Societe Canteen

Here's another new cafe that I checked out last month.

Societe Canteen

David Lebovitz's Chocolate Bread

It might seem like I'm spamming my blog with posts recently, but really, my backlog of posts is no laughing matter. I have posts on my baking and restaurants lined up all the way to end December (and I haven't even included my travel posts!). So, pardon me while I try to clear some of it before the year is up...

I was craving chocolate bread. And stumbled upon David Lebotivz's recipe for chocolate bread, which seemed to have quite a lot of rave reviews. Fate, so be it then.

David Lebovitz's Chocolate Bread

The Broers Cafe

I popped by Broers cafe after my visit to L'Etoile here. It was relatively near by, just a 5 minutes car ride away.

The Broers Cafe

Chocolate Nutella Brioches

I actually really enjoy baking bread. But due to time limitations, I don't really take the time to bake bread as often as I would like to. And also, there's also the factor that I have an innate fear of yeast.

Oh. Oh. And the fact that bread equates carbs. Going low carbs is probably the way to go for losing weight, but I'm in love with everything carbs-y, thus even though I've been exercising regularly for the past few months, I'm just not seeing any weight loss. Sigh. Perhaps it's time to sever loosen my relationship ties with carbs.

Anyway, here is a recipe for the most buttery brioche, that is filled with awesome chocolate, AND nutella. What can I say? These are definitely NOT diet friendly, to say the least.

Chocolate Nutella Brioches

L'Etoile Cafe

About a month ago, I started cafe hopping on the weekends with a girlfriend. Two cafes per Sunday. We did it about two weeks or so straight cos our schedules happened to coincide. For once. We started off with a brunch cafe, followed with a coffee joint after. L'Etoile was our "late brunch" (I wonder what one call lunch+dinner. Lunner? Dinch? Ha!) cafe option.

L'Etoile Cafe

Strawberry Vanilla Almond Entremet

It's official. I've just turned a quarter century years old for about almost a week already. And man, do I...not feel much of a difference actually. In fact, I realise that the years just fly by so quickly ever since I hit 21 a few years back. What I definitely feel is, there is a change in how my body feels at the ripe "old" age of 25, as compared to say, a fresh young 20. I get tired way much easily nowadays. I could stay up late till the wee hours of 2am in the past, get only a mere handful hours of sleep, and still not be tired. Trust me when I say definitely can't do that now. I'll probably be zombie-fied and if I don't get a cuppa of coffee in me, I'll be half dead on my feet for sure.

ANYWAY. I digress. I had a really enjoyable birthday so far this year. I met up with friends for a birthday brunch the day before my birthday. The Sis and I went for a great lunch and coffee on my birthday itself (which was a Monday - but my workplace have a birthday day off scheme!) and I met up with a girlfriend for dinner. Then on the public holiday on Tuesday, I had a few girlfriends over for a homemade brunch party. And there are some more upcoming birthday gatherings...I'm blessed.

I was really fortunate on my birthday. First of all, I dropped $50 in a shop, but managed to find it when I retraced my steps. And second, when I was out shopping, I noticed I had a bleeding blister from the new shoes I was wearing. I asked my Sis if she had a bandaid, all the while rummaging through my bag to look for one. At the moment, the sales lady approached me, offering me a wet tissue AND a bandaid to clean up. That's just so nice of her isn't it?

Anyway, back to the cake at hand. I made this cake recently cos I wanted to use up the strawberry puree in the freezer. And also, because it's been pretty long since I last made an entremet.

Strawberry Vanilla Almond Entremet

Matcha Hotcakes (抹茶ホットケーキ)

It's November. The time of the year where birthdays are aplenty. Family and friends alike. Have I ever mentioned about a tiny little awesome quirky fact about my family? Psst. Our birthdays are all in November. My Mom's birthday was on the 6th. My Dad's birthday is today. Mine's on the 12th. And my Sis's on the 30th. Have you notice something interesting about the dates? They are all in multiples of three! And aside from my Sis (the oddball *whoops haha), our birthdays are all in sequence! If only her birthday was on the 15th...Then it'll really be uber cool.

Anyway, for Dad's birthday this year, I know I had said that I'll prob give the strawberry shortcake a miss after three consecutive years of making it. I guess it's sorta become a "tradition" now cos the other day, the Sis was just asking, "So when are you making the strawberry cake?" It's been a busy week, so while I havn't actually finished it, I'm in the process of making it! I actually baked the sponge last night, and as we are heading out for a dinner buffet tonight for the Dad's birthday, I thought that I'll assemble it after we head home from dinner and we can cut it tomorrow (since I reckon we'll all be stuffed silly with food anyway). The sponge looks promising. It felt soft and spongy when I was clingwrapping it last night, so I hope it will taste soft and spongy as well.

Anyway, moving on to the hotcakes. I love pancakes. Yet, I rarely make my own at home cos my guinea pig, aka the Sis, is not a fan of pancakes in general. So, in order to satisfy my pancakes urge, I decided to make matcha pancakes to lure her into eating some too cos like me, she's quite the matcha fan.

Matcha Hotcakes (抹茶ホットケーキ)

Purple Sweet Potato Choux Puffs (紅芋シュークリーム)

More purple goodness. If you are still not yet sick of my purple sweet potato endeavours, I actually have one (or maybe two) more upcoming posts...

 Purple Sweet Potato Choux Puffs (紅芋シュークリーム)

Super Star K

I didn't realise until recently, but Tanjong Pagar is like a mini Korean town. There are so many (and I mean really many) Korean restaurants there. And quite a number of them are barbeque restaurants. The kind that you see in Korea - that specialised in BBQ and has the metal thing above the table to "suck up all the food fumes".

I visited two BBQ places in the past few months, and here's the first place that I went to.

 Super Star K

Black Sesame Madeleines (マドレーヌ黒ゴマ)

Don't mind me. I'm just you know, on a massive Asian flavours baking spree.

You will notice that the last few posts (and the next coming ones), featuring lots of purple sweet potatoes, black sesame and matcha flavoured desserts. I'm a big, huge, nah, strike that again, gargantuan fan of these flavours, and it's rare that I go all out to indulge myself in these flavours (rather than sticking to regular flavours like chocolate - not that I have anything against it; or lemon - which I love too by the way). So allow me to spam these flavours for a bit and more.

Black Sesame Madeleines (マドレーヌ黒ゴマ)