Author Archives: cakecrumbs

Asparagus Cake

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I must admit, I had a bit of bakers-block for this month’s "green" theme challenge on bakebakebake. The only thing that came to mind was mint, and, well, that had been done. As had almost every other thing I thought of. When they did a pandan chiffon cake on MasterChef, I drew inspiration from there… until none of the pictures accompanying the recipes I found had the lovely green colour I wanted.

It was after a bout of Googling images using a green filter that I sprung upon the idea of an asparagus cake.

Sounds gross, no?

Well, it’s not flavoured asparagus.

Though I'm sure you've already guessed the flavour of the cake…

Cook Book Challenge: Week 1

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My dad has a penchant for op-shopping. Perhaps too much so. He’s often picking up recipe books for me (almost always cake ones) that I can barely fit in my kitchen. What results is that, more often then not, I flick through them when he gives them to me, like the look of a few things and never remember to come back to it.

So, I’m setting myself a challenge. Once a week, from here until goodness knows when, I will cook a recipe from every cook book I have until I have made it through my entire collection. I will endeavour to cook something I have never cooked before, or something I thought was too hard to try, or one of those recipes that I fell in love with but then forgot. I will then blog my result, good, bad or ugly.

This week, I thought I’d start off with one of the largest cook books I have:

The Practical Encyclopedia of Potato and Rice

Dragon’s Lair Cake

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The second I heard about the Zoology Master Baker Bake off at Uni, I was so excited at the prospect. To fill in some blanks, I’m studying a Master of Zoology at The University of Melbourne. The associated social club throws events just for post graduate students. Last year, in my gap year, I’d seen the signs for the bake off up around Uni and was so sad I couldn’t partake. So this year I was so excited. In fact, my friends told me they wouldn’t stop pestering me until I signed up.

The only dilemma: what to bake?

I figured a sleepy dragon couldn’t go far astray.

Creep inside the Dragon’s Lair…

White Chocolate Cream Gateaux

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Once upon a time, I used to bake every week for my Uni friends. These days, I’m lucky if I get the chance to bake once a month. The funny thing is, you’d think the less you bake the more ideas you would have, no?

Well. When the final presentation for my Communicating Science and Technology session came around, I thought I should bring along some cake to out end-of-class pizza party.

Aaand that’s about where the thought ended. I have been completely uninspired lately.

Hence, this last-minute rush job:

Pictures and moar…

Easter Basket Cake

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I love Easter. It’s a time where my love for chocolate in baking can be justified. This Easter I decided to host a party at my place. It was a lovely time to get together. But more than that, it was also an excuse to make lots of my favourite things: finger food. I love making all those small and fiddly things, finding new ways to miniaturise classics. Everything from mini tandoori pizzas to tiny burgers, lamb korma on mini papadums and gow gees… the list went on. But my favourite is and always will be the desserts. I shall do a follow up post later of all the mini desserts, but for now I will turn to the sole item that was not mini: the cake.

This is one I had been wanting to do for a while. I was just waiting for the right time of year to do it. A cake that looks like a basket. Hopefully. In fact, I would be wrapped if you looked at it and thought it was just a basket.

Buona pasqua!

Chocolate Cake Box Tier

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I’ve been much to busy to bake, let alone post about it lately. Though, when my 23rd birthday approached I just had to make time to. My problem? My muse had totally abandoned me. I had no idea what to do. Then I randomly saw a picture of a round brown box with green trimming around the lid. I dislike green as a colour generally. There are precious few shades of it I like. Something stuck me about this colour scheme that I absolutely fell in love with. The whole theme for the party ended up following suit.

With the billion assignments I have, as well as working, my research project, general house duties and all the finger food I had to make for the party, I needed something simple, classy and not fiddly. This is an idea I had been sitting on for a while. Though I imagined it in white, as a wedding cake tier. I never imagined how ridiculously long it would take to make the boxes.

What’s in the box, in the box, what’s in the box today?

Peach and Orange Mousse Cake

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Another cake for my boyfriend, this one for his 28th birthday. Again I wanted to stay away from fondant, and again I decided to tackle my arch nemesis: gelatine.

So many firsts in this cake. So the fact that it a) set, and b) was edible, was a HUGE relief. Especially since I was taking it to his place to be demolished by a bunch of people who, unlike my family, love cheesecake!

Happy Birthday to you, you’re a hundred and two…