Category: Desserts

Kaffir Lime Cake Recipe
One day, my son went to have a playdate with his friends. We had a long talk with the grandmother about our extensive use of kaffir lime in our cuisine. She then shared this amazing recipe to make kaffir lime cake. This is now our go to recipe for amazingly easy cake that everyone loves!

What do we need to make Kaffir Lime Cake?
1. 1.5 cups of Self Raising Flour
2. 2/3 cup of oil (any light oil will do)
3. 3/4 cup of thickened cream
4. 1 cup of sugar
5. 2 Eggs
6. Zest of 2 kaffir limes
Most of the ingredients above can be found quite easily in your local supermarket. Kaffir lime is potentially harder to find. In this case, you can pretty much replace it with any type of citrus!

How do we make Kaffir Lime Cake Recipe?
1. Preheat oven (between 170 – 180 degrees) – We usually do it at 180.
2. Grate zest from 2 limes.
3. Add sugar and mix through well – oil from zest will soak into sugar.
4. Put in oil, cream and eggs – then whisk.
5. Add flour. Mix through just until you see no lumps. DO NOT OVERMIX! – All it will do is make your cake heavy!
6. Pour into tin – lined with baking paper. 23-cm tin generally works well for this much mixture.
7. Cook for about 35 minutes.
8. Dust with icing sugar.
A little tips to make your perfect Kaffir Lime Cake
1. I can’t stress enough the importance of not overmixing the dough. You want your cake to still be light and airy!
2. We usually add poppy seed into the mixture to add.
3. If you want to be really naughty, you can also put in more toppings above the cake. Why don’t you try whipped cream? or a fruit mix!
If you like this recipe, why don’t you visit our recipe page! My personal favourite is the party food: Tetsuya’s Oyster Vinaigrette recipe.
Jan 4, 2021
Pancakes on the Rocks Darling Harbour

Pancakes on the Rocks Darling Harbour Review:

This will be our third writeups about Pancakes on the Rocks. This time around is from one of their busier branches in Darling Harbour’s Harbourside shopping centre. The restaurant is almost always full and on most weekends you will need to queue.

A couple of years ago when I wrote about Pancakes in Beverly Hills, there were hardly any new thing on the menu, except for the introduction of ‘sidewinder’ wedges. This time around they have a few new items on the menu.

American Style Beef Brisket – $29.95 – Tender, 100-day Grain-Fed MSA, slow-cooked American Style Barbeque Beef Brisket. Marinated and grilled in tangy barbeque sauce, served with golden sidewinder wedges and mixed lettuce.

Beef brisket is one of those deliciously devilish indulgences for us. They are usually full of fat and all of the other yummy goodies – or evil, depending on how you are looking at it. The beef brisket from Pancakes on the rocks was even scarier with their usual barbeque sauce. Let’s just say it’s not for those of you who calories-counted your meal.

Pork Ribs – $35.95 – A generous rack of pork ribs grilled in your choice of marinade barbeque, teriyaki or honey soya. Served with golden sidewinder wedges and mixed lettuce.

Pork ribs have been their mainstays for as long as I can remember. I didn’t realise that you could ask for a different sauce for the ribs. There are better pork ribs out there. However, they usually weren’t accompanied by different kinds of desserts.

Beef Ribs – $35.95 – Tender and juicy marinated and grilled in tangy barbeque sauce. Served with golden sidewinder wedges and mixed lettuce.

Similar to pork ribs, beef ribs have also been there for quite a while now. They were relatively smaller than their pork counterparts.

Pancakes with Nutella – $15.95 – Buttermilk pancakes with Nutella, topped with cream, vanilla ice cream, and roasted hazelnuts.

Pancakes with Nutella – yeah I know everyone is putting Nutella into their menu these days – is actually one of the newer ones. I love how they add a few roasted hazelnuts in what already is a very nutty affair.

The Ultimate – $15.95 – Crepes filled with cream cheese and sultanas, served with raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream.

One of the only constants in our visit to Pancakes on The Rocks: The Ultimate. This is the main reason I always come back to the restaurant.

The final verdict for Pancakes on the Rocks – Darling Harbour

Going to Pancakes on The Rocks, you should expect the same quality of dishes throughout most of its branches.

Do you think I should go?
I’m pretty sure Sydneysider already makes up their minds about whether they like Pancakes on The Rocks or not.

Rating for Pancakes on the Rocks Darling Harbour:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $12 – $36

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 230, Level 1, Harbourside Shopping Centre, 2-10 Darling Drive, Darling Harbour 2000

+61 2 9280 3791

http://www.pancakesontherocks.com.au/

Jul 13, 2018
Doughbox Diner

Doughbox Diner Review:

Halloween is usually one of the most celebrated holidays in the United States. Our visit to an American Restaurant, Doughbox Diner, on Halloween’s day was no different. They had a tombstone at the entrance and a few halloween-inspired dishes.

Burgers, crepes and lots of desserts dominated their menu. They also had a few hot dogs and starters.

As a starter, they gave out complimentary bowl of popcorn.

Buffalo Wings (10 pieces) – $18.99 – Fried Chicken Wings tossed in our Spicy Buffalo Sauce served with Celery Sticks and Ranch Dressing

The first dish to arrive on the day was buffalo wings. They warned us about how spicy the wings was with three chilis symbol right next to the list. However, it was not hotter than our usual chili sauce. The wings were nice and super saucy.

Onion Rings – $12.99 – Crispy Battered Rings served with our Zesty Dipping Sauce

Their onion rings were quite thin and super crispy. The dipping sauce really made it zesty!

Johnny B Goode – $17.99 – 2 Beef Patties, 3 Slices of Cheddar, House Relish, Red Onion, Lettuce, American Mustard, Sweet BBQ Sauce

Our original order was a burger called Sloppy Joe. However, they said it was not available on that day. We then focused our attention to Johnny B Goode (named after a song by Chuck Berry). It has all the hallmarks of something American with stacks of burgers and cheese. It is the second largest burger in the menu.

Avocado Bite – $14.99 – Chicken, Bacon, Mushrooms, Spring Onion, Fresh Tomato, Avocado & Sour Cream, Cheese

Avocado bite is part of their crepe cone range. They claimed their crepe cone to be highly addictive…. and we did not blame them. I used to eat a savoury crepe when I was a child with a lot less fillings in them. So, a massive cone with lots of fillings is like a dream come true!

We had to ask for a takeaway box as we were quite full and we knew the dessert would come next.

Scream Sundae – $12.99

The only halloween-themed item on the menu that we ordered on the day. The sundae came in a skull goblet with LOTS of halloween candies. It was not probably our best move, considering it’s only Tuesday!

The final verdict for Doughbox Diner

Doughbox diner was definitely a fun restaurant to visit. They had quite a reasonable price and we were super nourished!

Do you think I should go?
If you enjoy themed restaurant that will make you full and happy… Of course!

Rating for Doughbox Diner:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $15 – $22 burgers

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

137 Enmore Rd, Enmore 2042

+61 2 9565 1995

http://doughboxdiner.com.au/doughbox/

Nov 6, 2017
Pasticceria Papa

Pasticceria Papa Review:

In Sydney, you can spend $65 for four fragile and sophisticated-looking desserts. Unfortunately, we are not talking about that for this week. Instead, we will be talking about one of the best Italian desserts place in Sydney… and most of their cakes are around $5 or less. How good is that!

For those of you living in Inner West, the name Pasticceria Papa will not sound too foreign for you. Their shop in Haberfield has been around since 1988. They started off as a bread and pastry shop. Now, they have a full-fledged restaurant in addition to the shop.

Mini Ricotta Cake – $4.50

This is what Pasticceria Papa famous for. Mini ricotta is the smallest that you can get… perfect to be devoured by yourself… no sharing!

The ricotta cake is scalable to be as large as you wish. I’ve been to a birthday party where they have a 20-person ricotta cake from Pasticceria Papa.

Vanilla Baba – $3.50

I was quite curious about this dessert… well, partially because it was rum-soaked. Vanilla baba is a yeast cake with vanilla custard on top of it.

Arancini – $4.50 – Chicken / Veal / Mushroom

We came across the arancini completely by accident. We were looking for something savoury at Pasticceria Papa but we were not that interested in the pesto pasta at that time. There was only one mushroom arancini left at that time and we had no expectation whatsoever.

Pizza – $5.50 – Mushroom / potato

It was quite a sorry-looking pizza slice and we weren’t interested in ordering. However, the little one managed to choose that for his dinner and ended up finishing it.

The final verdict for Pasticceria Papa

Getting a decent dessert for less than $5 is pretty unheard of these days. Pasticceria Papa delivers that with a taste of Italian desserts that is unmatched in Sydney!

Did you know?

We visited Pasticceria Papa in Haberfield. They have two other stores in Sydney: Bondi Beach and Five Dock. The Haberfield and Bondi Beach stores are also setup as a proper Italian restaurant. But maybe that’s for next time.

Rating for Pasticceria Papa:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $3.50 – $5.50 per slice

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

145 Ramsay Street, Haberfield Sydney NSW 2045

+61 2 9799 9531

http://ppapa.com.au/

Aug 26, 2016
Tella Balls Dessert Bar

Review:

One of the few dessert places that I actually reviewed in my food blog. Tella Balls Dessert Bar was opened at the beginning of this year and so far I have never seen a shortage of customers on weekends. It is only one of a few dessert-only places in Inner West and… to make it rarer… they also open until quite late at night!

The original Tella Balls Shake (TBS) – $10 – topped with Nutella Tella Ball

This is the one that’s originally got everyone talking. When you think about it, it’s just a simple Nutella-filled donut sitting on top of a glass of Nutella milkshake. However, our naughty inner self seemingly could not resist the temptation of that ridiculously exciting guilty pleasure!

On a separate occasion, I also tried the salty caramel one with the different being the Salty Caramel filling instead of Nutella.

Tella Balls – $9 – Brioche Style Donut Balls injected with your favourite flavours (served with vanilla bean gelato)

If you want just a simple tella ball… well you can’t, unless if you order it for takeaway… the simplest you can get is tella balls with a scoop of vanilla gelato for $9. I guess it’s a good way to upsell and capitalise on the on-demand seats at the dessert bar.

Gelat-dough – $7 – doughy gelato that looks like a donut but tastes like the finest gelato.

One of the more eye-catching things at Tella Balls dessert bar are their gelat-doughs. It’s like multi-coloured donuts on a stick in a frozen chamber.

Ferrero Bowl – $13 – A smooth Ferrero Rocher mousse in a choc bowl (served with a vanilla bean gelato)

The same with the tella balls, if you want to enjoy their variety of desserts like the Ferrero Bowl, you will need to pay extra for the scoop of ice cream.

Tella Ball Pancake – $20 – 2 stack buttermilk pancakes with Canadian maple syrup, Cadbury Flake, Belgian chocolate chips, vanilla bean gelato & topped with a Nutella flavoured Tella Ball

If you thought the Tella Balls Shake was already ridiculous, wait until you see the Tella Ball Pancake. It looked like your weekly intake of sugar jammed into one plate. It’s a dream come true for Nutella lovers and definitely not for the health-conscious people.

The final verdict for Tella Balls

If you live around the area, it’s worth to buy the Tella Balls for takeaway. If you live outside the area, it depends largely on how much you love Nutella as Tella Balls are heavily featured in the menu.

Did you know?

Their takeaway menu is a lot cheaper than the dine-in one… and you can buy the Tella Ball for onl $4.50.

Rating for Tella Balls Dessert Bar:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $9 – $20 per dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Shop 5, 370 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill

+61 2 8384 4500

Tella Balls Dessert Bar on Facebook

Jun 21, 2016