2016 Tea Series: Adonia

Adonia: Afternoon Tea Service

Address: 2057 W 41st Ave, Vancouver, BC

Phone: 604-261-0049
Website

Adonia has been a fairly popular tea house for quite some time now (probably about 10 years give or take) and it has been quite a number of years since I last went. In earlier years, before the city's infatuation with afternoon tea and subsequent explosive increase of tea houses, Adonia was one of the least expensive afternoon option other than what was at the time Sutton Place Hotel's Fleuri (no longer open since the hotel's renovations of the restaurant area a while back). However now, Adonia sits well in the middle range of most tea houses in Vancouver today ($29 for full tea, or $19 for demi).

The interior of Adonia hasn't changed much over the years, quaint, cozy sort of English country style with it's floral wallpaper and antique decor and plateware. It's not terribly large (I believe maximum capacity is 28-30) as you can see from the photos, and the kitchen area is open for patrons to peer into if they're especially curious.

We were seated at the only couch in the establishment as it was quite full - it was the only space available for reservation the day before. Weekends will find Adonia quite booked up, so I suggest making reservations if you plan to visit on a Saturday or Sunday. The tables aren't the most spacious unless you're at one of the few rectangular ones reserved for larger groups (4-6) but they do provide extra folding side tables should you run out of room.

Now onto the food! (and my first video in blog!)

So here are a few closer pictures of the food of note:

Scone - whipped butter and jam. Sadly the combination was odd. The scone was savory (and very crumbly and a bit dry), the butter sweetened and the jam of course sweet. I'm not sure why they thought this would be a good combo. My guess is that they normally serve a sweet scone, and are used to just pairing the butter and jam this way. Additionally, my friend's scone was different (and sweet if memory serves). 

This croissant-wich was the best of the savories in my opinion. The croissant was buttery and light (not over baked thank goodness), and the rest of the ingredients mixed well together. I'm not sure it warranted the toothpick to hold it all together but it was pretty much the only finger sandwich that stuck out in a good way. The rest were pretty standard fare, neither brilliantly delicious or terrible. Admittedly I forgot to tell the staff I was allergic to shellfish so I didn't try the potato salad with the shrimp on it.

Both the mango mousse and the panna cotta were quite nice (my friend let me try a bit of her mango dessert). Like the scone, we ended up with different items. I'm not sure why they didn't just ask us which one we wanted or just settle on making one item instead of randomly assigning a dish/dessert (maybe they believe we'll all share everything?). Perhaps they wanted to see the ultimate showdown or battles between friends as people fight over their preferred item?

I ended up not being able to finish my service (T-T) so I'll never know how these tasted, they looked pretty heavy however being chocolate and all that. Funnily enough I'm not all that keen on chocolate items in afternoon tea services as I find them too rich to fit in with all the other food, and I prefer the lighter fruity desserts

My overall opinion? It's ok. There's a lot of food and I liked the balance of savory to sweet (what I could finish at least). However, this area is saturated with tea houses that offer good services. That said, if you go for the a la carte menu and the teas/drinks you shouldn't be disappointed. The teas there are good quality and unique, and the a la carte items mean you can choose exactly what you want.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Transit friendliness: 3/5

Frill friendly/atmosphere: 4/5

Service: 3.5/5

Food: 3/5

2016 Foodie Finds: TUC Craft Kitchen Review

TUC Craft Kitchen Dinner Service

Address: 60 W Cordova St, Vancouver, BC

Phone: 604-559-8999
Website

TUC is one of Vancouver's newer dining establishments set up in the Gastown section of the downtown core. While being the newer kid on the block, it's done stunningly well as you'll be hard pressed to find table space just walking in off the street. You'll want to make reservations well ahead of time for dinner (I'm not sure about brunch/lunch time however) especially at peak times/days to ensure you grab a spot and a time that you want.

This restaurant is all about tasty, rustic and slow style food, and to reflect that they make sure each seating is booked in for 2.5 hours. In fact when the rest of my party was almost 30 minutes late, the serving staff (which are excellent by the way) did stop by to chat with me and let me know that we may be rushed given how late they were and that we only had 2.5 hours as they were fully booked that night.

One thing I often do at restaurants is ask what a server likes, or if they recommend one dish over another - you'd be surprised how many servers can't answer that (meaning they haven't tried certain dishes or just don't know the menu all that well). The servers here knew the menu inside and out, were able to suggest wines/drinks based on the food ordered or whatever kind of taste we were looking for. 

I ordered the 'Flowers of Algernon' drink (which I surprised my family by being able to tell them the name was yanked from a novel) which was a cute and clever name that I think probably goes over many peoples' heads. It was a hard choice as so many interesting drinks were available (and gone before I remember to take a photo, hence none being there). However, the rest of the food we ordered en masse and shared family style (though for those who prefer not to share, the meals are set up that way).

The first appy we ordered was basically breakfast all in one. Lovely egg with runny yolks wrapped in bacon with some maple syrup and deep fried. It's one of TUC's best selling dishes (Crispy bacon & egg). It is very rich though, so I'm glad I only had one half. The crisp bacon and light breadding made for a lovely contrast to the semi-solid yolk and added the right amount of saltiness to the dish.

Next came the Oxtail Rillettes. Basically an interesting 'toast' that was a lot more creamy in texture than I was expecting (apparently made of polenta), oxtail pate, za'atar olives, and something called sauce gribiche. The dish was quite lovely though we prefered everything without the sauce.

Above, the orange glazed lamb ribs. Flavour filled sauce (though a bit on the chili hot side for someone who's not good with that type of spice factor) and the meat pulled from the bone so easily. Tender and would have been awesome to have some bread to mop it all up with.



Parsnip fries were crisp and lovely on the tongue. Thinly cut, not over fried - one of my favorites as it's such an unusual root to use for frites. I'm not a potato lover as my close friends all know, so a very refreshing change.



I choose this dish - pork cracklings! I love crackings and these were done well in a western style. A bit more meat on these than say, their asian counterpart, but the sauce (a star anise red wine reduction) went brilliantly well with the crisp pork nuggets of tastiness and I'm not really fond of anise. 


We did need more greens so we ordered the wilted kale. Not my favorite green as it's often cooked badly, but not so in this case. Seasoned well, and sauteed with garlic (always a plus) it was buttery on the tongue and succulent in texture. If kale always tasted like this I'd be in heaven.

For mains we started with the Legumes Marrakesh. It was a mix of parsnip, rutabaga, sweet potato, leek, carrot, kabocha squash, and tofu and turned out to be the biggest surprise out of the meal. We hadn't had much in the way of expectations as we'd only ordered it for more veg and fibre content, but were most pleasantly surprised how tasty this turned out. Light but flavourful, the different ingredients made the dish texturally interesting while providing a feast of colour for the eyes. A definite must try for any vegetarians out there.

The Cast Iron Chicken wasn't my favorite dish though it was tasty. Made up of a roasted free run quarter chicken, herbes de Provence, fingerling potatoes, bacon onion jam & pepper toast, it's definitely a hearty winter meal, but nothing especially unique or spectacular. Still, it was well made but with so many other offerings available that piqued my interest, I only had a taste and moved on.

Now being an Asian family, we loved the Smoked Pacific Ling Cod. The tea smoked Haida Gwaii ling cod was delicate in flavour but succulent, the coconut sauce coated the basmati well but wasn't overpowering the rest of the dish. A well thought out and executed dish. many non-Asian restaurants I find cook the fish beyond what I prefer to put in my mouth (i.e. cooked to the point of dryness) but this was lovely.

If red meat is your thing, the Trois Viande is the dish to order if you want a bit of a taste of a few different meats. Containing a Denver leg of venison, Wild Rose Heritage Farm wild boar mousse, cured pork belly, gnocchi gateau, and some veg, it's great if you like a bit of a nibble of various things all on one plate. Lots of bold flavour in this one, and each meat has a distinct texture and flavour profile.



Now desert was one of my favorite parts of this meal. We ordered the chocolate pudding and the seasonal galette. The chocolate pudding arrived and had a syringe speared into it. The syringe was filled with the rum caramel sauce and the tuile was wasabi flavoured. The gooseberry on top made for a nice decorative flourish (which my aunt ate as she'd never had one before). Normally I'm a bit skeptical about dishes with syringes as typically the idea seems way cooler than the actual application. However in this case it worked well to deliver the sauce into the centre of the pudding rather than have it concentrated on the top. This dish however is -very- rich. I'm glad I shared with others as I probably wouldn't have been able to finish on my own.

Last but not least the galette. It was an apple blueberry galette topped with a couple of (very small) scoops of honey lavender house made ice cream. The pastry was crisp and the perfect mixture of buttery and flakey, not soggy from fruit like many can be. My only suggestion would be to have a touch more of the ice cream as it was nearly lost with how small the amount was (too much though and the lavender would overpower the desert).

All in all a great experience with good food. The crispy egg, wilted kale, Legumes Marrakesh, Ling Cod, and both deserts were definitely highlights of this meal, though in all honesty, all the dishes were winners. If anyone is going back and needs a little company, just give me a shout and I'll be there!

2016 Tea Series: Neverland Tea Salon

Neverland Tea Salon: Afternoon Tea Service

Address: 3066 W Broadway, Vancouver

Phone:(604) 428-3066

Website

Neverland Tea Salon is a fairly new establishment (compared to many of the old staples that have been around Vancouver for many years, some even, decades) situated on the Broadway corridor. It's interior is themed in a fairly whimsical way and the seating is a hodge podge of various seating from various eras. There's even a stained glass window handing from the ceiling and a little prop box filled with items for children to play with (feather boas and the like). 

Because of the location and the fact that it is likely the only tea salon in the immediate area, the restaurant is generally fairly full, meaning that all tables are out and generally in use during regular afternoon tea hours. Unfortunately this limits amount of space to get around tables and avoid bumping and other awkward moments. With larger, fuller skirts, and the way the seating is laid out, it's often a bit of a trial as the seating can be cramped if you're not in one of the larger armchairs, or in a less crowded space (the back corner is especially tricky to navigate).

Now my first visit to Neverland was during their opening week and with a larger group of over 12 Lolitas. More than a year later I returned with a much smaller party (of 3 including myself) to give them another go, hoping that they would surprise me as much as Fur Elise and Faubourg did when I returned much later. Unfortunately I wasn't terribly impressed, though the food marginally improved since the first visit.

Settings like a few other shops, use antique and vintage china and service is plated on a tiered stand. Unlike many however, they brew each pot of tea for you before bringing it to the table. They use a different method of steeping the tea using the glassware shown below:

The tea is also bottomless, so you can have as many pots (and try as many kinds of tea) as you want. This, in my opinion is the best part of having tea service here.

Now onto the food.

Bottom Tier (savories) - Items of note: overall there wasn't anything stunningly good about the savories, especially in comparison with other local tea houses. The chicken salad I would say would have been my favorite out of the offerings but wasn't particularly spectacular in seasoning or construction, just fairly basic. 

The croissant that I and my guests received were seriously overbaked to the point the outter shells were hard and broke off in large flakes. Much tea was needed to moisten the mouth afterwards - which was a pity as the innards were fairly well balanced, unlike the first visit I had (a silver of pear and a tiny hunk of cheese was my first experience). The image above I had to lighten significantly in photo editing software to make it look less overdone.

The egg salad sandwich appeared to have been made well in advance, or made with an overly moist texture as the bread was well soaked through enough to make it gummy/sticky. The taste however was ok which salvaged it through the unpleasant texture.

Top Tier (Scone) - Items of Note: In an unusual change from the usual, the top tier was a scone rather than sweets. I typically enjoy the scone portion as it segues from the savories to the sweets. The scone texture was quite lovely, however (and this is personal bias) I dislike sugar coated scones. There was at least Devonshire cream (though pasteurized) to go with the scone, along with house made jam. I'm sure that others would have enjoyed this tier as it proved to be the best (my personal taste aside) on the stand.

Middle Tier (sweets) - Items of Note: There were quite a few very heavy and rich pieces on this tier. Again my own personal taste is for lighter, less rich/sweet pieces. The chocolate pieces lingered so much that I had to drink a lot of tea to cleanse my palette. 

The strawberry tart was by far my favorite piece on this tier and of the meal. The tart crust was crisp, but not rock hard, and the balance of creme to fruit topping was good. It doesn't hurt that strawberries are one of my favorite fruits ;)

This was likely my least favorite of the tier. I never truly enjoy cupcakes as there's always too much icing (especially buttercream) and they lack a certain je ne sais quoi when added to an afternoon tea service unless done very well. Presentation-wise this one was less than awe inspiring to say the least. The texture was a little dry and the flavour could have been more punched up. Most of the flavour was killed by the amount of icing and candied fruit on the top.

Overall, if you're in the area and need to have afternoon tea, by all means go. It's worth a try for the tea and atmosphere, but would I return regularly for tea service? Probably not. I personally will come for tea and maybe to try some of the a la carte items but for the area it's in, I'd probably skip afternoon tea and have lunch somewhere like Banana Leaf.

Overall Rating: 3/5

Transit friendliness: 3.5/5

Frill friendly/atmosphere: 3/5

Service: 3.5/5

Food: 2.5/5

And in case you didn't know before, this is me :) and a photo of my frills for this outting.

2016 Tea Series: Pâtisserie Für Elise

Pâtisserie Für Elise: Afternoon Tea Service

Address: 847 Hamilton St, Vancouver, BC

Phone: (604) 684-1025

Website

I have visited this establishment several times in the past, however the review I wrote was shortly after they opened and many things have changed since then. Being downtown and very close to the main branch of the Public Library, transit is an easy option. Parking however is all paid parking in the area, either meters down on the street or at the near by parkade at the library.

As usual, I went with a group of friends and we dressed ourselves up for the occasion. (Photo courtesy of the lovely Hannah Brun)

The decor has not changed overly much over the years and matches the aesthetic of our frills very well. The downstairs portion of the shop is where you can purchase individual macaron, teas, fruit jelly squares and other items to take away. Kawaii Boku, a local seller of cute things has some of their lovely macaron shaped pillows on display there as well.

The upstairs is where afternoon tea is served. The stairs are a bit narrow as is normally found in heritage homes like this (it was converted to a shop front like a few others right beside it). The front portion faces the street and the open courtyard area below. There is ample natural lighting. Most of the food preparation and whatnot happens in this area behind the low wall partition that separates the food preparation area with the service area. For more details and images of the space you can take a look at the earlier review made back in 2013.

As before, the meal shows up on a 2 tier stand. If you go with a group of people they will put up to 4 portions on one stand. The menu does change from season to season, so you'll likely have a different variation than what is shown here.

Let's start with the bottom tier, mine was separated by parchment paper as I am allergic to all things crustacean (and therefore you will not see any shrimp, crab, lobster etc in my reviews). This is a nice touch as many establishments tend to just put everything on the plate unless they plate my portions separately.

Items of note: The egg and avocado salad sandwich was tasty though on the whole texturally bland. The seasoning however was a great improvement from the first time I visited. The vegetables on cracker was a bit of a let down - it tasted more like jarred antipasto with some cucumbers on top of a Breton cracker. The croissant sandwich was probably my favorite of this tier. A good balance between the cheese, prosciutto and croissant.

Aside from the bottom tier savories, a salad in a glass was provided. While tasty and welcome added greenery to the meal, the glass makes for awkward eating (and also to hide how little actual green there is rather than having to plate on an actual plate).

Now for the top tier. My biggest complaint is that everything is crowded on this tier. Why is this a problem? Read on my friend...

Items of note: I am very grateful that this portion of the service has a lot more texture to it with the addition of tart shells, chocolate cup and other items. The strawberry mousse is smooth and with the sponge and strawberry inside it is a signature dessert that you won't find elsewhere. The rest of the desserts are quite nice though not overly memorable. The biggest issue with this is how soggy the macaron are. Pressed up against everything else they draw out the moisture and become soft and gooey. Perhaps serving the macaron separately would be better otherwise unknowing customers will leave this to the later portion of the meal and end up with soggy macaron without realizing this is a plating issue and not a quality of product issue.

Overall, this tea service has vastly improved since my first visit years ago. They have definitely managed to figure out what they are looking for in their savory cuisine and rounded out their sweets offering to be more interesting and balanced. Still a few issues to work out but definitely worth a visit if you haven't been before.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Transit friendliness: 4/5

Frill friendly/atmosphere: 4/5

Service: 3.5/5

Food: 3/5

2016 - A New Journey

It's a new year and finally I'm going to start uploading new posts. The question is, do you prefer updates on places I've already been locally (some have changed significantly), reviews on places I haven't yet posted, or reviews and some insight of my food travels outside of the city, country and continent?

If by chance anyone is even watching or reading this blog, please just leave a comment. I'll start writing up a new post about a local joint that I haven't visited in years, or maybe one of the newer Afternoon Tea Services Vancouver has to offer.

If there are any requests to review a particular restaurant or tea house, drop me a line. As long as it's not a crustacean extravaganza I can likely make my way out there to try it out.

Anyhoo, cheers to all for the new year. I hope everyone had a happy holidays.

Cake Classics - The Victoria Sandwich

Original post 6/22/11

I've been a rather naughty girl and indulging in baking lately but it all really started with my aunt making a comment about how she hadn't had a Victoria Sandwich in decades (since she immigrated from the UK with her husband more than 30 years ago). 'Well, that's not good' said I, and without further ado I went and rummaged through my kitchen and found alas...it was barren (my sister had taken most of my bakeware save for my Kitchen Aid when she moved out). Moving onward about $100 later I had the utensils and bakeware needed. Now the recipe.

Let me forewarn you here that this recipe pre-dates my birth! My aunt pulled out the first ever gift her husband had given her 49 years ago - a yellowing and well loved copy of "Women & Home Cordon Blue Cooking". I did photograph the entire process as well as examples of what not to do!

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• Their weight in butter, caster sugar (that's regular sugar for you non-baking types out there), and plain flour (about 4oz the book says). 4 oz for butter and sugar is roughly 1/2 cup. I used the same for the flour and it turned out fine
• A pinch of salt
• 2 level tablespoons of baking powder
• 2 dessert spoons of milk (fyi 2 teaspoons = 1 dessert spoon, 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon)
• A few drops of vanilla essence (that's extract in case you were wondering)
• 2 tablespoons of jam (really this part is done to taste)
• 1/4 pint of double cream aka whipping cream (1/2 cup = 1/4 pint)
• A sprinkling of icing sugar
• A little melted lard (this is just for greasing the tin so butter or even baking spray works fine)
• 2 sandwich tins 6 3/4" to 7" wide (just rounds)

Now I only had 1 9" cake round but fear not! Just double the recipe and you'll be fine. If you only have one cake tin then it just means baking is twice as long and you need to remember to clean and re-spray/grease the tin (otherwise messy things happen). I've made notes on some of the ingredients and measurements because I had to Google a bunch of that being the inexperienced baker that I am lol (honestly not bad but my brain was never taught such language in home ec)

Step 1: Gather everything you need, read the recipe and make sure it's somewhere accessible and you can read it easily while working. You'll be glad you did! Make sure the butter is at room temp (it should be easily pressed with a finger) as well as the eggs (you can warm them up quickly by placing them in warm water for about 10 mins if you forget) . Make sure your baking powder is still active and your flour isn't stale (this happens a lot if you don't bake often and find a bag/tin in the back of the cupboard from eons ago).

Step 2: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (not Celsius or you'll have one heck of lump of coal) and prepare your cake pan (grease it with some wax paper or the inside of the butter wrapper, or be a cheat like me and use some baking spray). Some people like to use parchment paper and cut it to the size of the pan so it's easier to remove but remember you need to grease/spray the paper as well (I found I didn't need it at all though). You'll want to also make sure your oven rack is about centre so the pan sits in the middle of the oven.

Step 3: Cream the butter. I find it easier to cut it into little chunks (like above). Beat it with your mixer (I used a hand mixer in this case because I like the control better) until it's quite nice and fluffy.

Step 4: Add your castor sugar (granulated sugar or cane sugar) and beat everything together til well incorporated and still nice and fluffy.

Step 5: In a separate bowl, beat your lovely eggies together until the whites and yellows are nice and mixed up. Make sure there's no shell in there either. You'll take this egg mixture and add it to the butter/sugar mix one tablespoon at a time. You heard me right ONE TABLESPOON AT A TIME Sure it's tedious and repetitive but by doing this and beating it well into the butter/sugar mixture you incorporate a ton of air, making the batter light and fluffy which is the trick to a good sponge cake - and ultimately the Victoria Sandwich is a glorified sponge cake (oops I forgot to mention that earlier didn't I? oh well my bad lol). It won't start resembling anything like a proper cake batter until you're near the end of adding all that egg. Once done you're going to scrape the beater clean because everything else is used with good ol' arm power!

Goes from this:

To this (all nice and smooth):

Step 6: In another bowl, dry whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. It calls for you to sift it all together but really as long as your flour is fresh and well aerated (same with the baking powder) you're good to go.

Step 7: Add 1/2 of your dry mix to the fluffy butter/sugar/egg mix as well as 1/2 of the milk. Carefully fold it together until it's mostly incorporated. Add the remaining dry mix, milk and the vanilla. Fold that batter `til it's well incorporated all the way through. Now it's important you don't beat this or overmix as you want to keep all that air you painstakingly beat into that stuff. If you don't you'll end up with very flat and heavy cake rather than a nice sponge.

Once done it should look something like this:

Step 8: Divide the batter in half and place one half into each cake tin. If you've only got one then put in half the batter into that tin and leave the rest until this one is baked fully. Now try not to fuss too much with the batter as it'll all spread out in the tin more or less while baking. However you do want to try and cover the entire bottom of the tin and not mound the batter in the middle or you'll end up with a mountain peak instead of a nice flat surface. One thing to note is not to let the batter sit around too long once you're done. if you do, you loose some of the air and weird things happen and the crumb of the sponge just isn't as good as if you do everything in one go. Also no need to drop the pan to get out the big air bubbles - I found that it doesn't do much but you can go ahead if it makes you feel better. As long as you put the batter somewhat evenly in the pan and into the vacuous spaces (since it's not a runny batter it'll gloop however you drop it into the pan) you'll find no big caverns in your cake.

Step 9: Toss into the middle of the oven. If you have 2 cake tins going in, your baking time will probably increase (make sure they're on the same rack side by side so they cook at the same rate). Now depending on your oven it could take as little as 12-15 minutes or upwards of 20. Since I was using double the recipe but in a much larger tin the time was fairly quick (around 14 mins or so) but really, just turn the oven light on and wait til it turns a nice golden brown on top. Try not to molest the cake while baking, keep the oven door closed until it's done. Take the rack and pull it half out and test with a toothpick. If it's still bubbling and burbling in the centre it's likely not nearly done so don't be tempted to pull it out yet. My first mistake was to consider a lightly coloured golden brown was done when in fact it needed a few minutes more. Taking it out too early or molesting the cake during baking will cause the centre to deflate and make your cake look more like that sponge stuff they sell where you put custard and fruit in the centre (see below).

This is far too early. It needs to be browner and because it's half out of the oven and been jostled it'll sink in the middle and come out with a crater in the middle (which it did because I opened the oven to take the photo T-T). Even so, just pop it back in to bake more and it'll be less obvious like so:

If this happens to you don't worry, pop it back into the oven so it firms up (if you leave it out it'll only get worse). Once done you can use it as your bottom layer (and just fill it up with more strawberries or fruit of some sort).

Here's an example of a good looking layer of sponge!

If you (like me) have only one tin, once the cake is done flip it out onto the cooling rack and then back right side up onto another rack (or if you only have one rack, flip onto a plate and then onto the rack) - this is to avoid those tell tale cooling rack lines racing across the top of your cake. Once that's done, wash the tin (carefully cause it's still hot), dry and then grease/spray it again (this is important or you'll have a hell of a time getting that second layer out without destroying it). Add the last half of the batter and repeat.

FYI flipping onto parchment means less crumb scatter over your counter to clean up!

Step 10: Whip that double cream! Whip it good! (don't overwhip or you'll end up with butter and water) I like it to be fairly peaky but still a bit soft so it oozes out the sides of the cake. Do not add sugar!!!! This cake is not meant to be over the top sugary sweet and having the whipped cream unsweetened adds smoothness, creaminess, and moisture without adding more sweetness (like the jam and fruit)

Step 11: The fun part! Grab some jam or fruit preserve of whatever flavor catches your fancy (I usually get strawberry since it's one of my favorites!) and lightly cover the top of the uglier layer (if you have a layer with a big dent in the centre from molestation or eager beaver syndrome use that one). If the jam is cold you may need to microwave it so it spreads more evenly and thinly.

Grab your matching fruit, slice it up or keep it whole if it's small enough and cover the newly jammed up layer. Fruit is great for disguising the crater if you have one in that layer. (Look ma no more dent!)

Once that's done grab the whipped cream and layer it on as thick as you want. I usually save some for covering the sides since I'm OCD that way but you don't need to. BTW I suggest that you do all this on the plate you'll be serving on, or some round board so that you can move your lovely cake to the plate after you're done without much trouble.

Step 12: Almost done! Now you need to just plop that other layer on top - nice side up. Don't literally plop it or you may spray whipping cream all over but gently layer and position it. (note the pan there...I forgot to spray it between batches...so much left in there even after patching up the bottom of the cake and there are tears in the top layer >.<)

If you're of a mind to, just use the left over whipped cream and sort of ice it around the sides like so...

Then just sprinkle (or sift) the icing sugar over the top and voila! You're now up one lovely Victoria Sandwich! Yay!

if you try it out please share your results with me! I'd love to see :3 (and I'm sure kurasune and her hubby would love to eat it too lol)