Portuguese Egg Tart in Singapore

Do I really need to say more?

The original Sprinkles in Beverly Hills

...Sprinkles is apparently the first ever cupcakes-only store. I sampled its chai tea latte cupcake and it was fabulous. Fluffy, moist cake; smooth tea-flavored frosting.

Whoever thought of the combination is a genius.

Singaporean Mickey Dee's

I am strongly against supporting fast food companies, especially McDonald's (forget watching Food Inc. or Fast Food Nation documentary; read the Fast Food Nation book by Eric Schlosser).

BUT I have a weak spot for McDonald's ice cream cones -- especially when it's only S$1 and has cool add-on flavours such as green apple (above), raspberry and beloved chocolate.

I tried all three eventually, but plain vanilla is probably still my favourite. :)

Elevated Tea

 

Once in awhile, I like to create my own cherished moments where I can sit, indulge and enjoy my own company. Every person is different—what they love to indulge in—is it a surprise that mine is food?

My parents received this fine China set for their wedding more than 30 years ago and I never knew of its existence till my sister discovered it in old boxes about a year before they were divorced (about six years ago). We took it to the new house but my father never used it.

I grew to love the fine gold trim and petite delicate pink flowers with soft ridges.

I've been drinking this wonderful loose leaf Moroccan green tea infused with peppermint that I received at my friend Chantal's engagement party a few weeks ago. Then tonight, my sister gave me a lemon tart from Southbrook Farms. So I decided a perfect cap to the weekend, and start to a new week, would be to have both with the fine China.

I thought about reading or watching TV while drinking and eating, but realized quickly, sitting in the quiet peace of my house, and tasting every sip and bite carefully would be the most pleasurable. The tart had a perfectly tender, slightly crumbly crust, and the lemon filling was smooth and silky. It was a timeless 10 minutes.

It's so refreshing and soothing when you take the time to treat yourself.

Iron Cupcake Toronto

I'm not a huge fan of cupcakes but one of my closest friends, Stephanie, is. (In fact, there's a crazy personalized NYC cupcake tour posting that still needs to be written...) So when I heard the Liberty Village cupcake shop, For the Love of Cake, was hosting Toronto's first Iron Cupcake competition, and that the secret ingredient was going to be beer in honour of St. Patrick's Day, I decided we should go.

It was chaotic and packed but we somehow wound up relatively close to the front of the line when they started handing out the mini cupcakes. This is how it worked:

• Each person had a ticket with 4 of 16 numbers on it, and so you were judging four of sixteen cupcakes.
• The other side of your ticket listed all 16 numbers, and you judged visually who you thought had the most aesthetically pleasing cupcake display, aligned with the St. Patty's Day theme of green.

Cover was $5, and it included the four mini cupcakes plus tea was being given out for free. I felt a little jipped because apparently No. 4 had some sort of accident. My friend heard "baking accident"; I heard car. I hope it wasn't car.

The one in the upper left-hand corner was No. 15 and the ultimate judges' winner. It was also the one Steph chose as her favourite -- I think mainly because the cream cheese topping really pushed that particular cupcake to a higher state of deliciousness. The one in the upper right-hand corner, No. 16, was People's Choice and had my favourite visual presentation.

The baker called it "Morning After St. Patty's Day." As you can see, there are little Guinness "cans" spread around the bed and even a mini Advil box on the nightstand. Now that is some serious creativity and theme dedication.

We also liked this cheese spread one, though it's difficult to make out the cupcake in this shot. (It's underneath the pretzel sticks.)

For the most part, all the cupcakes we sampled were very good. It was funny to sit on a floor, at a little table, swapping these mini baked goods and trying to debate the finer points of why one may be better than the other. Except for one of Steph's cupcakes, I couldn't really taste the beer component in any of them. But I think it would be fun to experiment next time I whip up my own batch.

Apple Tarts

I adore the new cookbook Earth to Table, written by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann, head chef and head pastry chef at the Ancaster Old Mill, respectively.

Jeff and Bettina (I feel like I can call them by their first names because we're Twitter buddies; follow them @Earth_to_Table) are huge advocates of using local, seasonal produce. I love that the cookbook is divided into seasons -- after I finished the intro, I skipped right to fall.

The book is very beautiful and inspiring. The recipes are easy to follow and things like duck confit and fennel pork loin have never seemed so accessible before! But those heavy mains require more time and focus so I decided to start small with apple tarts this past Thanksgiving weekend.

The first batch on Monday didn't turn out like the cookbook's photo, and when I later tweeted about it, @Earth_to_Table told me to bake it longer till golden and crispy. So for my next batch today, I did exactly like that. And they were much better! Definitely crispy.

L: First batch of apple tarts; R: second batch

They still didn't look like the photo in the cookbook though. I think I'm piling the apples too high, and the apple slices may be too big. The butter doesn't drip on to the pastry to make it as golden as I think it should be.

Anyway, I give myself an A for effort, and maybe a B- for execution? It was fun and easy to make. I haven't baked anything in a long time and it's always fun trying something new, even if it's not exactly as gorgeous and tasty as it is in your head.

I'm sure Jeff and Bettina's apple tarts are much better than mine. :)