Sacher Torte

I only take the pics for 1 cake this week. This Sacher Torte is an Austrian cake with the very long history and it has its own website! Click here for viewing. It's a very nice website too, and they do it in traditional way, which is, no marzipan. A for me, if this cake makes its way to my exam list, I'll demand marzipan to cheat. There's no way I'll be that lucky to get the very glossy finish the second time. And, the more important thing, I must start practicing my pipping.

ヒミツの花園 ~ Himitsu No Hanazono

I came across this 2007 dorama when browsing the cast who are in Atashinchi No Danshi. The new dorama is still at 2nd episode so I need some filler until the next episode is subbed. And since then, I can't stop watching it. I almost finish the series by today.

Himitsu No Hanazono starts with Tsukiyama Kayo, a fashion magazine editor who decided that she had enough of being enslaved to her work. But just when she wanted to tender, her magazine got terminated and she's transferred to the shoujo manga division and was put in charged on Hanazono Yukari sensei. And since then her life changed completely.

The best thing about Himitsu No Hanazono is it's a very light dorama with lots of comedy and not so much of sad stories. The touching part only come in episode 9 and I did cry. The story line is not too slow as each episode presents a different topic while progressing to answer hidden question posed in the first episode.

Besides the unique story imposed, the eye candy characters are also entertaining. This dorama makes me a fan of Jun Kaname (I just can't resist on ikemen, sigh). Here, he plays the role of Kataoka Satoshi, the 3rd brother. Though outside he looks like a player, but he really cares about his brothers and also even look after Tsukiyama. I do hope Satoshi and Tsukiyama get together in the end, but the thought though intriguing but very slim in chance.

The OST is by Namie Amuro with titled 'Baby Don't Cry.' Below is the Imeem playlist. The song is so light that it really suits to open the drama.

Anyway, I'll start to continue watch the final 2 episodes of this cute dorama. Cheers!

Baby Dont Cry - Namie Amuro

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Yeah! Finally I'm free from CPA! It won't last long as new semester will be coming soon, but I'll get to enjoy it while it lasts! So to celebrate my freedom, I'm heading to watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which tickets are booked in advance, as always! Let me tell you, it's so hard to find the good seats and I did the booking last night. Most of the studios in town were packed before the day even come. I just got lucky that I got to get a good one in Bugis, but the seats are too low so you can automatically see a little mountain (the head) blocking your full view. Gee I wonder why the seats were available yesterday and now I know why. Too bad Cathay doesn't air Wolverine.

So how about the movie? We all know what it's all about. You don't need to be a regular movie goer to know this because the promotion, trailer is all over the place. Newspapers showered the movie with bad reviews yesterday. So I'm curious, is it that bad? Let's see how it fares.

It's a no brainer that the story is one of the X-Men franchises except that this is the prequel from all the previous X-Men movie and the main focus is Wolverine and Wolverine only. Well, X-Men without Wolverine is no X-Men but at least Wolverine here doesn't wear any spandex. Here we see the beginning of Wolverine. How he become Wolverine and where the name Wolverine comes from. We all cringed as we saw they injected the metal into Wolverine's body. The scene lasted for couple minutes so we all braced ourselves narrowing our eyes as we saw Wolverine twinged in agony under the water.

There're lots of surprises for me in Wolverine. But the biggest surprise is Daniel Henney! Me and my movie kaki almost squealed together when we saw his name on the opening. Both of us really acted like fangirls at that precise moment. Then it hit us, is it really him? Yes, it's really Daniel Henney from our beloved K-drama! Well, he's there as one of the villain, Zero, but we don't really care, don't we? So, there we were catching our squeals and breathes every time we saw him at the scene. For those moments, we just forget about the reason why we're sitting there in the first place, sorry Hugh, though you're really buff, macho and all that, but Daniel is our priority now. And we went back to focus on Hugh after Zero died, Lol... Off course before that, we're fixed in the butt-naked Hugh too Lol...

The next surprise is Gambit! Yey! Finally I get to see Gambit in action. Always love this character from the comic books in the old days. But this is where the major disappointment in the movie comes. Why they have to make Gambit look more like Kung Fu master? The first action scene with the cards was totally cool, but after that, no more card, but he ends up using stick? Why would Gambit want to use stick and act like a Shao Lin on the loose if he can use the cards? It's totally illogical and irrelevant!

Other than Gambit, the other X-Men characters are not fascinating and they just pass by as the movie goes. Quite a disappointment for me because I want to see the more familiar characters that were straight out from the comic books. Will love to see Mystic again, or may be the make up is too tedious that they decided to take it out? With this pool of not so exciting characters, the fighting looks more like the regular action movie scenes, and with those Kung Fu movement, I kept feeling the strong de javu of those Hong Kong movie moves reinvented.

The CG? Fabulous and current. I feel that it's not overdone as what the newspapers keep repeating because it's X-Men movie, not some Oscar nominated drama. Do you want to see X-Men movie with Wolverine keep thinking and phasing with his own mind and not clashing his iron (I will say iron because the metal name is just too... complicated) claws? Not me... To me, X-Men movie is about CG CG and CG. The more the better! I want to get entertained, not to think during the movie. By the way, the mountain scenes are fantastic too, the scenes look just straight out from the postcards.

So is the movie good and worth the money? I'd say yes. CG won't be that nice if you watch it with your 22" home TV, off course unless you have the home theater, but the effect won't be the same. I had my own disappointment with the movie, but with what's currently out there now, I'd pick X-Men without a second thought.

Butter Cream Cakes to satisfy your sugar craving...

Today was one of those times when I felt so challanged and frustrated in baking. My creamery skill is just sucks, it's so obvious that I had to keep redoing my Zuger Kirsch because my layering is too thin. And with me being left handed, it's a bit difficult to translate the technique showed by the teacher to suit me, so I almost broke down after 4 times of layering.

But, I'm quite happy with the second cake because it's just pure pipping! Pipping basket is not that bad *smile*... making rose marzipan is fun, though 1 hour spent just to make 7 roses and it's not enough to cover the whole cake... Luckily there's still enough butter cream left over to do some fixes.

The latest addition to my Agnes B stash

Ya, I'm a sucker for a bag, especially the red color ones! And with the inducement from 2 kutus from MSN, the red Agnes B bag is sitting in my home now... sigh...

Anyway, this is the red bag in question:



I just like solid color bags like this... it's not so big as A4 paper cannot go in it, but it'll be just nice if you want to go out, pair it with any kind of top or shirts with a pair of jeans and some heels or flats and you're good to go. It won't go wrong for office wear too, with some nude or black color suit and with some red or black heels...

Think in the back of my mind, I just want to get something to go with my fave red rabbit fur top :p... and the bag is more expensive than the top (the Benetton top was 50% when I bought it years ago)...

Ristorante Paradiso

Another new anime in 2009 worth to be followed! My list seems to get longer and longer. Ristorante Paradiso is based on manga by Natsume Ono with the same title. What I like so far from the first 2 episode are:
1. The background art. They show the background of Rome, most of the time in water coloring style. It looks like Antique Bakery style but since only a few anime use this style, any newcomer is warmly welcomed.
2. The story is different. Here are the restaurant with (no ikemen, but it's gentlemen this time) a crew of gentlemen wearing glasses. Their customer base is the same as Antique Bakery, all ladies, off course. But the main character is about a girl named Nicholette. She flew to Rome to tell her mom's husband that she's her daughter. But off course the story changes after she met Claudio and the rest of the crew.

An interesting anime... Looking forward to the next episode, what will become of Nicholette and Claudio? Fufufu...

Swiss Rolls rolling down the street...

Today's baking is not as exciting as last week. I mean, come on, we just learned the basic sponge cake and Swiss Rolls and they're not even decorated. Just plain old cakes. Anyhow, below are the Spring Rolls, both plain Choco cream Swiss Roll and Raspberry Swiss Roll.