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Black Star Pastry (Strawberry Watermelon Cake)

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Some of you might know about the desperate attempt I made last year for the Strawberry Watermelon Cake (see previous post at  Black Star Pastry ).  Yesterday I had the privilege of tasting this cake at a party. I got super excited as I’ve been wanting to try this for almost a year now. I was so tempted to just skip the mains but I patiently waited for dessert time and made sure I left space for the cake :P In the meantime, I went to take a close look at the cake (could not resist, for obvious reasons) and I was amazed at how magical it looked. It was constructed beautifully starting with a layer of almond  dacquoise followed by cream, then a slice of watermelon with cream,   almond  dacquoise and cream again. Finally, it was topped with strawberries, pistachios and dried rose petals. It was a quite a delicious cake but unfortunately, it did not meet the expectations I had. I liked certain elements, such as the lightness of the cream layers, f...
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Derailed December

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This month has been a very relaxing month for me. I travelled to Melbourne for International Congress of Behavioural Medicine conference, click here to read more about my wonderful trip.  I did very little cooking this month as I have been away for most of this month. I have been trying to rest as much as possible, and not think about the work I need to do when I get back. I told myself I would not be hard on myself for the things I couldn't do this year and enjoy the break, for now. To be honest, I feel like I have gotten out of track and but it does feel nice to be letting my brain go.   Here are my December eats :) Prawn, spinach and cauliflower spaghetti Bean sprouts, snow pea and chicken with rice vermicelli Stacked Moroccan chicken, roasted tomatoes with greens Mango and chicken salad Filo pastry rolls with red cabbage and beef, topped with sesame seeds Pumpkin and asparagus curry Pan fried chicken and...
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Nettlesome November

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This month has been a range of feelings. I've finished up with my linear regression model I was working on, which means I'm done with the statistics (for now). My aim was to have this paper completed before the end of the year but I've realised that's not going to happen.   I decided to focus on a simpler task that would be easier to finish before Christmas.  So I’ve gone back to  working on one of my old papers. It was really difficult to get myself into that mindset again, after not having worked on it for so long.   It was really daunting at the beginning, but safe to say, it did get easier after having a few go's. I really wanted to be done with this paper but I just couldn't do it due to time constraints. I managed to get close but it wasn’t enough. I really wish I had an extra week at least to finish up what I needed to do. At one point, a part of me wished I didn’t have the conference to attend in December, so I could just keep on working to fini...
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Bodhi Restaurant/Bar (vegan) + Le Pain Quotidien

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I had a reunion with some of my old uni friends. The perks of meeting up with old friends is, it feels like time hasn't moved at all when you meet them! I can't believe it's been almost two years since I saw them properly. It's crazy how quick time flies! We have been trying to meet up for sometime now, but everyone is busy with either work or study so it's really difficult to fix on a date. We set this date back in early July and we all kept our word :D We chose this place so we could accommodate for a friend who is vegan. This was my second time eating a full vegan meal so I was quite excited to see what vegan dumplings would be like! The staff were very friendly and organised. We were served with water and sauce soon after we sat down. Bodhi works just like any other yum cha place, the food keeps coming around and you pick what you like. However, the downside is you can't say yes to everything so you have to turn down some. I started off with satay...
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Brewtown Newtown

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So I realise I haven't written here for a while, I've started my research semester so I sort of got bogged down with uni. It's been quite full on because it's meant to be 35 hours a week but I'm loving it so far because this is what I've always wanted to do. I've kept the best part to the end :D Anyway, just recently we've submitted our research proposal and after that we felt like we needed a treat so decided to hit a hipster cafe somewhere. We visited the famous Brewtown Newtown. I’ve heard that often there’s a huge waiting period to get into this cafe (as it’s quite popular), but thankfully we didn’t have to wait long.  We started off with drinks. The weather was quite warm so I got iced chocolate (which was just their hot chocolate from the menu but with ice). I found the drink to be pretty average but my friends really liked the drinks they ordered. One of them ordered freshly squeezed orange juice and found it to be quite different comp...
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Manageable March

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I started this month feeling overwhelmed and out of control, both emotionally and physically (playing the catch-up game with my workload). As I have said, I have had a lot going in my life in the past couple of months. While the majority of it has left a very positive influence in my life, there are some areas of it where negativity continues to tingle. I have told myself I will focus on the sunny side of it, work around this to normalise it as much as possible. The good news is that I have succeeded; I have managed to focus my shift back to work, and it has been working so far. However, there are occasions when my mind starts drifting away into the other land. But happy to say, I have been pretty productive this month, managed to get through ethics applications, two paper revisions (almost) and a few other things. In other news, I have finally started working on our wedding day blog. It took me a while to start because I wanted to wait until my ‘mental load’ reduced a little. We h...
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DAA conference | Melbourne

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Being a tourist :) Day 1: Reunited with the bestie at the airport. *Incessant chattering* Next stop was food.    First sunset photo We chose an Italian restaurant called ‘Vapiano’, based on another friend's recommendation. It was quite busy; we had to wait to get a table. We decided to order both pizza and pasta. Ordering pizza was pretty straightforward. However, the pasta line took forever. It took so long that we received our pizzas but still hadn't been able to order the pasta. We tried garlic and one zucchini and eggplant pizza. I liked the latter but the garlic one was a bit hard, it got a bit cold by the time we started eating.  The pasta was quite nice and flavoursome but nothing extraordinary and not worth an hour wait!   Vapiano Spotted a cute florist, on our way to dessert For dessert, we wanted to go Om Nom but unfortunately they had no space so ended up going to ...
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Wholemeal date and walnut loaf

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Happy Monday everyone! It has been a while since I baked a loaf so thought I'd make one :) Recipe adapted from http://daa.asn.au/recipes/wholemeal-date-and-walnut-loaf/ Ingredients 2 eggs, lightly beaten 100 g pitted dates, chopped 45 g margarine 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 cup water 40 g walnuts, chopped 1 cup self-raising flour 1 cup wholemeal flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoon LSA oil to spray Method 1) Preheat oven to 180 °C. 2) Combine dates, margarine, sugar and water in a saucepan. Stir and boil gently. Set aside to cool. 3) Sift flour, baking powder, LSA. 4) Add in walnuts and eggs  5) Add in date mixture and mix well. 6) Lightly spray a loaf tin pan. Line with baking paper. 7) Pour mixture into pan 8) Bake for 45-50 mins. Skewer should come out clean.  9) Remove from oven and cool for 10 mins 10) Turn out on a cooling rack. Slice and serve with yoghurt, if desired.
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Kale chips

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I've been thinking about making kale chips for a while now; it was one of those things I thought would be too complex. Normally, I use kale in a smoothie or a salad but I can never get through a whole bunch without it going yellow. Recently, I've had a go at making kale chips. It's actually not that difficult, but it's just very delicate. You need to have the right temperature and time setting. Otherwise, you end up with burnt or soggy chips (like I did for the first few times!) I've adapted this recipe from some recipe sites and personal experience :) Recipe is as follows- Ingredients 1 kale bunch Paprika Cayenne pepper Lemon pepper Sea salt 4 Tb Extra Virgin olive oil Method  Preheat oven to 150 (fan-forced) Remove stems from kale and tear leaves into bite sized pieces) Wash kale thoroughly Dry kale with a salad spinner (this step is important!)  In a bowl, mix olive oil and herbs/ spices (amount to your liking) Line tray with baking paper U...
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