Can you believe it? Only 9 more days to Christmas! This month has absolutely flown by so fast that I’m super behind in opening my daily chocolate in my xmas chocolate calendar for shame!


Tho I did manage to score an early xmas pressie from noods hehe look matryoshka measuring cups! The 3 dolls when taken apart are 1/4, 1/3 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and 1 cup and fit inside each other perfectly! <3 it!


And the LAST Eveleigh Markets are on this Saturday at 243 Wilson St, Darlington (Adjacent to Carriageworks) from 8am-1pm and the LAST Thornleigh Market is this Sunday at Phyliss Ave, Thornleigh (Near Bunnings and McDonalds) from 8am-12pm (I’ll be there come say hi!)

Helen and I read alot of food blogs. 122 to be exact. After debating the feasibility of getting a big group together and tossing around locations we managed to organise Sydney’s biggest food bloggers meetup at Hyde Park.


50 awesome foodbloggers rocked up, bringing more food and drinks than we could possibly consume


Da food! Zomg so much food!


And another shot of the food from the other side&#8230;


A little pressed for time I stuck to the classic kids food of fairy bread, honey joys and chocolate crackles


Billy unveils his sexy 6 hour Momofuku slow roast pork and immediately a crowd gathers to claim a spot in front of him


The pork is fall apart tender and so very juicy. I uh didn’t take many photos of each dish because I was too busy eating lol my bad


Bloggers were instructed to bring a $10 pressie for our Kris Kringle with a twist. Everyone drew a random number and when it was their turn they could either select a pressie from the pile or steal someone else’s pressie! The Food Face plate was the most stolen item and guess who ended up with it&#8230;


HOHOHO! Thanks Lex for trading with me! I can’t wait to make a pea beard!


Richard, Yas, me, Amanda, Tim and Christina


Me, Jen, Trish


Lisa, Steph, me, Karen, Jacq with Yas sneaking in at the back of the pic haha


Time for eggnog!


Cheers!


(Photo from Simon) Thanks everyone for coming and bringing so much food! I had an awesome time putting a face to people’s blogs and look forward to seeing Sydney’s food blogger community continue to grow!

The 50 food bloggers that came were:
http://www.atablefortwo.com.au
http://www.aboutthefood.typepad.com
http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com
http://bethefoodie.com/
http://bellyrumbles.blogspot.com
http://www.chocolatesuze.com
http://citrusandcandy.com
http://www.eatshowandtell.com
http://www.lesbianham.com/foodfuckyeah
http://www.foodchaser.me
http://foragingotaku.blogspot.com
http://www.gourmetrabbit.com
http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com
http://www.herecomesthefood.com.au
http://hogletk.wordpress.com
http://blog.hungrydigitalelf.com
http://www.tummyrumble.net
http://inthedough.wordpress.com
http://www.jenius.com.au
http://www.ladyironchef.com (visiting from Singapore)
http://mirgraphy.wordpress.com
http://nomitlikeitshot.blogspot.com
http://passthepeas.wordpress.com
http://penguinsaysfeedme.blogspot.com
http://pigged-out.com
http://raspberricupcakes.blogspot.com
http://simonfoodfavourites.blogspot.com
http://souvlakiforthesoul.com
http://spicyicecream.blogspot.com
http://spoonforkandchopsticks.blogspot.com
http://www.spreadmybutter.com
http://sugarlace.fragiled.net
http://tinyurl.com/thedigestivetractblog
http://www.thefoodblog.com.au
http://theheartoffood.com
http://betty-thehungrygirl.blogspot.com
http://theninjareview.com
http://blogs.thewayitcrumbles.com
http://trissalicious.com
http://vuedecuisinier.blogspot.com
http://yayasyumyums.blogspot.com

A chocolate bowl! That’s right it’s made of chocolate! And filled with cubes of brownie, a handful of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and chocolate shavings mmm would you believe I made these bowls using balloons? I was totally fascinated after seeing this and thought hey that looks like fun without stopping to think about my dislike of popping balloons&#8230;


So I wanted about 20 chocolate bowls so grab some balloons and blow them up to the size you want your bowls to be. I used normal sized balloons. Water balloons may seem like a great idea if you want small bowls but they do not like being dipped in chocolate!


Melt some chocolate over a double boiler. I didn’t have 2 pots that were similar size so I heated the chocolate very very slowly over low heat stirring constantly to make sure the chocolate didn’t burn. I used about 1kg of chocolate for 20 bowls, made in 2 batches. Now the important part: leave the chocolate to cool! Pour into a bowl with a wide mouth and stir every couple of minutes. Do not attempt to dip balloon into chocolate that is hot or it will explode!


Lay out some baking paper.


Check your chocolate- is it still hot? Do not dip! I waited about 15mins for the chocolate to cool. Then grab a balloon and dip halfway and place on the paper. Don’t try and shake off excess chocolate because you want the excess chocolate to flow down and form a base for your bowl.


Hee balloons in a row. Let the chocolate on the balloons harden, if you’re short for time stick them in the fridge for 10minx MAX. Any longer and the chocolate will be hard to remove from balloon.


Time to stab your balloons! Using a knife didn’t really work and I had to use scissors which turned out to be good for my fear of the popping because it lets our the air with a whoosh than a pop. Carefully pull the balloon away from the bowl. Some of them disintegrated as soon as I stabbed them because the layer of chocolate wasn’t thick enough especially at the top edge.


Ack such a mess! But bowls galore! If there are any holes at the base of the bowl just patch them up with some chocolate


So fill your bowl with brownie pieces. I used this recipe


Add a handful of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries


A nice scoop of ice cream


And finally some chocolate shavings! Maybe next time (hah!) I would make a fudge or chocolate sauce mmm


Ahh so preeettty no? I used double cream at Ellie’s party


Heh last shot I promise


Remnants of balloon and chocolate explosion. After dipping 20 normal sized balloons successfully I thought I’d dip a water balloon for a mini bowl and POP the freaking balloon exploded and there was chocolate everywhere! This pic only shows the floor but ohmyfreakinggosh there was chocolate everywhere on the bench, on stove, on the walls and on me! Haha it just had to happen on the last balloon too! Ah wells it’s funny looking back I guess&#8230;

The lovely E had invited the girls over for lunch and so here we are- 15 foodbloggers, all armed with cameras. To some this would be a nightmare but for us this is normal. Foodbloggers partaking in the tastyness were: Belle, Betty, Helen, Jen, Karen, Leona, Linda, Minh & Teresa, Lisa, Steph, Trish and Trissa


Nasi lemak awaiting assembling. The beef rendang is perfectly tender and fragrant and we all loved munching on the ikan bilis. The pineapple slices are spiked with chilli but are sweet and refreshing.


Chicken wings


Trissa’s fantastic smokey chorizo


Minh’s risoni and bean salad covered in crumbly, salty feta


And then dessert time! Heh heh we kinda went overboard with the desserts&#8230;


Karen had originally brought profiteroles along and was peer pressured into turning it into a croquembouche! A bit of help from Linda the sugar master and magically a tower of profiteroles was formed, sugar boiled and threads of toffee spun around creating a golden masterpiece complete with a toffee star! Baklava was also brought by Jen and Minh


Helen made popcorn cupcakes! And they were topped with a buttery salty icing that had me smacking my lips for more


Linda’s lemon tart had already been half demolished by the time I arrived and after taking one bite I was in heaven. Oh and there was a bowl of honey cream that I totally could have eaten single handedly


E’s incredible fudgey chocolatey brownie topped with Reese’s peanut butter cups. I managed to sneak half the tray home hehe thanks E!


Belle’s muffins and sadly I forgot to take a photo of her awesome salted caramels. They were so good man! I need to buy a sugar thermometer and make these babies so i can have them all to myself hoho


Trish’s martian jelly. The grass jelly was super refreshing and hehe I loved the lurid greeness!


Lisa’s zingy lemon tart


Teresa made giant chocolate covered strawberries


Trissa’s hazelnut chocolate tart


Leona brought the prettiest cupcakes from Ghermez


Tarts! Betty brought these babies from Bourke St Bakery


And i made chocolate bowls filled with brownies, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries and topped with double cream. I’ll post how I made the chocolate bowls on Friday heh heh it involves balloons 😛