High Tea at the Hotel Windsor

Hello again!

Today, two lovely friends took my sister and I out for afternoon tea at the Hotel Windsor on Spring Street as a belated birthday treat (our birthday was almost three months ago, but it was impossible to find a weekday afternoon when everyone was free).

The Hotel Windsor - High Tea

It was a delightful experience (I feel like I have to use posh words to describe it, haha!); the hotel itself is amazing and the afternoon tea was fantastic as well!  Normally, they use a different room (according to the waiter), but today, the tea was served in the Grand Ballroom which is just beautiful!

The Hotel Windsor - inside the Grand Ballroom

We began the afternoon with a glass of bubbles and some macarons (pistachio and choc-hazlenut) while we waited for the rest of the food to be served.

Macarons: Pistachio & Choc-Hazlenut

We started out with finger snadwiches.  I was really impressed with the sandwiches we had - three out the four of us are vegetarians and they prepared some extra vegtetarian options especially for us!  The sandwich fillings were egg & snow pea tendrils; cucumber & sour cream; cheese & tomato; roasted eggplant & salad greens; and roasted capsicum & parmesan.  My sister (non-vego) also had smoked salmon and chicken sandwiches.

Finger sandwiches

Next, we had scones.  It would have been nice if they were served warm, but I guess with the large number of guests this might have been difficult.  We each had a plain scone and a raisin scone.  They were both nice, but I'm not a huge fan of raisins so I enjoyed the plain one more.  Scones are served with a choice of strawberry or summer berry jam and double cream.  I'm not sure if they maybe use yeast to make the scones rise as they had an almost bread-like texture - quite different to most scones I have had before.  They were nice and fluffy though.

Plain and raisin scones

Finally, there was a selection of mini-cakes as well.  The layered one was a peanut butter and jam (or jelly) inspired number which was quite nice; the yellow cake was some kind of lemon & passionfruit mousse served atop a thin biscuit base with a white chocolate decoration; the white chocolate cone was filled with a white chocolate mousse and a fresh raspberry on top of a cake base; and the chocolate cake was like a mousse with a fruit sauce (I think it was apricot) in the middle and a tiny piece of edible gold foil on top (very fancy!).  The lemon & passionfruit cake was my favourite!  We were all so full by the end though, haha!

Cake selection

Of course High Tea wouldn't be complete without a nice cuppa!  There is quite a good selection of tea, ranging from the traditional Earl Grey, English Breakfast etc. to some herbal and floral inspired teas as well.  I started off with the Hotel Windsor Blend which was nice but quite similar to English Breakfast.  Next, I tried Earl Grey Twist.  This was also nice, but I think I missed the "twist" as to me, this just tasted like Earl Grey.  The twist is supposed to be lemon myrtle.  I could taste a bit of citrus but it was very subtle.  But like I said, this was nice nonetheless.  I finished up with a pot of Sultry Chai which I really enjoyed.  I quite like drinking proper brewed chai tea that is peppery and spicey, much better than the overly sweet, flavourless powdered stuff!  I wanted to try the Orange Pekoe and the Chamomile & Orange Blossom as well, but I guess they will have to wait for next time.  In case you haven't guessed by now, I am a hopeless tea addict, haha!

High Tea

Last but not least, this is what I wore.

High Tea Outfit

 Blouse - Valleygirl; Pants - Forever New; Heels - Rubi; Braclets - Mimco and Etsy

This was my first high tea experience so I was a little unsure of the dresscode.  I had planned to wear a skirt but that fell through when I realised that the skirt I wanted to wear is way to big for me now and needs to be taken in.  In the end, I felt ok wearing pants though, in fact one of my friends said I was probably the most dressed up of all of us (not sure if that was true though).

I would definitely love to go for High Tea again and I think it would be interesting to try out a few different places.  The tea at Hotel Windsor is quite traditional, but I think there are hotels that do a more modern twist as well.  I'd also love to go back to the Windsor on the weekend for the dessert buffet which does look fantastic from what I've seen on various blogs, but I think I'd probably need to fast for at least a week before, and probably after as well, haha!

Thanks for reading!

Dinner at Sebel Heritage + Outfit

Hello again,
My brother had his university graduation ceremony on Saturday, so we went out for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate.  It was a bit last minute so we ended up going to the Bella Restaurant at Sebel Heritage in Yarra Valley.  It was quite nice and fancy although I forgot to take pictures of my main (ricotta filled zuchini flowers with a tomato based sauce) and only got photos of desserts.

This is what I wore:

 

Dress - Forever New; Heart Stockings - Sportsgirl; Shoes - Siren; Bag - Etsy; Bracelet - Mimco

My brother and I both had a dark chocolate and pistachio fondant with vanilla icecream and honeycomb.  The fondant was nice and gooey in the middle, yum!

My sister had a strawberry romanoff with meringues.

Mum had a vanilla and lavendar panna cotta with caramelised nectarines.

Thanks for reading!

Daiso and Passionflower + Outfit of the Day

Hi everyone,

On Friday I made another trip to Daiso, this time with my sister!  We had lunch in the city first (at a Malaysian restaurant in QV) and then hopped on the tram out to Abbortsford.  There was quite a bit more stock than Thursday's trip, but there were a lot of unpacked boxes in the aisles and still quite a few empty shelves.

I bought some gift bags (for Xmas, birthdays etc.) and some origami paper.

Japanese gift bags and origami paper from Daiso

 My sister bought an umbrella, some wrapping paper, gift bags, origami paper, oil blotting sheets, a little key charm thing and some little felt decorations for craft projects.

My sister's purchases from Daiso

Click on the jump at the end of this post to see the rest of my photos from Daiso!

Then after Daiso, we had dessert at Passionflower.  The menu is so overwhelming, I wanted to try about five different things!!!  And they let you taste the different icecream flavours before you decide what you want to order!

I ended up ordering Tiramisu, which was nice but I was feeling a bit sick by the end because it was so creamy.

Tiramisu - Passionflower

 My sister had banana crepes with sticky rice and coconut icecreams.  The sticky rice icecream was ok (it actually has grains of rice in it!) but the flavour was a bit meh - just a generic sweet flavour.  She said the crepes were nice though!

Banana crepes - Passionflower

Look at all the different icecream flavours!!  They have lots of Asian inspired flavours like sticky rice, red bean, jackfruit, green tea, durian, black sesame etc.  I tried Kumquat and Wild Lime Sorbet.

Passionflower

On the way back to Melbourne Central to get the train home, I bought these shoes from Cotton On.  I think they will be cute for Summer!  You can't see all that well in the picture, but they have little bows on them.

Flats from Cotton On

It was sunny so I wore a summery top, but it turned out to be freezing, only about 20oC or so.  Lucky I brought a cardigan as well!

My outfit for the day

Top - Dotti
Cardi - Quick Brown Fox
Jeans - MNG

Thanks for reading!

P.S. - don't forget to vote in the poll I have going in the side column to give your input of what you'd like to see more of on my blog!

P.P.S. I took a heap of photos in Daiso, but I didn't want to spam you all with them, so click on the jump to see the rest of my photos from Daiso!

City Outing, Shopping, Daiso etc.

Hello everyone,
I had a dentist appointment in the city this morning so I hung around in the city afterwards to meet my sister after her exam.

I took the tram out to Abbortsford while I was waiting to have a look at Daiso, the recently opened Japanese "100 Yen" store - basically like a $2 discount store, except everything is from Japan.  I thought it would be awesome, but I was honestly a little disappointed.  In fairness to them, a lot of shelves were empty and they are expecting a shipment tomorrow so I will probably make up my mind when I go back tomorrow with my sister (tomorrow is her last exam so she wants to go back afterwards).  All I bought today was a pack of "infant cotton buds" - like normal cotton buds but smaller.  I plan to use these for cleaning up my nails after I paint them.  There were a lot of random things that I had no idea what they were for and couldn't work out from the pictures/diagrams.  Apart from that, there was a lot of stationary, homewares/storage, bathroom things etc.

Baby Cotton Buds from Daiso

Daiso Website 

After looking in Daiso, I decided to check out Tokuya, a similar Japanese discount store on Bourke St (next to the Target arcade).  It was pretty similar to Daiso, although a little bit smaller.  I bought a "vegetable organiser"...haha, this sounds so ridiculous.  From the picture on the label, I think you are supposed to use it for standing carrots, cucumbers etc. upright in the fridge....???  Anyway, I am going to use it for organising eyeliners, mascaras etc. as I currently have a glass chemistry beaker for this and while it looks cool, I think something plastic will be safer.

I have one section for shadesticks & jumbo pencils, one for brushes, one for eyeliners and one for mascaras and brow things

Top view so you can see the dividers

Then I met my sister and we shared a macaron and a mini cupcake at The Cupcake Family in QV.  I wanted to try almost all of the different cupcake flavours but we went with a mini peanut butter and chocolate cupcake and a mocha macaron.  The cupcake was nice, but I think the icing was just pure peanut butter - a bit sickly.  The macaron was also nice, but not as nice as the Lindt Cafe ones.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Mini Cupcake and Mocha Macaron

They had some cool looking "display" cupcakes in the window though, I guess these are examples for people who want customised cupcakes for birthdays and functions etc.  I thought the Tiffany and Chanel ones were cute!

The Cupcake Family

The Cupcake Family

Chanel and Tiffany inspired cupcakes

The Cupcake Family Website 

On our way back to Melbourne Central to get the train, we had a look in the Mooks store.  I bought a Paul Frank tshirt.  I'm not a huge fan of Paul Frank (I don't mind it, just not crazy about it), but I thought the print was cute.  And I don't have that many tshirts (I don't wear them all that often, but I think I'll need a few for summer).  That's my justification haha!  It's a bit crinkled from being folded up in a bag but it says "Maybe we just need more hugs!" - cute!!

Paul Frank tshirt

And I'm going back into the city tomorrow, haha!  Since starting this blog it seems like I go shopping every second day!  I promise this is not normal, it's only because I have a very short holidays (only two weeks, compared to normal three months of uni holidays) as I am starting a placement next Monday.

Thanks for reading!

Orange and Polenta Cake

Hi everyone!
Today I baked an Orange and Polenta cake.  It contains no flour or wheat products so would be perfect for people with a gluten intolerance.

Fresh out of the oven!

Delicious!

The recipe is from Delicious magazine (I have the "Sweet" cookbook which is a compilation of dessert and cake recipes from the magazine), although, I used a slightly different method of making the syrup.

- To begin, place two large oranges (I used naval oranges because they have no seeds) into a pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for an hour (you may need to top up the water, so the oranges stay almost covered in water).
- Remove the oranges from the pan and whiz them in the food processor or Bamix.  Reserve about 100-150ml of the boiling liquid.
- Allow the orange puree to cool down a little (you don't want to end up with scrambled eggs when you add the eggs in).  I transferred the puree to a mixing bowl at this point because I was using the processor attachment of the Bamix which is quite small, but if you are using a food processor you could leave it in there and add the rest of the ingredients in the processor.
- Add 6 eggs, 150g of polenta, 150g of almond meal and 250g of caster sugar.  The recipe also called for 1tsp of chopped fresh rosemary, however I omitted this as our rosemary bush died a while ago (I didn't know this so I hadn't bought any).
- Grease and line a 23cm springform pan (just line the base, not the sides).
- Pour the mixture into the pan, sprinkle some demerara sugar (or coffee crystals if you don't have demerara sugar) over the top and bake at 180C for about1 hour (mine needed about 10 minutes extra time in the oven).

 - Cool for a few minutes in the tin before turning onto a plate.

 - To make the syrup, add half a cup of caster sugar to the orange water and stir over a low heat until the sugar dissolves.  Bring to a boil and boil without stirring for about 5 minutes or until the syrup thickens.  Add in a dash of orange flavoured liquer (e.g. Cointreau).  The recipe used plain water and added orange zest, but I decided to use the boiling liquid as that has a lovely orange flavour in it already, so I didn't want to waste it.

 - Drizzle the syrup over the top and serve.  It can be served warm or cold.  When the syrup cools it forms a lovely crunchy crust over the top.  It also reheats well in the microwave.

Thanks for reading!

Cupcakes + Outfit

Today, I was meant to be first aid volunteering at a local town festival, but that was cancelled due to bad weather so I had a free day.  I ventured back over to Westfield Doncaster with my mum to try our luck again in finding her a dress.  We browsed in Myer for ages and had a look in a few other places and couldn't really find anything.

We did bump into a good friend from high school and her mum who were out shopping as well.  We were best friends in primary school and early high school but have kind of drifted apart since starting uni so it was nice to catch up with her.

I also purchased some cupcakes for afternoon tea from Joy Cupcakes.

Clockwise from bottom left: Quince, Rosewater & Pistachio, Lavender & Honey

The Lavender and Honey one was probably my favourite.  Quince is one of my all time favourite foods, but the quince one was honestly a bit of a let down.  The cake part was just a normal chocolate cupcake and I think the icing was just some kind of buttercream with a bit of quince paste added to it.  I thought a quince cupcake would be awesome, but this cupcake was pretty ordinary.  The Rosewater cupcake was also quite good.

It was pretty cold today so I decided to wear a scarf:

This scarf was from Dotti.  It is one of those square scarves that you fold into a triangle.  Black cardi is from Quick Brown Fox (courtesy of sister's wardrobe) and underneath is a plain black tshirt.

I wore my Etsy bracelet again.  I couldn't get a decent picture of it on (it's really hard to photograph your own wrist), so here is a picture of it sitting on my desk, haha!

Simple, but nice!

Thanks for reading!

Mimco Shopping + Outfit of the Day

Hello everyone!
Mimco has 20% off storewide at the moment so I went into the city to meet up with my sister after her exam finished as she had a bag on laybay and wanted to pay it off today so she could get 20% off.

I have my eye on a few pieces of jewellery so I decided to get something today to take advantage of the sale.  So it got....

The Curb Chain bracelet in Matte Black

Better pic sourced from www.mimco.com.au

I really like the Matte Black chain, I think it's just something a bit different!  I have a few other things on my wishlist but I'm not doing great in the finance department so they will have to wait.

I also purchased this ring from Sportsgirl:

I wore this beaded tshirt/top thing from Jeanswest:

Wow, I am super pale in this photo!

Jewellery:

Various e.g. Diva etc.

Bracelet on my left arm is the Mimco Curb Chain.  Bracelet on my right was a Christmas gift from my sister from Etsy.  This is one of my favourite accessories - I wear it all the time!  Will have to get a better pic.

You can also see the mani I did earlier today - I was in a rush so I went with a quick dry polish: Cutex's 60 Seconds Supershine in 038 Galaxy.  It did not dry in 1 minute, let alone 15 minutes!  So it ended up super lumpy and dinted after I zipped up my jeans.

On the way home, we grabbed something to eat at the new German bakery in Melbourne Central.  At first we thought they were just speaking with German accents as part of the act so we were daring each other to say something to the sales assistant in German, but then while they were making my coffee we heard them actually speaking German, so luckily I didn't say anything, otherwise I would have been so embarassed haha!  We have been waiting for this bakery to open for months (or however long they have been renovating it) - I seriously checked to see if it was open almost everytime I was in the city (haha, is that a little bit sad?).  I think this is due to the combination of our German heritage and our love of bakery goods.

Anyway, we tried a salted pretzel, plum and quark pastry (quark is kind of like a cream cheese/curd/yoghurt type dairy product), marzipan pastry and hazelnut triangle (not all at once though, haha!)  They were all yummy!  The pretzels are exactly like the kind you get in Germany.  Here is the website if anyone wants to drool over delicious German baked goods: Lüneburger

We are supposed to be in for wild weather down in Melbourne this weekend! Yikes!!

Thanks for reading!

DFO Southwharf Shopping Trip

Hi again!  Today I had to go into uni to clean out my locker and see one of my lecturers (she wrote a reference for me so I had a small gift for her + we are trying to get an article we wrote published - fingers crossed!!) so I decided afterwards to head down to Southwharf to see if I could find a better purse for my nana and return the other one that I bought.  I was able to find a better one (although it's pink, so I'm not sure if she'll like it).  Does everyone else find that, whenever you go shopping with a specific idea in mind of what you want, what you want never actually exists?  It drives me crazy!!

Needless to say, I got a bit distracted from my purse shopping agenda and purchased a few items for me along the way.

Here are the things I purchased:
Equip had a three for two special, so I purchased a ring (so cute!) and two necklaces.

Equip ring - you can see my Ulta3 Watermelon mani is still holding up as well!  I did my toes this morning too as I wore thongs today.

Equip multi-strand necklace

Equip key necklace

Metallic purple pouch thingy from Mimco - I plan to use this to put my iPod in for when I put it in my handbag so it doesn't get scratched/the headphones don't get damaged.  I don't know how many pairs of headphones I've ruined because I just tug on them to pull my iPod out from underneath everything else in my bag.

Sideways pic (sorry, I must learn how to fix this!) - the colour is a little darker than this in person.

Leak proof lunchbox for salads and other food items which I don't want dripping all over the contents of my bag!  Very practical...if it actually works!  I bought this at Howard's Storage World.

My new lunchbox!

 The Lovely Bones DVD - I read the book in Year 9 and it kind of freaked me out a little bit.  I obviously liked it though because I re-read it in about Year 11 (I think) and I saw the film when it came out in cinemas (either this year or last year, can't remember).  The book and the film were quite different, but I did like both.  I think I cried through pretty much the entire movie though!  This was on sale at JB Hifi for $12.98 - awesome!

The Lovely Bones DVD

 Two tops from Levi Jeans.  They had buy one get one free and I really liked the tshirt so I decided to get the other top as well - it's just simple, loose fitting black top so I'm sure I will be able to get plenty of wear out of it this summer.  I really liked the print of the tshirt, but it has a weird, throat constrictingly high neck line, so I may attmept to alter it to make it less so.

Sideways again!  Levis print tshirt.

Levis plain black loose fitting top

 That's all from me for now, thanks for reading!

Afternoon Tea

Yesterday, we had a few friends over to afternoon tea as a "mini" birthday celebration (due to almost everyone except me being bunkered down in study mode).  I baked a few treats for the afternoon tea (with my sister's new purple Kitchenaid mixer).

Left: Orange and almond cake, right: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

I baked two of the carrot cakes and took the other one with me to the Whittlesea Show today as afternoon tea for the rest of the St John first aiders.  Saw many interesting things at the show.... including a Shetland pony dressed up as Spiderman (the actual horse was wearing a costume, as well as the kid riding it - who was very upset when the lady announcing the event mistakenly called him Superman, it was very cute!!!)  According to a horse riding friend, "dress up" equestrian events are not unusual, but I'd never seen anything like it!

Anyway, back to the afternoon tea, I often get compliments on my carrot cake and it has become my "go to" recipe if I have to bring something to share.  So here is the recipe (adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics):

 - Mix together 1&1/2 cups of brown sugar and 3/4 cup of vegetable oil or canola oil.  You could even use olive oil.
- Add three eggs.
- Add 1&1/2 cups sifted SR flour, 1 tsp bicarb soda (or substitue plain flour and baking powder if you don't have SR flour).
- Add 1 large tsp each of ginger and cinammon and 1/2 large tsp each of nutmeg and ground cloves.  I like to be generous with the spices, but you can adjust to your own taste.
- Add 3-4 medium sized peeled, washed and grated carrots.
- Bake at 180 degrees (celcius) for around 40 minutes (or until cooked) if you bake it in two loaf tins or around 60 minutes (or until cooked) if you bake it in a larger square tin.
- For the icing, I just mix together some cream cheese, cream and icing sugar.
- I like to sprikle pepitas on the top but we didn't have any.  You can also use chopped nuts (e.g. pecan) or you can add chopped nuts, sultanas etc. to the mixture before you bake it.  I tend to avoid adding nuts when cooking for a crowd due to allergies however I think they add some nice texture.

We also had macarons.  Unfortunately I can't take credit for these.

And "punch" (non-alcoholic due to P-plate drivers) - just some quartered strawberries, roughly chopped mint and lemonade.  Very simple but quite nice!

All in all, it has been a very busy last few days for me (exams, lunch, shopping and baking on Friday; work and entertaining on Saturday and then St John first aid volunteering all day today).  I am looking forward to a nice big sleep in.

Thanks for reading!