Cookies and Cream Cake

I'd intended to post this recipe before the end of the year, as it seemed fitting to end the year with the cake that ended all cake baking for 2012. But things never go quite as planned, and I had too great a time celebrating Christmas and New Years that I didn't get around to blogging.

So instead, I'll start the New Year with this cake- beginning with the end rather than ending with the end.

Same difference!

Having much too many oreos in our cupboard than we could handle (including packets of the double stuff ones which we detest), making a cookies and cream dessert seemed a logical solution to rid ourselves of them. After much recipe searching and pondering over whether it should be used in a cake, ice-cream, slice or cheesecake, I decided to make my own version of the Red Ribbon Cookies & Cream Cake.

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Coffee Ice Cream

I'm terrible at decision making, but if there's one thing that will always take me ages to decide, and I mean ages, it would definitely be choosing an ice-cream flavour at an ice-cream shop.

Because there's never a flavour I don't fancy!

Choosing ice-cream flavours at the supermarket is much easier, as I this is one of the few areas where I do have a clear-cut favourite. It's a coffee ice-cream with chocolate coated almonds (Connoisseur ice cream, if anyone wants to know)- it's amazing! The almonds are coated in a perfect layer of decadent chocolate and the ice-cream itself is beautiful and smooth with deep, rich coffee taste. And that's coming from someone who doesn't like coffee!

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Taste Gallery, Parramatta

Salted Duck

I feared for the fate of one of my favourite Asian cheap-eat joints in Parramatta when Taste Gallery opened right next door to it. Occupying the space that was previously a harmless Italian take-away, Taste Gallery offered a similar Shanghainese menu and had a much more modern design, and of course, a pricier menu to follow. And I didn't like the sound of it.

Interestingly enough, the restaurant caters to a much different group of diners, and its existence does not have as great of an impact on its neighbour as you'd expect. I know this, as I'm sitting at Taste Gallery, browsing through the menu, whilst a continuous stream of customers enter both restaurants.

Chicken in Chilli Sauce 

We're here to check out the competition, because of a great Groupon deal, though at $65 for the four of us, it's still more than what we'd normally spend next door. This offers much more than we'd normally order, with an entree, main and dessert each and we don't hesitate to pick our own favourites, starting with the salted duck, which is a little bland and boring.

The chicken in chilli sauce is the polar opposite, with a strong hit of flavour with every bite from the chilli sauce, which is not actually as hot as it may look.

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