Pancake Cafe June 16, 2008

Here in the town I study, D, there is a Pancake Cafe but we students call it Pancake House. It is small, lovely, quaint and serves simple but amazing pancakes. Unlike MacDonald’s, this place serves thin ones. Almost like crepes. The menu is simple. 3 savoury and 4 sweet pancakes. In the past week alone I have been there twice! I so wanted to go back today but it does not open on Monday. A big disappointment for me.

Every time I am there, I always order the Feta, Spinach and Mushroom Pancakes followed by a Cinnamon, Honey and Banana Pancake. I share with a friend of course as the portion is simply too big.

Hummingbird Cupcakes June 7, 2008

Today I woke up with a goal and that was to bake Hummingbird Cupcakes. I found a video of Martha Stewart making it and I thought it looked so fun! In this cupcake, there are bananas, coconut, nuts and pineapple. At first I was a bit hesitant as I am not really a banana-flavoured fan but the taste of the banana in this cupcake was so refreshing and I was genuinely impressed by the different texture and taste. Furthermore all that banana and pineapple made the cupcake feel really healthy (I wish!). And another thing I was really happy about was the Cream Cheese Frosting. Finally, one that came out the way I liked it though it called for nearly half kg of icing sugar (!!!) So there let me share with you some pictures and the recipe. Presenting Hummingbird Cupcakes!

Carrot Cupcakes June 4, 2008

I am soo happy! I successfully made Carrot Cupcakes this afternoon. Actually I made it twice. This first time, it was a complete failure. And I sat around thinking about it for an hour before I realised I was not ready to give up and started all over again. The second time I made a few adjustments and the cupcakes came out beautifully! I am extremely happy and my friends absolutely loved it too! Anyhow I got my recipe from here but I am still going to post it here nonetheless.

Steamboat Buffets = Comfort Food June 2, 2008

This afternoon, I gave the oven a rest and popped down to Newcastle, England with my housemate, J. It is about 10 minutes by train from the little town where I study and in Newcastle, there is a (rather small) Chinatown. In this Chinatown, there is a buffet restaurant. Chinese buffet restaurants in England, in my opinion, are horrible. But there is something about the wide selection of greasy deep-fried or stir-fried “chinese” food that is rather comforting. A restaurant my friends and I recently discovered is No. 1 Oriental Buffet Restaurant. For 12.99 pounds, you get both the cooked food buffet and a steamboat/ hotpot buffet too. It actually is quite a good deal since it is a pain to make our own steamboat. What I really like about this place is that they have a wide selection of pork dishes and one of my all-time favourites…

Tofu!! )) I heart Tofu. But every time I look at them in the supermarket whilst grocery shopping, my heart breaks a little. Here is why. I always buy the Organic Firm Tofu from Waitrose which used to cost 1.38 pounds. However it is no secret food prices have hit sky-high and my tofu have also been affected. Right before I left for my New York holiday at the end of March it increased to 1.45 pounds per pack and when I came back a week later, the price had climbed to 1.55 pounds. With that, I ended my love affair with tofu. Thus when I first visited this restaurant I was so beeswaxly excited about the tofu that I ate all I could!

Anyhow moving on to the buffet. One can not expect Wagyu beef or abalone but one can expect luncheon meat, more tofu, crabs, fishballs and crab sticks. Er yes, I pay 12.99 to eat all the luncheon meat my tummy can hold. Oh, and another thing this place has, Bubble Tea. Er yes again, I pay an extra 2 pounds for Bubble Tea. Rest assured this is not an everyday thing.

Bubble Tea in a pint glass. Only in England

Left is a Chicken Stock Base and on the right, Chongqing Spicy Soup.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake June 1, 2008

Here is the story, I wanted to bake something different from cupcakes and had excess sour cream sitting in my fridge so I decided to bake a Sour Cream Cake and searched on tastespotting for a recipe. I found this. It looked easy and all the ingredients were just sitting in my kitchen. So today, with high hopes I baked it. First of all to begin with, looking at the recipe closely, it said coffee but there is no coffee anywhere under the ingredients list which puzzled me big time. I even went to the website of the originial recipe and sure enough no coffee! So why is it called a Sour Cream Coffee Cake? Second I did not have one of those tube pans and had no wish to go out to the shops to purchase one just so I could make use of my sour cream. I should have known. Using a normal springform pan, it took a long time to cook. 15 more minutes to be exact. And the result, extremely moist, densed and sponged-like. It wasn’t very sweet and the streusel on top of the cake made a very nice crust. I didn’t like the cake itself though. I thought it was too bland. I have never tried a Sour Cream (Coffee) Cake in my life but is this what is supposed to be like?

Anyhow recipe and more pictures after the jump.