Vote for me! The 2012 Ultrabook Pedestrian.TV Blogster Awards

So check this out.. I'm currently in New York, sitting in the living room with a friend drinking wine and watching the Bachelorette (thank god for trashy American reality TV!) and I get an email from a friend in Sydney telling me that I've been listed as a finalist in the 2012 Ultrabook Pedestrian. TV Blogster Awards! THAT SHIT CRAY! 

I'd love if you could pop over to Pedestrian.TV and give my blog a vote. It's been a turbulent year for me, but to be recognised as a finalist in these awards is such an amazing feeling. I really can't express how much I love reading your comments and sharing my passion with you all. 

And in the meantime, i'll be tweeting all about my NY adventures with some local eats posts to come soon. But to tie you over until then, here is a pic of dinner that my friend, Lauren made last night. And a pretzel. The dinner was yummy, the pretzel was gross.

Thank you all!


KayB xx

Bye Sydney. Hello New York.

If you follow me on twitter you would have noticed my recent ramblings about various overseas travels I have planned. Well, the first of said trips is finally here! Tomorrow morning I fly out of Sydney, headed for New York City! I'm going to be hanging with my very cool friend, Lauren. That's us singing dino karaoke at Jurassic Lounge in Sydney some many months ago. There probably wont be dino karaoke this time. Who am I kidding, there might be. Don't be hating, we're totes cool.

So I need your help. Local and international friends - please send me your top New York eats!! I have started compiling my list on urban spoon with special thanks to my dear friend StarLoz, but I'd love YOUR suggestions as well. 

I'll do my best to update you on my eating adventures while I'm away. Otherwise you can expect a multitude of NY posts upon my return (I'll also be live tweeting and instagraming pretty much the whole trip! Check out my personalised hashtag, courtesy of Jonathan #suckitbitchesiminny THANKS JV! ). In the meantime I'll be livin' large in the big apple! See you all very, very soon.

KayBx

kaybscakes@yahoo.com

Chocolate cake for skinny people

My dear surrogate mother, Mumma Fish, recently had a birthday. She also recently lost like, a billion kilograms. Ok, not that much, obviously. She always looked fabulous, but now she looks crazy skinny fabulous. I wanted to make her a 'healthy' birthday cake but then I remembered that healthy is boring. So I made my super moist chocolate mud cake and put fruit on it, because fruit is healthy. And when you pair fruit with chocolate, it cancels out the calories. That's just science, really.

 Make yourself a super moist mud cake, then slice it in half. Make a big bowl of ganache. 2 parts dark chocolate, 1 part pure cream. We want this ganache to set hard.

 Fill the middle of the cake with ganache.

 Keep filling.. 

 Grab some luscious, plump, juicy, sexy berries. Wash and set aside to dry off.

 Ganache your cake. We're going for a rustic look, no need to be fancy.

Pipe a border to hold in all the fruit. If you don't have a piping bag, just use a thick plastic sandwich bag and snip off the corner.

  Pile on your luscious, plump, juicy, sexy berries.

 Add more berries for decoration. Dip them in melted chocolate. Or white chocolate. Whatever takes your fancy. You could dip them in sprinkles as well. Yeah, do that. I wish I had sprinkles. 

 Add more chocolate. Just because. 

 Serve on a vintage, sliver cake stand with matching candles (note: cake stand and candles are optional. You could just eat it with a spoon, standing along in your kitchen. That would work well too). 

Attempt to claim a large portion of the cake by licking a selected area. This is called 'dibs!' as demonstrated here by silly surrogate sister. She lost a small section of her tongue doing this. Kidding.

The St Kilda Galleon Cafe, Melbourne

Galleon Cafe in St Kilda is my all time favourite place to eat in Melbourne. I've been fortunate enough to travel all over Australia, both for pleasure and work. Because of all this travel, I have eaten a lot of breakfasts from all different places. I therefore believe I am in the perfect position to make the following statement. Hands down, Galleon Cafe serves the best eggs benedict in Australia. Seriously. Perfectly cooked eggs every time, creamy hollandaise sauce, all served on a lightly toasted bagel. Pure bliss. Do yourself a favour and get a sweet potato hash brown on the side as well. You wont be disappointed. Care to offer a rebuttal? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter..  where do you think the best eggs benedict are served?

Studying the menu closely. Just get the eggs benedict, damn it. Silly girl.

Honey served with your tea. Forget the sugar, get organic. Drink some bonsoy. Do it now.

Oh, behold the gloriousness. Just sit and look at it for a little while. Ponder life over the perfect eggs. (Eggs Benedict with homemade hollandaise sauce and leg ham, one egg $11 or two eggs $13. Sweet potato hash brown $3.50)

Pancakes are also a tasty option. But don't skip the eggs. Have the pancakes for dessert after your eggs.  (Pancakes with lemon butter and strawberries, $12.50)

Poached eggs, vegetarian style. Also good. (Sweet potato, basil and feta hash served with wilted spinach and one poached egg, $13. Side of Hollandaise sauce, $1.50)

Ok. You've waited long enough. Bust open your eggs and behold the gooey goodness. Savour. Enjoy. Return many, many times over.

The St Kilda Gallon Cafe

9 Carlisle Street  

St Kilda VIC 3182

(03) 9534 8934

http://galleoncafe.com.au/

View Larger Map

Little Creatures Dining Hall and Ponyfish Island, Melbourne

Earlier in the year I visited Perth for the first time on a business trip. Perth is stunning. I had such a great time; the people are wonderful, the beaches are stunning and the food was great.. expensive, but great. And the red-eye flight back to Sydney.. not so great. But that's a whole other story.  

I was told by several people that I had to visit the Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle. As a huge lover of beer, I put this on the top of the to-do-list. An amazing set up, great food and the cheapest pints in Perth! After such a great experience in Perth, you could imagine my delight after stumbling upon the Melbourne Little Creatures Dining Hall in Fitzroy. 

After a short wait at the bar we were led to our booth in the dinning hall. In the spirit of trying everything, we opted for a few share meals. Above, fresh cut chips with garlic aioli $8.50.

The eggplant, spinach, dukkah, goats cheese pizza $18 was gorgeous. Also featuring a generous slathering of caramelised onions, the sweetest of both the eggplant and onion was perfectly paired with the cheese and dukkah.

 Carrot, walnut, beetroot, goats cheese salad $15

Later that evening we visited the very new, very trendy Ponyfish Island Bar. Like all good bars in Melbourne, Ponyfish island requires a trained eye to find the entrance. Located under the Yarra River Pedestrian footbridge, access is via what appears to be a set of emergency stairs. The bar itself is decked out in recycled tables and chairs, a few milk crates and lots of fairy lights. There is a limited menu, but we just opted for a few post-dinner ciders whilst enjoying the hipster crowd surrounding us.

Little Creatures Dining Hall
222 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
03 9471 5500
https://www.littlecreatures.com.au/


View Larger Map

Ponyfish Island
Located under the Yarra Pedestrian footbridge
(connecting Southbank to Flinders Street Station)
Entry via stairs.
http://www.ponyfish.com.au/

 
View Larger Map

Cumulus Inc. and Beer Deluxe, Melbourne.

Last month I spent a long weekend in Melbourne with my two besties for my birthday.. nay, OUR birthday. Yes, one of my best friends and I share the same birthday. Highly convenient. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love Melbourne. The culture, the food, the people, the city.. everything about it is fantastic. I would move to Melbourne in a heartbeat. Anyone know any good jobs going down there? Hit me up. I have awesome skills.

Our weekend was predominately made up of eating and drinking. After a hideously horrible and exhausting flight through sever thunderstorms late on Friday night (I have a shocking fear of flying), we were in need of some serious sustenance on Saturday morning for our first official meal in Melbourne. Having received glowing praise from a few co-workers, we decided to head to Cumulus Inc. for a late brunch. Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long for a table, and the seating hostess was extremely friendly and helpful (we nicked named her 'the fox' cause she was so great at her job!)

Soy mocca for the ladies, while I opted for a chai. I made the wrong decision. Bitterly dissapointing, this chai tasted like watered down milk. 

Rebecca, however was very impressed with her coffee choice. I was not amused.

After a good 45 minute wait, and two separate attempts to chase up our food, we finally received our breakfast.  Rebecca opted for the Wagyu corned beef & gruyere cheese toasted sandwich with tomato relish, $14.  The relish was extra tasty, but the cheese was slightly over powering.. tough dish to finish.

Lauren, aka the other birthday girl, aka the vegetarian, ordered the Shakshouka - baked eggs with roast peppers and marinated Persian feta, $16. Seriously, put feta in anything and guaranteed Lauren will order it. She's all about the cheese.  I don't remember trying this, but it resulted in squeals of delight from Lauren. A little on the oily side towards the end, and definitely requires more toast on the side for mopping up the peppery goodness. 

I had read and heard great things about the Grilled lyonnaise sausage, smoked hock, braised beans and 65/65 egg.. I just couldn't resist. And it was perfect. The gooey egg was poached to perfection, the smoked hock was smattered throughout the beans, and the generous slab of sausage and toasted sourdough was the perfect vessel to hold it all together. If I could have licked the plate clean I would have.

Bellies full, we ventured out into the Melbourne laneways for a spot of vintage book shopping,  sunshine and posing in front of street art taking photos like the good lil hipsters we are! I am not ashamed. 

It was well past midday, which meant we were already behind on our drinking so we stumbled into Beer Deluxe at Federation Square for a cheeky drink.. actually, a Cheeky Rascal Strawberry and Apple cider, $9. We drank A LOT more of these throughout the weekend. Super yummy, perfect for a warm Melbourne weekend! 


Cumulus Inc.
cumulusinc.com.au
45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne, VIC



View Larger Map



Beer Deluxe
www.beerdeluxe.com.au
Federation Square
Corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets
Melbourne, VIC



View Larger Map

Drum Cake: Tutorial

Yo kids. Here is the Drum Cake tutorial. Enjoy!

You will need

1 round ganached cake

Rolling pin/corn flour

Fondant (1 batch coloured, 1 batch white for top of drum and accessories)

Tooth picks

Edible silver paint - available from all good cake decorating stores. You can use a luster dust, but I find this must easier to use and results in a better colour.

Water

Paint brush

This cake is pretty straight forward, but a tad bit fiddly at times. Take your beautifully ganached cake and cover it in your chosen colour fondant. Next, take your white fondant and roll out large enough to cover just the top of the cake - this will be the ‘head’ on your drum (also known as a drum skin).

Trim the edges of the white fondant - it doesn't need to look perfectly neat as we are going to add another ring of fondant.

Here is where it gets tricky - roll out a piece of white fondant the same diameter as the cake, about 3cm high (the height is dependent on the size of your cake.. measure a small bit and hold it up to your cake to get a better idea). Wrap this piece of fondant around the base of the cake, attaching it with a small bit of water applied with the paint brush.

Roll out a second piece of white fondant the same size.. this is where it gets tricky. You need to attach this piece to the top edge of the cake, while allowing it to edge above the top of the cake. I didn't do this, but in hindsight I would have measured out a ring of toothpicks that I stick into the cake for the strip of fondant to sit on top of. As I mentioned, this bit is tricky and a bit fiddly as the fondant is still soft. Once you are happy, and the fondant has had a little bit of time to dry and stiffen, paint it with the edible silver paint.

Now that you have the top and bottom ring of fondant attached, it’s time to add the accessories.. also known as the drum lug!

Roll out white fondant nice and thin.. approx 2mm, and cut out rectangles. Mine were approx 2cm x 4cm.. again, this is dependent on the size of your cake.  Using your toothpicks, add two parallel indents in the rectangle (see photo). Paint with edible silver paint and allow to dry before adding to the cake. Also paint a bunch of toothpicks with the same silver paint and allow to dry.

Spacing your lugs evenly around the cake (I used 7.. not actually sure if this is factually accurate for a snare drum??), first attach the toothpicks. Simply slide the pointy end under the rim at the top/base of the cake, with a tiny bit of water. Then place the rectangle over the top. Simple!

I also added a logo/my brothers initials to the cake. I used a template to cut these out of white fondant and attached with water.

(Don't forget to remove the toothpicks before eating the cake!)