Chocolate Strawberry Custard Trifle

Yummy! Strawberry season is here. An easy and tasty dessert I'm sure many know how to make. Chocolate cake, masserated strawberries, custard and whipped cream make a great combination.

Liquor filled chocolates anyone?

Humm. Who says no to chocolate? This bit of tasty morsel was given to Reno Man and I from Chocolate Girl and LivingSword. It was a while back but I was saving it for a day just as today. The weather was lovely and sunny, beckonning us out on the deck to soak in the sunshine and take a little sweet to company us.

Now, this is not a block of chocolate that you can easily get because it has liqour in it, it is not found in our grocery stores. Chocolate Girl buys it from this place .... humm I can't remember where! But it sure tasted good.

Black Bottom Cup Cakes

I just couldn't resist these mouthwatering sight whose recipe comes from Eleanor's blog. I think hers turned out better or at least hers looks better through lenses. She was the one who directed me to Smitten Kitchen who is hosting the recipe. Really easy recipe and lots of helpful hints. I was really excited to taste them but I found that these need to get quite cool before they really show a good tasting. I did use a piping bag to pipe the filling into the cupcakes. I also made some large and some mini just to see which works better. I've only tried the mini ones and they are yummy... but only after they were well cooled. When they are just fresh out of the oven, they tend to taste a little cheesy, overpowering the chocolate.

Chocolate Iced Orange cake

Baking again! Every time I bake, I am not quite sure what will turn out. I made this for our bible study group as it was our turn to host. It had great reviews! When I want an easy cake, I usually use a cake mix. But ofcourse, I cannot just leave it as it is. I like to spiff it up a little to make it more unique and perhaps homemade like? So, I used an orange...
cake mix from Duncan Heinz. Here's a great tip if you want a nicely leveled cake. I have noticed that many cake mixes tend to errupt in the middle when it cooks. So I usually sift the whole mix before adding the wet ingredients. This always helps to balance out the baking powder and evenly spread throughout the cake well. Normally I add orange juice instead of milk or water. But I didn't have any at hand. Another good tip to keep the cake level even is to bake the cake at a slightly lower temperature and bake for a longer time. Once it was cool, I divided it into two and brushed it with a light orange syrup made with orange marmalade or sometimes I use Grand Marnier. Just a tablespoon will do. Then I used a chocolate butter icing for the filling and to ice the whole cake. I had strawberried at hand and used it to make the cake pretty. Next time instead of cutting the strawberries into half and decorating it, I will use the strawberries whole. I found that putting the inside of a halved strawberry on the icing, made the strawberry start to screte its moisture. Next time, chocolate dipped strawberries would be even better for decorating.

West Restaurant, Vancouver, BC

WOW! My hunny and I went to this restaurant last night and it was fabulous! We even managed to sit at the chef's table. Its a booth that is close to the kitchen where you can see all the action first hand. It was certainly like ... watching an episode of Hell's kitchen (with out the swearing) or Top Chef or Iron Chef. The restaurant was running like a well oiled machine. The food was fantastic! Probably one of the best meals I have ever had. The service was impecable. Check out their website at http://www.westrestaurant.com/

This was a special occasion for us celebrating the day we got registered for marriage in Malaysia. Its been 4 years and also 4 years since I moved to BC, Canada.

We ordered a bottle of red wine, first courses were seared Quebec foie gras with candied grapes, honeycombed wine and lime syrup (I love foie gras) and my hunny had the spotted prawns(photo on right). Both were excellent. Then for the main, I had the organic Peking duck 2 ways with seared foie gras, carmelized endive and apricot jus(photo on left below) and hunny had Alberta prime beef with a warm salad of wild mushrooms, horseradish chantilly and red wine jellies. Again, just wonderful tasting dishes. I didn't manage to get very good pictures with each dish so I'm just showing the ones I got best.

Then ofcourse we must have dessert. My hunny being a great fan of green tea ice cream had that and I had the chocolate tasting menu. Ah! Chocolate girl would have been envious. Each bit oozed of a version of chocolate. The flat piece of chocolate dessert is a chocolate torte with candied almonds. The middle is a chocolate espresso cake with Bailey's ice cream. The combination was just spectacular. And the little cup is Manjari chocolate cappucino with mocha espuma. I finished it off with a glass of Quail's Gate late harvest Reisling. They weren't stingy with the serving of this either! This was the icing on the cake! Oh! what an evening. We were totally satisfied. A high quality restaurant definately to be recommended, a place we will visit again.