Egg tart turned strawberry cake

My sister CW wanted to learn how to make egg tarts before I head off to Sydney, so we went to buy evaporated milk and came back home to find that there was no plain flour....so we improvised lol and looked through a recipe book to find a simple butter cake & to make it different we threw in strawberries!

The cake turned out nice with the layers of strawberries inside the cake, not too mushy not too hard it was great and everyone at home gave great feedback =)


This cake was nice warm, even better with a dop of yogurt or cream. I would definately use this recipe again and perhaps try with other fruits/fillings.

Macaroons

While in Sydney, Marcus work gave them a little present and that little present was:


Macaroons.....pretty little cookies that is sweet and light and when bitten into, the cookie melts in the mouth...YUM!

The many different colours represent different flavours and all were delicious!

Exploring Sydney food

During our short time in Sydney before we had to decide to move there we had a great time makan - ing with our NZ friends Eunice & Kerhan who moved to Sydney not too long ago they brought us to this place to have really good indonesian food! There were the usual fried chicken and I had dry mince noodles and hubby had fried kuay tiew. The dishes was very tasty and came out relatively quickly too. The restaurant was packed at 6pm when the doors opened so it must be good! I don't know the name of the place but will try to find out? lol




To finish off the trip we had dinner at this place called PLATE by Darling Harbour & also to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary. The food was alright, had a lychee martini too which was not as nice as Singapore's Clark Quay




Looking forward to many more good food to try in Sydney!

Christmas Day

Spending time with family & friends is such an important feeling and place to be at Christmas. Christmas is really demonstrated by the love of God that he gave his only son to come to earth so that we may have life and to have it to the fullest, although there are many times I do not live to that fullest.

Christmas is also where there is an over abundance of food, and good food...food that are home made and always taste better than outside! I had so much food over the last few nights it's crazy! No wonder people always have new year resolution of being healthy, losing weight etc lol must be all the food during this season!

Anyways talking about food, here is a Christmas cake that my sister in law Charmaine baked & Siaw Hui decorated it with beautiful choir boys and a tree. It was VERY impressive! Well done girls!


The figurines:


The inside of the cake:


We were blessed to be able to join Dorin & Jeff's family at their new home and taste her mum's great baking! Fruit cake to me has not always been at the top of my favourite cake list although I must say after trying this one that she made...I think i'll only come back for this! It's light and moist, and taste between malay cake and fruit cake....and without any shame, I had to take some back with me!


A more tradional fruit cake:


and you can't get away without the good old bbq!


Merry Christmas!

Transition

It's been awhile since I've last blogged about food, that's because I guess I've been away and living in my own world of transition.

It's been 2 weeks now that I know for sure we are leaving for Sydney. The decision making process, the worries and excitement were all hard to digest in the first few days. However, now it just feels like a long transition period of waiting...waiting to go there and get settled. I know I should enjoy this period of not worrying about being in a new place and getting to spend time with family & friends here.


Many doors were closed here and when the opportunity to move to Sydney for hubby's work came up it was a quick and peaceful decision...well it had to be quick anyway because hubby only had 4 days to decide!

During this I learnt and got reminded that

1) When God closes the doors I don't need to be dismay but to keep living and trust that he has the best time and season for us to live in as he knows best.

2) God never threw us into the deep end. When he asks us to step out onto the water, he just wants see our heart of surrender and our trust in him. Leaving Auckland is definately not easy for me as I've always been here, my childhood, my family, my friends, my church, my life. It seems easier to just stay where I feel comfortable. This is when my heart says it's time to step out and expand my territory!

3) When God moves and opens a door he moves fast,he won't wait around until we are ready to say yes or make our move...so don't miss the oportunity but in his peace take up the faith and GO!

4) He is more concern about us in the process of how we made the decision rather than the outcome.

I'm sure there are many more lessons learnt & will update on progress and updates on our move.

As for food and all, Sydney has so much more variety than in Auckland & not a surprise I've already sussed out most of the asian bakeries!