OH HAI! Like my tshirt? It’s from the awesome Billy. And look I’m Asian and holding a giant camera! So about the title of this post… I’ve decided to close both the post and the comments cos things were going crazy and people were attacking each other left right and center. Time out guys! Everyone chill! Food should bring people together so move on!

OH HAI! Like my tshirt? It’s from the awesome Billy. And look I’m Asian and holding a giant camera! So about the title of this post… I got this pretty idiotic comment the other day on this post from “Jackie”: Why are all the food bloggers always asian? Even when i went to Adriano Zumbo’s patisserie on the w/e, every asian that was in that line had a professional camera in hand and taking photos like lunatics in there … please note i am asian so its not a racist thing. I just dont get it. Its annoying. We need variety.

Um. WTF??? Immediately my rage was unleashed on twitter land where it spread like wildfire through the blogger community. Seriously does it matter than I’m Asian? Dude I was born in Australia and I love it here Aussie pride all da way! If you don’t like reading my blog because of my Asian genes then go away cos there are plenty of other blogs out there for you. Blogging is a personal thing for all of us so attack one, attack us all. Don’t say you aren’t racist just because you are Asian and saying you need ‘variety’ has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard. You want variety? Go to a freaking supermarket and knock yourself out with all the ‘variety’.

Edit: time out time out! Comments are getting a lil nasty so i’ve closed them. Play nice kids! Yes some of us hang out with each other heaps and will probably post the same thing a bit too often but when that happens feel free to check out the rest of my blogroll for heaps of other awesome food bloggers! Noone’s forcing you to stay here, that is the beauty of the internet. Jump on by.

I Billy and The Pom invited a whole bunch of happy food bloggers to eat and be merry at their place on the Central Coast with the theme of Christmas in July. Although we mainly communicate with each other online it is always a blast to get together in real life.

After our drive up from Sydney we take a quick detour for some fish and chips for a late lunch and arrive to find Billy’s kitchen overflowing with worker bees putting the last touches on their food. A menu has been pre planned and each blogger has brought along a dish or two to save Billy from cooking non stop. Though that doesn’t stop him from going all out and creating a meat feast!

While the food is being plated up Minh wraps her Secret Santa gift

The Captain and Billy strike a pose in their finest daggy xmas jumpers

A platter of cheeses materialises from Shez including home made labna!

Billy has baked a beautiful bread wreath and what is even more beautiful is the tub of truffle butter oh baby

Helen’s salad is filled choc a block with huge chunks of roasted pumpkin and crumbly fetta and a sprinkle of almonds

Minh’s sweet corn veloute made from Etch’s recipe is smooth and tastes like 100 corn cobs have given up their souls to create this wonderfully fragrant soup

Behold the classic antipasto hedgehog! Shez and her VTB bring this spiky creation to the table with wide grins and we chortle with glee as we pull out skewers spiked with triple cream brie, olives, melon, tasty cheese and cabanossi

Karen’s oven-roasted mushrooms with garlic and thyme is a mushroom bonanza!

Billy’s caramelised onion and fetta tarts are so freaking moreish especially with the homemade buttery pastry that just melts in the mouth

The Pom likes his brussels sprouts plain and with vinegar but he has also very thoughtfully made another bowl filled with bacon bits. Helen says they’re like eating a mini cabbage and since it was my first time eating brussel sprouts I nod warily and spear a sprout. I don’t mind the taste and find the slightly bitter taste interesting but I have issues with the layers of leaves and have to eat them like Minh- pulling off each leaf layer by layer

Helen’s chicken liver pate is smooth and velvety and I sneakily load up each slice of bread with a huge splodge of the pate and butter. Recipe please!

There was a pause in the incoming of food so it’s time for a photo with humans!

Meatballs from Karen and Shaun elicit immediate calls of balls! Ballllllls! Yep this was the alcohol talking but they were tasty balls indeed

Simon has crumbed and pan-fried angel fish fillets which are golden and crunchy and disappear immediately

Jacq and Sir D serve slices of country chicken and mushroom pie made from Maggie Beer’s recipe. The pastry is golden and buttery, encasing soft chicken and mushroom innards

And finally the moment we have all been waiting for…

Billy’s sexy glazed ham! There was also fan-freaking awesome roast pork and duck fat roast potatos but I uh seem to not have taken their photos erm i am fail.

With stomachs at explodey point we push onto dessert and The Pom brings out one mother honking Christmas pudding and then sets it alight.

Woohoo fire! Flames! So pretty! Burn it baby yeah!

Steph’s strawberry trifle is creamy but light, the sponge layer melding happily with the strawberry jelly on the bottom

Shez’s eggnog bundt cake sparkles not like a certain sparkly vampire hurhur but with the glory that is sugar. The cakes innards are dense and studded with ruby red cherries

What is Christmas without playing Secret Santa?

It’s party time!

A round of alcohol fuelled Pictionary brings out our drawing skillz

While some have piked early

Karen brings out her selection of petit fours- rich and boozy rum balls, uber light passionfruit marshmallow squares and chewy buttery caramels topped with chocolate. The sugar rush sparks some 80’s music karaoke

Richard has brought a wheel of Fromages des Clarines and infused it with garlic, thyme and white wine and baked it until warm and gooey and oh so very melty and tasty. Oishii!

My contribution to the weekend is waking up early and making breakfast though I managed to rope in Simon and Richard to help out hehe thanks guys! We made ricotta pancakes with berries, creamy scrambled eggs and uber crispy bacon rashers. There was also a litre of butterscotch sauce and a bottle of maple syrup floating around because hey why not have some more awesomeness with your breakfast? It’s the most important meal of the day!

And I’ll end this post with a pic of me in my beanie holding some bacon. Mmm bacon. Super thanks again to Billy and The Pom for having us over! I <3 our family!

Why hello sexy cake! I <3 anything malt - Ovaltines, Milo, Horlicks and most definitely Maltesers and when I saw this Nigella Lawson malteser cake here I knew I had to make it. All dolled up and ready to hit the town this cake may look fabulous but unfortunately the time and amount of stuff I had to wash just did not measure up when trying the final product. I mean, it was tasty and all but I would have liked more of a malt taste and um less washing haha


Ingredients: 150g soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175ml milk
15g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Horlicks powder (or ovaltine)
175g plain flour
25g cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda


Preheat the oven to 170C Whisk together the caster sugar, brown sugar and eggs until light and frothy.


Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a small saucepan until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot but not boiling. See the amount of Horlicks there? Yeah I kinda misread the recipe and somehow managed to double the amount haha it was a bit hard to dissolve so much powder but I’m glad I did because the cake didn’t have that much of a malt taste even with the doubling of Horlicks.


Beat the milk mixture into the egg mixture a little at a time.


Sift in the dry ingredients and fold thoroughly. Split mixture into 2 sandwich cake tins and bake for 25 minutes, by which time the cakes should have risen and will spring back when pressed gently. (I found there wasn’t enough mixture for 2 tins and that it didn’t rise too much. Maybe double the recipe if you’re planning a super awesome high cake?)


I made a circle cake but also wanted to play with my heart cake tin


Time for da icing! Sift 250g icing sugar, 1 tsp cocoa, 45g Horlicks and beat with
125g soft unsalted butter until smooth. Add 2 Tbsp boiling water to the mixture if it’s not smooth and spreadable. Cut the cake in half and ice the middle, sandwich them back together and ice all around. If you plan on putting Maltesers on the side of your cake make sure the icing is thick enough so the Maltesers don’t fall off.


Mmm Malteser time! So I thought my cake would look awesome with Maltesers chopped in half but erm watch your fingers when chopping em! Once you’ve chopped a whole bunch of Maltesers go nuts and stick them onto the cake.


So the heart shape was probably not the best idea after I covered the sides with Maltesers halves lol think I went a little overboard&#8230;


Woohoo layer upon layer of Maltesers


The Malteser halves go soggy after about a day so try (!) and eat the cake on the same day or decorate it on the day. Not too happy about the recipe I reckon I’d try making a normal chocolate sponge cake and substitute the cocoa powder with Horlicks next time.