Mermaid Cake, Garlic Prawns, Seafood Pasta, Spicy Crab - Sarah's Birthday

As promised, here are some pictures of the cake as well as some of the food I made for Sarah's birthday. First up the Mermaid Cake. I think it turned out rather nice...! The 'rock' is cake covered in chocolate and the fish are actually candles. I textured the icing to make it look like waves. Sarah absolutely loved the cake - and that made all the effort worthwhile!

Mermaid Cake

Garlic Prawns

I sauteed lots of garlic and nions and then lightly cooked the prawns. I added in some mushrooms and chilli flakes before serving it on a bed of boiled leek.

Seafood Pasta

Some Dory fish mixed with a pack of seafood mix - clams, squid, prawns - and cooked them all in a Marinara sauce. I combined shell pasta and half circular macaroni together with the seafood sauce to make this tasty dish.

Spicy Crab

Stir Fried some Crab Claw and Crab Meat with onions, garlic, lots of curry leaves, some curry powder and pepper. Added in some Chilli Padi at the end as well to make this tasty and spicy dish.

I also made 'Octopus Sausages' - an idea I got from another website. Sausages are cut in half and then eight slits made lengthwise into them. When the sausages are boiled, the eight slits turn outward to form 'tentacles'! Easy and simple and all the kids loved it. My wife also made a chicken pie which turned out great.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Preparing for Sarah's Birthday

Took the day off work today. Its just past lunch and I've finished baking the Chocolate Brownies and the Butter Cake for my daughter Sarah's birthday party tomorrow. Next up I'll have to start icing the birthday cake. Yesterday I made some Gummy shells using a mix of water, Jello and gelatine. Turned out okay but I think I may have overboiled the mixture as it was a tad rubbery and also the taste was rather strong.

Tomorrow is going to be a tough day as I'm planning to make the following;

Pasta Marinara; Garlic Prawns; 'Octopus' Sausages; and a Spicy Crab dish. I'll post pics of everything once its done!

Pear Tarte Tartin

My kids requested for my Caramelised Pears, which they love a lot, this weekend. I thought I'd try using pears instead of apples for a Tarte Tartin. I've made the classic Tarte Tartin with apples before and I used the same measurements for the pears. The pears I used were canned pears and I forgot that this meant the pears were already sweetened - so I should have reduced the caramel.

It turned out a little too sweet but the kids still enjoyed it nonetheless. I thin I'll just stick to apples the next time I make this dessert!