Taste Tests

The best perk of being a food blogger is getting to eat lots of scrumptious things (usually for free) and then writing about them.

My personal favourite though, is receiving fresh produce or condiments to experiment with in my cooking adventures.

Full of citrus, but this one’s no lemon

Posted on August 31, 2008

An easy, fresh and tangy lunch treat. What more could you ask for? (more…)

Belgian chocolate, yum, yum.

Posted on March 21, 2008

[Leonidas chocolates, Belgium]

Happy Easter everyone! Even if you don’t celebrate the religious significance, you can still enjoy all the chocolate that’s around at the moment.

The picture above is chocolates left over from our trip to Brussels a few weeks ago. I bit into them so that you can see the luscious fillings; hazelnut praline, coffee and butter cream, I’m nice, aren’t I? They’re from a shop called Leonidas, which is a chain that has stores all over the world including the US, UK and Australia, but it’s a Belgian brand so it was nice to get them from the source.

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Definitely Chocolate for Easter

Posted on March 12, 2008

As you may know I am in the UK at the moment for work, but I actually live in Sydney, Australia. I’m here until the end of April which means that I will miss Easter this year with my family, sob, sob.

Because I can’t be with them, I’m going to send them something special as a surprise (I hope they’re not reading this!). I’ve just discovered a fabulous Australian website called Definitely Chocolate that has some gorgeous chocolate Easter gifts, that I thought I’d share with you.

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Waffles in Brussels

Posted on March 4, 2008

Can you believe I almost didn’t eat this?

After that big meal of mussels in Gent, we drove back to Brussels and decided to do a bit of sightseeing around the city centre to try and speed up digestion. But someone was trying to tell us something – everywhere we walked there were waffle shops and waffle vans and people eating waffles!

The smell of freshly made waffles, cream and chocolate was overpowering the entire city… and The Bear could not stand it. It only took him a few minutes to queue at the nearest shop and stand in front of me with a piping hot waffle piled high with a thick swirl of fresh cream.

Now everyone knows how much I LOVE cream, my best friend Ju’eta and I are the biggest cream lovers in the world and have been known to eat the cream from dessert plates and leave the dessert! It’s true, I did it at my own wedding, and the cake was gorgeous.

So the half hour drive and little walk had done nothing to change how full I was (damn you slow metabolism), but there was no way that I was not going to try that waffle. No way. So I took a teeny tiny bite making sure to suck up extra cream and wow! An explosion in my mouth!

Sorry to be so graphic but I was incredibly surprised by how fantastic the taste and texture was. I was expecting the waffle to be hard, crunchy and crumbly which has been my past experience with them. But this one was gently crispy on the outside and gloriously chewy on the inside with slightly melted cream soaking into it. If there really is a cloud nine then I was on it.

Please go to Brussels to eat one of these. It’s a crime for people to miss out on them.

Happy eating, Christie x

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My gorgeous wedding cake

Posted on January 25, 2008

[photography by Jane Kelly, cake by Crumbs! Cake Art]

Behold, my gorgeous wedding cake.

I’m sorry, but I have to show off about this. Not only did this cake look and taste fabulous, it was a structural masterpiece!

The actual cake bit (which looks like the vase) was four different cakes layered on top of each other. Four delicious flavours; passionfruit mud, bailey’s white chocolate mud, dark chocolate mud and fruit cake. To top it off, all the sugared flowers were hand made and edible.

Oh, one last thing – fairy lights were placed in between the flowers and powered by a small battery pack covered in icing. So incredibly clever, I’m still in awe of the craftsmanship.

This gorgeous creation was made by the wonderful Jon Perkins of Crumbs! Cake Art. Jon is the loveliest woman, so patient and creative. I whole heartedly recommend you go to her next time you need a special occasion cake. It’s a bit of trek out to her Annangrove home, but it smells divinely of cakes and icing – yum!

A special mention to my excellent photographer and friend Jane Kelly, who captured all the perfect moments and made the wedding (and this cake) look straight out of a fairy tale.

OK, that’s enough bragging.

Happy cooking, Christie