Helen's B'day- Porchetta at Signorelli Gastronomia, Pyrmont + the Very Hungry Caterpillar cake

26 November 2010, 05:27

There’s nothing I love more than celebrating friend’s birthdays and when there is a giant porchetta in store you just know you’re in for deliciousness. Helen had booked 6 weeks in advance for a porchetta feast for her b’day and when there is promise of pig, food bloggers go a lil nuts and words like porktastic and porkalicious gets bandied about. I like the word bandied. It sounds like candied.


But first, the night begins with drinks. Happy hour at Bartino’s (9 Union St, Pyrmont) meant a round of Sangrias, vodka & cranberry’s and the famed cachaça, an alcoholic beverage so potent it knocks out our normally alcohol tolerant Minh who cackles about a creature called the sharktopus. Long story.


We manage to stumble over to Signorelli Gastronomia (Accenture building – ground floor Trouton Place, 48 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont) ready for our piggy feast ($55 p.p for pig & veg) where we are greeted by Betty, Ellie, Howard, Linda and Qing, John, Lex, Rita, Sara, Shez, Simon, Yas and spoonfuls of seared tuna with orange.


Wooden platters bearing paper thin slices of Wagyu bresaola and Capocollo make the rounds


Uber fragrant garlic pizza


Prosciutto di Parma pizza


Margherita Pizza covered in molten cheese


But we are all waiting for the porchetta and when it is proudly brought to us we erupt with cheers. Oh Trevor (yes they named him for us) you are looking so mighty fine.


Faster faster! The 9.5kg piggy had been deboned of its ribcage, stuffed full of pork neck, garlic, pepper and herbs before being rolled up again and roasted. Trevor was taken to the counter at the front of the room about 2m away and the porky goodness was soon divided into 3 platters.


Table shot! There was also mixed leaf salad and brussel sprouts for some ahem, healthiness…


The head, trotters and snout make it’s way around the table and it’s not long before all the crackling is stolen and stomachs clutched in defeat tho luckily we are given boxes to takeaway our precious meat.


The staff surprise Helen with a complimentary dessert and it doesn’t take much urging to get us all to burst into a rowdy happy birthday before all cameras are pointed at her ahahaha her turn to be in front of the camera but lol i haz to blur her face or she’ll hurt me :P


Some of us depart into the night while the rest of us wander down the wharf where I set up Helen’s ‘cake’ hee it’s a Very Hungry Caterpillar! I first saw this done on Coco Cake Cupcakes and wanted to give it a try since I knew Helen had a soft spot for this character. The cupcakes were vanilla with green tea buttercream frosting, green tinted coconut for the caterpillar’s fur, the head is a mini vanilla cake covered in fondant and the legs and antennae were cut from licorice and skewered with toothpicks. I had to use a black foam board cos the art shop ran outta white boards so the legs don’t stand out as much boo


Strike a pose!


♥


Cheers! Happy birthday Helen hope you had an awesome day!

1. Yum!! That all sounds so delicious! I can’t believe it was a whole pig, you must have got so much crackle off that, my husband would be in heaven.

   I love your little caterpillar, SO CUTE!

   I looks like a very fun night :)

   — Gourmet Getaways    Nov 26, 07:36 AM    #
   
   

2. I’m so sad I missed out on all the fun! That piggy looks insanely good and your cupcakes turned out SO effing cute! And you made him green tea flavoured, love!!

   — Steph    Nov 26, 11:34 AM    #
   
   

3. oohhh.. the crackling must be awesome! lovely cupcakes..

   — Melissa    Nov 26, 11:42 AM    #
   
   

4. I love the caterpillar! It’s such a simple idea but so awesome!

   — vxdollface    Nov 26, 11:45 AM    #
   
   

5. HAPPY Birthday Helen, ohhhhhhhhhh , oh ohhh, ok- enough with the singing. I’m sure you get renditions of Happy Birthday Helen all the time, but i’ve never actually said it to a Helen before.

   Love the photo of Rita chomping on some pork. Respect!

   — Gastronomy Gal    Nov 26, 12:11 PM    #
   
   

6. ooooh cool cake!

   — Fiona    Nov 26, 12:25 PM    #
   
   

7. HUMANS!! I love humans – especially the food blogger kind :D You guys all look so gorgeous – even the manly mens look lovely.

   Awesome cupcake cake and HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELEN ♥♥

   — Margaret | fangirlish    Nov 26, 12:27 PM    #
   
   

8. spectacular pig + caterpillar! looks like a wonderful place.

   — tanja    Nov 26, 12:35 PM    #
   
   

9. Happy birthday Helen!
   Food looked awesome….drooling now thanks LOL!
   And that cake – very clever!

   — Brenda    Nov 26, 12:53 PM    #
   
   

10. Awesomest cake ever. Thanks for being such a fab friend – there is not enough cheese in the world that could describe my gratefulness for our antics. Lol. Was a fantastic night with super company. Including Trevor :)

    — Helen (grabyourfork)    Nov 26, 12:56 PM    #
    
    

11. I love your hungry caterpillar!!! I have to make this for work! (I’m a kids librarian!)

    — Shann    Nov 26, 01:38 PM    #
    
    

12. Aw, what a wonderful night of celebrating Helen’s marvellousness! As someone who gets giggly on one glass of wine, I’d definitely have had to avoid the cachaça… but what I wouldn’t‘ve have given to steal a Hungry Caterpiller cupcake! Well done indeed, Suze :)

    — Hannah    Nov 26, 01:44 PM    #
    
    

13. Oh damn, I’m upset that I left just before that caterpillar was unveiled. How silly of me!! And mmm…. Trevor was tasty :D

    — Betty @ The Hungry Girl    Nov 26, 01:44 PM    #
    
    

14. Trevor was truly delicious and we are all so crackling mad aren’t we :)

    Your caterpillar birthday cake(s) looks so awesome, sorry I had to leave and missed out :(

    — Sara @ Belly Rumbles    Nov 26, 01:46 PM    #
    
    

15. Nooooo so sad I missed out on Trevor and your awesome cake! I’m so hungry for suckling pig now…

    — Jacq    Nov 26, 02:40 PM    #
    
    

16. So much sadness to miss out on this epic feast. The caterpillar cake is uber awesome and cute! Happy birthday Helen :D

    — Phuoc'n Delicious    Nov 26, 03:03 PM    #
    
    

17. So much piggy loooooove! Especially for the sexy leg =p

    — mademoiselle delicieuse    Nov 26, 03:42 PM    #
    
    

18. Oh, poor Trevor. He looked like such a happy (and tasty) piggy! So much crackling…I would’ve hogged it all for myself.

    I LOVE the Hungry Caterpiller…well done! You’re just like the Cake Boss.

    — MelbaToast    Nov 26, 07:26 PM    #
    
    

19. Awww, how cute is the VH caterpillar?! Happy birthday to Helen.

    — shaz    Nov 27, 12:42 AM    #
    
    

20. Love it! Am bookmarking that cupcake combination for my first child. Seriously. Divine.

    — Tori @ Eat-Tori    Nov 27, 03:29 AM    #
    
    

21. “It walks! It was walking!” SHARKTOPUS!!

    Lol Minh… and to the rest of you and birthday girl Heren = <3 <3

    — Karen | C&C    Nov 27, 03:34 AM    #
    
    

22. Hahahahha awesometimmmesss! But sif not use our boy band pose!

    — FFichiban    Nov 28, 11:16 AM    #
    
    

23. How good does Trevor look? Looks like he died a worthwhile death and was appreciated by many hungry people!

    — forager @ The Gourmet Forager    Dec 1, 12:48 PM    #