CHOCOLATE BISCUIT CAKE During the Cookalong (last Cookalong of 2025), I was making Florentines for our Church New Year’s Eve Service & Party, and I mentioned that I would also be making Chocolate Biscuit Cakes which used to be our late Queen Elizabeth’s favourite cake. It’s a lovely cake that doesn’t require baking. It turned out to be a bit hit at the New Year’s Eve party. @Cathy Raff — As promised, here’s the recipe for the Chocolate Biscuit Cake. Enjoy!

Chill Cookalong with Jackie — she was doing her usual multitask magic. She was cooking Barramundi fillets, frying Shiitake mushrooms & using some to braise with Pak Choi & Taufu, and at the same time whipping up a large batch of crispy fried onions. Meanwhile, I baked a few batches of Florentines with all the festive ingredients in preparation for the Church New Year’s Eve Party. I let the Florentines to cool to perfection. Then I went in with melted chocolate, applied it onto the flat base of each Florentine and let them to cool slightly before marking zigzag in the chocolate with a fork.

We had friends over for Boxing Day lunch. Had cold meats (roast turkey, Italian Salami & Prosciutto) egg mayo, boiled potatoes, green salads….and the star of the show — my Cranberry Camembert Pastry Wreath! It tasted spot on, but needs a bit more finesse. Will have another go, and I will bump up the Camembert & swap basil for spinach leaves. Think that’ll give it the boost it needs. My pastry work also needs some TLC! 😅

These were what I made in today's Open Kitchen Hour 2 (OKH 1 takes place tomorrow per the reschedule) - 1) barramundi fillets from Woolworths with sauce made using garlic, chillies, fermented soy beans etc. 2) sliced shiitake mushrooms deep-fried, then stir-fried with garlic, chilli, onion & seasoning (read: chicken powder - though of course you could just use salt or mushroom powder) 3) chinese cabbage, tofu, and shiitake mushrooms fried with garlic, oyster sauce, etc. 4) I also test-fried another batch of dried red onions, this time without soaking them in water first (because I found it washed away a lot of the flavour), and I over-fried them a bit so they are a touch dark. I tossed some msg and sugar through them while still hot, the latter being a tip from Jenny from before, to help them crisp up.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you're all having a lovely and peaceful day!