I see a red door and I want to paint it black...

I made red velvet cupcakes the other day and I was extremly happy with the end result...I was in the search for a really good red velvet recipe and the one that I used resulted with a cake that was super yummy, not to sweet, really light and soft and through experiementation I ended up creating a frosting that I was even more happy with; just the right amount of sweetness mixed the correct dose of cream cheesyness :D
I was extremly surprised on how very red the batter was though...i mean yeah im aware of the word 'red' in red velvet but i wasnt anticipating this level of redness..the colour and consistancy of the batter made it feel exactly like red paint...i felt like a child making make pretend cupcakes by pouring paint into the cupcake pan...ok i have never acctually ever poured paint into a cupcake tin...but the point is it felt a lil odd and surreal....

Photo of the Day:
Day 118

If your reading this my electricity is back...

Places In Dubai- Sugar Daddy

Sugar Daddy is a really cute little cupcake shop in the Village on the beach road. Its a small shop offering a variety of homemade style cupcakes in a selection of really yummy flavours, Like most cupcake shops theyve decided to stick to the basic chocolate or vanilla base and then have a range of different flavoured toppings like kitkat, oreo and mint; in saying that they do have a few cupcakes that arent traditional chocolate or vanilla such as Red Velvet (a cupcake shop must) and carrot cake ( which i havent tried yet but looks nice).

Their Red velvet and chocolate base with mint frosting are my personal favourites... They also offer other treats like brownies and cookies and birthday cakes, which look like enormous cupcakes...but their star items really are their cupcakes...It was also a good opportunity to scope out my competition as well for future for when I open my own cupcakery... The cupcakes them self are nice, theyre a good size the cake is soft and not dry...i would have liked them to be a little more moist but over all as far as cupcakes go they tasted quite nice...this could be by absolute coincedence so I dont want to be starting any rumours here but the cake did taste suspiciously similair to the betty crocker cake mixes....but as i said this could just happen to be by complete coincidence....In my opinion the prices could have been set a little lower as well...
oh n the chef guy is not bad looking either.....

Apparantly there is another cupcake place in Dubai called Kitsch cupcakes but from what I've heard its not as good as Sugar Daddy..but I do intend on scoping that place out sometime in the near future...

Service: 8/10

Food: 7/10

Atmosphere: 6/10
Price: 4/10

In the spirit of cupcakes I thought id make the photo of the day cupcake related I made some Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache glaze and vanilla butter cream frosting they actually turned out nice and they were simple and were a big hit with my brothers friends who came to visit from Bahrain...

Photo of the day

Day 116:

Disco Lemonade

By no means am I fan of The Veronicas but for some reason every time I hear a song by the veronicas on the radio, in a shop or on the TV I have this overwhelming homely feeling missed with nostalgia washes over me that takes me back to weekend mornings listening to videohits in Australia...

I forgot to mention in my previous blog that I had a parking and hill test yesterday which i was dreading especially the hill test but it went really well and I passed which is good ...now i only have 9 more lessons and a computer test on signs left to go till I'm ready to take my full drivers licence test...which is exciting...

We recently were given this ENORMOUS box of danish butter cookies which love cuz it takes me back to when i was a little kid and i used to go to my dads office and the tea guy would always give me a handful of danish butter cookies...id then go and play the first edition of mortal combat on one of the office computers...good times...

Also misha's lupus is in remission which is fucking fantastic news...I'm super happy for her and wish i could have been there when they all found out....
that's it from me today...
x

Photo of the day
Day 97:

Places in Dubai- Maria Bonita's Taco Shop

Its a mexican resteraunt thats serves authentic mexican food on Umm al-Sheif Street in Jumierah. the cute little mexican resteraunt is done up appropriatly in a tradtional mexican cantina style the atmosphere is warm, fun and cosy ideally is a great place for a fun dinner thats a little different. the food is actually really good it caters for those who like food a little on the spicy side as well as for those people who have milder taste buds. It is a popular place though i dont think ive ever been there or driven by at any point of the day and it hasnt been pretty much full...this however does make parking an issue. Price wise its decent not ridiculously expensive as most places here can be but not unbelievably cheap either..dinner for 2 including starters and a pitcher of margarita was DHS149 ( around AUS $57)

Food: 8.5

Atmosphere: 8

Service: 7

Photo of the Day ( inside Maria Bonita's Taco Shop)

Day 96:

Places In Dubai- Shakespeare

Since I've been here ive been going around dubai and every once in a while i come accross a place where i say to myself " *insert name of person here* would absolutly love this place" so i take photos of the place and keep it aside....i think ive collected enough places now to start blogging about places in dubai id take my friends/family for when they do visit...


Im starting off with one of my favourite cafes its called Shakespeare there are two in Dubai that I frequently visit but i know there are heaps more all over dubai the website informs me there are 6 branches in Dubai...

One of the two i go to is a 15 mins walk from my place and one which is located at the village on beach road
They both essentially have the same style but i beleive the atmospheres are slightly different
the place is a lil quirky yet retains a sense of sophistication and charm....the style is a little hard to describe i suppose its a blend of tradional, with a predominant old english feel, a hint of an old tuscan atmosphere meets a blend of granny and shabby chic...which appeals to my senses...i do admit i enjoy going there more for coffee and a pastry as opposed to a full meal... they really do have delicious pastries...In my opinion people go to the place for the atmosphere and charm as opposed to the food which isnt bad at all though....it does however depend on what you order pastas and pastries are great...not so hot on the sandwiches. All 6 of the branches also serve shisha which I personally have not tried at sheakespeare yet but i know its my brother's place of choice to do shisha.

Food: 7/8
Atmoshphere: 9
Service: 6

Photo of the Day (Shakespeare cafe at the Village, Dubai)
Day 96:

Oh It's what you do to me...

So I've been a teensy bit busy the last week or so..we've had heaps going on plus we had some guests staying over for a while so i kept my blogs written but i didn't get a chance to upload the photos till recently so I thought I'd just publish them all in one go now...I've just written the respective days as the subject of each blog...I'm not posting all of them cuz...some of the stuff I wrote before really isn't worth mentioning now so I didn't think it was worth posting anymore....

Also today I drank coke from a glass bottle and it made me miss Rima immensely :(
So I dedicate the 'photo of the day' to her...

Photo of the day
Day 94:

{Yes I have been playing with poladriod again :p}

Wednesday, 1st April

I have offically decided I am in love with this dress..it makes me want to run into a giant feild and twirl around as fast as I can till I feel sick and collapse onto the ground like I used to when I was a kid :D
x

Photo of the day
Day 91:

Thursday, March 26th

Today I did something I beleive was huge so because ive said enough today, and im all talked out so ill leave you with the photo of the day:
Day 85:

Monday, 24th March

There is something about parties that i love ...especially brunches and teas its essentially just a whole meal out of super yummy stuff. The smells today were divine; working in the kitchen there was a infusion of an overwhelmingly delicious smell coming from the freshly baked bread rolls cooling in the corner mixing with the sweet smell of cherry crumble pie coming from inside the oven and incredibly aromatic earthly smell of dark chocolate melting on the stove top u just want to get a straw and suck up all the sent....its all so intensely amazing....


i made *the* cake...i call it *the* cake ...cuz it really is the ULTIMATE chocolate cake its perfect, its moist, rich and taste wise..in my book this is definitely the best cake in the world by a clear mile.. trust me once you've had this chocolate cake all other 'chocolate cakes' will seem inferior, its the kind of cake u crave, its the kind of cake u fall in love with. my aunt makes this cake on everyone's birthday in Australia she had sent the recipe over for my mother Ive made it twice since Ive come back..if there one slice of wisdom that she has passed on tome, the one thing i can take away, hold on to and then teach my children...maybe even my children's children it'll be this cake....


Photo of the day
Day 83: