mr jones orphanage cafe, bangkok

absolutely a sweet-tooth’s dream and a dentist’s money-maker of a cafe in the siam paragon mall in bangkok – this is a long photo post, so bear with me. but the spread was amazing – I can’t even imagine how many types of cakes and sweets and confectionary were on offer.

it’s very clearly a female-targeted place, and of the young, squealing, one-directioner variety: it’s got cutesy furniture, tiny booths that grown man look squashed in, and of course the sweet-dominated menu reflects it best. but I’ve got to be straight – I recommend this more for the sheer experience than any gastronomic interest; the chocolate cake we did have was rather pedestrian.

chocolate chip sour cream cake

I really like this cake, and I’m pretty sure you will too: chocolate chips scattered amidst a cinnamon-kissed sour cream batter? yes please, and thank you very much.

easy to make, and even easier to eat.

one-bowl no-microwave orange-lime curd

this curd, well. I had so wanted this to be a post on how you could successfully make a lip-puckering, citrus-loving curd in the microwave – no fire in this blistering heat – but no. it still turned out utterly delicious, beautifully set and the best celebration of citrus juice I can imagine, but that was after a bit of quick salvation and rapid whisking  – so, yes, still a success if not the convenient method I had hoped.

marmalade-glazed orange madeleines

this is the third orange madeleine recipe here on andmorefood – and the best one. now my go-to recipe, it creates humps for me every single time, and stands up to any sort of citrus – and is always highly requested at home. not too sweet, tender, with a deeply-caramelized edge, I can’t say enough good things about it.

(nutella!) swiss roll

I have a jar of expiring nutella – so be prepared for a deluge of yummy-chocolate-hazelnut-containing recipes! I’ve shared a swiss roll recipe with you guys before, and this one is a little better. less cracks, a finer-and-more-tightly-bound crumb – one step closer to the swiss roll recipe of my dreams.

and I promise, it’s not just better because it’s rolled up tightly with as much nutella as I could pack into it – I admit to a certain amount of sense-numbing induced by nutella consumption. everything else nievitably fades into the background.

1-caramel at one rochester, buona vista

average brunch food at rochestor park. if you’re looking for brunch options in this area – I’m going to have to point you to graze. this place was really rather meh, with uninspiring food and an ambience that made nothing of its gorgeous surroundings. if the other places around here are packed up, then perhaps you could come here – but otherwise I’m not sure there’s any point.

on hindsight (which this is, of course), there was nothing really wrong with the place so much as it was pretty boring. it isn’t very expensive, the food wasn’t bad – serviceable, really – and the place wasn’t run down. it just felt like it had so much more potential to be fantastic! but alas.

jones the grocer, town

disappointing expensive dessert at this town outpost of the australian delicatessen newly opened on the top floor of the ion orchard mall. here’s another looks-pretty-but-doesn’t-deserve-to dessert that rather had a lot of potential but turned out rather dismal, though nowhere near the fiasco that was dean and deluca. I wish this place actually served good food – orchard really is lacking in nice places you can sit down for a break between shopping – but I think I’ll be sticking with the marmalade pantry for now.

I haven’t tried their savory items, so while I can’t give you a full low-down on the cafe, the desserts sure don’t provide any impetus to return.

marmalade pantry, town

good, better-than-average bistro food at this branch of the yummy-mummy chain in the ion shopping mall. this is a long post, because I came here twice in barely a week – and I’ll tell you why: the food is pretty decent, the prices competitive for the area, and there aren’t much better options around for a place to sit down and have some cake and tea.

it’s pretty flabbergasting to realize that though the orchard road precinct is hangout-de-rigueur for most people on the weekends, and so ought to (and does) have a slew of eateries, there really isn’t much to eat around there, just a whole lot of overly expensive sit-down places or trendy takeaway options. this place remains my fall-back option when I’m out with the girlfriends, and has been since I first visited their palais renaissance outlet nearly five years ago.

wimbly lu chocolates, serangoon

really good desserts at this small store in a surprisingly hipster part of serangoon – I live near the area and never knew this place even existed (except for all the posts floating about the blogosphere on this place and its cajun neighbour). I didn’t really know what to expect, actually – I tried to come with tempered expectations in case it didn’t actually live up to the hype – but came away liking it quite a bit.

warning: giant photos up ahead as I’ve been playing with a square crop with my photos – more on that later.

pear loaf

a twist on the standard banana bread recipe, this one incorporates grated pears and walnuts in a cinnamon-kissed dough – a one-bowl recipe that emerges from the oven with a lovely crack and the homey smell of cinnamon.

and isn’t it a beautiful brown loaf? it’s often difficult to photograph a rustic sort of cake, without the help of gorgeous frosting to mask that monotony – but when it comes out all glossy and shiny this way – it’s incomparable in appeal.