Chocolatesuze Cupcake Lovin Aussie Food Blogger living in Sydney, Australia

So one random day noods tells me we’re going to have a degustation dinner at Trevi Lakeside Restaurant (Shop 5, 8 Century Circuit, Norwest Business Park, Baulkham Hills) and im thinking well sure im up for a degustation whats the occasion hmm


we are greeted enthusiastically at the entrance and as i follow our waiter to the table unbeknownst to me noods has just palmed the ring to a waiter…


first course! tempura zuchinni flowers filled with mushroom and ricotta on a sun dried tomato and brie tart served with goats cheese and beetroot. i loved loved LOVED the brie tart! the filling wasnt overly cheesey or gooey but perfectly creamy and slightly salty with a melt in the mouth buttery shortcrust pasty ohhh im definitely ordering this again! i loved how the zuchinni flowers WEREN’T stuffed with goats cheese haha it seems like everyone stuffs it with goats cheese when zuchinni flowers are so delicate!


chilli salted calamari and prawns flashfried with lime aioli. the calamari and prawns were gorgeous bite sized morsels of crispyness that went well with the sweet sour lime dressing. at this stage i was getting a little weirded out by noods paying more attention to the waiters than to what i was saying and i couldnt see what he was looking at becos i was facing the back of the restaurant (his plan) when all of a sudden 2 glasses of sparkling champagne arrived and…


2 waiters arrived bearing huge plates and with a flourish they placed them on the table and im sitting there holding my camera ready to take a foto of whatever course im about to eat wondering why we got the champagne and then the cover is whisked off and then im thinking oooh shiny red things! and because im blind im still thinking hmm its not beetroot cos beetroot aint that shiny. and then OOH chocolate! dessert time already? hahaha and THEN i see the ring and of course being the good little foodblogger that i am i took about 3 shots of the plate while noods pleads can i ask you something before you take a foto? hehe [chuckles] <3


my preciousss! and of course i said yes!


lamb cutlets with a macadamia nut crust on a rosemary infused potato gratin and vinocotto sauce. tender juicy baby sheep my most favourite animal to eat and i love potato in any of its tasty cooked forms [chompchomp]


coconut king prawns with a mango, tomato and rocket salad drizzled with a honey mayonnaise dressing. haha and of course noods managed to plan everything but forget to tell them hes allergic to prawns! lol he still ate them and nothing happened so maybe its all in your head noods!


sesame crusted yellow fin tuna with baby bokchoy, sautéed zucchini and a lemongrass and lime dressing. oh so so full! we loved the dressing it was pleasantly sweet and went well with the perfectly cooked tuna


tasmanian beef fillet wrapped with prociutto on sautéed kipfler potatoes with tomato, smoked paprika and chorizo. we were so very full that i ended up taking my portion home argh i was defeated! i have always made it to the end of a degustation dinner but alas my stomach must have shrunk!


baked ricotta cheese cake, home made cannolo shell filled with a mocha brandy chocolate mousse and a giant scoop of cinnamon gelato. we had to ask the waiter if we could share the dessert because even my emergency stomach was full oh sadness my most favourite cake in the world is this baked ricotta cheesecake so light and fluffy and creamy and i love all things cinnamon!


heh heh we are nuts. i love you noods =D a giant thank you to corey, mario and the staff of trevi! fantastic food and fantastic service it was definitely a night to remember!

hee a quick post to let you all know im engaged! i had an inkling something was up cos noods booked a degustation dinner at trevi ‘for no reason’ lol and halfway thru the courses a giant covered platter came out with this:


[squee!] my heart is doin happy dances! and its so shiny heehee i love you noods <3

Menya (Shop TG8, 8 Quay Street, Haymarket) is a blink and you’ll miss it tiny japanese restaurant tucked away on the bottom of a building that is Burlington Centre.


The restaurant is always packed full of diners with their heads bowed at the long communal table with self serve condiments, cutlery and napkins in the middle which i found myself staring at while eating so as to avoid looking at the person seated on the other side. i hate watching people eat!


Ton-toro Ramen ($9.90). Tonkotsu flavoured noodle soup topped with lots of thinly sliced roasted pork, boiled bean sprouts and sesame. The power of fatty pork soup compels you! The tonkotsu soup was as intensely rich as i had hoped altho perhaps a little too rich and i was left to feel the most incredible sadness at the inability to finish my bowl of noodles. Wastage! The huge mound of shredded pork fell just as i took the pic bah but they were melt in the mouth tender and how i wished i had an emergency 2nd stomach


Menya Ramen ($7.50). Tonkotsu noodle soup topped with boiled bean sprouts, roasted pork, vegetarian fungus, sesame and dried seaweed sheet. The menya ramen also comes in a ‘mini’ size for $1 less but if you’re not that hungry and you’re with a friend you should try the Box sets where you get a bento box plus a mini ramen for about $13. Me and noods couldnt really tell the difference between our bowls other than the menya ramen had the seaweed but he slurped it all up and declared it almost as tasty as ichiban lol his benchmark for tonkotsu soup whereas i found it as good as ichiban and when you order and pay before being seated theres much less hassle than ichibans service (or lack thereof)


The only other seating other than the communal table are these 3 seats near the window where passerbys pause and stare at you as you shovel in the food…


Noods wants to come back for the Menya Ramen Godzilla Challenge ($29.90) haha i reckon theres noway he can do it! It’s four time the portion of a bowl of menya ramen (2kg) and if you finish everything in the bowl UNDER 30mins itll be free (mon-fri dinner only) mmm thats alot of noodles whos up for the challenge?

i know i know im sorry lack of updates and whatnot so heres a quick post on my latest hobby:


playing with hama beads! hours of fun i tell ya! notice the little green haired orange face man on the top right? heehee my lil version of an oompa loompa rofl im gonna turn him into a necklace and sing the oompa loompa song allll day

edit: i found some hoops at lincraft and whacked it on my oompa loompa and chucked him on a nickle ball chain whee!

what did i do over the long weekend? go on a holiday you say? the thing about working for yourself is that you never get holidays [sadness] i spent my weekend making a r2d2 cake and having never watched a single star wars movie i had to google what a r2d2 was…


hmm just as well it wasnt the shiny gold thing… or that short weird green thing…


lets make some cake! 2 buttercakes freshly squeezed baked


the actual assembling of the cake wasnt too hard i had fun slicing it up and figuring out what parts go where


but alas for the icing of cake i suck. haha after having so many issues with the frosting i have vowed to never take any more cake orders lol just as well it was only for a 4yo kids party! haha im just gonna stick to cupcakes from now on!


but wait what is noods doing with all my excess cake pieces?


hahaha a house for me? lol this is what happens when you let someone have full access to cake decorating icing pens BAH! he mustve squeezed a whole tube of green and a whole tube of white for the chimney!

happy 25th birthday boey! hope you had a tops day!


oh yes me and magdalene were so very proud of our hard work of rolling up smoked salmon [nods] they looked like SKINLESS FINGERS!!!


hehe flashback to my 18th at boeys house…


baz is feeding brian. i do not know why.


girlies! me, magdalene, fi, soph


the smooth sounds of linds, ben and johnny


da tasty foods made by boeys awesome parents! chicken, noodles…


sushi, tophats…


curry puffs…


deepfried wontons and spring rolls


the best salad ever! ohhh man super sweet roasted pumpkin and creamy salty fetta mmm


and more salad!


the ‘boys’ table and bah i forget to take a pic of the girls plus linds table!


connie with the very fluffy kookaburra


sandy and me heh heh has anything changed since preschool days?


wendy, fi and me long time no see dudes!


happpy birthday dear boey/jess/eskimo


ah my table of goodies


UM…


me cupcake tree


vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and gummy lips


vanilla cupcakes with passionfruit buttercream


chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and chocolate candy and BAH i didnt take a foto of the honey cupcakes!


heh linds, sandy and me with our glasses of milk… calcium is good for growing bones kids!


<3


girlies soph, connie, boey, wendy, fi, me


lol why does ben look so sneaky?


connie is still hungry


awww

ive had a blog in one form or another since the procrastination days of yr 12 in ’01 and ah how the blogging community has grown! ive met some incredible people and it seems Tourism Australia caught on to the explosion of blogs and ran a competition where you have to post an entry on why you should win an all expenses paid trip to the city of their choice and the ever so cute nadia from http://nadnut.liquidblade.com and jen from http://pinktini.wordpress.com/ were lucky enough to win a trip to brisbane and sydney with sexy accomadations in versace hotel and skipping all the lines at dreamworld and a harbour bridge climb bah im so jealous!


but first we eat! heh and wearing our fab intermeweb tshirts (can you guess what restaurant we’re in…)


and a last min walk thru paddys markets we find a stall making customised hats heehee the chinese uncle was funny he knew i was so happy with my hat lol anywhos nadia and jenny im glad i finally got to meet you in person come back soon and ill take you cheap shopping and krispykreme donut eating!

so ive started knitting… noods’ mum is teaching me (HI MRS WONG!!! heh) actually i cant knit i can only perl haha everyone tells me the knit stitch should be easier than perl ah wells it is fun and i love my new hobby as it’s pleasantly mindless


i began to learn to knit a scarf when i was impatiently waiting for noods to finish his turn on guitar hero lol


and quickly progressed to an obsession with buying multi coloured balls of wool of different thickness and fluffyness heehee ive started 5 different scarves and none are remotely close to being finished


this is what started the obsession… an eggs and toast scarf from etsy user kellyzkreationz! hurhur so cute im gonna buy the cupcake scarf next! the food scarves started with the awesome twinkie chan but sadly she hardly ever puts any of her fantastic scarves up on ebay and theyre a tad pricy… anywhos ive been told those scarves are crocheted and not knitted so anyone want to teach me to crochet?


but hey check out my new shoe wheel! oh yes it spins and no i didnt realise i had so many pairs of shoes and i still have more to shove in! this baby holds up to 30pairs of shoes and can be bought from the creators Rakku Designs or from My Shoe Storage in australia


oh and this shot is for you cecelia! displaying my skeleton socks with my mario plushies in the background the ? box makes a kaching coin sound and its from ThinkGeek, the mini mushroom dude is from the easter show and the big mushroom is from a toy cart in castle tower shops

did i go the easter show? why of course my little munchkins would i miss out on my yearly fix of cheese on a sticks? never!


welcome! prepare yourselves for a day of tasty and delicious snacks! i think it was the first time in ages that the easter show did not coincide with the school hols which meant i could actually see the floor in the showbag pavillion! and while i loved the lack of screaming kids this year the easter show didnt have that alive vibe it normally has


but anywhos, how about a cheese on a stick? for 4bux you can get a delicously golden baton of deep fried cheese on a stick and hey while youre at it you must get yourselves a cup of teeth rotting sugary sweet lemonade


mmm heart clogging goodness! and why is it that noone has cashed in on a stall selling just deepfried foods? like i can onli get the deepfried mars bar from bondi beach so why wont someone deepfry snickers bars or caramello koalas or twix or pizza or hamburgers or even icecream?


how about a corn cob on a stick? thickly coated with melty butter and rolled in a mixture of salt and pepper with a dash of chilli mmm burrrrning


noods wanted the oysters a mix of salty fresh rock and pacific. these babies didnt sit too well in my stomach especially after eating this:


twisted fries! standing in the queue is enough to drive you slightly bonkers so i pity the poor workers who had to listen to the ‘lets twist again’ jingle over and over and over… the serving is definitely very generous hey?


taking a break from the foods we wandered around the woolworths dome noting sadly the lack of stalls this year and as always found that my most favourite decorated cake was by the awesome annie lo from funky cakez who made all the asian inspired cakes in previous years congrats on the 3rd prize dude!


the ferris wheel against the bluest sky we’ve had in a while i mean seriously the weather has been hell crazy hasnt it?


<3


and finally finally finally ive got a graffiti cap with what else? chocolatesuze haha the suze bit looks a bit dodgy so i might go over that with a texta haha

ah foodcourt food… breakfast of champions!


a chewey crispy salty cheesey pretzel from pretzel world with french onion dip, a perfectly formed chocolate mud donut with just the right amount of chocolatey icing from donut king, a deliciously crispy flakey rectangle of baklava covered in rose syrupy goodness and all washed down with lipton mango tea…

the last of my easter supplies is diminishing oh sadness no more novelty chocolate bunny heads!


good ol kinder surprise thank you for the effort of details on my bunnys face!

ack this was ages ago but congrats to lauren and cristian! you guys rock my world =)


but first the foods! mmm assorted snackys like diff types of cheese and the very awesome cheese and sour cream and bacon dip


i am uncoordinated. but determined to catch the cheese.


we loves teh cheese dip


nat, me, joke


girlies!


this was only 1 table that i snapped a pic of there was stacks of food piled high on about 4 more tables lol enough food lauren?


amie and me


nat and me


lauren and cristian the gorgeous couple just before they broke out with a sexy salsa dance


my babies!


me and lauren


girlies again!

weekdays have been filled with baking, weekends have been filled with markets and golly gosh its april already! the biscuit tree turned 1 without us realising and/or celebrating so happy birthday to us! we were at the harmony festival in ryde last weekend and as i was setting up the stall i was chanting fairy floss! fairrrry floooossss! i want fairy floss! never mind the fact that it was barely 10am but $2.50 got me a whole cloud of pink sugary goodness the size of my head mmm

can you guess what we did we these?


armed with 5 rolls of foil and a coupla hours at the office produced this:


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! i thought it was appropriate to post this on april fools days even tho we did this on sat arvo after the kirribilli markets (btw thanks to all the beeyootiful ppl who came to visit me and chat!)


the unlucky victims’ desk was wallys and soon everything was a target from the 23inch monitor, the keyboard, the stapler, the calculator…


to the phone…


to the cds… i started individually wrapping each cd case and then ran outta foil so i wrapped the rest in one bundle… just as well i didnt wrap the actual cd as well as the case huh?


to the chair! i was very proud of my chair! foiled the pedals and everything!


heh theres nothing like an afternoon of tops quality bonding time than foiling everything in sight… next time we buy more foil and do the table and the carpet too yeah noods?

when you see a youtube clip with the title the Death & Life of Icecream you know its gonna be good right? its so mesmerising. and saddening. especially that shot of the vanilla icecream with the colourful sprinkles melting off oh sadness all that wasted icecream! i could have cried when the icecream sandwich melted leaving the sad biscuit to float on the melty icecream goo. anywhos check it out [link via serious eats]

my favourite eating holiday is easter where chocolate bunnies bounce around and chocolate eggs the size of footballs roll into my chocolate deprived soul…


ive been good this year and resisted temptation to go nuts on the chocolate. that is, before the sales heehee target 25% off dudes!


as is tradition i buy chocolate bunnies and eat them from the feet up saving the head for a rather gruesome shot but sadly this cadbury bunny is faceless! its kinda creepy no? like in horror movies where the aliens have no faces? no?


i leave you with a pic of me saying to the black stump waiter ‘my thats one big knife’. hope you guys have a fantastic easter!

2, 4, 6, 8 take a look at my MEAT CUPCAKE!


hurhur ive always wanted to make a meat cake but was worried that if i made a normal cake-sized cake that noone would eat it lol so cupcake size was perfect!


i used a mix of lean and normal pork mince (2:1 ratio total weight 700g), 1 diced onion, 1/4 clove chopped garlic, salt n pepper, half a beaten egg, cornflour, worcestershire sauce and soy sauce. Smoosh everything together and leave in fridge while you make yourself a cup of tea or in my case a can of v. Fire up your oven to 180C (fan forced) and go scrounge up some patty cases. Foil cases are best cos your meat will ooze juices. Shape meat into ball sizes (approx 100g) and squish into cases pressing down so theyll keep the shape once unwrapped. Bake for around 25mins or until nicely brown. i didnt have any foil cases so they were pretty oily and had to stand on oven cooling racks. While meat cupcakes are baking whip up some mashed potato approx 3 med sized potatos depending on how much mash you want to use. Once the meat cupcakes are cool dig out the middles and fill with tomato sauce.


i felt like putting cheese somewhere so i just whacked it on top of the sauce but they could prolly have gone in the meat mixture eh next time


try and make your mash relatively sloppy and piping it warm is easier. also make sure you pound away at your mash so theres no lumps. i sadly cbf which is why half were piped and the other half were smooshed on because the lumps stuck to my piping nozzle booo


fry up some bacon about 3 rashers of the meaty bits and cut pretty shapes while eating the crispy bits yumyum


ahh so preetty! warm these babies before serving heehee happy birthday wally hope you liked!

argh i soo want this!


its a book to paste in all your fortune cookie slips! hurhur i have so many slips floating around i reckon itd be fun to glue them in and see how random they can be! sadly the book can only be bought from spoon sisters and they dont ship to aust so any us peeps wanta buy for me and ill pay you thru paypal?

first came the brownie edge pan and now i bring you the original muffin top tin!


(img via the spoon sisters)
hurhur for lovers of the muffin top!

there hasnt been alot of eating out lately for the boy and i are attempting to save money and i have been making random dinners like taco night and lamb night and kangaroo night and last fri i was told he would make dinner for me but instead took me to a korean bbq hurhur ah wells its the thought that counts right?


one glorious day long ago we were walking thru mosman attempting to find an icecream store but instead found a bakery and sitting nestled among flaky buttery pastries and chocolatey dense cakes was this golden beauty the beloved cream horn but alas the pastry was dry and hard and so i ate just the cream…


and is it easter already? for whats easter without hot cross buns? or hot cross krispy kreme donut buns? the cinnamon hot cross bun has a lovely sweet cinnamony taste but im not a fan of the ‘cream’ filling and the chocolate hot cross bun tastes exactly like how i wished the devils food donut would be in puffy round form…