2 Birthdays of our First Semester

Back in the UK for a rather long time now and all's good. The internet on my laptop is finally up and running (phewee...after 2months you'd think it would!) so here are some pictures of my birthday celebration in Garford, Oxford 25Sept. Chocolate cake handmade by Hannah in the early hours of my birth day. Waking up to the smell of cooking chocolate. A very good present indeed. Not to mention sparkling wine, Crabtree&Evelyn goodies, and lots of cards. I couldn't be more thrilled.

Halloween this year was a phenomenal event as well!
The best we've ever thrown. Everyone pretty much went all out in their costumes, everyone was completely sloshed and my bday cake apparently was the best yet! Chocolate dense cake, white chocolate icing with a mango chocolate ganache. Err..I'm quite sure I got an applause for the amount of effort I put in, slaving away in the kitchen (without an electric mixer i might add, since you know how i'm such a lazy bum always relying on technology)
This ganache was more or less inspired by Chockylit from Cupcake Bakeshop, have to say I didn't quite like the mango in chocolate. :( It was a hit with the pals but don't think I would ever make it again with mango. Just not quite a fan here. I suppose I'm too much of a Singaporean tropical island girl to eat my mango with something as rich and dense as chocolate. I'd rather just have slices of mango. Mango,neat pls. :D

My official favourite TV program at the moment is Gary Rhodes' Local Food Heroes. One has definitely got to see this. Rustic flavours; good traditional English food. that's what i'm talking about. Gary Rhodes certainly is doing a good thing increasing the publicity of locally produced foods. Although, beware! Watch with caution cos it definitely does give you a serious case of gastronomical frustration. Happened to me. tsk tsk.