January 17, 2012

The Worldwide Dessert Contest

Dominique Book Review The Worldwide Dessert Contest

The Worldwide Dessert Contest by Dan Elish is one of the most interesting food related book which I had read. It centers around the chef John Applefeller who annually comes in last in for the coveted Silver Spoon in the Worldwide Dessert Contest held every July.

John has been at this contest for the past 10 years and have never won even though his baking skills are superior to the reigning the self-proclaimed King of Dessert, Sylvester S. Sweet as his apple dessert magically changes to something different at the last minute. His apple desserts kept turning into other things like apple french toast became knee pads used by the Olympics teams, his apple souffle became a hot air balloon, and his apple pancake became a great trampoline.

Applefellers dedication in making the best desserts and e support from his trusty aid Stanley made him determined to find out how to not make his desserts change at the last minute. They went on an adventure to the the island of Iambia to seek the help of Captain B. Rollie Ragoon, the dessert-making genius to find out the reason behind his bakes changing at the last minute. With the captain’s help they finally managed to defeat Sweet and win the Silver Spoon.

My Thoughts

I liked how Dan had interwoven suspense and mystery together with silly characters and personification of food. I was really absorbed into reading the book that I didn’t want to put it down when I first started reading it. The author brings one into a magical world whereby using simple baking ingredients can lead to astonishing results like roller skating and flying apple pies.

There is the typical bad guy character with Sylvester S. Sweet who is actually a fake and steals ideas and bakes from Captain Ragoon and passes it on as his own. He goes all out to ruin Applefeller but gets his just desserts in the end.

I like the message of ” by working hard and being disciplined one will be able to obtain the goal that one aiming for” as shown by Applefeller. This is a book which I would certainly recommend for young readers to help them think creatively.

If you are interested in reading this book you can get a copy of it from Amazon

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for review. All opinions are 100% my own. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Dominique’s Disclosure page for more information.

Top 10 Things which I Though I would Never Do

Doggie boy posing in front of a very yummylicious dessert bowl.

This week the topic is on confessing ten things we said we would NEVER do but caught ourselves doing it. However I feel that it would be more appropriate if I wrote on Top 10 Things which I Though I would Never Do

In no particular order

Be happy to be out of the rat race.
I actually told my supervisor more then once that my ambition was to be a housewife!

Be able to go on holidays any time of the year.
I used to be restricted to being able to go on holidays only during school holidays and that’s when it’s peak surcharge time. However since I’m on NPL we can plan trips the whole year around. I’ll be leaving on my next holidays in two weeks time and we are going to Taiwan this time.

Be unable to get a full night’s sleep.
I’m still hoping that the baby will stop waking up so frequently in the night so that I’ll be able to get at lest 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep instead of the 2 hours that I am currently getting.

Be okay with losing 100% of my privacy.
I never expected to be shadowed by the baby 24/7. She screams when I am out of her radar and refuses to let anyone else entertain her.

Enjoy cooking and baking.
I only started having interest in cooking and baking after the kids were born. Before that I rather have others do the cooking and order takeout.

Be okay with the kids messing up the living room doing arts and crafts.
I used to hate cleaning up and still do not fancy doing it however it’s now okay for them to mess it up a bit if they are doing painting or baking together with me.

Be so excited when the kids reach different milestones.
It’s really so much more exciting and rewarding seeing kids achieving things the it happening to me personally.

Learn something like rollerblading even though I still have the fear of falling down.
Falling down and breaking my bones still freaks me out however I did go and learn how to rollerblade so that I can go along with Monkey boy when he started his rollerblading class. However now with Tiger girl around the skates are in cold storage and will most probably stay there.

Change my eating habits and lifestyle
Actively seeking and trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle so that I can be a good role model to the kids.

Putting my foot down when it comes to my kids/family
I never thought I would be able to remove/ reduce all the toxic people around us but so far we are doing great with eliminating their influence on our lives.