Gianduja Mousse Torte & Christmas 2007

Happy 2008 everyone! I hope you spent Christmas and the New Year with loved ones and good friends as I did! I also managed some well-deserved rest after all that cooking and baking leading up to Christmas, so that was good too. I left the meals to Chloe and Ming to organise; it’s really nice to have others think about what to serve up for a change. That’s not to say that I took a break from leisurely baking or dessert making, on the contrary, I had a couple of ‘young-er’ girlfriends of mine over the other day and we whipped up a mean Frangelico Tiramisu, Paige and I baked some Lemon Polenta Cranberry cookies that were ‘to die for’ – not literally, thank goodness! Chloe and I baked a Chocolate and Potato cake – definitely her favourite ingredients in the whole wide world, and I made a Chocoholic’s Ultimate Chocolate Mars Bars Cake for Chloe’s 14th Birthday on the 3rd of January.










Christmas Day was easy, I decided that we would do a ‘pot-luck’ and everybody made a dish or two so I didn’t have to slave over a hot kitchen, the weather wasn’t too bad though, 34 degrees Celsius, rather mild compared to Boxing Day, a whopping 44.2 degrees Celsius! We didn’t have the traditional Christmas Turkey and the works –too heavy, I thought, so I made ‘Babi Chin’- a braised pork belly in shallots, garlic and aromatic coriander served with steamed Chinese Buns and some gourmet lettuce and as a second dish, ‘Popiah’ – a Malaysian-Singaporean hawker favourite of stir fried turnip with dried shrimp wrapped in spring roll skins with lettuce, prawns, chopped omelette, Chinese sausage, crushed peanuts and fried shallots, a little dark sweet soy caramel and a prawn paste chilli jam.











You must be wondering why I have not mentioned this dessert that you’re looking at. I’ve decided to call it ‘Gianduja Mousse Torte’- it’s the Christmas Day dessert that I painstakingly made for my family and friends. This dessert that took me two days to create (because of the lack of expertise (hey, this is my first time experimenting with, attempting and putting this dessert together!) and only 8 dessert rings!) is the reason why I’ve not written a post about it up until now. THE VERY THOUGHT OF WRITING OUT THE RECIPE for the Gianduja (pronounced ‘zhan-du-ya’ meaning hazelnut paste. The commercial product ‘nutella’ is what it is) mousse, then the Jaconde layer (a thin, pliable almond sponge), followed by the chocolate caramel truffle layer, not mentioning the dark chocolate mousse and hazelnut wheat biscuit layers IS ENOUGH TO SEND ME OFF ON A HOLIDAY. So, I hope you will be happy with the photos.




And on Christmas Day...


The Dramatic sistas Chloe and Paige happily posing...


...and doing the sisterly thing...


...While Ming captures a candid shot of me preparing the buffet table...


Gift Opening!


... and some of us are hmmmmm.. very enthusiastic! HA!HA!




Some of the Chrissy Food!


The 'Popiah' DIY station...


Kim and Kenny at the Buffet spread...


It's Dessert time! My Gianduja Mousse Torte..




A Lovely Gingerbread House made by Tania of "LittleCheffo". To view the complete set of the Gingerbread House photos, head on to Tania's Blog!



I have something to share with you all. 2008 is a special year for me, as I will be embarking on Teaching Cooking and Baking classes. It’s all very exciting for me and I will have the full details for you on this blog when I’m all ready. With the hustle and bustle of the Holiday Season, ‘Oh for the Love of Food!’ turned ONE very quietly. That’s ok; it was a humbling time for me as I reflected on all the beautiful new friendships I’ve made through this blog. I am very thankful for all the kindness, assistance, and encouraging comments I’ve received from all of you. I hope that 2008 will be another wonderful year of Food Blogging, another wonderful year of getting to know you better. I pray that we will not lose focus of the most important people, relationships and moments of our lives. God Bless you all.