Tucked away in Paddington lies the tiny French cafe L’Gerbe D’Or. They’re well-known for their deluxe cakes, pastries and bread. I particularly love their hot chocolate, served in a bowl as big as your head.
Sydney
RSPCA Cupcake Day
Anyone who knows me knows that my passion in life is animals. I am the hugest fan of the RSPCA and would do anything for them to help them fundraise.
2008 marked the first year for the Cupcake Day for the RSPCA and I decided to bake up a storm and raise some cash at work.
Since my oven doesn’t work, I went over to see my parents and baked with their state-of-the-art wonderful oven. The recipe I used was the same one I have been using since I was about five – it’s a very simple, never-fail, vanilla cupcake recipe that always turns out perfect – fluffy and crumbly in the middle with a great texture and taste. I did however tempt fate by making a second batch and throwing in a good heap of Cadbury drinking chocolate to see what happened. What happened was I stuffed up the recipe and half of the chocolate cupcakes sunk in the middle so were un-sellable. They were still tasty and devoured by family however, so it turned out OK!
Batch number two goes into the oven.
Batch number one comes out – perfect!
Iced! Glorious sprinkled cakes with lemon yellow icing.
Chocolate with white butter cream icing and chocolate sprinkles.
Dispite some hiccups at my work, the day went off very well. Several other Googlers brought in treats they had baked as well, and together we raised $170 for the RSPCA. Google also gift matches any money we donate to charity, so it ended up being $340 we made in total. I hope to raise even more next year!
Girls’ Day Out
Beverly has been telling us about this fabulous French cafe for a while, so I was more than happy to begin our shopping bonanza with hot chocolate and pastries. I’ve been to France a few times and am planning another trip, so it really got me into the “I’m going to France” groove. Which also reminds me that my lapse in practicing French has left my language skills as abysmal. Must refresh my memory before venturing the land of chocolate!
Back to the cafe, it’s called La Gerbe D’or and is in Paddington. Beverly knows the owner, a lovely French fellow, who recognised her and came over for a chat. The cafe was extremely busy, both with fellow diners inhaling gigantic amounts of hot chocolate, as well as locals popping in for exquisite pastries and baguettes.
Beverly points to the many items she is about to order.
This is not a distorted image. The bowl is as large as my head. We worked out it was about four cups worth, and only cost around $5. Bargain – and sickness-inducing.
Onion tart.
Mushroom quiche.
My late breakfast – so tasty and fluffy. It cost around $8, which I thought was a reasonable price.
Yes, another demonstration of how piggy we are.
Three girls, ready to pig out and buy lots of pretty things.
Lisa’s dessert.
Drinking my way into queasiness. It was so divine I just couldn’t stop. It was very sweet and light, but next time I will split it with someone.
In Alannah Hill I fell in love with this princess dress. I wasn’t exactly in the market for another dress, but what can you do when fate throws you the perfect frock?
After a day of trying on dresses, we adjourned back to the apartment for pizza gluttony from LCC. After boasting about the glory of LCC pizza, the girls insisted we all try it and decide once and for all if it is indeed the fairest pizza on the North Shore. The evening did not start auspiciously – the pizza took an hour to arrive. That is the standard delivery time for LCC and we’re used to it, but our guests were impatient for foooood.
Posing. Of course.
“Limpeted!”
Don’t know what was going on here. Beverly has “I’m cranky, feed me” face. And Chris has … I don’t know what to call that.
Finally! Food! LCC were good to us and threw in a large garlic and herb pizza and garlic bread.
Alec tries to save me from myself.
Chillin’. Ahhh pizza satisfaction!
Spellbound by the Wii.
Cuties with their toy ferrets.
Couldn’t resist throwing this one in. Too cute for words.
La Gerbe D’or
255 Glenmore Road
Paddington, NSW 2021
Google vs eBay Touch Footie Match
I don’t think I’ve ever played touch football before but somehow I was recruited to organise a touch football match between my team and eBay. I find it to be quite a strange game where not much really goes on unless someone passes you the ball.
It was a lot of fun however, and I manged to catch the ball a few times – woot! We also won the game and raised money for Animals Australia.
Sakura Japanese Kitchen
Shelley took me to Sakura Japanese Kitchen before we saw a movie last week. It’s a tiny little place that serves fast, tasty, cheap Japanese food. There were lots of Japanese people in there so I think it’s safe to say if it’s a hit with the locals then it’s more than good enough for us!
The service is fast and friendly and the food come out within 10 minutes of ordering. Shelley had rainbow rolls and prawn and vege tempora, and I had vegetables tempora and udon noodle soup. The noodles were super tasty, the soup was delicious and the veges were huge! I also thought the food was good value – it cost about $11 for my dish. We will be back!
Sakura Japanese Kitchen
Shop 325 Pitt Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel. 02 9261 0711
Open seven days
Birthday Escape: Glen Davis and Katoomba {Day 3}
It’s cold out here. Bone-chillingly cold. The sky is blue today though so it’s a great day for the drive to Glen Davis, a tiny little town where my dad grew up. It was a mining town where my uncle, grand-dad and great grand-dad all worked in the mines, but became a ghost town at some stage, and has now come full circle with people moving back into the town to retire. It’s quite eerie as it is a town in name only – there’s nothing there except for the houses that have moved back, and they sit amongst the ruins of foundations from the previous houses, school and shop buildings.
There is nothing left here of my dad’s house except the front steps and some foundation blocks, but it was really amazing to visit it and see where my dad was a little boy running around. The countryside is amazingly beautiful, so it would have been a very pretty place to live even though it was so isolated it would have been really hard to get anywhere to get supplies.
After visiting Glen Davis we slowly drove back to Sydney, stopping at Lithgow for food and Katoomba for hot chocolate and waffles. I love this little art deco cafe called Paragon on the main street of Katoomba. It has fabulous chocolate for sale, hand-made on the premisis I believe.
Since we were so close we drove down to the Three Sisters Lookout. We came up here on one of our first dates, two years ago, so it was really sweet to come back and look around again and reminisce.
Birthday Escape: Mudgee and Relaxing {Day 2}
A big fail on behalf of Google Maps (or my map reading skills) lead us to drive into Mudgee while looking for a little town called Glen Davis that my dad grew up in. Turns out Glen Davis was in the opposite direction .. whoops! Never mind, it still ended up being an interesting drive.
A pretty church in Mudgee. Everything was closed when we got there just after 2pm. We ate an an Asian bakery as it was literally the only food place open apart from Subway.
We stopped off at Windermere Dam on the way back to our cabin. It looks fairly good weather here but it had been raining all day on and off, and when we got back in the car it started to snow!
Birthday Escape To The Blue Mountains {Day 1}
For my last 20-something birthday Alec took me away for the weekend to stay in a river-side cabin at Turon Gates, about 4-5 hours hrs drive from Sydney.
After a long and somewhat dramatic drive there, we awoke the next morning surrounded by bushlands.
Our solar-powered cabin, right in the middle of a nature reserve.
Alec takes a look around.
This photo is begging for a funny caption. Pity I can’t think of one!
Scenic bushlands and nature were all around.
It was awesome waking up every morning to look ut of the window at this river. The river was a major site during the gold rush and the remains from the gold prospectors can still be seen here. The river is crystal clear (and bloody cold!). In summer I can imagine it would be a great place to swim and canoe.
Ghost gums – everywhere!
Pretty! I loved how much wattle was everywhere – the bright yellow against olive green and red and brown dirt. So Australian!
Playing with my 50mm lens.
Very obliging boy.
So rugged and manly!
Who da man?
Cheesy! A happy photo on a happy day.
Purdy Things
These sweet lip glosses were gifts from Beverly and Rosalie. I have been on a hunt to find the perfect lip gloss for many years and have accumulated a collection of gloss and balm that would rival the Myers cosmetics floor.
This adorable little cupcake-shaped one has chocolate lip gloss inside.
I have a love of Stila that is obsessive, so it was an extremely pleasant surprise to open this gift from Beverly. I had to photo it to preserve the adorable packaging.
I adore how this gloss is moisturising rather than sticky and gives the perfect hint of colour.
The Cupcake Bakery
Beverly and I were doing a spot of, ahem, shopping today at Peter Alexander on George St when we decided to pop in next door to The Cupcake Factory to give them a taste test. We both consider ourselves cupcake connoisseurs, so it takes some seriously delicious cupcakes to satisfy our cravings for her perfect nom-ing treat.
The Cupcake Factory has a lovely display filled with many interesting flavours – not as many kinds as BabyCakes, but they make up for it with excellent quality.
Cost-wise, it is $3.50 per huge cupcake, which may seem pricey but is very comparable to other cupcake stores and is cheaper than BabyCakes. BabyCakes may have the cute factor, but I do believe The Cupcake Factory wins for awesome tasting cupcakes.
I bought one to try – the vanilla with chocolate buttercream and sprinkles below. I also bought a sticky date with caramel topping for Alec – it was 50 cents extra for the cute little box.
Pretty store – love the striped decor.
Yuuumm….
Close-up of the crazy blue cake.
Menu.
About to get totally sugared out.
Store front.
My vanilla with chocolate buttercream cupcake. I can’t rate it highly enough. The buttercream was deliciously sweet – not too sugary! A good sign is how light and fluffy it is. The actual cake was delicious. Very vanilla-y and soft, but not too spongey. Perfect texture – slightly crumbly, with a crunchy outside.
Bliss! Check The Cupcake Factory out:
320B George St
Sydney, NSW, 2000