Category Archives: Food Type: Cakes, Pastries and Desserts

Sunday Brunch at Bisou

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Bisou Bisou BisouIt promised to be a beautiful morning.

It was the kind of morning where it wasn’t too hot and the skies were contemplating whether or not to shed tears, and to complete the picture, I had found a parking spot right in front of Bisou. For Bald Eagle, the icing on the cake was Liverpool’s win over Aston Villa less than 12 hours earlier. 😀

big breakfast

Bisou Big Breakfast banana muffin Hot chocolate banana muffin

We both had the Big Breakfast. At RM16(US$4.70), it came with 2 thick cut slices of toast, baked beans, a chicken sausage and two eggs (cooked to your liking). The chicken sausage wasn’t the run o’ the mill sausage sold in supermarket freezers in packs of 10 (and believe me, I have come across some, sold at premium prices, at restaurants); the herbs complemented the mild chicken flavour giving it a very pleasant bite. The sauteed mushrooms were exquisite – full of flavour although it was a little on the oily side. I thought the scrambled eggs were a little overcooked. I prefer my scrambled eggs slightly runny. But then again, it boils down to personal preference.

For an extra RM2 (US$0.60), we got a banana muffin. By this time, I was too full to enjoy anything else. I took one bite and passed the rest to Bald Eagle (who thankfully has a bottomless pit for a stomach and a high metabolic rate to burn the added calories quickly!).

Carrot cake Bisou Breads Bisou

Cupcakes Lemon Polenta Cupcakes galore!

Bisou Pies Bisou Sourfruit crumble

CupcakesI didn’t get to try the gorgeous looking cupcakes as I was too stuffed by this time. I did try the lemon polenta though (2nd row, centre pic), when I spent a perfect Saturday afternoon the day before at Nigel & Allan’s office being fed by the duo on noodles and the most delicious tempe (fermented soybeans), and Just Heavenly Pleasures’ extremely addictive sticky date pudding and Bisou’s lemon polenta cake. (This reminds me of the story of Hansel & Gretel where the evil witch fattened up children only to eat them up, but I’m quite sure that I am not their flavour of the month. 😉 The delectable Kenny Mah, who was also also hanging out with us, would have made a better dish.)

So…back to the lemon polenta. I loved the texture of the cake. It was sufficiently moist, yet not dripping in sauce, a little grainy due to the polenta (ground cornmeal) but the flavour of the rosemary sauce (drizzled on the surface of the cake) didn’t come through. It was, nevertheless, a lovely cake and I enjoyed every bite of it.

BisouBisou started operations on 20 July 2007 (same owners as Bijou and Bianco) and it has become progressively more popular as the office crowd seeks out new places to eat. It has just introduced some new items on its lunch menu, including baked eggplant, shepherd’s pie and bangers & mash.

Also check out:

So Much Food, So Little Stomach
Kampungkayell

Bisou
Asian Heritage Row
58 Jalan Doraisamy
50300 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2697 0131

Click here for map.

Opening hours: 9.00am – 11.00pm (Sun to Thur. Mon closed)
9.00am – 2.00am (Fri to Sat)

Just Heavenly Pleasures

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cake
I first tasted Just Heavenly’s cakes at Carcosa Sri Negara. It was a tasting session. One bite, and I was in love. I was greedy for more, but Pretty Pui slapped my wrists and pulled me away from the cakes. That was also the first time I met Nigel Skelchy (co-owner of Just Heavenly together with Allan Yap) whose gregarious nature and uninhibited demeanour bowled me over, and I’ve been infected ever since.banana cheese

When Nigel mentioned that Just Heavenly Pleasures had opened at Damansara Heights on May 11, I couldn’t contain my excitement. After tormenting Nigel for several days, begging him to deliver his cakes to me, I finally gave in to my desires by making a trip to Damansara Heights today.

just heavenly pleasures
Just Heavenly Pleasures not only sells cakes, but also takes flower bouquet orders and sells a nice range of chutneys and marmalades.

chocolate cheese
How does one make up one’s mind when presented with attractive, tempting pieces such as these?

box
I couldn’t make up my mind; everything looked delectable, so Nigel helped me fill up this pretty box with tiny treasures.

assortment of treasures

I went overboard and selected this scrumptious assortment.

chocolate durian

I couldn’t wait. I ate the chocolate durian cake immediately. How does one describe Heaven?

Congratulations, Nigel and Allan!

Check these out:-

Just Heavenly Pleasures

G1.05 and 1.06, Epicure, 1 Jalan Medan Setia 1, Damansara Heights.

Tel: 03-22879866

Opening hours: 11.00am – 6.00pm (will later change to 11.00am – 9.00pm)

Red Velvet if you please

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red velvet friand2
I first read about the Red Velvet cake in the New York Times on February 14 this year.A red cake? I was sceptical. I read on. Apparently, the cake, which purportedly originated from the South (of the US of A, not Malaysia!) had been around for several years already, but only gained popularity of late thanks to various celebrity endorsements. Cocoa is normally used to obtain the dark colour which is further enhanced with red food colouring, although some purists use red beet as an alternative for natural colouring.

I scoured the internet for recipes, but never got around to baking the cake. And so I archived it in the recesses of my memory.

box of surprises

Blogger, Riz, after learning about my mini-obsession with the Red Velvet, surprised me yesterday with a couple of beautifully presented boxes of cupcakes, one of which contained, surprise surprise, Red Velvet friands. Thanks, man!

The cupcakes and friands, baked by his friend, Aida, not only looked good but were scrumptious too. Aida takes orders, so if you wish to contact Aida, do drop me an email and I’ll give you her number. (Check out Riz’s gorgeous collection of photos of Aida’s cooking and baking here.)

cupcakes

The Blueberry Cupcakes with Cheese Topping were as good as they looked.

banana poppy seed cupcake

And who can resist something as exquisite as the Riz Banana Poppyseed Friands with Lindt Chocolate Frosting? (Aida named this friand after Riz!)

red velvet friand1

As for the Red Velvet friands, they were exactly what I expected them to be. Mini cakes that were moist but not too dense, with a very slight recognisable taste of chocolate and with a texture that resembled a cross between a butter cake and a muffin; but the deep red colour throws one off into a different dimension, defying all sense of rationality and expectation. I love the cheese frosting which was very good and perfectly complemented the cake.

In the words of Alannah Myles, with a slight twist of course….

Red velvet and that little boy smile
Red velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring you to your knees
Red velvet if you please.