This cake is real

Going to make this a sugar-filled post, as will be the next one. Wuah, I'm planning ahead on my entries! Just finished work and in dire need of some sugar, so I'm gorging on some homemade velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting while typing this... and having ordered my portal 2 hoodie online (from thinkgeek.com, for those who are interested, and it's on discount!), I'm thinking "cake!"

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But here is ice cream to start. Gelato in the previous entry, ice cream from Movenpick in this. You can get movenpick ice cream from Azuma patisserie.

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They have really interesting flavors, which I have already previously tried, so I went for boring Strawberry, which is next in line to vanilla. I can't decide which is more boring- plain chocolate or plain strawberry, though at the moment, "salted caramel" seemed to be the IN trend for flavor.. soon it'll be just as common as vanilla.

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Now this is what I'm talking about when it comes to interesting flavors. Watermelon ice cream (where the seeds are actually chocolate chips) and mochi ice cream from a Korean mart. Walnut, strawberry, green tea. What kind of combination is that? As it turns out, a very creative and good one.

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So this is the reason for a cake entry. July (when these photos were taken... shows how far my backlog is) is THE month of birthdays in this family. My parents are only 4 days apart, literally. My dad is 4 days older than my mum. We, being nice kids, got them two separate cakes instead of celebrating their birthdays together. It became almost like a dual between my brother and me. My brother was to get my dad's cake, and I got my mum's.

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This is presented by my brother- an 85 degrees black forest cake. Nice choice, I applaud his effort. We all know my dad's favourite cake is a black forest cake since... well, since forever.

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I proudly present my mum's "best cake I've ever had" birthday cake. She said it, thus the quotation marks.

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Needless to say, I claim the prize for providing the better cake :D jk~ it wasn't a competition, but this is where I thank my Cafe buddies for introducing me to Black Star, where I got this Strawberry, watermelon and rose cream cake for my mum. She thoroughly enjoyed it. More on this cake when I do the cafe post on Black Star.

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Recipe can be found online if you just googled it. Almond meal, rose water, macerating watermelon and grounding pistachios... too much effort when you could simply buy this, but then money can't buy everything because I do wonder how a "homemade" version of a cake with such standard will taste (masterchef style). GL kindly volunteered to make this soon for us (challenged into it is probably more truthful...). Look forward to a post featuring it in the future! :D

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To end a sweet entry, my dad roasted some purple sweet potato outside in his brick stove. All you gotta do is wrap it in newspaper while it's piping hot and it almost feels like Japan.