Strawberry Crowned Egg

I hope you are not sick of desserts as of now....I've been posting so many desserts lately because these are what we ate for the past few days. There's a big project due on Monday so we practicaly live on desserts and Aaron's takeaway from his workplace.

When I made Zebra cake, I specifically cracked the eggshells nicely so I could save them for later use. I didn't have much thought back then on what to do with the eggshells. All I know was I want a dessert using these eggshells as vessels. Something creamy and filling, given the small vessel size.

And I definitely want something to do with pomegranate as well simply because they're in season and if you don't already know, November is National Pomegranate Month and I don't see them often here in Australia on normal days.

I like how these little red rubies lift up my dishes, in terms of appearance and taste. You can actually use it in savoury dishes, scatter it over your pumpkin soup with prosciutto crumbles and even use these to make gnocchi! There are endless possibillities when it comes to pomegranate.

Aaron hates munching on the seeds and because I make desserts specifically for us, I probably will not buy pomegranate much. Instead, I'll go for POM juice if I need a quick fix. They give out a deep, vibrant red in dishes and frozen treats. This post is not all about pomegranate, really....


Fancy some smooth sabayon custard, full of vanilla bean speckles and flavoured with Marsala, filled in petite egg vessels, each crowned with strawberry slices? I usually snarled in disgust when I see people add gelatine to tiramisu or zagalione/sabayon cream simply because I think it spoils the texture and all gelatine does is to make it stay in shape when sliced. For things like tiramisu, I like how mine look sloppy and deformed when sliced, else I'll make them in verrines form when I want a neat presentations.

However, for this one time, I swear by the use of gelatine. I added gelatine to my sabayon cream, sorry....but Aaron wanted something more firm when you peel the eggshells, the custard remain as whole egg shape. The gelatine is really optional. You can choose to not add it in and serve it straight with a spoon. However, if you like to still add it in and like it soft and creamy, like in my situation now (can never please everyone really, can you??? * roll eyes), eat it when it's just chilled slightly, before the gelatine takeover and solidify it.


I topped some with pomegranate seeds for myself and strawberries for Aaron but at last, I realize he dislike strawberries too! I know he dislike them so I try to find ways to sneak some into his daily intakes. Raw strawberries or visible ones are a big no no. Panna cotta, blended, pureed, strawberry soup, yes. How weird can my hot chocolate be?


Preliminary work for eggshells:
Boil the eggshells in a pot for approximately 3 minutes or so. Turn off the heat and run drain them. Run your fingers inside to cavity of the eggshells and rub it well to remove the membrane. If you're good and used to it, the membrane will come off nicely as one whole piece. Dry them on the egg cartons before filling.

Sabayon cream
Fill up 3 to 4 large eggshells

1-2 egg yolks (you don't have to be precise, 2 small yolks or 1 large yolks would do)
2 tbsp Marsala wine
5 tbsp heavy or double cream
5 tbsp whole milk
1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 tbsp vanilla castor sugar

1/2 tsp powdered gelatine
1.5 tbsp cold water

Blossom the gelatine in cold water and set aside, without stirring. Whisk the yolks with a pinch of salt, sugar and the Marsala wine until sugars are dissolved. Heat up a milk pot and place the cream and milk in it. Bring it to a simmer, scalding but not boiling. When it's almost boiling and you see steam escaping profusely from the surface, turn off the heat. Temper the cream mixture with the yolk mixture. When it's all combined, pour it back into the pot and thickened it on medium low heat. You could play safe by using the Bain-Marie style but I've drop that long ago when I realise my magic hands can cook custard and curds without scrambling them over medium direct heat. When it coats the back of a wooden spoon, remove it from the heat and stir in the gelatine paste. Stir until it's fully dissolved, If you think they're not fully dissolved yet, gently simmer them on the stove for a minute or so on lowest heat setting. Cool them for a bit and add in the vanilla bean paste. Stir to combine and pour into a spouted jug. This is to make pouring into the egg shells easier. You can skip that if you're using a spouted milk pot. Pour the sabayon cream into the prepared egg vessels, until it's 3/4 full. Let it set in the fridge, placed on the egg carton. When chilled for a couple of hours, simply crown them with thinly sliced strawberries and pomegranate, whichever desirable.


Have fun!

Pomegranate, Ginger, Honey & Lemon Verrines

Made these little verrines for our desserts. I like it! I thought the lemon taste would be gutsy and strong but nope, it was mild, just nice and I enjoy the lemon zest bits very much. I could taste each and every component very well and the ginger definitely stand out. I did add 3 tbsp of POM juice in the honey & lemon gelee layer but the tea conquers it all!


Inspired by Helen McSweeney from Tartelette's: Pomegranate Hibiscus Tea & Honey Ginger Yogurt Verrines, I chose to use up ingredients that are readily lying in my pantry. I don't have hibiscus tea but I have a 'sashay' of honey & lemon tea, so honey & lemon it is.

I also substituted grated ginger with ginger powder simply because I was lazy and wanted a quick fix. This one doesn't take much time but the layering, a little but it's got very little hands-on time in total.

Just make the tea gelee, slant it on egg carton and get back to your work. A couple of hours later when you're hungry for lunch, get back into the kitchen a d finish off the yogurt and ginger gelee. Pour it over and you're done.


The next morning when you wake up and the only thing in mind is desserts, go to the kitchen and spoon in! I always like making things a day ahead. I like the comfort of having desserts ready rather than start making them on the day itself. With that said, you of course have to be able to predict what you'll love to eat the next day but I really don't think I have a problem with that. I'm pretty adventurous. I like new stuffs that I've never tried before with many flavours complimenting each other. So, yeah....that's me. Not that hard to please, am I?



For the Honey & Lemon Tea Gelee:

1/2 cup honey & lemon herbal infused tea
3 tbsp pomegranate juice
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp powdered gelatine
4 tsp cold water
1 tsp lemon zest

Bloom gelatine in cold water and set aside. Brew tea and mix sugar until it's dissolved. After 10mins of steeping time, stir in the blossomed gelatine paste and stir until dissolve. Heat it up over the stove over the lowest heat setting possible if necessary. When it's all dissolved, stir in the lemon zest and cool it for a bit. When cooled, pour into 2 or 3 tall glass and have them slanted, leaning against an egg carton. Chill them in the refrigerator for 3 hours or so.

For the Honey & Ginger Yogurt Gelee:

1/2 tsp powdered gelatine
2 tsp water
2/3 cup Greek-style yogurt
4 tsp clear honey
1/4 tsp ginger powder

Bloom the gelatine in cold water. Microwave 1/3 cup of the yogurt in a microwave safe bowl until just heated through but not curdled nor hot. Mix the two microwaved gelatine paste and yogurt together, slowly whisking the gelatine into the yogurt until well combined.

Add in remaining ingredients, i.e., the remaining yogurt, honey and the ginger powder. Whisk into submission and pour into the verrines filled with honey and lemon tea gelee.


Let it chill overnight, covered with plastic wrap. When serving, pile a generous amount of pomegranate seeds over the top and drizzle with a little clear, thick honey.

These are very wobbly but I quite like how the texture melts in my mouth. If you like firmer texture, increase your gelatine accordingly.


Enjoy and serve very very cold!

He completed me....

The finally awaited moment.....Let me just show off and brag for once! It was my birthday on November 2, that's 3 days back. This is my birthday gift from Aaron, a complete set of Tessa Kiros's books.


I used to always tell him, in life, there are two things I love more than him. One's Tess and the other one is anything PINK. I have this fetish for pink, it makes me loose my mind sometimes to make everything as PINK as possible. But for now, I have to say I adore Aaron more than anything in this world because he completed me. He gave me the best of everything he could afford to. He knows I love Tess so he gave all of Tess to me so I would be happy.

He wore a flamboyant pink polo tee on my birthday because I said so, that's the extent he would go to see me happy. He is the type of guy who calls me beautiful instead of hot. He's the type who calls me back when I hang up on him. He's the type who shares my joy and tear and listen to my nagging, ranting and random rambles. He's the type who kisses my forehead every morning and would not mind showing me off to the world when I'm at worst.

They say the couple that fights the most is the one most in love because it shows they care enough to notice the other one screwed up and care enough to mention it to the person so they can fix it. When you stop fighting it means you stopped caring. And I'm glad to say at the rate of us having minor fights, we're very much alive and going on strong.


As we grow older together and continue to age, there is one thing that will never change and that is I feel like I'm falling for him all over again each and every passing day. The best thing about me is him.


Simply because he completed me...thank you Aaron, I can say it a million time and it still would not be sufficient to express my gratitude towards you. Thank you for being my family, my friends and my lover on my birthday. I cherish these moments a lot.

I love you.

Greek yogurt with honey, cinnamon, pecans and pomegranate

This is so colourful, so beautiful and I would be very happy to eat another serving of this. The title of the post says it all. That's practically all you need and all that goes into this rather healthy and guilt-free.

This is adapted from Apples for Jam, it's by Tessa Kiros. I guess you probably already figure that out even before I said so. I like how I can have a quick fix when I have cravings. This one is easy, assemblng probably less than a minute. Even if you chop and toast the pecans and have ready your pomegranate seeds, it still could be done under 15 mins.


There's many way you could remove pomegranate seeds. I choose to soak them in water but some say it'll dilute the taste of the seeds but I've tried both methods, soaking and not soaking, they're the same to me so I would recommend soaking so you don't get all the splatters over your favourite shirt and yes, they're like mangosteens. They stain your white shirt!


A handful of pomegranate seeds
2 tbsp shelled pecans, broken ino big chunks (I use almond here)
2/3 cups thick Greek-style plain yogurt
2 tsp thick, clear honey
Ground cinnamon

Start off by cutting the pomegranate into quarters and plunge them in cold water for 10mins. When time is up, take one quarter out and pry the skin inside out to expose all the seeds underneath. Pick all the seeds out of the pomegranate, making sure there is no white pith still attached. Eat up your leftovers seeds or saved them for filling little tartlets or to nibble along a glass of prosecco.

In a small dry frying pan, lightly toast the pecans just enough to bring out their flavour and crisp them up. Take care not to overdo them or they'll be bitter and taste burnt. Leave them to cool.


Finally, assembling that practically take less than a minute to put together; Spoon the yogurt into bowls, scatter the toasted pecans all over the top, drizzle with honey and finish with a small scattering of pomegranate seeds and cinnamon.

Best served immediately.

Zebra cake

Admit it....you think this looks awesome and stunning! I like how I can call these marble cake when I screw up the layerings. And yes, my itchy hand just can't help but run a wooden skewers through the surface of the bullseye pattern and transform them to spiderweb instead.


Halloween is long gone and this one has no intention and nothing to do in conjunction with Halloween. I bake this as a small token of appreciation for Aaron's colleagues. We went there on my birthday last Monday and service was excellent and ambiance was great too! Not to mention, food was delish, not the greatest but definitely please many taste buds.


My dining table is not flat, I can never seem to find a flat surface everytime I needed to do layering. As a result, they're always off-centred. Not like it will affect how the cross-section look like when you slice it up but the perfectionist in me think I could have done a better job.

Rule of thumb, when you alternate the batter, try to not pour in the last bit of batter even though you badly feel like doing so. It sorta spoils it a little. See the particularly extra vanilla batter towards the centre. Make them into just one mini cupcake or just eat the batter as it is.


Yes people, I'm not crazy. It is absolutely alright to eat raw batter. Don't come to me and sound politically correct about salmonella infections and all just for once, pretty please.... Well, lemme rephrase, it is absolutely alright to eat raw batter with fresh eggs used in the process instead of age old eggs.


Anyway, I like this cake because it is not overly sweet despite the 1 cup of vanilla sugar I use. I guess my real dark organic cacao powder is real killer, it's bitter, it's rich, it's organic and it's all you want to shove into a cake batter willingly!

Also, I've been trying to play around with my silicone pan. I have emails from shy people asking me about silicone pan. I don't know is it just me or a few handfuls of you out there too experience my problem with silicone pan....when it is greased and and used as it is, cakes tend to come out with thick crust at the top and bottom and usually very brown on the circumference of the cake. I've tried it many many times and it's still the same.

This time, I took the liberty to grease it well with canola spray, line the base and sides of the cake and have the sides overhanging a little longer than necessary. The zebra cake came out moist, nice golden crust but not too thick on top and soft-like baby bottom. No burnt sides, just obvious layer of black and white streaks of beauty.

The beauty of cakes like this one, marble and pound cake is that it doens't even need the extra icing or glazing to make things a tad more glamorous. It is in its full glory when left plain. I downed this with a tall glass of cold milk.


Have you been baking a cake lately? I might stop for a month or two and just stick to cold desserts and frozen treats. It's getting rather hot lately especially since summer is approaching and spring is ending..... And I'm in Australia....great!