Blackberry and Apple Crumble

I had never tried blackberries before. Maybe in candy or jams but never fresh. When I was strolling in the market and spotted some fresh blackberries with a sign that said "very sweet", I instantly knew I had to try them. So I excitedly bought 2 boxes of these beautiful delicate berries. Eager to find out how fresh blackberries tasted like, I hurried home, washed it under the tap and tasted one. Little did I know, I was in for a rude awakening. They tasted so sour, it was as if I was eating a lemon wedge! Darn that deceitful sign!

Even after my disappointment, I knew I didn't want to let these berries go to waste, so I decided on a crumble. Something that didn't take much time to make. Luckily, I had some apples lying around to give it some texture and body.

When I cooked the filling, the berries bled which dyed each piece of apple with a beautiful deep purple colour. It looked so luxurious, much like a piece of purple velvet. The crumble was buttery and nutty with the addition of the toasted almonds. I devoured it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to cut the extra tang from the blackberries. Hot crumble and cold vanilla ice cream, need I say more?

Although I had this sour experience with the blackberries, I definitely didn't regret buying them. Or else I'd never try this recipe and share it with you guys. But I'll learn from this experience and be more cautious when a sign says "very sweet".

Cupcake Central @ Melbourne Central

These tiny little morsels make it slightly easier for people to practice self control. Well, not really,  if you see all the flavours available at Cupcake Central. I've tried as many cupcake flavours as the number of years I've been on this earth! I guess that shows how much of a glutton I am or how much I adore their cupcakes. 

Their cupcakes are moist and delicious, perfect with a glass of milk or maybe a milkshake from their milkshake & soda bar? Plus, they look amazing! And if that doesn't make you want to run there and get one now, they have babycakes which are essentially mini cupcakes (extra points for cuteness). My personal favourites are the red velvet and salted caramel, which are available every day of the week. They also have a gluten free option every day for the allergy prone individual.

Cupcake Central is also my go to place for gifts. If I need a gift for a birthday or any occasion, I know Cupcake Central has my back. It just keeps getting better! You can get a gift box of 4,6 and 12. You would be so lucky to get a box of these lovely cupcakes.

Here's their Cupcake Calendar so you can see what flavours are available in store. The Cupcake Calendar changes every season, so try every flavour before they disappear! And did I mention that they have surprise flavours on Fridays?

Rainbow Cake!

Just looking at the rainbow cake we made almost a month ago makes me smile! I for one, love colours, so it's definitely pleasing to my eyes and of course, cake! Who doesn't love cake? Everyone's been asking for the rainbow cake recipe and how to do it ever since we posted our instagram pictures (@weiyens @angelinasaw) and we're happy to say, the wait is over! Believe me we wanted to do this for quite some time, just that we unfortunately left our recipes at home and didn't have much time.We sincerely apologize for neglecting the blog a little due to adjusting to university life here in Melbourne.

Basically, the rainbow cake is just a simple butter cake, in this case it's actually my great grandmother's butter marble cake recipe we were using. It's moist, just the way it should be and it's sweet enough to balance out the little bitterness colouring tends to gives out. When you have a delicious cake that puts a smile on your face (even if just a little) looking at it, that, my friend, is the recipe to happiness.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound flour
• 1 pound sugar
• 1 pound butter
• 10-12 eggs
• 3-4 tsp of vanilla essence
• 1 can evaporated milk
• Colouring (Here we used red, yellow, green and blue; the purple was a mix of red and blue)
• Salt

Velvety cake mix.

Instructions:

1. Separate egg whites from yolk.
2. Sieve salt and flour.
3. Whip egg white until fluffy, this can be done by hand or using a mixer if you like.
4. Cream butter, sugar and add yolks. 
5. Fold in flour into mixture and add the evaporated milk.
6. Add egg whites and finally vanilla essence.
7. Separate the mix into five bowls and add colouring accordingly to each mix, drop by drop until you get your desired colour. 
8. Butter the baking pan and pour mix and cook separately. Ensure that each colour mix has the same amount for even layers. (When put into a 10 inch tray, our mixture was roughly 1-2 inches high)
9. Put each tray of coloured cake mix into an oven of 180 degrees. Cook for 10-20 minutes depending on size and volume of cake mix in each baking tray. 
10. Once they come out of the oven, the top may look a little brown-ish but fret not, this layer can be easily pulled off or you can cut the top using a sharp knife if it rises outward.

Colourful pieces of butter cake which may not look so appetizing at this point but just wait until you're done!

Buttercream icing.
Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3 cups of sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla

Instructions

1. Whip butter and sugar together. add milk, vanilla and salt.
2. Place in the fridge for 45 minutes to an hour for a nice consistency and then you're ready to ice the cake!
3. For each layer, put 2.5 to 3 tbsps of icing.
4. The icing of the cake is pretty explanatory through the pictures. There are captions below. 
5. A few note-worthy tips that you should note is that we placed parchment paper below the first layer and pulled it out when we were done so it wouldn't be so messy and give a cleaner finish. We also used a lazy susan so the icing work would be much easier and give a smooth finish.

Place 2.5 to 3 tbsp of icing between each cake layer and spread evenly.

For the top and final layer, put the remaining icing and spread evenly.

Pull out the parchment paper from below and you're done!

You can even put a dainty daisy design on the top.

Beautiful layers of happiness.

Xiao by crustz

Recently, we had a chance to try these beautiful creations by Xiao by crustz. So what is Xiao by crustz? It is a new online based pastry shop that brings you cakes, chocolates and pastries and such to your tingling taste buds. They offer sweet services to customers from beautiful customized gifts and boxes which is their specialty and even customized dessert tables for any occasion! {about}If you have a sweet tooth, Xiao by crustz is your solution! It's not just for your tummy, but eye candy too! Beautiful and edible.   

First up we have for cakes is Passion. Passion is not your typical cake as it doesn't actually have cake in it. The bottom layer is a biscuit base, followed by a light milk chocolate ganache. The orange layer is a tangy mango and passion fruit jelly. The tanginess gives this light but rich dessert a lovely freshness. Last but not least, the layer that holds everything together is the light yoghurt mousse.

Xiao by crustz has other cakes available too, Carrot Cake and Dark Haven.

 Lemon Mint Chocolates

These chocolates are not your everyday chocolates. When I first popped this into my mouth, I had a pleasant surprise! Handmade with care by Xiao, a dark chocolate shell coats a lemon jelly infused filling with a hint of mint. The sourness from the lemon jelly compliments the dark chocolate and the mint gives it a refreshing touch.

Xiao by crustz has a variety of macarons to choose from! Lemon Passion, Chocolate Crunch, Green Tea and Raspberry Rose.

The Lemon Passion has a passion fruit infused milk chocolate ganache with lemon macaron shells. The Chocolate Crunch has a thick chocolate ganache filling with a feuillitine ((fo-yer-teen) a praline textured with small pieces of crispy, oven baked pancakes) to give it it's crunch. This rich and flavorful macaron is a must try! The Green Tea macaron is necessity for green tea lovers as it's not too sweet and rich with green tea. Lastly, the Raspberry Rose macaron has a rose flavoured shell with a raspberry jam filling that gives it its sweet tangy flavour.

Drop on by to Xiao by crustz to fulfill your dessert needs!

Contact details:
Ms Koh Xiao-Ly
Tel: 016 2110 932
Email: kohxiaoly@gmail.com
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Mango with Sticky Rice

Thailand is one of the countries that is popular for it's food with all their street foods. Every direction you turn you are sure to spot a food stall. But we're not here to talk about street food but their desserts, which are truly sublime! Mango sticky rice, thab tim krob (red ruby) and luuk chuup (a mung bean dessert shaped into miniature fruits).

Mango sticky rice is always accompanied with a coconut cream sauce with a touch of salt, which gives this dessert it's richness. The slightly sour mango cuts the sweetness from the sticky rice and the coconut cream. Basically, this dessert has a great balance of the sweet, salty and sour.

Don't forget the rule that you MUST finish off your meal with a sweet ending! Another excuse not to skip dessert ;)