After muffins, teatime and cupcakes it was time for something a little bit more intergalactical: Mooncakes! Well actually they’re not from out of space but a chinese pâtisserie. Mooncake madness took place at La Cocotte, Paris on the 8th April and 30th June 2009.

Check out Elleadore.com for some more pics.

Special thanks to Jim Rosemberg for the photos.

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Tags: chinese pâtisserie, mooncakes

After ‘khooking’ up a storm for the past several years in Paris I went back to my London roots with a mouth-watering “mash up” meal on

The unique dinner showcased a range of tasty ideas using food, music and the arts as forms of expression. For this scrumptious supper, I combined far Eastern flavours from PikPikZoo, Hong Kong based illustrators with a hint of more local flavour in the form of a musical mash up by Joseph Seresin.

Of course, I added my own creative touch to the 6-course dinner (paired with wine). Click here for menu.

The festive feast took place at the private dinner club The Loft.

The Loft is a private supper club and personal test kitchen of Nuno Mendes, one of London’s innovative & revolutionary chefs (El Bulli trained & previous head chef of Bacchus, London). He will be opening his next restaurant, Viajante at the Bethnal Green Town Hall in 2010.

Joseph Seresin runs by day a bespoke creative studio whose ethos is to provide a tailored solution to your project with a range of creative services encompassing anything from brand identity through to one-off illustrated pieces. At night however he is known to put his creative talents to spinning tasty tunes in hip places from London to Ibiza.

PikPik Zoo are Hong Kong based design duo Zoe Lydia and Miss Kate. Touring the world (New York, London, Paris, Stockholm & Hong Kong) with their PikPik Panda character they’ve been spreading their philosophy of we care, we share.

If you are on a picture and you want it to be removed, please send me an email.

Photos from event taken by Bronia Stewart.

Tags: food design, Joseph Seresin, mash up, PikPikZoo, secret, the Loft, underground

It’s coming up to that dreaded time of the year, no not Friday 13th (although I won’t be walking under any ladders tomorrow) February 14th. Red roses, boxed chocolate, sickly sweet cards, restaurants putting on a special “valentines menu”…Makes me want to do that teenagery fingers in throat gesture. Unlike the past years where I’ve made something for you romantic folk out there this year I thought it was time to BIG UP all those singles. Why shouldn’t all the bachelors and bachelorettes celebrate too? So I came up with some tastelicious Blingscuits. The idea is to make a super-crazy-sweet-packed-Gangsta-stylee medallion (think Run dmc) and show off to the world (the idea is not to be subtle here) that you’re fablicious! Alternatively if you are with the classic folk and you need a valentine’s idea, you can write a sweet (or naughty one too) message on the blingscuit. The biscuits contain fresh ginger which is known to be an aphrodisiac and a whole ton of sugar which will make any sleepy head turn into a raving casanova.

Special thanks to my lovely model Frankie. Just definetly knows how to strike some gangsta poses

Blingscuits

125g unsalted butter
20g brown sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
4 tbsp treacle
325g plain flour
300g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
30g fresh grated ginger
1 tsp mixed ground spice
Writing Icing (optional) or icing sugar & food colouring
Selection of different sweets

Chain (I buy mine at the hardware store)
Binder rings
Ribbon

Preheat the oven to 170°c. Line baking trays with baking parchment. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and ginger into a bowl and stir the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a stiff dough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of about 5mm. Use a small plate as a template and run a knife around the edge. Cut out a hole at the top for threading the chain/ribbon through. Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven. When completely cool, decorate with the icing and sweets. Use a thick icing to stick the sweets on. Leave for at least 4 hours to dry. The gingerbread biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Tags: anti-valentine, bling bling, fashion, hip hop, singles, valentines

What do you get when you cross a beetroot, a carrot and some ginger? A BEETROTINGER! Sorry that’s quite bad but when I saw this month’s in the bag challenge I wasn’t quite sure what to make of beetroot, carrot and celery. Maybe some sort of bloody maryesque cocktail but that defeats the purpose of doing a detox…After lots of hum and ar-ring. I decided to forget the celery and replace it with some ginger which is very good for detox aswell. And to be quite honest a cake is not very detox at all. So I suggest eating some celery to balance it out Celery is actually one of the few negative calorie foods which means that it takes the body more energy to digest than what the body consumes.

Beetrotinger cake

125g finely grated carrots
125g finely grated raw beetroot
10g finely grated fresh ginger
100g brown sugar
125g ground hazelnuts
50g flour
3 tsp baking powder
100g melted butter
2 eggs

Preheat the oven 180°c. Grease a tin 15 x 15 cm. Mix flour, hazelnuts, baking powder together add the grated carrot, beetroot and ginger. Mix again and then crack the eggs and add the butter. Combine all the ingredients. Spoon into the tin and smooth out. Bake for 20-25minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Tags: beetroot and carrot cake, healthy, in the bag

Gung Hai Fat Choy! The year of the Ox kicks off today which means it’s going to be more of a conservative year: sure and steady. Apparently those who have sown seeds will see the benefits this year as long as they look after their business. This recipe was inspired by the tradition of making sticky glutinous cakes for Chinese New Year. Apparently offering sticky glutinous cakes to family signifies cohesiveness (represented by the gluton). These sweet treats are also offered to the kitchen god who resides in Buddhist chinese families in the hope that bringing sweet offerings the kitchen God will only have sweet things to give in the coming year.

I really went overboard with the red colouring as red symbolises good fortune in Chinese culture. Reduce the amount if you want something a little less in your face.

Chinese New Year delights

500ml water
450g caster sugar
100g icing sugar
1 tbsp red food colouring
150g cornflour
4 tbsp rose water
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp powdered agar agar*

Dusting mixture
2 tbsp cornflour
5 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp ground mixed spice

Pour half of the water into a heavy based saucepan and add the sugars. Heat until the sugar has dissolved and then bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer until the mixture reaches 115°c on a sugar thermometer (soft ball stage). Remove from the heat.

In a separate saucepan, mix the cornflour and agar agar with the remaining water until the mixture is smooth. Cook over a medium heat until the mixture thickens.

Gradually pour the hot sugar syrup into the cornflour paste, stirring continuously. Make sure to stir well, so none of the mixture sticks to the bottom of the pot and burns. Return the mixture to the heat and simmer for about one hour, until the mixture is pale and feels stringy when a little of the cold mixture is pulled between the fingers. Stir in the rose water, mixed spice and red colouring.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and leave to set overnight.

Cut into squares. Mix the cornflour, mixed spice and icing sugar together and toss the delights in it. Store in an airtight container, between layers of greaseproof paper.

*Note: I found that the agar agar helps set the mixture as without it tends to stay gooey.

Check out Jugabandi Photography’s food blog event: Click for more red inspired food.

Tags: Chinese new year, click, turkish delight, Year of the ox