Molten Chocolate Cake - (Flourless)

Ingredients:

113 gram unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
170 gram dark cooking chocolate (60%-70%), finely chopped
3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tbsp sugar

Instructions:

1. Using a silicone pastry brush, generously butter four 8oz ramekins and dust the insides with granulated sugar. Set aside. 
2. Preheat the oven to 200C.
3. In a microwavable bowl, combine the butter and chocolate together. Microwave for 20 seconds, take it out and stir using a silicone spatula. Put it in the microwave again for 20 seconds and stir. Repeat until the mixture fully melted and smooth when stir. Set aside.
4. In a bowl of an electric mixer, combine the yolks and sugar. Beat until thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.
5. Using a silicone spatula, fold in the chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture until well blended.
6. In a clean mixing bowl, whip the egg whites until frothy, add the cream of tartar and whip until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and continue whipping until firm peaks form.
7. Using a silicone spatula, gently fold in the egg white mixture into the chocolate mixture until just incorporated.
8. Scoop the batter into the prepared molds. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the outside edges set but the inside still wobbly when you give them a shake.
9. Take them out from the oven and let them rest for a minute or two. Serve with ice cream or cream, or just dust the top with confectioners' sugar.

Chocolate Madeleines

Ingredients:
1/3 cup (60g) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (20g) Dutch processed cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (125g) sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp (90g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Using a pastry brush, heavily brush a 12 standard madeleine pan with room temperature butter. Dust the pan with flour. Turn the pan upside down, tap it gently to discard the excess flour.
2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.
3. In a bowl of a  stand mixer, combine the eggs, sugar and salt. Beat until light in color and fluffy (about 3 minutes).  Beat in the vanilla. Sprinkle the flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. 
4. Using a rubber or silicone spatula, fold in half of the melted butter until just incorporated. Add the remaining butter and mix until well combined.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan evenly.
6. Bake until the tops spring back when lightly touched, about 10-12 minutes.
7. Remove the pan from the oven, invert it over a wire rack and rap the pan on the rack to release the madeleines. Let cool for 10 minutes and dust the shell patterned sides with confectioners' sugar just before serving.

Family Vacation (Perth) - Day 5

The last day in Perth, after packing our belongings and tidied up the apartment, we headed to King's Park for sightseeing. Then we stopped by at Harbour Town for a little last minute shopping and lunch. We arrived at the airport around 1:30pm and returned the car. After dropped off our luggage, we went to the musolla for solat. We finally said goodbye to Perth and took by by 4:30pm.

Family Vacation (Perth) - Day 4

Our first destination on Day 4 was Fremantle. On our way to Fremantle, we dropped by at Cottesloe Beach which is about 15 minutes west of Perth. The beach is one of Perth's main attraction and as it is overlooking the Indian Ocean, it also one of the best spot to watch the sunset. Even though cloudy, the wave that day was not that strong. There were some people swimming and some kids playing with the sand. It was peaceful.

The journey to Fremantle through the coastal road took another 15 minutes. We straight away went to Fremantle Prison. It is WA's most significant historical attraction. The prison was built by the convicts themselves sent by British government in the early 1850s and was used as a prison until 1991. In 1992 it was reopened for tourists. Visitors can join a 1.5 hours guided tour but since the time was quite limited, we didn't. After visiting its gallery and souvenir shop, we hopped on to Cicerello Fish Market for lunch.

After a good heavy lunch, we continued for an hour long journey to Mandurah.

We arrived just in time to catch the 1 o'clock dolphin cruise. We managed to see a couple of dolphins who glided together by the side of the boat. The cruise also took us to see luxury houses (or mansions) by the canal. Most of the houses are millions and all of them have their own luxury boats.

Family Vacation (Perth) - Day 3

We woke up to a cloudy day with a bit of drizzle in the morning on the third day of our vacation in Perth. Quite a nice weather actually because it was very hot the day before. After taking our breakfast, we started our itinerary by driving for half an hour to Whiteman Park. Western Australia is very well known for their parks which homes to all kind of wildlife, birds, wildflowers and local plants. Whiteman Park is located about 20km north of Perth and Caversham Wildlife Park inside the park is the main attraction. 

The park is also another family owned business which opens everyday from 9am - 5:30pm. Beside watching the animals in their enclosures, there are also some shows and meet-and-greet session featuring the animals. You can watch the sheep shearing, bottlefeeding the baby lambs and sheep dog mustering the sheeps in the Farm Show. You can also hand feed the kangaroos and meet the koalas who appeared to be sleeping all day.

Sheep shearing

Bottle feeding the baby lambs

Sleepy head

There were a lot of things to see and do in this park, we spent at least 3 hours in here before moving on to the next agenda. The address of the park is as follows:

Caversham Wildlife Park
Whiteman Park, Whiteman, WA, 6068

Whiteman Park is in Swan Valley region. This region is very famous for its wineries and local produce. There are many family owned farms that grow and sell all sort of fruits such as grapes, olive, melons and strawberries. We stopped by at Margaret River Chocolate Factory outlet where we  sampled and purchased some chocolate products.

After that, we visited Mondo Nougat and Morish Nut which was not very far from Margaret River Chocolate. Then we stopped by at Range View Vineyards to buy some freshly picked Crimson seedless grapes. Oh my! they were so crunchy and sweet and very cheap! A basket of 3 types of grapes which I thought weighing almost 3 kg was sold at AUD8. Since there are no other customers or tourists when we arrived, we asked permission from the owner to walk by the vineyards and take photos. There are still some grapes on the trees and the olives are heavily producing their fruits. In WA, olives harvesting is between April to July.

From Swan Valley, we continued our journey to Hillarys Boat Harbour but before that we stopped by at Al Majid Mosque in Padbury. The mosque is located in a suburb residential areas in Padbury Boulevard. A very clean and well maintained mosque, I guessed there are a lot of Muslims nearby. It also has a proper and plenty car parks which surrounded by well trimmed olive trees.

We reached Hillarys Boat Harbour around 4pm. The wind and waves were very strong that day. There are people doing fishing and some are mending their boats.

Nothing much to do there, just walked and admiring the boats at the harbour. There are also some restaurants and small shops if you would like to do some shopping. Bought some more souvenirs there too.

On our way home, we stopped over at Scarborough Beach for a while. On a clear day, it was supposedly one the best spot to see the sunset. On a windy day, it was perfect for surfers.

Lesson learned: Aussies are very good in preserving their national treasures....the land.

Family Vacation (Perth) - Day 2

The first itinerary for the day was to drive half an hour down south to Roleystone. It was a 40 minutes drive down to the south of Perth. This area is full of orchards and home to Araluen Botanic Park.

That's our rental parked in front of the stall

Our first stop is the Raeburn Orchards. It is a family owned farm which goes back to 1948 and it grows many fruit trees such as apples, peaches, avocados, mandarin oranges, pomegranate etc. We can also purchase some freshly picked fruits at their stall in front of  the farm. The apple season was over during our visit. March/April is the season for persimmons, avocados, plums, mandarin oranges and mangoes. This farm is not pick-you-own farm however we were allowed to visit and walk in the orchards as well as taking pictures with the produce...the owner said 'just pretend touching the fruit'.

The address is as follows:

4 Raeburn Rd
Roleystone 6111WA

Source: Own Waze Driving Record

Could not recall what trees are these...

Nice ripe plums...how I wish!

About 5 minutes drive or 3.5km from Raeburn, we entered into Araluen Botanic Park. It situated in the Perth Hills and a home to many beautiful Australian and international flowers and plants. First, we went to the Rose Garden and the flowers are enormously big like a party plate or a big teacup. They smell so nice and you can tell beforehand judging by the bees flying around them.

Hydrangae

Lavender

The address is as follows:
362 Croyden Road
Roleystone WA 6111

By noon, everybody was tired and hungry so we drove back to Perth while munching some apples and grapes bought at Raeburn earlier. We stopped by at Perth Mosque for Solat Jamak. 

Perth Mosque address:
427 William St, 
Perth WA 6000

After solat, we drove into Perth City, parked our mpv inside one of the multiple storey parking at Queen's Lane and just walked to Murray St. We bought some kebabs from one of the stall there for lunch. Australian Souvenirs shop is next door, so we also did some souvenirs shopping afterwards. By then, everybody was so tired and sleepy so by 5pm we headed home to our apartment. Before reaching the apartment, we stopped by at IGA Kooyong Rd which was like 2 minutes drive from Tanunda Drive to buy some groceries. This IGA sells halal chicken called Steggles Chicken. So, I bought some rice, chicken and frozen veges for dinner. Good walk, good dinner...good night sleep...zzzzz.

Family Vacation (Perth) - Day 1

I bought some very good deal MH flight tickets to Perth sometime in October last year during the MITF. So, after almost 6 months since the tickets booking, we finally travel to Australia for the second time for our family holidays. This time around, there were 2 additional passengers i.e my 4 yo boy and the kids' grandma. It was Iman's first flight experience so I was a bit nervous because he's a very restless and loud kid. My biggest worry is that he will scream up there in the plane, jumping here and there, disturbing people and the other passengers will get annoyed. 

Our departure time was 9:30am on a Sunday. We were there around 7:15am, parked our car at the long term parking zone, dropped our luggage at the web checked in counter, catch a 20 minutes breakfast before going to the departure hall...and there was a very very long queue. When we finally passed the gate, then there was another long queue at the passport autogate. By the time we board the train and finally reached the plane, it was already 9:15am. Probably we were the reason why the plane was delayed by half an hour as it only took off at 10am.

I guessed since this is his first time in the aeroplane and still wondering what was happening, Iman is quite ok to handle. Just playing with his Ipad, eat his breakfast and playing with his newly acquired helicopter. After a while, he fall asleep. Alhamdulillah.

We reached Perth airport around 3:30pm. After collecting our luggage and take the fast lane since we have no food or dairy products to declare, we got off from the airport around 4:30pm with our 8 seater rental. Oh..by the way, if you did not declare anything, you will be required to drop your luggage and bags at one marked line and the dog will check them for you whether you are telling the truth or not so for future travelers to Australia...don't lie. For us, we purposely decided not to bring any food whether canned or packed because we know we can buy the same thing in Perth, just bring the money.

It was a 15 minutes drive to Swan Riverside Apartment where we will be staying for the next 4 nights. It is a 3 bedroom apartment fully equipped with kitchen facilities, washer, dryer and secured parking. A very nice and cosy apartment. When we reached there, the owner has already waiting at the car park. She guided us through the basement parking and then all the way up to the apartment. She also provided us with some complimentary bread, butter, eggs and some other ration for tomorrow's breakfast. And she also put some nice cold ginger beer in the fridge...as if we are going to consume that. They're still there when we left...hehehe.

The view from this apartment was magnificent. The balcony is overlooking the beautiful Swan River and from the left side of the balcony, Perth City is waving at us. Let the pictures do the talking.