A cookie within a cookie

Happy belated Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! I wanted to grab a traditional mooncake just to feel close to home but unfortunately, the mooncakes here cost a bomb and I've asked a couple of people and everyone said they're not good. So we decided to try these dessert-stype, snow skin mooncakes and they turned out pretty good. Maggie and I both shared a big box so that we get to try out all the flavours they have. My favourite so far's the black sesame and durian. 

Speaking of mooncakes, a couple of weeks ago one of my classmates/good friend from school gave me a mooncake from Starbucks! Of course you can't buy mooncakes from Starbucks here, that would be bizarre hahah. Her boyfriend's parents came to visit and they're Malaysian and they brought mooncakes over. She had a few so she gave one to me. It feels really good to be surrounded by nice people :)

And since I'm talking about sweets, let me just talk about a couple (literally 2) of things I've made ever since I came to Melbourne. People who know me know I love to bake. Unfortunately, everything here is so expensive that I can't just decide to bake with a snap of my fingers. I can't afford to buy ingredients which I might only end up using once, or ingredients which are not even cheap to begin with.

First attempt was this Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Yes, a cookie within a cookie. Wait Oreo is not a cookie is it? More like a sandwich...

Anyway, I got the reccipe from here. Unfortunately, because I was *ahem* trying to be smart *ahem* the cookies ended being overly baked. The recipe asked to bake for 9-13 minutes. At the 15 minutes mark, the cookies were still pale and looked 'raw', so I left it on longer. Probably 20-25? I only took them out when they turned slightly brown. More appetising mah...

The cookies ended up being really, and I mean REALLY hard for cookies. Plus, they were humongous so they felt like rocks. They look like scones, only rock hard.

Which was utterly disappointing considering ingredients were not cheap (at least for me) :(

And in the pictures from the recipe, the icing in the Oreo along with the chocolate chips actually melted when baked! Mine didn't :( I think maybe if I ever try to bake this again, Imma use a higher temperature. 

The second thing I attempted was this Retro Coffee Cake which I first saw in Masterchef 2011. It was one of the dishes made by the winner of this year's competition. Recipe found here.

Everything was perfect... except for the cake.

Seriously this is so demotivating. 2 times baking and both didn't turn out well aka waste. of. money! :(

The recipe asked to bake in 2 x 20cm baking tins. Honestly, I didn't know what's that supposed to mean because I've never seen such instructions. It would have made a lot more sense if they say "bake in two 20cm baking tins", don't you think? So anyway,  I only used a 20cm baking tin to bake which means, my cake was super thick. Naturally, it wouldn't cook in the suggested time.

Instead of 30 minutes, I think I had to bake it for about an hour (or more) to finally have it perfectly cooked. By then, the edges around the cake was already rock hard and the insides a little dry. It's edible, but far from my expectation :(

The coffee butter cream was great. With espresso added, it wasn't too sweet. The cake... blehhhh.

I shall make the cake again since I still have some leftover coffee butter cream. 

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Ok food stuff aside, yesterday one of my students twittered me that he scored distinction in his recent violin exam. Btw, yes I have 3 of my students following me on Twitter. I was so happy to hear that! And then it gets better. Another 2 of them scored distinction as well! I was soooooooo proud of them. The news just made my day, seriously.

Nothing is more rewarding for a teacher than to see their students enjoy what they learn and excel. Exams are not everything but it doesn't hurt to try and know your abilities. Clearly they've done themselves, their parents, their new teacher and their former teacher (meeeee) proud.

Congratulations Nikki, Michelle and Seng Zhao! 

Never thought I would say this if it was me a few years ago but I miss teaching :( I'm glad I did my part to guide them. Through the 6 years of teaching, I learnt so much more than I did in uni. They were experience no money could buy. Not saying I've never had students who failed under me, frankly, I have had 2. Which was also invaluable experience for me. Teaching became so much more than just earning money for a living, it became a part of me which I grew to love.

Now let me have my moment of glory... =D