Celebrating Pre-Christmas with desserts

It was a day filled with laughter, joy and fun. Claire, being a good host, shuttled us between her home and the nearest MRT station, got us a good spread of savoury food such as Chicken Wings, Ngoh Hiang (五香), Black Pepper Crabs, Pork Balls Wraps and flooded us with free flow of gourmet coffee, lime juice and sky juice.

What happens when food bloggers, dessert enthusiasts and pâtissiers meet? You end up in a live firing zone (it sures look like it when everybody prepares to fire at the array of desserts) and verbal exchanges of praises.

The order in which the desserts are presented in this blog is in accordance to the punctuality of their appearance to the firing zone. To kick start, Evan's bakes, a highly anticipated appearance, is one that requires no further introduction. With so much experience in making macarons, do I need to tempt you further?

Are you drooling yet? The flavours are rose, pistachio and hazelnut. I share the same sentiments with everybody, her macarons are heavenly good. The shells are chewy with the right thickness and is definitely my favourite dessert among the entire selection. Kudos to her creativity to use the right ingredients for her rose macarons, making the entire flavour overwhelming and natural.

Vicki's Swedish Cinnamon Swirls, a much healthier version unlike Cinnamon which is more oily and sweeter. However, the nutty peppery flavor of cumin seeds (my bad, it wasn't cumin seeds, it is cardamom, thanks to Evan for the correction) overshadows fragrantly sweet and warm taste of cinnamon.

It is sweet of Vicki to bring non-cakes desserts, since she might has anticipated what the rest have brought. Presenting her lovely peppermint marshmallows, which simply melt our hearts when we see it. The lovely swirls of pink with the right degree of sweetness and peppermint bring out the Christmas mood.

Yuan took my suggestion and bought a green tea sponge cake (Kasutera, カステラ) from Minamoto Kitchoan, Takashimaya. Based on internet forum, this is one of the best matcha cake available in Singapore. From Claire's experience in Japan, this was no where near from what she had in Japan. Based on my comparison with the matcha cakes I have tried, its degree of green tea is strong but didn't justify S$20 as it was too dry in its texture.

Weili's daring creation of the Eggnog cheesecake was indeed an acquired taste. With milk, cream, sugar, beaten eggs, flavoured with cinnamon and nutmeg and a final touch of whisky and brandy leave you to go ga-ga over its high alcoholic content or ponder what is the content of this cake.

How can we miss out a log cake for Christmas, presenting the Traditional Christmas Chocolate Log cake made of rich chocolate mousse, rum syrup and homemade chocolate sponge ($53 excluding 7% GST, 15% discount for Citibank and DBS cardholders), from the Deli, Goodwood Park Hotel, Singapore.

Last but not least, Sihan has made a bundt cake flavoured with chocolate, walnut, orange and a tint of nugmeg. This soft butter cake marbled with chocolate is just right in its flavour and texture. The chunky walnuts provides an additional punch while the orange gives a refreshing finishing touch.


All in all, this gathering wouldn't have been successful without everybody's effort and I am definitely looking forward to the next dessert gathering...

Don't miss out LIC's Potluck: Dessert Enthusiast Xmas outing, Evan's Xmas PotLuck at Claire's place, Vicki's dessert enthusiasts Christmas Party at Claire's.

Still keeping a lookout on the others' blog for their coverage on this gathering :D