Vanilla bean macarons. I love their floral sweetness. I think I got the oven temperature/timing this time. First batch was too dark (too high temp), second batch underbaked (too short time) but the last batch was okay. It didnt brown that much! (: You cant see much of the vanilla bean seeds from the picture though.

More dark chocolate love! Valrhona Guanaja and Michel Cluizel 70%. I have completely run out of Valrhona chocolate /cocoa powder for baking though. So I hesitate to make anything chocolate now.

Orchard with cheryl charlene maisie yesterday. Early game plan at cine in the tiny theatre. In far east, there was a bird inside the shopping centre! Cheryl went to chase it away, but later it flew into a shop we were in. I think it was lost. Haha charlene was symphathetic.

Macarons from Paris!! Gift from aunt(: They are really really good, a assortment of different flavours (vanilla bean, dark chocolate, matcha, red bean, citrus, strawberry, coffee and some I cant identify). They look rustic, not like those with specimen types that are baked just for photoshoots. But they taste a million times better.

Raspberry chocolate cake. Chocolate genoise layers filled with mascarpone cream embedded with fresh raspberries, glazed with chocolate ganache and wrapped in a ruffled chocolate band and topped with some raspberries. Led to an once in a life time opportunity(:

Fresh mint ice cream with homemade fudgy chocolate chunks. Not like those neon green frozen confections, but infused with chopped mint leaves not flavouring. Very herbal, different taste sensation from after eights. Homemade chunks untempers the chocolate, so melts quicker in the mouth.

Hazelnut vanilla bean cheesecake with hazelnut shortbread crust. I found hazelnut butter(:

Honey oatmeal bread. I find this is the only bread that I keep making over and over again.

A million disasters this week, from uneven chocolate bands, cracked roulades, unset charlottes, thick sorbets. Inexperience plagues everything that I do.

Happy birthday Maisie Koh(:

Australia, more pictures



Movie World!


Superman the ride.

One foot in New South Wales: 10am, another foot in Queensland: 11am.

Skyrail.

Skyrail over Barron gorge tropical rainforest. Lets donate to save the rainforest! Andrea says, nope, I will just pray for it tonight.


Kauri pine, this one is not yet fully grown, the oldest we saw was 1100 years old.




Jacq(: With the cows at the chocolate and cheese factory.


Lake Barrine, one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

The cruise details

Bohemian Resort, luxury accomadation for affordable prices. Well its true thats its affordable, $26 for 6 people per night.

Yabby pumping.



Fed pelicans with stinky sardines.


Jamie Oliver tells us catches a crab with dead mullet fish.

A walk in the mangroves.

Whale-watching! We saw quite a few, and they keep 'waving' at us by slapping their pectoral fins on the water. Sze wing likes her ponytail.

Snorkelling at Wavebreak Island. Quite traumatic, it was so freezing cold even before we stepped into the water, the wind was really strong. Huddled around shivering in the boat, while we waited for our turn as the rest swam in the frigid waters. We did see some fish, but it was so murky and cold you couldnt really see anything.

Green Island jetty.

Snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef! Water is incredibly clear, you could see all the way to the bottom. We didnt know we were going to snorkel there at first. The GBR was a million times better than Wavebreak. There were hundreds of fish, too many kinds to count, of different sizes shapes and colours. Not only fish, but hard/soft coral, sponges, sea cucumbers, clams, jellyfish, sea grass and a supposed turtle. We also saw a car wash, in where small fish were clean a bigger fish, by pecking at its scales, even going inside its mouth to eat the dead matter, symbiotic. Fun part was following a greedy parrotfish, making really loud noises as it fed.