new shanghai

Deep fried chicken with special garlic and chilli sauce.

Pan fried pork dumplings containing broth.

Rainbow beef - deep fried shredded beef tossed with sweet and sour sauce and sesame sauce.

Pork belly braised overnight in sweet soy sauce.

Steamed mini pork buns.

Whenever I visit Brisbane I find myself continuously eating, thus I’m always inadvertently searching for new and exciting restaurants to dine in. New Shanghai, located in Queens Plaza on the mall, is definitely my most favourite new find. Their menu is extensive and packed full of delicious dishes. The dumplings we ordered were by far the best dumplings I have ever eaten, and the rainbow beef stood out as my favourite main dish. Be sure to accompany your meal with the lime chiller drink – both lusciously light and refreshingly flavoursome. Overall, beautiful food, cooked to perfection and served in no time at all.

raspberry friands

I’m so used to making cupcakes and then having to whip up accompanying frosting that I had completely forgotten how easy and quick something is to bake when you don't have to worry about more than one component! These raspberry friands are the perfect example. They are super quick to make, beautifully moist and most of all, really scrumptious (the batch I made barely lasted a day). Find the recipe here.

lime and coconut cupcakes

The beautiful combination of lime and coconut flavours creates this easy peasy, light and super delicious cupcake. I added in some lime juice as I thought the lime rind itself didn’t quite give enough lime flavour to the cupcake, and I also topped the cupcakes with some shredded coconut. This recipe was taken from a cupcake book I got given for my birthday last year.

Lime coconut cupcakes

250g butter, softened

2 teaspoons coconut essence

1 tablespoon finely grated lime rind

1 1/3 cups (290g) caster sugar

4 eggs

2/3 cup (160mL) milk

1 1/2 cups (120g) desiccated coconut

2 1/2 cups (375g) self-raising flour

Coconut cream cheese frosting

60g butter, softened

160g cream cheese, softened

2 teaspoons coconut essence

3 cups (480g) icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan forced. Line two 12-hole standard muffin pans with paper cases.

2. Beat butter, essence, rind, sugar and eggs in large bowl with electric mixer until combined.

3. Stir in milk and coconut, then sifted flour. Divide mixture among cases, smooth surface.

4. Bake cupcakes for about 25 minutes. Turn onto wire rack to cool.

5. Make frosting by beating butter, cream cheese and essence, then gradually beat in sifted icing sugar.

6. Spread (or pipe) cupcakes with frosting and decorate.

xx

butterscotch pots de crème

So in love with this dessert! I can’t quite describe it too well other than it being a custard-like creamy pudding with an amazing butterscotch flavour that is seriously delicious. Top it with some whipped cream and chocolate pieces, and you’ve got yourself a perfect end to a dinner party or a sneaky sweet treat for yourself. Find the recipe here.

xx

the shades of love cake

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, I set out to find a sweet treat to celebrate this love-, rose- and chocolate-filled day and came across this gorgeous creation by Ross Sveback. I absolutely love layered cakes and the different shades of pink in this one make it the perfect cake for Valentine’s Day.

The cake itself was very straightforward to make and whilst just a basic vanilla cake, it’s definitely one of the best I’ve tasted! On the other hand, the icing was one of the most complicated and time-consuming frostings I have ever made. There were just so many steps involved and whilst it created a delicious icing, I’m pretty sure there are much simpler recipes that create just about the same thing. And even though I was successful in making it, at the very last moment my icing changed consistency due to the food colouring I added, which then meant I was unable to pipe rosettes all over the cake like initially planned. So instead, I smoothed out the different coloured frostings until they looked like they were gradually blending into each other.

You can find the original recipe for the cake here and the icing here, but if you’re after a bit more guidance, you can find a slightly altered recipe here with more step-to-step instructions. I used the original recipes, but found the latter link super useful when colouring the cake and icing, as well as when assembling the cake.

Thil

xx

snapshots from sri lanka

Sunset from my room at the Heritance Kandalama Hotel, Dambulla.

The gorgeous waters of the beach neighbouring the Chaaya Tranz Beach Resort, Hikkaduwa.

A monkey enjoying (and making a mess of) his newly found coconut.

A three-wheeler - my favourite way to travel.

An amazing statue of Buddha at the Golden Temple, Dambulla.

A colourful fruit shop by the roadside - a very common sight in Sri Lanka.

A gorgeous lotus at the Dambulla Cave Temples.

Elephants at the river during bath time at Pinnawella Elephant Orphanage.

Statues of Buddha dating back many, many years at the Dambulla Cave Temples.

View from the top of Sigiriya where the ancient king's palace used to be.

Another common sight whilst travelling - beautifully green paddy fields.

Another photo of the beach at Hikkaduwa just because it was one of my favourite places.

A bunch of flowers as an offering to Buddha at one of the temples I visited.

A stunning sunset whilst staying at the Heritance Kandalama Hotel, Dambulla.

At the beginning of this month, I arrived in my birth country of Sri Lanka for the first time in eight years. Whilst the main reason I visited was to complete a two week elective as part of my medical course, I utilised every spare moment to travel around the country and do some sightseeing. I took well over one thousand photos during my time there, and the ones above are just a small snapshot of what this amazing country has to offer. There are so many places to visit, so many sights to see and so many things to enjoy.

Over the three weeks I visited an elephant orphanage, drank coconuts cut fresh from the tree, watched beautiful sunsets, ate at too many buffets, visited ancient ruins, swam in gorgeous waters, travelled in three-wheelers, visited various temples, and had an enjoyable time just observing the Sri Lankan way of life. I was genuinely taken aback by the stunning landscapes, rich culture, gorgeous beaches, amazing history and sheer natural beauty of Sri Lanka.

Here’s to hoping my next visit comes around sooner rather than later!

Thil

xx

red velvet cream cheese swirl brownies

A delicious cream cheese layer (as you can probably tell, I'm currently obsessed with cream cheese!) on top of a moist red velvet layer gives you these super easy brownies. I accidently put too much of the red velvet mixture on top when creating the swirls, thus giving the brownies perhaps a little bit too much red colour. The brownies should look more like the ones in the original recipe, which you can find here.

xx