and bread and macarons whilst the lovely catering staff cleared up.

Would I buy a dining ticket again? Probably not. Not that the food wasn't great, but there's so much food in the ball anyway which you're so stuffed by you won't get to taste it. Even though a dining ticket also has queue jump, I've realised that I actually quite like queueing for three hours. Just uh, bring a pair of flats, girls.

Oh! I almost forgot, the lovely Pixie Lott who performed on stage. And she waved at me! Or... maybe it was that girl with her elbow in my ear. But she waved in my direction and smiled at me!

And she's really good live!

She's so pretty.

Also, any Made in Chelsea fans out there? Francis Boulle DJ'ed in one of the entertainment marquees, and whilst he's an awful DJ, he at least let me take a photo with him after squealing ' I love Made in Chelsea!'.

I also went to Christ's May Ball, but it was similar to Trinity (maybe not as grand, but still good!) except I didn't buy a dining ticket.

So that comes to an end of my last EVER May Week in Cambridge. And may we return next year for the May Balls!

And p.s. Trinity May Ball fireworks are at the beginning of the night, not the end, seeing as it ends at 6am *AHEM Daily Mail* ;)

Graduation Bento Box

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 19:38:00 +0000

As graduation season rolls around (and is over for some), I thought I'd try to make that newly graduated 'Hello World!' feeling last that little bit longer, with a graduation related bento box =)

For want of something amusing to say, I found myself googling 'graduation'. Did you know that in China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea Auld Lang Syne is sung at graduation?

No? Well, now you do!

I also found out that:

Tossing mortarboards can be dangerous — a 1979 high school graduate sustained a retinal injury, and a British university graduate had to be taken to the hospital for stitches.
Kermit the Frog received an honorary Doctorate of Amphibious Letters from Southampton College.

Yup. It's true. Google says so.

*********************

I received this bento box from the generous people at CasaBento, called the "Cocolon" bento box kit. It comes in what I think is a chiller bag but even if it isn't its quite thick so would keep the temperature in well. And it has a really cute fork too.

Anyway, here are the steps to making your very own mortarboard bento box!

You will need:

- Sushi rice

- Nori seaweed

- Plasticy cheese (like Dairylea slices - don't need good cheddar as it will not slice as well)

- Uncooked spaghetti

- Fruits and vegetables to decorate

1. Boil the rice, and when cooked, but still warm, wrap up in clingfilm and mould into cat head shape. Leave till cool. Unwrap the clingfilm from the rice.

2. Cut nori seaweed into the shapes in the pictures. You can use special nori holepunchers but I don't have any. So stuck with good ol' scissors.

3. Cut a piece of cheese and seaweed about the same size. Place the seaweed on top of the cheese. You can use a bit of water to hold it together.

4. To hold the cheese-seaweed mortarboard onto the head, use a piece of uncooked spaghetti inserted into the rice to prop it up in place.

5. Repeat for more mortarboard cats!

So long Cambridge, it's been fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 13:28:00 +0000

So that's it. I'm officially a graduate! I have a BA (Hons) Economics from Cambridge...

Well, that was not an easy three years.

My Facebook is currently filled with statuses of "congratulations to all, I have made some wonderful friends, you have made my time special etc. etc." and I really do mean all of these things too but I thought that if I wrote a (very) long paragraph about how great all my friends are that would sound quite cheesy. So I'm going to be concise and sum it all up in two words that you can usually hear me say (not usually together though):

Yay Cambridge!

Some of the Trinity College Econs together - this was when the photographer told us to 'look like we liked eachother'. So we did.

Before I go any further, I've got to warn you that this is a really long post and you might fall asleep before the end. So I'm going to put the video that was going to go at the end here, whilst you still have some patience. I know I know this actually is quite cheesy but something in me thought that it would be less cheesy to put it in my blog than directly a link on my facebook. Please don't judge me I'm a sentimental person!

Congratulations to you all! :)

************

The day before actual graduation, we had graduation dinner provided by college. To whoever took four macaroons when they were being passed round (yes, you!) - I hope you feel bad because the people on my row never got one!

This was in the great hall in Trinity (where we have formal hall a few times a week) and the master of college makes a speech about our time at Trinity and he made a dig at those going into the City (er...oops). We all squashed to sit next to our Director of Studies to chat, make toasts to the Queen and the graduands, eat and be merry....

The Economists with our summy berry pavlovas. We always have to wear gowns during formal dinner but the Master was really nice and let us take our gowns off since it was BOILING in there.

... although we couldn't get too merry as we had to be up for a graduation photo at 8.15am (ungodly hours for a student after exams are over)...

During the rehearsal of the ceremony, the Prolector (the 'father of the college) taught us how to bow, courtesy, and hold his fingers.

Yes, we have to hold the Prolectors fingers in the ceremomy - something about him giving us electricity?

Cambridge tradition, I dunno. Obviously only 4 people go up at a time to hold his fingers, since no one has a 200 fingered tentacled hand.

Anyway.

After all of this finger holding rehearsal business, the Head Porter leads the procession from Trinity college to Senate House (where we graduate), with his staff and top hat and gown, followed by the chaplain and the Praelector...

... followed by us little 'uns!

In the ceremony in Senate House, after all this finger holding malarky, we kneel in front of the Master of College who says some things in Latin and we smile and he smiles and everyones smiles and then BOOM we're magically graduates.

And that's it!

The Master coming out of Senate House. Behind pinned up on those boards by the windows are our exam results. Sometimes, your friends find out your results before you do (*ahem*).

Phew, after writing this I feel like I've graduated twice.

My boyfriend graduted in the afternoon (I was in the morning) as he's a different college to me. That's why we also have different coloured gowns! Trinity in one of the two Cambridge college that have blue gowns instead of black - clearly because we are better! :p

******

Ah, I can't believe it was only yesterday I was offering my first set of brownies to my new first year friends all those years ago.

By the way, have you finished listening to the Vitamin C graduation song yet? I'll give you a few seconds whilst you grab a tissue. One for me too, please.

Thanks for everything, Cambridge! I'll miss you!

Yes, that is my dad and I in the above photo, but I figured he should make an appearance as he's dedicated a whole blog to me, so I'll er, dedicate 1/12th of a blog post to you dad! (He has a red hood as did a phd here and I only have a lowly Bachelor's degree :S We do have some photos of us looking normal, I promise.)

Thanks mum and dad for supporting me!

p.s. I went to Restaurant Alimentum with my parents, my cousin and her boyfriend for a celebratory dinner. Here are some photos of the meal. How can I sum up? ..... experimental. A bit strange, even for my taste buds. But beautiful presentation and definately worth a try (though maybe go for the fixed price menu which is cheaper). They did apply for a Michelin star which they originally didn't get, but my friend said that they have since gotten one.

Since there were five of us and five choice from each course we coordinated so all of the dishes were ordered :D Here are a few:

Bar snacks whilst we were ordering. They were parmesan cheese profiterole balls and sweet popcorn. Kind of felt like I should be watching a movie.

Amuse bouche - courgette mousse with olives and feta cheese.

My mum's starter - Pork Head and cheek, pineapple, peanut and chorizo. This was nice!!

My starter - English Asparagus Goats' curd ice cream, smoked hazelnut, morels.
The smoked hazelnut was some kind of crunchy sweet praline topping, which was turned into a savoury ice cream topping for the goat's curd ice cream, I guess. I didn't really understand this starter, I must say.

My cousin's starter - Quail with mushroom, lentils, pear, pinenuts and wild garlic

My mum's main - Lamb rump and belly, broccoli, almond and cous cous.

My dad's main - Beef sirloin and cheek, onion ash, red onion and carrot. There also was a pot of mashed potato served separately where I think the onion ash was. My dad said the onion ash tasted liked Chinese picked cabbage.

I don't think I will ever understand why these fine dining places like to puree things and put foam on everything. Foam belongs in the bubble bath, not in my tummy.

Just a note though - we paid £43 for two courses from the a la carte, £10 more then advertised on their website. I don't know if this is because they hiked prices up for graduation or because it's an old website, but for that price it's worth checking out Cotto (£45 for three courses) and Midsummer House too (£40-over £100 depending on the menu, not bad for two Michelin stars and a very pretty conservatory!).

But otherwise, it's worth a visit if you go for the fixed price menu (before 7pm), which is a lot cheaper!

Restaurant Alimentum

152-154 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PB

01223 413000

http://restaurantalimentum.co.uk/

p.p.s I WILL do a blog post about Trinity May Ball and may week soon! And unlike the daily mail/sun/telegraph, my post about it will actually be correct ;)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Oreo Brownies

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:10:00 +0000

You really, really, have to try this.

There are cookies. And then there are Oreos. And sometimes there are brownies.

But this is a chocolate chip cookie AND Oreo AND brownie mash up cookie cake thing. Can't get any better than that... especially if you've finished your degree! (As an Economist I'm making the simplyfying assumption that I've passed them.)

Yep, I've finished my degree! That's pretty scary stuff.

....Why hello there Real World, are you ready for me??

*****************************************

So I've seen these cookie brownies floating around the blogosphere and I've wanted to try them out. It's really really simple, since you only need three things:

1. Cookie dough

2. Oreos

3. Brownie mix

I made my cookies and brownies from scratch, but you could just buy one of those Betty Crocker sets :) I'm sure it will taste just as good! (Maybe. But I WILL judge you.)

I'm sure you can also substitute the Oreos for Twix or something, but I really think that this is a much better way of consuming Oreos than twisting, licking and dunking them. Yummy!

I hope the photos below are pretty self explanatory. One tip if any is to buy more Oreos than you think would be enough. As you can see below those Oreos look pretty lonely in the pan, and would probably be better off with more Oreos squished in.

They taste GREAT with ice cream. And cream. And custard. Don't worry - I took the sacrifice of tasting all of them for you. No really, you don't need to thank me =p

And they are packed away and ready to be shipped to my friends for finishing exams. Well done guys - you deserve some cake! And for those who still have exams left - good luck!

p.s. it's May Week in Cambridge next week - the week that's actually held in June, with all fo the 'May' Balls (each college in Cambridge has their own ball). I'm really really really excited because the headline act for Trinity College (where ~~I'm studying~~ just finished studying at) was announced today... it's Pixie Lott! Pixie LOTT!!! PixIE LoTt!! Pixxxiiieee Lootttt! Wooo!!!

Post about May Week to come after next week :)

Cookie Dough Oreo Brownies

Makes about 30 squares

For the cookie dough

200g/8oz/1 cup unsalted butter , at room temperature

85g/3 oz/½ cup light muscovado sugar

85g/3 oz/½ cup golden caster sugar

1 egg

225g/8oz/ 2 cups self-raising flour

100g/4oz chocolate chips (milk or dark)

2 packets plain Oreos (although you can be more adventurous with the fancy strawberry filling)

For the brownie

175g unsalted butter

200g/8oz/1 cup dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids

175g/6oz/1 cup caster sugar

3 medium eggs

50g/2oz/ ½ cup plain flour

Cheat: one packet cookie dough mix, one packet brownie mix, two packets Oreos

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line a large tin (I think I used around 9inch x 13inch rectangular tin, but any size is fine, you can always bake two batches).

First make the cookies. Beat the butter, sugars and egg until smooth, then mix in the flour, and chocolate. Spoon into the tin, making sure it reaches all of the sides, and is level.

Unwrap the Oreos. Eat a few. Then place them on top of the cookie dough.

Make the brownie batter. Place the dark chocolate, the butter and sugar in a heavy-based pan and heat gently until melted, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool. Whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture, then add the flour.

Cheat: make the cookie and brownies according to the packet instructions.

Pour the brownie batter into the tin on top of the Oreos. Bake for about 30 mins until the mixture is slightly crusty on top. When cool, cut into squares (or scoop out of the tin) and enjoy!

Rose Cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:20:00 +0000

Exams in a week, so shall keep this post short and sweet!

Rose essence works very well. Though I would add a bit more than the original recipe called for, which I've adapted for. Really yummy and perfect for summer :)

See you soon and good luck to all those who have exams! Counting down the days until freedom...

Rose Cupcakes

From The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Makes 16-20 cupcakes

For the sponge

80g (3oz) unsalted butter

280g (10oz) caster sugar

240g (8½oz) plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp rosewater

240ml whole milk

2 large eggs

For the frosting

2 tbsp rosewater

150g (6oz) butter, softened

500g (1lb 2oz) icing sugar

50ml whole milk

1. Preheat the oven to 190C (375F), and line a muffin tin with muffin cases.

2. Whisk the butter, sugar, flour, baking power and salt together on a low speed until the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.

3. Mix the rosewater with the milk, and break in the eggs. Mix together. Add three quarters of the milk mixture of the dry ingredients, and mix together to combine. then all the remainder and mix until the batter is smooth.

4. Spoon the batter into the paper cases, so that each is two thirds full. Put in the oven for 20 minutes (might be a bit longer, I’m not sure 20 mins quite did it for me ) or until risen and springy to the touch. Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

5. To make the frosting, beat the butter until soft, then add icing sugar. Mix the rosewater with the milk and gradually pour this into the butter and icing sugar mix whilst continuously whisking. Continue to beat until smooth. Use immediately and pipe over the cakes or cover and chill until needed.

9. Add decorations! Eat.

Triple Chocolate and Ferrero Rocher cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:33:00 +0000

For a few of us, it is now halfway through Exam Term in Cambridge University. This usually involves countless cups of coffee, and many books opened, stared at, and fallen asleep on. This year though, I have had a new addition to my revision schedule - The Busker Outside My Window.

There are many of them. They seem to take it in turns right below my window, usually singing (I think...), or humming, and sometime juusstt a little bit of screeching.

Dear Busker - I don't care if you can play Mission Impossible on the piccolo, and tourists like to take photos of you, but my roommate and I have many a time pondered throwing a bucket of water on your head.

Mr Busker Man, I know you probably won't be reading this blog, so I'm just generally having a bit of a whine about you. But please go away and leave me to fall asleep on my textbooks in peace.

Many thanks,

Xinmei

Also, was googling around and found this page on Impossible Final Exams. Here is my pick of the best :)

Art: Given one eight-count box of crayons and three sheets of notebook paper, recreate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Skin tones should be true to life.

Computer Science: Write a fifth-generation computer language. Using this language, write a computer program to finish the rest of this exam for you.

Economics: Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas: Cubism, the Donatist Controversy and the Wave Theory of Light. Outline a method for preventing these effects. Criticize this method from all possible points of view. Point out the deficiencies in your point of view, as demonstrated in your answer to the last question.

History: Describe the history of the Papacy from its origins to the present day, concentrating especially, but not exclusively, on its Europe, Asia, America and Africa. Be brief, concise and specific.

Medicine: You have been provided with a razor blade, a piece of gauze, and a bottle of scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until you work has been inspected. You have fifteen minutes.

Music: Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it with flute and drum. You will find a piano under your seat.

Religion: Perform a miracle. Creativity will be judged.

I study Economics, but I have no idea with Cubism is. Or the Donatist Controversy. Or the Wave Theory of Light. I thought the first was a form of art and the last was something to do with Physics?

Aha! Google tells me that I am right. I do know something about Economics! Phew, was getting worried there.

*************************************

These cupcakes were adapted from the 'Hummingbird Bakery' cookcook, for rose cupcakes (which will be my next post!) I adapted it to include made the base chocolatey, and made up my own frosting recipe. Will try to remember it as best as I can and post the recipe below! This was my first time trying to make swirly icing and I *hope* it looks okay! A stuck a Ferrero Rocher on top but anything would work - chocolate eggs, chopped up Twix, Malteasers, broken up Oreos etc. etc.

I was just looking for an excuse to open the box of Ferrero Rochers :p

Also, no matter how good the cakes look, DO NOT frost until they have cooled. I know this is pretty obvious, but I know people have done it before and their frosting has metled on top of the cake and dribbled down the sides.

I have also recently discovered Instagram. So here are some Instagram shots :) The other cupcakes are the rose ones - which will be the next post!

And with this, the busker outside has just started. So I shall make my excuses and go to the library. Ciao!

Triple Chocolate and Ferrero Rocher cupcakes

Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Makes 16-20 cupcakes

For the sponge

115g (4oz) unsalted butter

280g (10oz) caster sugar

200g (7oz) plain flour

40g (1½oz) cocoa powder

75g (2¼oz) dark chocolate, melted

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

240ml whole milk

2 large eggs

100g chocolate chips (you can use a mixture of white, milk and dark)

For the frosting

1 tablespoon milk

150g (6oz) butter, softened

200g (7oz) icing sugar

75g (2¼oz) cooking chocolate

Chocoalate eggs, Ferrero Rocher, Malteasers etc… to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 190C (375F), and line a muffin tin with muffin cases.

2. Break 50g (1¾oz) dark chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Cut 125g (4oz) butter into pieces and tip in with the chocolate, then mix. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted - don't overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 3 minutes, stirring half way through.

3. Whilst the chocolate is melting, rub together together the sugar, flour, coca powder, baking powder and salt until they resemble breadcrumbs.

4. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the milk.

5. Add the half of the egg mixture and half of the melted chocolate into the flour mixture. Whisk until they are combined, and then increase the whiskyness (you know what I mean) until the mixture is smooth and thick. Pour the remaining milk and chocolate mixtures in and whisk until the batter is smooth again.

6. Spoon the batter into the paper cases, so that each is two thirds full. Put in the oven for 20 minutes (might be a bit longer, I’m not sure 20 mins quite did it for me) or until risen and springy to the touch. Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

7. To make the frosting, melt chocolate and 1 tbsp milk in the microwave. Heat in 10 second bursts, stirring after each burst until chocolate is smooth and glossy (or you can do it the bowl over hot water way, I’m lazy so I didn’t).

8. Beat the butter until soft, then add icing sugar and chocolate. Continue to beat until smooth. Use immediately and pipe over the cakes or cover and chill until needed.

9. Add decorations! Eat.

Doraemon Bento

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:46:00 +0000

I'm doing a post today because I've handed in my dissertation!

Hurrah! Let's celebrate!!!!

.........

Okay celebrating done I never want to talk about my dissertation again four exams left am freaking out so moving on who wants cake? :D

Actually, better still, who wants to photos of a bento version of Doraemon? I do I do!

******************

According to Wikipedia, Doraemon is an earless robotic cat who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy... teaching lessons regarding values such as integrity, perseverance, courage, family and respect for elders.

Well, I guess it's better coming from an earless robotic cat than from no one at all.

These Doraemon figurines are from a shop in China when I visited two years ago (in fact, I think they might be floating around in another post somewhere :S), and now they're appropriate to use here!

He (I'm going to assume that all earless robotic cats are male) sure is smiley.

I know a few of you reading this will have watched Doraemon thingies growing up, so I hope I've done it justice :)

(By thingies I mean episodes... had a mental block then)

******************************

I also made a soy-sauce-flavour-fish-shaped egg with this bento (as you do), and in case you are interested, here's how :)

What you see above is an egg dipped in soy sauce, using egg moulds courtesy of the lovely people at CasaBento.

I'm still having a bit of a mental block so I was just going to insert some appropriate fish noises here and hope that would do for the rest of the post. Buuuttt I can't think of any noises that fish make. Hm.

Googling 'fish noises'.

Blop. Blop blop blop.

(That's the sound of my hypothetical fish making it's hypothetical fish noise).

ANYWAY....moving swiftly on...

You will need to:
- Boil an egg
- Whilst it's still warm, squish (technical term) it into the mould, and snap close.
- Drop it into a pan of warm water for about 3 minutes to let the egg stay soft enough to mould.
- Roll in a small bowl of your chosen colouring (I used soy sauce for brown, but you can use beetroot juice for pink, curry powder is yellow, spinach leaves are green, roses are red, violets are blue...etc etc)

Box is again from CasaBento (Joyful Ladybird Click & Lock for those who are interested!). It's got an inside compartment and two mini compartments inside that, so I think you could use it to keep fruits/desserts and sandwiches/rice and sauces separate (wasabi coated grapes are not cool).

For anyone else who have exams coming up, best of luck! If you haven't seen this yet, (where have you been?! Probably revising and not on Facebook, I salute you)

http://lifeatcambridge.tumblr.com/

Enjoy!

Apple and cinnamon cakes and a marzipan Easter bunny

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:04:00 +0000

Did you give up chocolate or sweets for Lent? Are you looking forward to stuffing your face this Sunday? I would be!!

Well, I would be had I given anything up. When I was 10 I gave up chocolate for Lent. Then, on Easter Sunday I ate so many chocolate eggs I was almost sick... I decided not to bother for Lent after that =p

The cake recipe is from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days cookbook. I absolutely love this book as it's got the cutest photos ever and all of the recipes are sorted into occasion. As you may have guessed, this cake recipe is from 'Easter'. I had to modify the baking times as I wan't making cupcakes as the recipe was originally for, and also changed the frosting, but if you follow my recipe below everything should be juuusstt dandy.

I saw these marzipan bunnies in the ASDA magazine here and they were just adorable! So I had to make them myself. As ASDA suggested, it would be a really fun thing to make if you've got kids over this weekend, as it's not too hard and not dangerous. Beware, the chocolate gets a bit messy though! I've included a photo tutorial of how to make this cute little critter below, I hope it helps :)

Marzipan Bunny tutorial:
1. Knead about a handful (something like 100g? I'm not sure of the exact weight) golden marzipan to soften it. Pick off pieces to form the shapes shown. Do the same with white marzipan (about 20g) to make the cheeks and insides of the ears.

2. Press the pieces together. You may need to make the head and body a little flatter on the top and bottom so that they stick and the head doesn't fall off the bunny. No one wants a decapitated bunny!

3. Melt 50g dark chocolate in a small bowl. Pick up the whole body and dip it into the chocolate. Put on a piece of baking paper. Use chopsticks or a small paintbrush or a toothpick (or something of that kind) to dot on eyes, nose and whiskers.

4. Add a small ball of white marzipan for the tail.

For the cake, you will need:

I forgot to add butter in this photograph. So I'm warning you now, don't forget the butter in the recipe! Rookie error!

Apple and cinnamon cake with white chocolate frosting

Adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook

Takes about 1 ½ hours, including baking time

For the sponge

80g/ 3oz/ ⅓ cup butter, melted

280g/ 10oz/ ¾ cup caster sugar

240g/ 8½oz/ 2 cups plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

240ml/ 8½fl oz/ 1 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

2 apples

For the frosting

100g white chocolate

50g icing sugar

50g butter, melted

Chocolate mini eggs, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F, and line a square baking tin with baking paper.

Put the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. Mix with your fingertips until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.

Place the milk in a jug with the eggs and whisk until combined. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the milk mixture. Using an electric whisk, mix until smooth and thick.

Peel, core and chop the apples into small squares (about 1cm wide) and then stir into the batter. Spoon the batter into the tin, and bake for 45 mins. Check that it is done by inserting a skewer into the centre to see if it comes out clean.

While the cake is cooling, make the frosting. Melt the butter and white chocolate in a bowl suspended over boiling water (or microwave in 30 second bursts). If It curdles, whisk thoroughly until combined. Sift in the icing sugar and whisk again.

When the cake has cooled, cut into about 12 pieces. Spread the frosting over and before the frosting has dried add the mini eggs or marzipan bunnies.

Have a happy happy Easter and enjoy the eggs, chocolate and holiday! For those of you at University, enjoy your Easter break!

Barcelona baby!

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:11:00 +0000

So I've just finished my penultimate term of University! I've done my last ever dance society's annual show, I've handed in my dissertation (sadly only a draft), I'm home for the last ever Easter holiday before I enter The Real World.

I must warn you, however, that my brain has been turned into frazzled mush from last term at uni. Most days, anything that goes in one ear comes out the other as"blah blah blah Economics mumble mumble supply and demand yada yada yada profit and loss! ZzzzZzzz", therefore I apologise if this post is a bit all over the place.

So, last week I went to Barcelona with my parents. I'm not sure why. I really should have been revising instead. Hm.

The food was good though =)

*************************************

A man (a busker man?) playing the guitar in the Park Güell.

I must also warn you that this is a very very photo heavy post. We had three cameras between us and my dad and I went a teeny bit camera happy. The result is over 1000 photos to upload and a lot of time spent waiting for iPhoto to reboot. But said photos are pretty, so I'm sharing them with you =)

Not only was the food great, Barcelona has some of the most wonderful architecture I've ever seen. That's mostly down to Antoni Gaudí's, so he is now my new favourite person of the month (I'm sure I'll find a new obsession next month, my attention span doesn't last that long).

There's the Casa Batlló (first photo, far left), which I've dedicated a separate photo collage to (below) because it's literally like living in something out of Alice in Wonderland, and I love it. The middle photo is in the Park Güell, and the last photo is the Sagrada Familia(which began construction in 1882 and is due for completion somewhere around 2025...).

The middle inside-out staircase of the Casa Batlló, the first floor, stairs, roof, chimneys (not necessarily in that order).

We went to pretty much all of the top ten attractions (according to Wikipedia, anyway). Well, all except the football stadium that FC Barcelona use. Football is boring :p

Now, this is usually the point where I drone on and on, but I'll try my best to let the photos do the talking instead! Anyway, seeing that photos speak a thousand words, it's probably a good thing that I'm not talking. You'd deserve a medal if you made it to the end of this post.

Instead, I'll summarise the main things I learnt/saw in a handy list of bullet points (accompanied by photos). So sit back, relax, and enjoy the collages!
(And stop thinking about football. You know who you are =p)

1. Visit the food market ("la Boqueria" - my highlight of the trip!) on the La Rambla (one of the main touristy streets). I really recommend the food stalls in there, they have huuggee watermelon/pineapple/melon slices going for €1 and freshly cut Iberian ham to try (and buy!). Try some freshly cooked seafood in a stall at the back of the market. I got a plate of yumminess for €25 at 'Barcentral' (stall 494-496), and it was worth every cent (plus a bit more).

(If you are squeamish, beware! The butchers aren't shy about the cuts of meats that they sell. I'm talking heads, eyeballs, the whole works. See for yourself below.)

Oh, and if anyone can tell me what these 'exquisite' things are, I'd be really grateful! They looked like claws. Tiny ugly claws... I really hope they're not.

2. Try not to go during the day of Spanish general strike. I did, however, get a pretty good view from the top of the Casa Milà (another Gaudí building), but also on the way back to the hotel got pretty close to a couple of bins that the strikers set on fire. Kept me warm, I guess, but never again!

3. Eat all the different types of tapas you can find! But figure out the way to order them first. You're supposed to go up to the bar and order there and or grab a plate and help yourself. Sometimes, the tapas are served on toothpicks and you keep your toothpicks so the waiter knows how much you ate at the end of your meal. If you sit at your table and wait for them to take your tapas order, you'll be waiting a lonngggg time.

What was funny was that at one of the restaurants I asked for a glass of sangria. When it arrived, my dad suddenly had a revelation.

"Xinmeeeiii!! You can't drink that! There's alcohol in there. Let me have it."

I know I'm small and a girl and Asian and therefore lack the alcohol breaking down enzyme, but I am turning 21 this summer. Nevertheless, I was allowed a tiny glass. But you know what, I really think it was just a ploy because my dad had already ordered pineapple juice before realising that wine was in fact included in our set meal. Ha.

5. I've also learnt now that I'm not very good at keeping to what I said. I said I'd let the photos do the talking. I promise I will do from now on!

Totally getting into the grove, Miss Grumpy on the left not keen on joining in

Chocolate con churros (€4.50) at Brunell's Bakery (, near the Picasso museum. People rave about this place but I could have sworn they made my hot chocolate from that powdered stuff...

The gardens in Montjuïc. Well worth a visit! (And also the Spanish village near it)...

And also the magic fountains whilst you're at it...

And how about a flamenco show there too? This is a flamenco dancer in a show inside the Spanish Village, the photo to its right is the show at the Montjuïc Magic Fountains (I found a nice video here), and below are photos of the Spanish Village at night (by the way, the Spanish Village is a man made Spanish-style replica village built for the 1929 World Fair. 83 years later and its still looking slick).

And with this, I think it's time to call it a day!

I hope you enjoyed the photos :)

I've got some posts planned soon, which will hopefully finally include a video blog (that I've been planning to do for a year now...) and reviews of all the Cambridge College formals. An Easter recipe to come if I'm organised enough too!

p.s. whilst you're in Barcelona, why not visit the Chocolate museum? It's only €3-4 entrance and your ticket is a chocolate bar! Chocotastic :D (Museu de la Xocolata, C/. Comerc, 36, 08033 Barcelona, Spain)

My first guest post! A wombat bento, of course!

noreply@blogger.com (Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:45:00 +0000

I am so very excited (even more than normal, I've had to tone down my use of exclamation marks because they took up the majority of this page), because today I am doing a guest post for.... *drum roll*... Jill Colonna! If you didn't know by now, Jill is the author of 'Mad About Macarons!: Make Macarons Like the French' (oh la la), and an inspiration to macaron lovers and foodies everywhere.

Mmmmm....macarons....

And not only is Jill herself a super lovely and funny person, she also has a awesome blog that I like to spend time (when I'm supposedly doing my dissertation) drooling over the photos on. So when Jill asked me to a guest post, I thought, wow. A real blogger wanting a post by little me on their site? Yes please! We've been in touch ever since last summer to try and arrange a guest post but I really wanted to make something very 'me' for the egg yolk series on Jill's site, and with academicy work related things it has taken me 6 months to finally think of something I was proud of :)

I decided on an egg yolk bento because bentos are my latest 'thing', plus a wombat theme dedicated to someone special :) Plus a story about me, a hen, and an egg.

Be sure to hop over to Jill's site and check it out here!

A guest post! So eggsciting!

Pudding Pie Lane

Matcha Green Tea and Raspberry Cake

Afternoon Tea at The Ritz, London

Feast Food Festival, London

Flowerpot Cake for Mother's Day

Chinese New Year 2013

Zhonghua Traditional Snacks, Cambridge

2013 Sprinkles and Sparklers Cake

Gingerbread House

Strawberries and cream cake

Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies (Green & Black's recipe)

Pistachio and Rosewater cake

Blackberry & Almond Meringue Cake

Olympics Sports Bento Box

Lemon Getting-What-You-Want Cake

Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies

May Week in Cambridge

Graduation Bento Box

So long Cambridge, it's been fun!

My main - Roasted halibut, butternut squash, cabbage and pumpkin seeds. It was a bit salty but the butternut squash puree was nice.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Oreo Brownies

Rose Cupcakes

Triple Chocolate and Ferrero Rocher cupcakes

Doraemon Bento

Apple and cinnamon cakes and a marzipan Easter bunny

Barcelona baby!

My first guest post! A wombat bento, of course!