When I was first asked to take part in this photo contest to decorate a mini Yule Log cake for The Icing Room's DIY Yule Log Facebook Contest, I was a bit hesitant because I have zero ability to make ingredients form together to look good.

However I decided to collect the cake first because I was curious to how it will be like.

You can take part too! The photo contest is currently ongoing now - purchase a mini log cake at $18.80 from any Icing Room outlets and decorate it with the ingredients provided (or you can purchase more from them!) and then submit it to the Facebook Page for a chance to win exciting prizes!


So this was the cake on its own. It is mini size so it is very cute and manageable (to eat!)


Then there are the ingredients. I bought the santa with the tree, as well as the 2 angels because they look so adorable! They cost about $2-3 but the details on them are impressive.


We were also given 5 pipes of cream/gel/chocolate sauce to use in the decorations. All you need to do is cut a hole at the tip.


So I asked around my colleagues for ideas and we thought about how most log cake decorations are pretty standard. After a while they start to look alike.

So the question is -- how can we be more creative and different?

This was the result of the first idea called It's All About Yule!

This was inspired by the white icing on the log cake, which stood out quite nicely on black as an iconic shape.
And what better way to feature an iconic food, into iconic scenes of Christmas? 

But that alone looks rather monochromatic, so with a bit of photo shop magic, we transported the yule log into 3 magical christmas scenes. 


I thought we were done... but some comments were that the cake is not very decorated in the picture.

So we tried... another idea called:

Yule Better Watch Out, Santa Claus is Coming To Town!

Ho ho ho! Santa sits on his magical sled as his trusty reindeers transports him to homes all over the world to deliver gifts of joy and wonder. Happy holidays!


Using the log cake as the sled of Santa, and photographing it from an aerial view as he ascends with his trusty reindeers that are hand drawn with chocolate sauce.

Well don't forget to VOTE for my entry on The Icing Room if you like what you see, and share this post with your friends. Many thanks!

Contest Entry: The Icing Room's DIY Yule Log Facebook photo contest

When I was first asked to take part in this photo contest to decorate a mini Yule Log cake for The Icing Room 's DIY Yule Log Facebook Contest, I was …

Tze Char Eats: Kok Sen at 30 Keong Saik Road, Singapore 089137

I visited Kok Sen again recently on a Saturday night for tze char dinner to celebrate a dear friend's birthday. In my attempts to cover more good local c…

Videos: DBS DriveShield Expect the Unexpected

Advertorial I first knew about this car thing when a halved car was spotted at the Expo during one of the weekend. People were tweeting #halfcar about it an…

Beauty Review: November 2012 Bellabox

This month's Bellabox came rather late as my box just got delivered this morning. It is Movember , in support of men's health issues so there is …

I have yet another solid French food place recommendation for you! This time, it is the oldie but goodie - Le Bistrot du Sommelier that used to be at Prinsep Street. They have moved to the new place which is slightly bigger at the culturally rich Armenian Street. 

Just some bread and duck rilette ($10) to start off the meal. The baguette's really crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Goes really well with the duck rilette that has just the right hint of duck and all the goodness of a meat jam. MEAT JAM!

We visited this restaurant as a special treat for a colleague's birthday lunch. We actually sat upstairs at the Rilette Bar, which is the more casual area with a slightly smaller main course menu. Didn't really affect us, and in fact it was rather quiet and cosy in the two-storey shophouse.

It's a long rectangular shophouse. The staff was really friendly.


Here's the menu for your consideration. As you can see there are only 5 items in the 'hot food' section. 7 in the sides, and 5 in the salads.


They also have this 'dim sum style' menu for you to buy their cheeses and ham and meat jams home. I thought  this was rather amusing. And now i know where to grab some french-styled snacks should I have a party next time!


For the hot foods, we started with the very delicious baked Vacherin Mt. D'Or cheese with white wine ($48). It is a whole tub of cheese that came out all melty and piping hot. It was served with a different type of bread. It was so addictive that we kept eating the bread and cheese!


Next, the rather strange salade d'endive ($18) served with Belgium endives and walnut dressing. It was tart and the green apple slices rather refreshing, but on a whole it was an odd salad that you can definitely skip.

Go for gold instead. In this case, it will be the highlight of lunch - a 600g Angus Beef Rib Eye pepper steak ($108). It had so many instagram likes when I posted it, simply because it just looks amazing.


It tastes equally amazing as well. The steak was medium rare and soft and pink inside, with the right amount of peripheral fats at the side. The crunchy pepper corn adds just the right amount of kick to the already flavourful steak which oozes beef beef beef. It was soft yet with enough bite to chomp down and feel like a carnivore. Really, if there are 4 of you, this steak is super worth it ($27 per pax for 150g!). The tomato salad was really yummy as well because the tomatoes are refreshing and salty-sweet, very juicy and fresh.

We actually also ordered the pork cheeks, but had to cancel after all that bread, cheese and meat. We went to the desserts instead. We ordered two - the Pear Charlotte ($22) first, which I've never had before. 

In case you don't know what is a Charlotte, Wikipedia says this:
A charlotte is a type of dessert that can be served hot or cold. It can also be known as an "ice-box cake". Bread, sponge cake or biscuits/cookies are used to line a mold, which is then filled with a fruit puree or custard. It can also be made using layers of breadcrumbs.
Classically, stale bread dipped in butter was used as the lining, but sponge cake or ladyfingers may be used today. 
In this version of the Charlotte, it is served with preserved pears and sits on lemon vanilla sauce. The sponge fingers were really nice, and reminds me of the old-school small cakes made with egg and flour that looks like a jelly form.. (I am pretty sure you don't know what I am referring to).

I do feel however it is not worth the $22 - because we could have gotten TWO profiteroles with it.

Let me explain why the Profiteroles ($14) are so good. I always had this impression that it's made up of 5 tiny profiteroles, but turns out that it's 2 big ones instead. It's crunchy biscuit with a scoop of vanilla ice cream inside, drizzled generously with superior chocolate sauce and almond flakes. It was just the right mix of textures between cold, warm, crunchy, soft, and was not too sweet but a great ending to a good meal.



Overall I am very happy that this place is still consistently good ever since the first time I visited it 2 years ago at their old place. I would definitely recommend you to bookmark this place for good homestyle unpretentious authentic French food and a good STEAK! Also remember to make reservations in advance (2 weeks to be safe) as they fill up very fast, unless you want to visit for lunch.

Le Bistro du Sommelier

53 Armenian Street, Singapore 179940
+65 63331982
Mon - Sat: 18:00 - 23:00

French Food Find: Le Bistrot du Sommelier at 53 Armenian Street, Singapore 179940

I have yet another solid French food place recommendation for you! This time, it is the oldie but goodie - Le Bistrot du Sommelier that used to be at Prinse…

Food Review: Suprette at 383 Jalan Besar, Singapore 209001

You might have thought there was a typo in the spelling, but yes it is really called Suprette instead of Superette, and it is a new American diner at Kam Len…

Online Shopping: $50 and under at Zalora

I'm sure many of you guys must have heard of Zalora Singapore , but just in case you have not, it is a new online shopping site that has a base in Singa…