Come out, come out of Lurk-dom!

[PrincessInOz]

Tonight's Full Moon.

 

[zanzibar138]

Oooh that's right. Very nice shot.

The moon was pretty spectacular yesterday morning when I went for my run!

 

[Calisota]

Full moon is always big in Laos, being a Buddhist country.

I took this last night at a festival to mark the end of Buddhist Lent.

 

[zanzibar138]

Full moon is always big in Laos, being a Buddhist country.

I took this last night at a festival to mark the end of Buddhist Lent.

Of course! We were in Thailand for Loi Krathong at this time last year - Phimai and Chiang Mai. Just loved the temple festival and floating lanterns in Phimai. Chiang Mai was a bit too crazy party for me, and I couldn't relax enough to enjoy the flying lanterns (was so worried about getting hit by fireworks!). Do they do lanterns in Laos?

 

[Calisota]

They do do lanterns. Tonight is also the big parade of Fire Boats and then the floating of the little candle lit boats down the Mekong. Spectacular.

Phi mai is huge in Luang Prabang. It's the one time of the year when the normally reserved Laos really let loose.

Greg

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Pigs in Mud Cake - with thanks to internet web site below.

Cake: The internet version is just a chocolate cake with ganache frosting (chocolate and cream). I based mine on my chocolate mousse desert cake recipe. You also need chocolate finger biscuits (any brand - I got the cheaper ones and used about 1 1/2 packets so buy 2 or KitKats but KitKats would work out very expensive-the internet version used KitKats), royal icing and red food colouring and a ribbon.

My cake base: make your favourite chocolate cake in a round cake tin. Could be from scratch or from a packet mix or even a ready-made shop bought one.

My chocolate mousse: 120gm dark cooking chocolate; 4 large eggs; 1 1/2 cups of cream; optional 1 tablespoon of liqueur like Brandy, Kahlua, Grand Marnier.
Method: Separate eggs. Whip cream til stiff peaks form. Melt chocolate in microwave using 50% strength and around 1 min or so - check often (or if not a MW fan do old fashioned method melting over boiling water).
Stiffly beat egg whites. By now chocolate should have cooled a little. Beat egg yolks into chocolate one at a time and then beat til mix is smooth and thick.
Fold into choc mix the whipped cream, alcohol if using and the egg whites last of all, slowly so as to keep volume. Put aside in fridge for an hour or two to start setting.

You can make the pigs ahead of time and store in an airtight container in the cupboard as in the fridge they will sweat. I did find they tended to dry out so I wrapped pieces in gladwrap as soon as made and only made the day before. Here is where I followed the internet instructions. Basically colour a little ready made royal icing or fondant paste with a tiny drop of red food colouring and knead into icing so its a pale pink using extra icing sugar to stop it from sticking while molding. Then mold the shapes as in the guide below using a toothpick to make belly button, eye and nose holes etc. I found the bathing pig ears I needed a little broken bit of toothpick to secure them to the head but the rest were fine. I just mixed a little icing sugar with water to make a sticky glue to hold pieces on - the curly tails were the hardest.

Assemble: Take your cake base and put on serving plate. I used some leftover melted chocolate mixed with a little cream to make an instant ganache to go around the side of the cake to help hold the finger biscuits onto the cake. Carefully stick these to the side of the cake side by side. I had DD's help as I got over half way around and a few had a tendency to slip. Tie the ribbon around low down and this holds the chocolate sticks firmly in place. Fill the space left with chocolate mousse smoothing down the top - the mousse should be sufficiently firm that it won't ooze out. Allow to set fully in the fridge. Pop the pigs carefully on top within an hour or so of serving (or immediately before) so they don't get too sweaty since the cake needs refrigeration.

A bit fiddly but easy.

 

[zanzibar138]

Thanks Wendy! Will have to give it a try.

 

[aussie shaz]

Wow! Thanks Wendy, but you lost me at 'separate the eggs'! I miss out on making so many nice cakes etc because I see something I don't like doing (or is a bit difficult) and then decide not to try.
Maybe one day I'll learn to do those fiddly bits.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Images from PAX.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Wow! Thanks Wendy, but you lost me at 'separate the eggs'! I miss out on making so many nice cakes etc because I see something I don't like doing (or is a bit difficult) and then decide not to try.
Maybe one day I'll learn to do those fiddly bits.

I own I think it was by Tuppaware but you can get similar all places, an egg separator - just break the egg into the middle and the white dribbles out the side into the cup underneath, sometimes with a little help if its a bit stringy. It makes separating eggs SO easy I can highly recommend one.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Brilliant full moon pic PIO and cosplay etc pics. Not being gamers I had never heard of PAX.

 

[zanzibar138]

I've never heard of PAX either, but those costumes are completely crazy! How long do people actually spend getting ready???

 

[PrincessInOz]

I've never heard of PAX either, but those costumes are completely crazy! How long do people actually spend getting ready???

Of the ones I asked, anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours!

 

[zanzibar138]

Ugh, having one of those days today where I feel like I can't do anything right

 

[PrincessInOz]

Ugh, having one of those days today where I feel like I can't do anything right

I'm having one of those YEARS!

 

[PrincessInOz]

From A to Z at the weekend.



A for Aurora Australis.









...and Z for Zombie Shuffle.

 

[zanzibar138]

Great photos as usual PIO Although the zombie ones may give me nightmares

 

[Feej]

Hey all!

Bit of a lurker here too.

Just got back from Halloween Horror Nights at Universal, where I also managed to fit in a day at DL. Looking forward to a 10 day trip to DL across Christmas-New Year with my daughter in a few weeks. We're staying the whole time at the Grand Californian, which is probably my favorite Disney resort.

I've also just started planning a trip next April to visit my daughter, who'll be working at WDW as part of the International Program. Really looking forward to that.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Hey all!

Bit of a lurker here too.

Just got back from Halloween Horror Nights at Universal, where I also managed to fit in a day at DL. Looking forward to a 10 day trip to DL across Christmas-New Year with my daughter in a few weeks. We're staying the whole time at the Grand Californian, which is probably my favorite Disney resort.

I've also just started planning a trip next April to visit my daughter, who'll be working at WDW as part of the International Program. Really looking forward to that.

Your trip sounds great. Dare we hope for a TR?

 

[zanzibar138]

Your trip sounds great. Dare we hope for a TR?

Surely out of three trips we can hope for one TR?

Welcome out of lurkdom Feej