Grab Your Fork's Dumpling Birthday Party

2 December 2009, 00:10

“How about instead of eating out we make our own dumplings?” What the birthday girl wishes is my command! It was Helen’s b’day and we had just picked a theme for our dinner. Because all foodblogger parties have a theme yo! Joining our dumpling crew were Billy, Minh, Simon and Yas


Minh and Yas get to work chopping and cutting ingredients for the dumpling mixture.


Sauces and condiments. None of which are from my kitchen.


Yas gets a good work out punching the mince


Squishing the mince


And now the fun bit! Making the dumplings! And yes my Christmas tree is up already.


Having never made a dumpling before here is my dumpling evolution…


Oh hai! Dumpling?


And our dumpling factory churns out a whopping 270 dumplings all ready to be steamed or pan-fried


Dumps getting their bottoms browned. Yas the dumpling master is designated dumpling cooker and pan frys these babies before steaming


We also stick some in the steamer minus the panfrying to get the wobbly texture


Dinner time!


Also some salad. Because Helen likes salad.


Are you not surprised that this is what happens before we eat every single time?


Dessert time! Ice kacang ingredients lined up with our ice shavers at the ready. We managed to go thru 2kg of ice. It was hot. Also, my air con died.


Richard arrives late but comes bearing the gift of deep fried mars bars which we gladly accept.


The lights are turned off, candles are lit, and then HAAAAPPPY BIRTHDAAAAY DEEEARRR HELEEEEEENNNN!


Yeah ignore my crappy attempt at icing lol and it’s meant to be a fork! But yes ignore the outside because the inside is way more interesting…


W00T W00T W00T! Check out my rainbow cake! There was a lemon buttercream sandwiching each layer and the whole cake was covered in a cream cheese icing.


hehe 20 layers baby yeah!


I’ll post how i made this cake on Fri :D


Oh and i also made some jelly. Maple syrup, Coke and Mother energy drink. Happy birthday Helen! Hope you had an awesome birthday!

1. Oh it was the most awesome birthday ever! The cake! Noone’s ever made me a novelty cake before, and the colours! And the fork tribute! Oh good times. Thanks so much for hosting.

   And for making me salad :)

   — Helen (grabyourfork$    Dec 2, 01:08 AM    #
   
   

2. The cake was a work of genius! I was rather awestruck and it wasn’t even my birthday. Can’t imagine how Helen felt about it!

   Love the dumpling evolution shot, as well as your jellies. Interesting how they retained their fizziness.

   — Simon    Dec 2, 01:17 AM    #
   
   

3. LOL I worry about the state of my hair in that first shot.

   Mmmmm thanks for hosting suze! I feel a dumpling craving come on…

   — Minh    Dec 2, 09:57 AM    #
   
   

4. Hmmmmm dumplings!

   Is that red bowl the one i got you for your engagement? haha

   P.S your house is really nice, Suze

   — marj    Dec 2, 10:27 AM    #
   
   

5. Amazing! I love the rainbow cake. And I think I need to get one of those steamers. What a spread. Happy happy birthday :)

   — penny aka jeroxie    Dec 2, 12:04 PM    #
   
   

6. oh wow yummy dumplings, and AWESOME CAKE!

   — betty    Dec 2, 12:04 PM    #
   
   

7. Haha, I LOVE your dumpling evolution pic. I totally want some dumplings now, might make some on the weekend.

   — Rose    Dec 2, 12:05 PM    #
   
   

8. Wow look at ALLLLLL the dumplings! I love the dumpling evolution photo hehe. And of course that is one amazing cake – I was actually inspired by photos of your cake and tried to make something similar for my friend’s 21st. Needless to say it didn’t turn out as pretty as yours and mine only had a measly 8 layers but oh the rainbow colours!!

   — Jacq    Dec 2, 12:05 PM    #
   
   

9. Gosh so many dumplings! They look excellent! Suze you must be a fast learner as the dumpling evolution is amazingly quick!

   — Forager    Dec 2, 12:17 PM    #
   
   

10. Love the effort you put in to the rainbow cake. It’s awesome :)

    — Ellie    Dec 2, 01:28 PM    #
    
    

11. Love the amazing rainbow cake! And is that a Christmas tree I see? It’s that close to Christmas already? Aaarrrrrghhhh ….

    — joey@FoodiePop    Dec 2, 01:52 PM    #
    
    

12. omgg. nice cake! how did you do it? (:

    — lizzy    Dec 2, 02:15 PM    #
    
    

13. Wow, such a pretty cake! and look at all those dumplings! did you make the skins yourselves, or buy them?

    — Chris    Dec 2, 07:22 PM    #
    
    

14. Cool cake Suze! Dumplings looks good too ..

    — foodie-central    Dec 2, 09:41 PM    #
    
    

15. I love Helens cake. What a fun party. I love dumplings but I need to learn how to make them well.

    — katherine    Dec 2, 09:59 PM    #
    
    

16. YUM i love dumplings :) my brother makes very awesome panfried ones with a cabbage and pork filling, nom nom nom.

    — dea    Dec 3, 03:46 AM    #
    
    

17. Wow! Love the rainbow coloured-ness of the cake! =) I wish someone made one for me!!!! HAHA see you guys soon!

    — AY    Dec 3, 02:19 PM    #
    
    

18. WOW that is one awesome cake!!!

    — swee    Dec 3, 02:30 PM    #
    
    

19. My goodness that looked like so much fun! I love pleating dumplings, I find it quite soothing : )
    And that cake, holy moly you did such a great job!!!

    — Brenda    Dec 3, 05:50 PM    #
    
    

20. wow… whata cake!! LOOKS OMG.SO.GOOD.Pretty…. awww…welll doneee <3

    — rosha.    Dec 3, 09:27 PM    #
    
    

21. SO MANY DUMPLINGS!

    Your cake was so so so awesome, can’t believe you managed to make it in such a short time!

    — Yas @ hungry.digital.elf    Dec 3, 09:46 PM    #
    
    

22. helen: haha glad to make you your first novelty bday cake!
    simon: lol im such a dumpling noob haha
    minh: no probs dude! thanks for coming earli and chopping everything!
    marj: haha yes! i love the mixing bowl set! the small one is perfect for sauce and the middle one perfect for salads and large one for mixing stuff!
    penny: the steamer was 17bucks from homeart ahhh so cheap!
    betty: hehe thanks dude!
    rose: lol yeah it was my first time making dumplings!
    jacq: hehe need to use heaps of food colouring its scary!
    forager: hehe well its evolution of the first one, the 15th one and the 30th dumpling i made
    ellie: thanks dude! not sure if id do it again haha
    joey: haha i had so much fun picking out a new xmas tree for our house!
    lizzy: thanks will post up how i made it!
    chris: sadly we didnt have time to make the wrappers so just bought them
    foodie-central: thanks dude!
    katherine: hehe i had yas the dumpling master teach me lol
    dea: mmm panfried is just so so good :P
    ay: hehe i dont know if id make that cake any time soon but theres still hope lol
    swee: thanks dude!
    brenda: i loved the pleating bit too!
    rosha: haha thanks dude!
    yas: there was quite a bit of cursing involved hehehe

    — chocolatesuze    Dec 7, 11:53 AM    #