The Royal Wedding Cake

Even if you weren't one of the two billion people keeping an eagle eye on the recent British Royal Wedding you would have still been force fed images of the dress, the kiss and Princess Beatrice's heinous pretzel hat. Now that the majority of the chatter is over, I would like to draw your attention to the couple's wedding cake, created by Leicestershire-based cake designer Fiona Cairns. The wedding cake was a gorgeous multi-tiered traditional fruit cake decorated with the Joseph Lambeth technique. The Lambeth Method is a popular wedding cake decorating method and uses intricate piping work to create flowers and delicate filigree patterns and you can view photos of the cake here. However the thing I'm most chuffed about is Prince William specially commissioning this McVities chocolate biscuit cake. Though I enjoy the aroma of fruit cake ... I hate eating it so cheers Prince William for thinking of those guests who despise fruit cake. I always knew you were a top sort.

Mandarin, Polenta and Macadamia Cake

The whole pack are off to visit Carla and her little one tomorrow so I thought I would make a cake. I was looking for something no fuss and would travel well so I decided to make this Mandarin, Polenta and Macadamia Cake from the Australian Womens Weekly Bake cookbook. Before you begin you need to cover four small mandarins with cold water in a saucepan and bring them to a boil. Repeat this another two times before leaving them to cool to room temperature. Then take a large mixing bowl and add 1 cup of polenta, 2 cups of coarsely ground macadamia nuts and one teaspoon of baking powder.

In a smaller bowl whip 250g room temperature butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 cup of caster sugar until light and fluffy. Then add three eggs, one at a time.

Take your small bowl of cream and eggs and combine them with the dry mixture. At this point you are ready to preheat your oven to 170°C/150°C for a fan forced oven as it will take you a little while to prepare the mandarins. Peel your cooled mandarins, blitz them with a stick blender, strain the juice and carefully remove the seeds before adding the pulp to the cake mixture.

Here is a photo of the completed batter in a lined and grease 23cm springform pan. I then cook the cake for a little over an hour. There is some variance depending on how juicy your mandarins are.

Here is the finished product with a dusting of icing sugar. I can only hope it tastes as good as it smells!

Hanaichi Sushi Bar + Dining

Thousands of individuals pass, converge or meet daily in the Queen Street Mall and perhaps a hundred or so will take the Wintergarden escalator to seek out Hanaichi Sushi Bar + Dining. Though this busy sushi bar often has a line spilling into the corridor it moves fairly briskly and you soon find yourself at the Sushi Bar.

The Sushi Bar gives you prime position to view the chefs crafting nigiri or slicing sashimi. I began my journey with a classic Salmon Nigiri, before moving onto something more modern ... the California Roll. The California Roll is a style of sushi engineered for the American palette. It replaces the traditional tuna with a seafood stick or crab salad, adds avocado and places the chewy nori inside. The Hanaichi version uses crab salad and comes served in a set of three. You only see two pieces as I forgot to take a photo until I halfway through my first piece. Oopas!

I've always been a fan of the texture and smokey flavour of Eel Nigiri but on this occasion I found this particular dish to be somewhat dry. It is disappointing as traditional Japanese preparation of eel is really interesting. The flesh is grilled over hot charcoal, then steamed to remove excess fat, then seasoned with a sweetish sauce and grilled a second time.

As I was locked into hosting an event that evening, I decided to have a naughty Tempura Prawn Nigiri. So what can I say about Hanaichi Sushi Bar? It's easily accessible, fresh and good for an instant hit of sushi or a lightning fast catch up with a friend.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Address: 171 Queen Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000.
Open: 7 Days. Lunch: 11:30am - 3pm. Dinner: 5:30pm - Late.
Phone: (07) 3221 1450.
Price: Sushi: $3.50 - $7.00.

Era Cafe

Southbank is a lovely whimsical place, you can stroll through bougainvillea covered archways, wet your feet on the shore of the artificial beach, indulge yourself in the arts, explore the markets or numerous boutiques and even pop into a movie. Despite this world of wonder, the biggest issue I have with Southbank is lack of free parking spaces as almost ever single spot is $12 per entry paid parking. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered that Era offers two hours free parking to customers (enter via Grenier Lane).

Era Cafe is the casual offshoot of the more formal Era Bistro and offers diners the flexibility to have relaxed or moreish pick me up breakfast or lunch. So when the lovely Brianna flew down from Townsville we decided to catch up there. Era Cafe make their danishes, muffins and scones on site and Bri couldn't bypass the scones and they came served with double cream and soft blackberry jam. I'm more of a savoury breakfast kid and selected the Autumn Vegetable Hash with Watercress Shoots and Poached Eggs (pictured above). The eggs were perched proudly on top of the Hash and the yolks were bright orange and viscose. While I thought the hash had spent a tad too long in the fryer, the vegetables were harmonious and the smaller portion size was well executed. A large fried style breakfast can leave you feeling queasy ... which is not my preferred way to greet an activity filled day.

No matter how good breakfast is ... your drink can make or break the experience. But I'm pleased to announce that my coffee was great. It was beautifully glossy and went down real smooth. So in summary, I rather like Era Cafe ... it's not as polished as its sister Era Bistro ... but she's a charming little scamp.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Address: 102 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane, QLD 4101.
Open: Monday - Friday. From 7am. Saturday - Sunday. From 8am. Breakfast and Lunch.
Phone: (07) 3255 2033.
Price: Breakfast: $5.20 - $17.50. Lunch: $6.50 - $22.50.

Life Beyond Strawberry Pocky

One of my favourite Asian snack foods is Strawberry Pocky. Strawberry Pocky is a Japanese snack comprising of a thin biscuit stick traditionally coated in chocolate. Since its original introduction, the product has grown to include a number of varieties such as mousse, green tea, coconut and banana. The snack also has a number of seasonal variations and of these my favourite would have been lemon cheesecake! It was amazing so I can understand why this snack reached cult status. I have set out to ask the big question ... is there life beyond Strawberry Pocky?

The first product I tested was a bite sized Mille-Feuille inspired snack by Bourbon called Mille-Fers. Each square contains puff pastry, wafer and cream encased in a chocolate shell. Its actually quite pleasant when chilled in the fridge but is quite an expensive snack for the number of pieces you get in the box. I'd say this is a gift or a one off novelty event for your taste buds.

Meiji are the company behind these little mountain mushrooms (known as Kinoko No Yama) and Hello Pandas so it shouldn't come as any surprise that these biscuits taste deliciously similar. Though Hello Pandas are adorable, I actually enjoy these little fellows more as the biscuit isn't as dry or as crumbly. Meiji Kinoko No Yama are worth the purchase and make a delicious alternative to Strawberry Pocky. My Mother raised an interesting point that all these products are Japan and asked if they were safe to consume with fears of nuclear contamination. For those individuals who are concerned, the World Health Organisation is monitoring the situation carefully and has declared there is no risk. If your still wary ... well I also rate Irish Jaffa Cakes, so perhaps you need to look to your local Irish food supplier?

Sushi Kotobuki

Tucked away in an alley way, behind Fish 53 is Sushi Kotobuki. It's a unassuming shop front with one small counter and an awful misspelt laminated menu which will leave you with a sense of trepidation. However your fears will sooth the moment your sushi arrives. I ordered two dishes and when my Salmon Nigiri arrived, I was delighted to find it was beautifully fresh.

However the revelation was their fusion sushi which is a eight piece, dinner offering. I selected the Spider Roll which contained evenly distibuted soft shell crab, crab meat, cucumber through the center before the staff added fish roe and a spicy sauce. It was amazing, well priced at $9.00 and was quite filling. I can highly recommend braving all the one way streets and making the trip out to East Brisbane.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Address: 53 Lytton Road, East Brisbane, QLD 4169.
Open: Tuesday - Friday: 10am - 9pm. Saturday: 11am - 9pm. Sunday: 12pm - 9pm.
Phone: (07) 3392 2301
Price: Entrees: $3.50 - $5.00, Sushi: From $2.20. Mains $8.00 - 11.00.

The Jubilee Hotel

Unless I've been called away by work or am dying from Ebola, you will find me on Monday nights at the Jubilee Hotel waiting to inflict audiences with my bumbling brand of humour. The Speakeasy is ImproMafia's free theatre-sport style comedy show and allows new improvisers to refine their craft with a few seasoned performers to keep things moving along nicely. Since the start of the year I've watched the Jubilee Hotel attempt to shift their offering to something more upmarket with items like Salmon Rissoles and provide more choices than you could poke a stick at. Luckily the Jubilee Hotel kitchen has seen the light and returned to focusing on good, ample pub food and are now offering 10 meal choices for $12, all day Monday to Thursday. Miss Amy and I can attest to the fact it's good, the Beef and Guinness Pie (pictured above) is large enough to feed two and comes served with creamy mash potato and a puff pastry lid. The beef is moist, flavoursome and perfect rainy weather cuisine.

However if you're looking for something a little more naughty, my pick is the pan fried Chicken Schnitzel served with mushroom sauce, thick cut chips and salad. There is ample space to dine, plenty of free parking if you enter via Gregory Terrace and best of all there is free comedy on a Monday. So roll up! Roll up! Enjoy some ample pub food and watch me openly embrace and full frontal snog failure on stage in the face.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Address: 470 Saint Pauls Terrace, Fortitude Valley, QLD, 4006.
Open: 7 days a week, breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Phone: (07) 3252 4508
Price: Entrees: $5.50 - $9.00, Mains $12 - $28, Desserts $7.50.