Friday, April 30, 2010

The Cupcake Collection, Christchurch


You might have thought you'd already read about all my possible food escapades from last weekend's trip to Christchurch - well, you thought wrong. ;-) The dinner at Cook 'N' With Gas, Michelle's awesome well-digging cupcakes, brunch at Drexels, the Denheath custard square - not enough for me!

This was actually the long-awaited and hoped-for foodie destination of the day - The Cupcake Collection, in Beckenham. I have tried their cupcakes before - they've had a store frontage in Beckenham for a couple of years and have been at the Canterbury A&P Show - but have recently moved into a newly built store (the old row of shops it used to be in was bowled over) and now have room to sit and enjoy your sweet treats.

It's ridiculously adorable:


The tables all have spotted cloths on them, and doilies on top, then a glass top so the doilies stay pristine (annoying things normally, doilies - under a sheet of glass seems a good place for them!).

First we had to choose our cupcakes from the array of delicious-sounding options - made a bit easier by going at the end of the day when some choices were sold out but still a tough choice!


I got the very last chocolate cupcake with white chocolate icing. It was delicious! Especially the icing, mmm. And a lovely little puddle of berry-y goodness nestled on top to cut through the rich, sweet, chocolatey flavours. This is a perfect cupcake for me - and Mr Cake thinks this is ridiculous - but I think milk chocolate and white chocolate, in the same mouthful, is one of the best food combinations around. It's tricky, though - because it makes me want to buy two chocolate bars at a time, so I can mix - but I don't want to eat two whole chocolate bars. Also, as Mr Cake can attest, there's a finely tuned ratio which must be adhered to - about 1.5 squares of white chocolate to 1 of milk choc - creates havoc when I've counted out the pieces and he nicks one! Anyway, this cupcake was great because the icing has a richer flavour than the cake (as you'd expect), so even though volumetrically the proportions were wrong in taste they were just right.

Is Mr Cake right that I'm weird, or are there others out there like me, who mix their chocolates?


Mr Cake chose this fruity-delicious creation - a tangy passionfruit cupcake. The fruity topping was zingy and well-approved by Mr Cake, and the cake was moist and tasty - a great afternoon tea. It was gobbled down very quickly.


I also had an iced chocolate, and it was delicious, though I would call this a thickshake rather than an iced chocolate. I'm not sure of the technical definition but to me an iced chocolate either has to be super, super thick, or be reasonably thick with a scoop of ice-cream in it (not blended through, that = thickshake). I guess this could be controversial, though - does anybody have a clearer definition? Anyway, the drink was delicious, whatever it was.


Mr Cake had a chai latte, which also went down well - especially since it was pouring down outside - a lovely warming, cheering drink for a miserable afternoon.

My one complaint was that we were given the cupcakes when we ordered, but the drinks didn't come for a while, so we had all demolished our cupcakes completely by the time the drinks came - I'd prefer to have them together. I guess it's my own fault for not being able to wait to dig into that delicious cupcake, though. ;-)

All in all it was a lovely experience - a great little place to sit and watch the world go by, armed with cupcake. I highly recommend it!



The Cupcake Collection is located at 140 Colombo Street (on the corner of Tennyson Streets),  Christchurch. It's open 10.30am-5.30pm weekdays and 10.30am-3.30pm weekends, ph 03 332 8432.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Ultimate Custard Square Hunt - Denheath Custard Squares

Controversial, possibly, but I think they're delicious, and haven't had one for ages so had to find an excuse to sample one for my blog. ;-)

Denheath is a company based in Timaru in the South Island - originally it was based in a little town called Pleasant Point, which is not too far from Timaru, but they proved too popular and the operation was scaled up.

They actually have a bit of a range, but for today I'll just tell you about the standard custard square, which is all we had this time (sadly). They sell direct from their website, and also into lots of cafes across New Zealand (although I'm yet to find a cafe in Wellington that sells them - but I know all the good Christchurch spots so managed to seek one out last weekend).


The controversial part of these delectable treats is that filling is light and fluffy - like a custard mousse or something! So some people (including some of you!) consider them to be imposters, posing as custard squares. Well, I do like a good, traditional custard square - but I also happen to think these are absolutely delicious. I love the light, fluffy filling - it makes them very desserty, these have to be eaten with a fork or spoon - and the coconut on top adds another dimension to the delicious vanilla icing.


I give the Denheath custard square a generous 9/10 - it's close enough to custard to convince me, utterly delicious, and has all that delicious coconut on top. What's not to like? ;-)

Who can give me suggestions of where to get my next custard square from?



Denheath custard squares are available from www.denheath.co.nz or from various retailers around New Zealand - see the website for details. Coffee Culture stores (mainly in Christchurch) often stock them.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Graduation Brunch at Drexels

On the morning of our graduation we were invited to brunch at Drexels by a uni friend - and do I ever turn down a meal out? I do not!


I'd never eaten at Drexels before but know plenty of people who think it's pretty good, so was looking forward to it. I knew I'd be eating a lot for dinner, so even though brunch wasn't until 10.45 I decided I'd better forego breakfast and make it a two-meal day - still probably ate too much overall, though!

They brought out toast for the table, which was pretty cool - I wasn't expecting that!


I was tempted to order the orange french toast topped with peaches, but that was Mr Cake's choice so I let him have it (I know I'd get to share anyway - I usually won't order the same as him since if I do I only get to try one dish!). The toast is sold by the piece (about $7 a piece, I think, Mr Cake had two), which is cool, because you can choose to have, say one bit of french toast and one pancake - unfortunately I obviously didn't have my smart hat on because I didn't even think of doing that when I ordered - I guess I could have tried four different things if we'd been more creative!

The toast was infused with orange, which was not super zingy but added a nice extra flavour. The bread was thick and spongy and delicious - and I love fruit with my french toast so I liked the peaches too. It was a pretty big plate - Mr Cake couldn't finish it which was fairly surprising. He had already had breakfast and morning tea but still...


I chose blueberry pancakes (2, again about $7 each) and real maple syrup and yoghurt, which were a couple of dollars each extra (you could have fake maple syrup for no extra but I really don't like it - yes, I'm a maple syrup snob, definitely) but well worthwhile. They were pretty good - again, massive, soft and lovely when smothered in maple syrup and yoghurt. ;-)

The best part, though, had to be catching up with friends. Tasty food is just a bonus!



Drexels Breakfast Restaurant is located on Rotherham Street, Christchurch (there's also one in central Christchurch), ph 03 343 3403

Why Garage Sales Are Awesome

I saw on my friend (and blog reader) Michelle's Facebook page last week that she was planning a garage sale to raise money to sink a well in India. It just happened to coincide with our weekend in Christchurch. She also coincidentally lives just around the corner from Mr Cake's parents' place, where we were staying - so bright and early on Saturday morning we took a stroll.

She was also asking questions about my chocolate surprise cupcakes last week... Guess what else she was selling in her garage sale? ;-)


Needless to say, I had to have some, strictly for research purposes (well, it was almost morning tea time!). Nice work, Michelle, they were super tasty - they all vanished very quickly (I did share, I promise), the cake was lovely and moist and the icing was sugary delicious. I hope you raised lots for your good cause!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Baking Blitz - Mini Scones

For today's mad dash attempt to bake something in my lunch hour a workmate had suggested I go with savoury scones. I thought it was a good idea but my sweet tooth is not that easy to dissuade - so I figured I'd make some sweet and some savoury.



I have a confession to make - I really like fresh, warm, homemade scones - but I don't like making them all that much because they're just so messy!

I made one batch of a basic scone mixture, then divided it in two and added cheese and cumin to one batch and chocolate chips to the other. Simple and tasty. 


I sorta missed most of the photogenic stages of preparation due to having hands coated in sticky dough - if Mr Cake had been around I would have asked him to step in (he takes prettier pictures than I do anyway), but since it was the middle of the day he was at work... Ah well, I'll cut to the money shot:


I used a square cutter to make small, bite-sized scones. I sprinkled paprika on top of the savoury ones, and dipped the sweet ones in milk then in cinnamon sugar before baking.

The sweet ones definitely won the taste contest - I actually ended up bringing some of the savoury ones home (which actually worked out perfectly as they went really well with the soup we had for dinner) which is pretty much unheard of at my work.

I don't use a recipe, really, but the basic quantities were something like 4 cups of flour, 4 teaspoons of baking powder, rub in 150g butter until well combined (recipes always say until it resembles breadcrumbs but I don't see it!), then add milk gradually to make a dough. Then add flavours as desired - I usually add mustard to cheese scones but forgot today in my mad dash. About 1/2 a cup of grated cheese would be about right for this quantity, or an equivalent amount of chocolate chips. Shape as desired (the normal way would just be to roll it flat and cut with a knife) then bake in a 180 C oven - for tiny ones like mine, about 8 minutes should do it, and as they get bigger it takes longer - stick a sneaky knife in one to test if you're unsure about their readiness. :-)

What shall I make next week?

Monday, April 26, 2010

Cook 'N' With Gas

Mr Cake and I both graduated from Canterbury University on Friday - Mr Cake with a B.Com (Hons) and me with a plain old B.Com. Since such occasions are a great excuse for dining out we sought out (with a bit of help from our trusty Entertainment Book!) a nice restaurant for a long, delicious dinner with our families. We settled on Cook 'N' With Gas, as I had heard it was good and it's handily located in the centre of Christchurch.


The restaurant is on Worcester Boulevard, opposite the Arts Centre. At night they light the big torch in the middle of the courtyard so you can't miss it!

The restaurant is a converted villa and still divided into rooms (though somewhat open-plan) and has a very relaxed atmosphere - perfect for a somewhat rowdy dinner for ten!


Instead of tablecloths, the tables are covered with thick paper, which is stamped with the restaurant's logo. Pretty cool, and also came in handy mid-meal when we had a debate on the spelling of idyll (it can be either idyl or idyll and still be acceptable, apparently).


I was also pretty impressed that they obviously had me in mind when they chose their drink specials. ;-) I had a Mt Rosa riesling and it was very nice. Plus, I am now in the draw to win an 'ideallic' (that's where our aforementioned spelling debate originated) weekend away.


Having such a large group we had a pretty good variety of dishes, so I have lots of photos today. First on the menu is my hot smoked venison. The plate was loaded with lovely flavours - the avocado was delicious, and I could have eaten much more of it with the crisp lavosh. There was a lovely grilled tomato, and the best pickles I've ever tasted (I'm not normally a pickle fan). And the venison was pretty good, too (I jest, it was great).


The chicken liver parfait came with beetroot chutney, ciabatta, apple and rocket and though I didn't get to try this I definitely heard appreciative sounds coming from the owner of this plate!


The most interesting starter was the pea and ham soup - the bowls came out with a small pile of lentils, leek and chorizo, and a smear of mustard and tomato - then the waiter came out and ladled the soup over the top. I think my dad was a bit worried he was only getting lentils for a moment or two. I also have to point out at this point that our waiter was fantastic, and not only was he very friendly and helpful throughout our meal he also helped me take photos - pretty much the food blogger's dream waiter.


The last of the starters, this was Mr Cake's choice - and I think he was on the money, because it was amazing! The description was "Harissa and potato mazigran filled with braised mushrooms and thyme with cream fraiche and tomato fondue" - but basically it was a big ball of yum. I didn't get very much because it was too good to share (also my food was so good I forgot to steal) but the mushroom I had tasted like it had been steeped in tomato for, oh, a year or two, and it was like magic. The ball had a crust and then there were more mushrooms hidden in the middle. It was very, very good - and a vego dish! It always makes me happy when the vegetarian dishes are as good as the meaty ones - there are so many more flavours in vegetables than in meat it seems silly that so many restaurants fail at veggie fare.

Onto the mains:


I had the duck (I know, I had the duck at Logan Brown only a week ago - but half the table, including Mr Cake, had already chosen the pork, which was my first choice), and it was really good. It came with lovely little dumplings, and the meat was tender and delicious. I'm not a huge parsnip fan so didn't like the mash too much but the rest was great - and the serving was very generous (I definitely ate too much as it was) so probably a good thing that I didn't lick my plate clean!


Mr Cake (and literally half the table) had this tasty-looking belly of pork. I think the selling point was the "x-factor" sauce (in fact, Mr Cake had decided about a week beforehand that he had to have the x-factor sauce so just as well the website menu was up to date!) but it's also pretty hard to pass up crackling. The meat was tender with nice crispy skin. It was served with truffled kumara and olive whip, which was delicious - according to Mr Cake the only bad thing was that the x-factor sauce didn't have enough x. I rather suspect they don't intend for patrons to plan their meals a week ahead on the sole basis of the sauce!


The seafood dish (roasted NZ king salmon with kelp pepper on smoked Warehau and pea risotto, with grilled prawn) was gobbled up keenly - I have no doubt it was delicious but I can't tell you so you'll have to go and try it for yourself. ;-)


The desserts were all pretty good - the classic chocolate dessert had marsala chocolate marscapone mousse, which was pretty tasty, smooth and delicious, and had morello cherries studded through it.


The "Paris-Brest" - a warm choux bun with cream, strawberries, kiwifruit, banana and butterscotch sauce, was also hungrily devoured - again, I didn't try any but you have to admit it looks pretty good!


Mr Cake went with his old favourite of sticky date pudding with caramel ice-cream. The pudding was actually ginger, with Drambuie dates served with it - I thought it was great but then, I love ginger - Mr Cake was a bit sad there weren't dates all through it but still really enjoyed it.


My dessert was the burnt southern cream - a very lemony creme brulee, basically. I really liked this, though it was very sweet (but I love sugar), although I did think it was a bit too runny (maybe because it's in such a wide bowl and heated up too much when they burnt the sugar? But the upside of that is more crunchy sugar topping).

All in all, it was an amazing meal - we spent over three hours enjoying our dinner, and we were all amazed at the end of the night when we looked at the time to see how it had flown. The waiter was amazing - his name was Tim, so thanks Tim! - very tolerant of our strange behaviour, between taking photos of the food, drawing on the table, and making make-believe trenchers to recreate the graduation experience for the siblings who were working during the day! The food was great, and the atmosphere was perfect for a group - not so noisy we couldn't hear each other but not so quiet we felt we had to hush.

Definitely highly recommended!




Cook 'N' With Gas is located at 23 Worcester Blvd, Christchurch, ph 03 377 9166, www.cooknwithgas.co.nz

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Lunch at Chow

A workmate is getting married today and to celebrate we had a workday lunch at Chow on Tory Street earlier in the week.


We chose to dine from a $25 lunch menu, which included miso soup, a salad (either chicken or pumpkin), a main dish from a selection of 7 or 8, and a drink (house wine, beer or a strombolano).


I did suffer quite a bit of mocking from my workmates for whipping the camera out, so please forgive this blurry pic - I was simultaneously trying to defend my geeky blogging habit so wasn't concentrating on the camera! The miso was fine - not too exciting, but nice to start with.


For my salad option I chose the pumpkin one and it was amazing! The greens were delicious - lots of flavour in the greens, plus a lovely dressing and the pumpkin was roasted and tossed through it, as were pumpkin seeds. It was really, really good. I heard similarly appreciative noises coming from colleagues who'd chosen the chicken salad, but I can't see how boring old chicken could have beaten the pumpkin. ;-)


My main dish (though they were served together anyway) was the green jungle curry. It doesn't look that fantastic but it was pretty yummy - again I had chosen a vegetable option. I'm not a huge fan of beans in most cases, and I felt that in this case they didn't add anything - I would have preferred it without them. But all the other vegies were lovely - and the green curry went beautifully. It was quite mild, but deliciously creamy and perfectly complemented the roasted veg. I have to admit the salad won slightly over this - and because I really liked the salad I had scoffed the lot before starting on this so didn't quite get through it all. Mr Cake thanked me though; he got the leftovers for his dinner. ;-)

To drink I had the Strombolano, which is a fruit cocktail (mocktail, I guess, since it's non-alcoholic). It contained pineapple, orange, cranberry and lemon juice and was garnished with orange, mint and an artificial cherry... And it was delicious. I would love another of those right about now.

So all in all, a great meal (and great value, at $25 for the lot). Will definitely have to visit Chow again - their bar snacks look amazing, too, and they have a pretty extensive cocktail menu - if the cocktails are as good as the Strombolano they can't go wrong!



Chow restaurant is at 45 Tory Street, Wellington, ph. 04 382 8585, www.chow.co.nz

Friday, April 23, 2010

Milk Ice-Cream

We tend to make most of the ice-cream we eat ourselves, since homemade is generally much yummier (and you can eat less of it, as it's richer, so you don't have to feel as guilty). I have a book of ice-cream recipes, and will definitely post on some of those sometime - but to make a proper ice-cream you have to make a custard, then chill it for 8+ hours before you churn it. This recipe, however, involves throwing four ingredients in a bowl, mixing them together then churning straight away. 


The inspiration for making this batch was the brownies - though the ones I took to work were demolished pretty quickly, I had some edges and broken bits of brownie languishing on the bench, and thought they'd go perfectly, when warmed, with a cool, icy milk ice-cream. The recipe, originally from Not Quite Nigella, is the easiest thing in the world; 3/4 cup sugar; 3 Tbsp milk powder; 2 cups milk; 1 cup cream. Put it in a bowl, mix to combine, then put it in the (pre-chilled) ice-cream maker and churn it for about half an hour.


Unfortunately this is a recipe that really does need an ice-cream maker; since it's mostly milk it needs a lot of agitation while it's freezing to prevent it turning into a solid lump, so unless you want to be opening and closing your freezer every five minutes for a couple of hours the old-fashioned way probably isn't going to work so well. :-(

When you take it out of the ice-cream maker it'll probably still be pretty sloppy, but will freeze up nicely:


It was an excellent dessert!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Ultimate Custard Square Hunt - New World Wellington City

We are lucky enough to live within a five minute walk of our supermarket - and that supermarket happens to be pretty awesome, primarily because it has fantastic custard squares - and what more could you want, right?

Since I'm on the hunt for the best custard square I can find I thought I'd better get this one into the running early; at least three different people have told me how awesome they are (and I had already discovered them, I know my priorities when finding my way around a new city!).


Meet the deli counter. Look at all the luscious foods it holds. Behold the quiches, the pastries, the slices.


And then there's the sweet side! Straight away you can identify the custard squares; they're the gigantic, completely un-dainty looking slabs of sugary goodness bang in the middle of the cabinet. I must try some of the other goodies on offer here, but so far only the custard squares have drawn my attention.


There's a close up. As you can see, we once again have the option of chocolate or vanilla icing. We did actually try the chocolate one not long after we moved: I'm not a fan. I love chocolate, yes, but I'll skip the cocoa-infused icing tainting the top of my custard square, thanks very much.  ;-)


The nice deli man gave us our custard square, and we paid the low, low price of $2.80 for... A custard behemoth! Seriously, that thing is huge. It's about twice as tall as the Cozy Cake Shop one, for starters (mmm, more custard). So we cut it in half:


Oops, guess I didn't cut them as evenly as I thought. ;-) Or did I do that on purpose? Hardly matters though; even a half is pretty huge:


So now for the taste test. I reeeeeeeeally like these custard squares (though I actually think a quarter would be a better serving size!). The custard is firm enough to stay together but also quite creamy - tastier custard - I'm going to give it 8/10 - and nice crisp pastry (these ones are edible using a fork, which helps keeping things civil!). The icing is a bit too sugary but still tops off the package nicely. And they are massive - if anyone can eat a whole one in one go I take my hat off to them. ;-)


All in all, a pretty good custard square. I think I need to actually rate them, so I'm going to posthumously give the Cozy Cake Shop square a 7/10, and this one, which has better custard and pastry, is going to get an 8/10.

We'll be in Christchurch this weekend so I'm hoping to track down a Denheath custard square for next week's analysis - I know you can get them mail order (which is awesome) but I kinda don't want the temptation of 12 of them in my freezer. ;-)



Wellington City New World is located at 279 Wakefield Street, Wellington, and is open 7 days, 7am-midnight. Website: http://www.wgtncitynewworld.co.nz/html/home.htm

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Logan Brown - Mr Cake's other birthday celebration meal

To properly celebrate Mr Cake's birthday on Saturday I had secretly booked a table for us at Logan Brown for dinner. Not that his English muffin lunch wasn't delicious... But I figured the professionals could probably do it better than I could.

After Mr Cake got over the initial shock of being inside what is arguably Wellington's best restaurant we took stock of our surroundings - it's a lovely restaurant, set in an old 1920s banking chamber. It was 'atmospherically lit' so my photos aren't too great but it has a lovely feel, the building is beautiful, and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

We ordered our food and the waitress brought out a koha, or gift from the kitchen (what you'd normally call an amuse bouche - a tiny taster to get the palate going and showcase the chef's creativity). It was a smoked fish (sorry but I have lost the type of fish in the recesses of my memory between now and Saturday) with an aioli dressing and micro salad. It was absolutely fabulous, and though I did take a photo I wasn't at that stage brave enough to use the flash and therefore the photo was indistinguishable.

Also on the photography front, I need to develop my food blogger skills some; I felt really obnoxious taking photos so was a bit hasty on some of them and didn't take more than one shot of any dish - so I apologise now for not doing the dishes justice at all, but perhaps if you squint hard while you're looking at them they might look good! ;-)


Mr Cake ordered the Panzanella Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes, Soft Herbs and Buffalo Mozzarella. It was a nice, light dish with a great big hunk of buffalo mozzarella on top. It was nicely balanced but Mr Cake was a bit disappointed it wasn't slightly more exciting.


I ordered the Seared Hare Loin with Garlic Custard, Mulled Wine, Duck Parfait and Fig Molasses and this was a wonderful dish. The hare was very rich, and beautifully cooked; the 'custard' was amazing - sort of like a jelly, sweet and yet savoury, and was light in flavour so balanced out the rich meat - and the duck parfait was flavourful and the wafers gave a great texture contrast. I loved this - it was very rich though and it occurs to me now that perhaps Mr Cake and I should have played swapsies halfway through (rather than just trading bites, as we did), as his light salad would have been a great complement for my rich, meaty entree. Hindsight is 20/20...

Mr Cake chose the Canterbury Venison Loin, Cocoa Braised Osso Bucco, Cumin Corn Mash and Avocado. His favourite bit was the avocado (and I can attest to its tastiness). The mash was delicious though he thought the texture was strange, and the meat was, again, beautifully done.


My main was the Crispy Duck Confit with Wild Boar Sausage, Sage Stuffing and Cranberry Relish and it looked much better than this in real life! This was a great dish, though also very rich and if I had thought more carefully I wouldn't have chosen this combination together with the hare entree, but it was still delicious. The duck was lovely, with a crispy crispy skin and very tender meat, and the sage stuffing was incredibly flavourful. You can't see the sausage in my appalling photo but there was a reasonably large amount of it and though it was tasty it wasn't amazing and I think I would have enjoyed this just as much without it - it didn't seem to me to add anything. Overall this was another fantastic dish, though - lovely food.


This Blackboy Peach Sundae with Ginger Ice-Cream and Maple Marshmallows was the birthday boy's dessert choice, and the highlight of his night. The marshmallows were delicious, as was the icecream and the sauce and everything - he can't tell me why it was so good, but he did rave about it. The chef obviously put some good chef magic into that one! They also impressed me by obviously taking note when I booked that it was his birthday as it came out with 'Happy Birthday' written on the plate in chocolate, which is always a nice touch (plus, chocolate!).


And another appalling photo displays my Warmed Spice Cake with Vanilla Poached Pear and Caramel Ice-cream. This was good - a light, spicy cake drenched in syrup and the ice-cream was amazing. The pear didn't excite me too much - I didn't find it overly flavourful and it was difficult to eat as it was too firm to cut with the side of my spoon - but it still went nicely with the rest of the meal.

My award for dish of the night definitely goes to the hare entree, but the whole meal was a lovely experience, with wonderful service from our very friendly and accommodating waitress. Logan Brown also have a bistro menu, which consists of three courses from a set menu at only $39.90 per person, so long as you vacate your table by 7.30pm - so we'll have to head back there sometime and try that out.


Logan Brown is located on the corner of Cuba and Vivian Streets, Wellington. Ph 04 801 5114, email enquiries@loganbrown.co.nz, http://www.loganbrown.co.nz/
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