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

carrot cake

I remember first being introduced to the idea of carrot cake and thinking to myself how carrot in a cake could possibly be yummy. Let’s just say that I’m glad my mum persuaded me to try some, because it has since become one of my most favourite cakes to eat.

I used a Martha Stewart recipe to make my first ever carrot cake, and considering the great reviews I got from my mum and my friends who tried it, I think it worked out really well. I made a two-layer cake instead of a three-layer one, just out of sheer laziness. I also made the mistake of not putting enough cream cheese frosting between the layers, so my advice is to definitely overdo it! Overall, a deliciously moist, lightly spiced, pecan encrusted and well-balanced cake that I’m sure I’ll be making time and time again.

xx

gingerbread cupcakes

It’s that time of year again when gingerbread becomes a more prominent flavour in many households. Having made gingerbread cookies last year (find the post here), I decided to make some gingerbread cupcakes this time around. It’s a super simple recipe, bursting with just the right amount of ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon to create a really beautiful gingerbread taste. I swapped the cream cheese frosting in the original recipe for this one, and made a double batch because you can never have too much frosting, especially if it has cream cheese in it! To finish off, I whipped up some gingerbread cookies from the recipe I used last year, iced them and placed them on top. The cupcakes sort of even look like Christmas trees…

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the festivities with your family and friends! =)

Thil

xx

petits fours

Petit four is derived from the French meaning small oven. These delicious goodies are generally served at the end of a meal and are various in type, including biscuits, mini tarts, macarons, small cakes, layered slices, mini éclairs and so much more. I attempted two iced cake petits fours, more correctly known as petits fours glacés. 

One of these was a two-layered brown butter pound cake with buttercream in between and a coating of chocolate glaze. The original recipe uses a layer of ice cream between the two cake layers, which got me super excited, but after reading the blog it seemed more of a hassle than anything else (in the way of time and the ice cream melting when trying to work with it), so I went the easy way and used buttercream instead.

The other one I made was a three-layered cream cheese pound cake with strawberry jam in between and poured fondant over the top. I’d recommend actually measuring out the jam because if you use too little (like I did) you can’t see it very well between the layers. Whilst the poured fondant was easy enough to make, it was difficult to use to coat the small cakes. It would basically harden before it had spread evenly on top and around the cake. Thinning down the mixture with water, continually reheating it and working super fast helped to some degree, but I eventually gave up having only iced about half the cakes. Next time I think I’m just going to make the cream cheese pound cake and eat it by itself – it’s a really good cake! You can find the recipe here, and if you want step-by-step photos, I’d recommend going here.

Overall, a lot more effort when into making these petits fours than I had originally thought. Icing them was definitely the hardest and most frustrating part, but I’m sure would get easier with practice. But if you persevere, these petits fours are delicious, cute and can be decorated in so many ways to suit any occasion.

xx