Birthdays with Zumbo Take 3

right now i am waiting for my cousin in Canada to wake up. they're 15 hours behind us...why can't australia have any decent clothing! so annoyed #firstworldproblems. btw, didn't now this until today, but a&f websites are so exclusive! they want to prevent import from other countries, eg, if you live in canada and they have sales, you must have a canadian credit card, use a canadian address and canadian computer. if they detect that you're from else where, you just get directed to the us site. like, i can't go on the hk site to see their prices. fingers crossed the stuff i want is in stock.

ahh, exam in exactly 3 weeks.

brother's bday today, so i decided to get stuff (just for the record, with my parents money. i never buy presents for my bro, and he never buys stuff for me since we don't have money).

happy mix box actually closed this time.

not as full this time, well we ate a few already, but last time we ate some so that it could fit in the jar, and this time some parts of the jar is empty. oh wells, 636g is pretty good. last time i must've had over 650g.

i made sure that before i went, i washed my hands, since i arranged the lollies when they went in. this time there were no jelly beans (apart form liquorice), last time there were about 10 flavours, and jelly beans are expensive, they're small and you can also fit a lot. also, they didn't have a variety of nuts or raisins w/chocolate. last time they did, but obviously those stuff cost more than normal gummy lollies. this time there was less variety...the guy was there serving me, and i know from experience he was more lenient (one time i didn't even buy $20, and he still have me 2 hole punches). it was a bit over the brim, but i could just close the lid (: when i asked for samples of popcorn, he gave me 4 at once, the woman last time only gave one. i ended up trying about 4 flavours, so that's well over 10 free popcorn (: the cookies and creme and salted caramel is as good as they say (:

used my 2nd group on voucher (: 

the salted caramel almond nuts were the only dark choc options, most of the others were white choc (which is fat), and normal choc. if the discover a white chocolate cocoa bean, then i will look at it differently, but white choc is cheaper than normal choc and filled with heaps more fat/super sweet. the salted caramel here is not too over powering (: i regret buying the moustache lollipop, not because of it's novelty factor wearing out, but because it's made in china. the almonds were made in france, and probably some of the happy mix, but not the lollipop ):

moreeee zumbo!

how could i resist the new flavours?! apple pie, yogurt and passionfruit, blueberry pancake, pandan sticky rice.

the blueberry pancake was sweeter than i would've liked, but the colour was spot on, like a bluberry (: the pandan sticky rice was so good! pandan could've been a bit stronger, but there was real sticky rice in it, gave it a nice sticky, chewy texture. apparently this macaron takes more effort, since making the rice is annoying (according to my mum). apple pie was niceee, just like an apple pie should be. there was cinnamon/sugar sprinkled on top, but it actually didn't taste too sugary. a stronger apple taste would've been better, but a lot of apple pies these days don't even have enough apples....yogurt and passionfruit was surprisingly good. it tastes like yogurt! kind of like original flavoured froyo, but with a lot more acidity. it was yogurt in macaron form! it wasn't sour though, it was acidic like yogurt should be, and the passionfruit was good as well, in the centre was a passionfruit creamy dollop. this one had the most "crunch".

i didn't bother with the other chocolate flavours. i think i like his new melbourne store, a really spacious patisserie/good display. the only patisserie he has is rozelle or balmain, and from photos, it doesn't look as big.

decorated fondant cake for brother and dad's birthday (:

everything is all online, like la renaissance. i love how i get to choose my family's birthday cakes! the boz was a vibrant yellow. (la renaissance was a vibrant pink). the cake is so good! it is so smooth, and it goes down your throat so nicely (seriously, those dry/bad cakes, you have to chug it down with something). since it's a fondant you expect it to be super sweet, but it was alright. the cake is small in size, but it's quite heavy since it's dense. you get filled up on it with a small-ish slice, about 1.5cm and i personally think that's a decent serve after dinner, with just the right amount of chocolate and sweetness. 

meringues are so good (: decorative chocolate, very pretty. love how they curve randomly. the macarons on the cake i think were pineapple w/ salted butter cream and raspberry w/ salted caramel (not chocolate like the bake at home boxes). the salted caramel was sooo sweet, even for my brother's standards. both the flavours weren't as prominent, maybe because it's been stored in the fridge...

apparently at school, some of his friends baked him a cake, and also banana bread. then at tyf (youth group), the girls in his year bought him a WHOLE WATERMELON CAKE from black star pastry! jelly, and he got a massive slice. my brother said that it  was super nice (and he usually doesn't care about food). when he said he he had a super nice cake at youth group with watermelon, i knew exactly what he meant, and since bitter gave me some earlier this year, i had a pick, and showed him and he confirmed it (: the problem with that cake is that it's hard to take home, and once you do, you have to eat it all at once, or else the water/juices from the watermelon start leaking/soaking through the cake. that's the same with fresh mousse cakes, best to eat it on the day. i've never had someone bake a cake for me the day of my birthday ): maybe sometimes after...but macarons this year were more than enough (:

dad's bday in a few days time, but recently, we combined it with bro's bday, or else we would be continuously eating cake for 2 weeks, and it's really unhealthy and waste of money.

haven't done anything today, spent it buying sweets, taking photos and eating =D going to regret this...