Be Jenny's Guest at Le Cordon Bleu

This post isn't about me, it's about my sister, Jenny.

I was invited to be her guest to the afternoon tea party at Le Cordon Bleu in London.

A place where she has trainings to become a superb patisserie one day.

On that special day, I went to Le Cordon Bleu with my mum & brother just for the tea party.

Indulgent entremets, lovely pastries & freshly baked scones with home-made jam & clotted cream were offered, along with a selection of teas.

Apart from enjoying the cakes, I had also taken some photos showcasing those pretty cakes made by the students on the day. 

Gateau a la Pistache prepared by Jenny

Chocolate & Coffee Bean Macronade prepared by Jenny

One Apple, Two Blueberry Cheesecakes & Three A Trip to Lewes

It’s my friend’s birthday and she had special request for a baked cheesecake.

So, the night before I met her, I baked, not one but two small cheesecakes.

The recipe was actually for a 8” cake but we’re going to a historical & lovely town called Lewes.

It’s not a good idea to bring a giant 8” cake around.

The little cheesecake turned out great with simple arrangement of poached apples & my friend loved it :)

I cooked some blueberry jam & simply spread over the other cheesecake which I brought to my mum the next day when we had lunch together.

Lewes was an adorable town, full of antique shops, cozy cafe & cute crafts stores.

There is also a big flea market & it's like treasure hunting :)

Floral tea cups & saucers bought from Lewes.

Summer & Elderflowers

Last week was warm & sunny.

I went for a walk with my friend at Hampstead Heath & wandered up to Parliament Hill, where you can overlook London.
On a sunny day, parks are always packed with people, sitting out to read or having a picnic.

The Greens in London

No cake & recipe today as I went out for a walk in Ealing after I got a Nikon lens for my GF1 camera.

Although the weather was not great today, it's great walking around so I get to know the neighbourhood more :)

Capturing the green in London.

Chocolate Unwrapped at Vinopolis + Giveaway

I'm sure all chocoholics know about the chocolate week.

There're a lot of events throughout the week but unfortunately I didn't have time to join the other except Chocolate Unwrapped at Vinopolis in London.

Because I just moved to a new flat a week ago so I was busy unpacking all my luggage & getting everything organised.


Back to Chocolate Unwrapped, it's held in Vinopolis & featured chocolate makers from all over  Britain.

You can eat as much as you like at the stalls & I got sick of chocolate at the end so you can tell I'd eaten too much :P

There're talks with chocolatiers & chocolate tastings during the talks.

The talks in this event were fantastic, lots of fun & information.

My favourite talk was by Paul A Young, he was so talented & charming.

I tried his best-selling marmite truffle during the talk, it's tangy & rich, a bit unusual for me as I don't really like marmite.

He also featured his award-winning book 'Adventures with Chocolate' & was signing the book at the stand.

I had a pecan & sea salt brownie at the stand after the talk & he was there wrapping brownies for customers :)

One of his tips was adding a pinch of sea salt to your chocolate dessert when you bake & it will 'transform'.
The current trend is salted caramel chocolate, salt adds flavours to chocolate.

Trip to Cornwall

I had a short break in Cornwall with my mother & brother last week.

My brother drove all the way to Penzance from Basildon & it took about 6 hours.

I can't drive because I don't have a license, felt lucky that I didn't need to drive.
When we arrived in Penzance, we're exhausted.

We unpacked everything at Shoreline guest house on the seaside & went out for a lunch in the town.

Paris

Everyone knows about Paris, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral are all world-known landmarks of Paris.
We've been to all these places, just like all other tourists, to see the beauty & romance of this city during our 3-night stay. 

Holland Park

Looking out from the window, the weather was nice & sunny.

I decided to go for a walk in Holland Park & test out my new camera GF1.

I'd waited a month to get this camera, the services of the shop I purchased from were terrific but the camera is satisfactory.

It's lightweight, much lighter than my brother's Canon SLR.

I'm not great in photography, I just shoot as I like.

It's a lovely park with all the greens & lights.

There is a Japanese garden called Kyoto Garden.

The centre is a waterfall & there are Koi (Japanese carps) in the pond.

A Day in Kew Gardens

The Pagoda taken by Sei-Him Cheong

Last week, Cheong & I had gone to Kew Gardens in London.

Student price is £11, not cheap but a coupon given to get discount for the next visit.

The annual fee is quite cheap, it's about £35.

The 1st photo features the iconic building, The Pagoda.

To be honest, it's neither pretty nor special.

I thought the tower is opened for sightseeing but it's not, very disappointed.

Yellow Roses taken by Cheong.

Pink Roses taken by Sei-Him Cheong.

As Kew is celebrating 250th anniversary, different species of roses have planted.

I have never seen so many roses in my life before.

The roses are mainly white, pink & yellow.

In the green houses, there are plants that I'm familiar with because I've seen them in Malaysia.

Including banana trees & the national flower, hibiscus.

The national flower of Malaysia is in red instead of the pink shown in the photo.

But it reminds me the days in Malaysia.

Hibiscus taken by Sei-Him Cheong.

I have also seen Pitcher plants in Kew.

Although it's a typical plant in Malaysia, I had never seen this there, so I was quite surprised to see it here.

Pitcher plant taken by Sei-Him Cheong.

Although I'm not passionate in plants & gardening, I think it's worth visiting.

We didn't have enough time to walk around the whole garden.

We'd been to International Garden Photographer of the Year Exhibition.

My cousin, Voon Wah in Hong Kong is great at taking photographs of birds & wildlife.

I think he'll win if he submitted his works.

I'll definitely tell him to submit for the competition in 2010.

We leaved at 6.30 p.m.

There are many restaurants & cafe that are nicely decorated.

We had a dinner at Pizza Express before heading back to Basildon.

Hitchin Lavender ~ 薰衣草之旅

Walking up the field by Sei-Him Cheong.

This week I went to Hitchin Lavender Field with Julian & my siblings.

Again, with my brother Cheong & sisters Kelly (shown in the picture) & Jen, it looked like we're having a photograph session.

This was the main purpose of Kelly to bring Cheong so he can be the camera man...

Cheong did take some great pictures with my sisters who love to be photographed.

Well, I don't like to be photographed cos I feel & act strange when a camera is pointing at me.

So, there's no photo of me, haha ^___^

My favourite picture of my sister, Kelly in the field by Sei-Him Cheong.

Had to pay in order to get into the field so we got scissors & bags for lavender.

Although the staff at the shop said there're 5 different species, I only saw 3.

Maybe I saw all of them but I couldn't recognize...

There were lots of bees on the fields.

The most scary part was the first step into the field, many bees were surrounding us.

Of course, they were too busy working with lavenders.

Once I got used to the flying bees, I started to enjoy myself with the sight & lavender picking.

The red among the violet '紫原一點紅' by Sei-Him Cheong.

There're horses in the farm too.

So before heading back to the shop, I went to feed one of the horses.

At first, it ignored me & then I finally fed it with some grasses.

I think it's the 1st time I was so closed to a horse.

Horse in the farm by Sei-Him Cheong

There is a small shop, coffee & tea are served there.

But we didn't stay for a drink.

There're pots of lavender for sale & I saw 5 different species there.

There're also some lotions, soaps, essential oils etc.

I was quite surprised they didn't have any lavender cake or biscuit.

I've baked lavender cookies before & I thought it's quite common to use lavender in cooking & baking.

I did baked a lavender butter cake the day after, but I wasn't satisfied with the taste...

So, I didn't take a photo of it & included the recipe with this post.

I still have bunches of lavender & I don't know what to do with them.

But I think 1st thing to do is to sun dry them.

Then, I'll explode ways to use them.

Day of Berry ~ 酸酸甜甜的滋味

It's the season of strawberry & raspberry.

With my family, I went to McLauchlans of Boxted near Colchester for berry picking last week.

Had a great day out in the farm.

Choosing, picking & eating berry...

I also used some of the leftover raspberry to make a cheesecake.

This cheesecake is lighter as I used fat free cream cheese & yogurt.

Perfect for summer!

Recipe (6 inch round pan):

Crust:

60g digestive biscuit crumbs 60g

30g unsalted butter (melted)

Mix together the crust ingredients & press into your preferred pan.

Cheese filling:

250g cream cheese

150g plain yogurt

100g fresh raspberry

70g sugar

8g gelatin

50g water

Make raspberry puree using a blender, remove the raspberry seeds to get the strained juice.

Dissolve gelatin in water over hot water.

Whisk the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Stir in the yogurt then the raspberry puree.

Fold in the gelatin in water.

Pour into the prepared pan & cool in the fridge until stiff.

Serve with your choice of fruits.

我弟拿著相機跟隨著我姐，讓我覺得不是在採草莓而是在戶外拍寫真。

那裡的草莓真的很甜，很好吃！

Long Update in June

It's finally towards the end of my study in Imperial College.

I've finished the long & boring report followed by the project presentation last Thursday.

The hardest & most stressful moment has gone!!!

Doro & I had a frustrating time when printing off our reports in uni. library.

Paper jammed, ran out of cartridge, wrong pages getting printed off, double-sided layout instead of single-sided etc.

But we managed to hand in the reports on time.

We went to see Peter Pan in Kensington to celebrate.

Although it's before the presentation, we still enjoyed ourself.

It's a great show!

My favourite scene was the moment when Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and the Darlings fly over London with the 360 degree projected video screens creating a moving background.

It felt as if we're flying with them, it's a great adventure!