So who’s been Nice this year?

Being good all year has its advantages, namely, Santa gets wind of your goodness and grants you three wishes – oh wait, that’s the Genie – you only get one wish from Santa…

My wish (apart from health for my family, and peace for all), was for a Weber Baby Q, and Santy Claus delivered! Here is the new baby, with Electronic Ignition, no less!


Naturally, we had to give it a test run. First up, some lamb and mint, beef, and tomato and onion sausages. They came up beautifully. The bbq flavour permeates the snags even though it is a gas model.

Next was the traditional steak, cut as thick as possible. It was perfectly cooked and moist, and will you look at those wonderful grill marks!

The baby eggplant was okay – I should have salted them to remove some of the bitterness. They were actually accompanied by marinated pork chops, which were delicious. Unfortunately, my camera has carked, hence no photos of the chops.

Now, hopefully, I will find that Genie in a magic lamp sometime soon – I really need a new camera. Any suggestions on which one?

And here is something for the ladies – I got these lovelies at the post-Christmas sales. Gold strappy heels, ON SALE – the best kind of shoes, evah!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall…

…who has the fairest cake of all?

In the lychee corner, we have ‘Have a chat Kai’. In the vanilla corner is ‘Charles du Jour’. Who will win this epic contest of taste, good looks and X factor?

The cake dudes at Adriano Zumbo Patissier both have a gateau named after them. Kai’s is a fabulous confection of lychees, coconut and strawberries. Charles’s is wondrous cylinder of vanilla crème and pate sucree topped with two amazing vanilla water ‘bursts’.

Kai himself was diplomatic enough to recommend ‘Charles du Jour’ as top cake. In this competition, where the deciding vote is cast by yours truly, victory goes to ‘Have a chat Kai’ by a nose, mainly because of my personal preference for lychees and overall prettiness. Onya, Kai!
PS: Charles should not be downcast, however, the vanilla water bursts are faintly scented liquor encased in a chocolate sphere; it’s very remarkable.

Not so remarkable is Tabitha cat’s response to another cake…(she was off to pick a fight with the black cat, bad, annoying Tab).

my dreams are slowly coming true...

When bf walked through the door today, I nearly swooned. Because he was holding a Zumbo box containing the following cake. My favorite flavour is lychee, so this creation is heaven on a plate. The name is a mystery though ('Have a chat Kai'?? what the?). Can anyone enlighten?

This is a very light cake, but no less delicious. Just makes you want another one. Immediately.

Even Tabitha cat was impressed:

There is also another new white chocolate-looking cake that I am going to gaze at tomorrow. Till then, byeee!

Of macarons and possessed cats...

To celebrate the birth of the goddess of hard work (ie. 'Labour day' in NSW), I got some Adriano Zumbo macarons.
Some unusual flavours here, with my favourite being the raspberry and lychee, as the filling has bits of real lychee! Amazing.

The chocolate one was a bit heavy, sort of like a brownie, so no brownie points for it. The filling of the banana and caramel was extremely rich, like mashed up banana. Not too keen on it either, unfortunately.

The Milo macaron was a winner, though, not too chocolatey but tasting of Milo. Maybe have one next time with a glass of milk to dunk?


Tried to get Tabitha interested, but again, no luck. That second pic of her looks like something out of Supernatural (which is back on TV, yay!).

...a Present for Tabitha...

It's been over six months since Tab was signed over to us, and during that time, she was still wearing her old name tag. Finally got round to getting a new one, and isn't it lovely? Very pretty engraving on a shiny gold tag.
And if you ever need engraving done in Sydney, then I can highly recommend the engraver at Brices Shoe Service in the Imperial Arcade.

It's Camo Cat!

Each day when I come home from work, a little scenario is played out between Tabitha and me. I go upstairs to change and Tab follows stealthily, slowly slinking up each step until she is outside the door. Then, when I least expect it, she shoots past like a bullet, holing up under the bed, rubbing her little paws together in silent glee at her sneakiness.

However, I, too, am small and sneaky, and two can play at that game...If there's a cat around, then so is my camera. If there's one thing Tabitha can't stand, it's a camera shoved in her face. Take that, Tabs!

What a big macaron you have...

Big macaron indeedy! This is the famous Cherry Cherry from Adriano Zumbo, a startling creation of macaron, chocolate sabayon mousse, morello cherry compote (delish!) and coconut moisture.

As you can see from the cross-section, there is quite a bit of coconut and mousse, but the best bit in my opinion is the morello cherries encased in cherry jelly. Try saying that quickly!

Tabitha's attention was focused on something in the background, so she did not even notice the cake under her nose...

Alright, if you insist

On a bit of a cake roll with the new Adriano Zumbo range.

This one is called 'You name it', but with that yellow pate and comb-over, 'Homie' is much more suitable, don't you think? It has Homer J Simpson written all over it...

The selling point for me with this creation was the lychee jelly (love love love lychees). The jelly sits atop some mango mascarpone creme and is inside caramel mousse embedded with choc mint bits.

Tabitha gave it a once-over but thankfully left it all to me...

Stop press update: Given that there is a Homie, then shouldn’t Storm Cloud be renamed ‘Marge’?

Three new cakes, one uninterested cat

Had a mini crop at my place on the weekend, so it was a chance to sample the new Adriano Zumbo cakes for afternoon tea (as if I needed an excuse?).

Doesn’t the new range look spectacular, all lined up in the glass case; it’s sensory overload, so be patient on the poor indecisive customers who can’t make up their minds when confronted with such Beauty.

I got 3 cakes, mainly based on their appearance.

Epice is pistachio cheesecake with whole morello cherries and lime and cardamom mousse and pistachios. It is apparently very reminiscent of Indian desserts (according to Mandy, who knows these things).

Next is a new Charlotte, Guadeloupe, though I’m not sure where the Mexican connection is. She is made of dacquoise, chocolate bavaroise, caramelised pineapple with a choc macaron fence around it. I thought I detected ginger in the pineapple as well, but that could be my imagination. I love the AZ ribbon around it as well.

Then, another cloud, Stormy. Filled with tangy lime crème, it is topped with soft Italian meringue. The blue dust on top has glitter sprinkled through it as well. Spectacular, as the young punters around the display case will agree…(lots of ‘awww mum, I want that one??’)

I have to say that the cakes went down a treat. Tabby was apathetic though she looks kinda interested in the photo.

And thanks, Lin Mei and Mandy for coming over. Our crop was real fun (and delicious)!

Last call for old tarts

This is the last cake (and chocolate) I had from Adriano Zumbo. Last one from the old range, that is, because the new range is out now. Vale Maxiadz.

And, no, I don't usually eat the cake off the floor, I just wanted to see what Tabs would do with it. And she does what she always does - nothing.

For something different, here is something from Emperor's Garden cake shop in Chinatown. It was very nice, and for $1.80, excellent value. We can't worship at King Adriano's altar all the time, so the emperor is just as good...almost.

Cat amongst the …plates

At Adriano Zumbo’s getting my usual Saturday order of chorizo bread and almond croissant, when I noticed that the macarons were looking much larger than usual. So obviously I had to get a couple, for research purposes, of course.

The flavours here are peanut butter, passionfruit and yoghurt, and mandarin.
Tried the passionfruit one first. It was absolutely gorgeous (see, that adjective doesn’t only apply to scrapbooking supplies). The soft bits of the macaron were so tangy with passionfruit flavour, and the filling had that tart hint of yoghurt. My favourite.

I thought I’d take a glamour shot of the macaron with my yellow teacup and saucer. So I got it out of the cupboard but accidentally left the cupboard door open. I didn’t notice till about 10 seconds later, after I took the photo, that Tabby had secreted herself in the cupboard, right amongst my nice *clean* crockery. Eeeek!

...the Cat Handover Card

What do you say to the former owners of your new cat? ‘Sorry’? ‘Thank you’? ‘Goodness gracious, we have a cat’?

I just settled for ‘hi’. This is a card I made to give to Tabitha’s former owners on the occasion of her signover to us. The felt bird is from Maya Road (love their stuff) and the velvet ribbon is from Stampin’ Up. Unfortunately, I placed the ribbon crooked the first time and had to redo it, so some of the flock came off. Don’t tell anyone!

Cat finds new home

Manky cat has officially been signed over to us! It’s probably best that we no longer call her Manky, so I’ve renamed her Tabitha (‘Tabby’ for short. And yes, after the little witchy daughter in Bewitched).

We love you, Tabby!

...If Whiskas went upmarket

I've tried in vain to get manky cat interested in more sophisticated eats. She is a cat, after all, and they are supposed to be fussy eaters.

So every time there's been cake or macarons in the house, I try and tempt her.

But to no avail. This is what she prefers... *sigh*.

…And there’s more (yet again)

Just when you thought there were no more…

Apparently this and others were made by a clever lady at Zumbo. My lovey told me this when he brought home this cake with the Sunday paper and a chorizo bread for breakfast. I went back to the shop later to photograph the labels. And there were 5 other new ones (‘charlotte o’hara’ had fig, basil and pistachio jelly!!!!). This is getting too heavy. I need a Bex and a good lie down.

Gem has a base of ginger cake (‘indonesian tree cake’?), with ‘mint chocolate chip mousse, coconut marshmallow and strawberry compote jelly’. That doesn’t do it justice because it is a lot more complex than that, with the soft mousse encased in a coconut-dipped shell. Even though the sheet of shiny white chocolate perched on top is a bit like a Kraft Single (cheese!).

Manky cat found it a little more interesting…

...New cake #3

Here is the 3rd new offering from Adriano Zumbo. I was peering at the crates of just-arrived cakes in the shop this morning, like some auntie looking at chickens at a street stall. But this one (and there was only one) was already in the glass case (‘sleeping beauty’ connotation somewhere).

The scent of cherries is pervasive, as is the sweet clear residue that is oozing from the bottom of the cake. When I finally got round to eating it (after Thai takeaway, what a lazy Saturday it’s been), wow! That cherry perfume is even stronger, and quite alcoholic, kirsch, maybe? The meringue is super sweet, and the cherries inside are wrapped around custard and almond.
This one’s a winner.
PS: No name as yet. Though 'cherry bomb' sounds good, I think.


Manky cat was not so impressed:

…It’s manky cat

A kitty showed up a few weeks ago, meowing at the door. How could you not let her in? And pet her. And fuss over her. She looks manky because she is blond, but with black swatches all over, as if dabbed with a dryish paint brush. I hope she continues to visit (she does have Owners), though she was harassed the other night by a mean black cat that lives nearby.