Girly lunch and strange event - too many desserts

There was movement in the blogosphere 'cos word had got around that... Ellie from Almost Bourdain was organising a girly lunch!

So, with no boys allowed, we congregated on a sunny weekend at Ellie's place for an afternoon of food and hospitality.  Each of the 15 ladies who attended brought at least one dish, and Ellie provided some delicious food as well.  There was lots of laughter, meeting of new faces, and ... sixteen (count them, 16) desserts.

Here's a rundown of what we had:

Ellie is a fabulous cook, as evidenced by her beef rendang, which has also been featured on her blog.  To accompany this Malaysian specialty, there was sambal ikan bilis (made by crushing dried anchovies) and side dishes of fresh pineapple and toasted peanuts with salty fried mini fish.  Trissa brought a tasty dish of chorizo with capsicum.

Other Malay dishes that stood out were the chicken kapitan (with coconut milk, chilli and lemongrass) that was served with coconut rice.  Teresa brought a jar of risoni and beans that, when upturned into a bowl, magically transformed into a colourful salad (sprinkled with goat's cheese).

Karen had prepared the plump little profiteroles for a croquembouche beforehand, then she and Linda boiled up some sugar, and while we watched in amazement, they spun the caramel into an intricate yet delicate nest which would surely win any MasterChef challenge.  And look at the shiny cachous pressed into the sugar.

After eating the savoury dishes, there were faint cries of "I'm so full.." heard around the room.  But don't you know that there are desserts still to be had??!!  I suppose it's telling, and typical, that when you get that many girls together, the sweets have to outnumber the savouries, and we did not disappoint.

Get ready for the onslaught.

Linda had prepared a light-as-air lemon tart that was served with an amazing honeyed cream.  Lisa's lemon tart also stood out for its brilliant colour and flavour.  Ellie proved that she's a whiz not only at the mains by providing a fudgey brownie studded with Reese's pieces, and there was also a hazelnut chocolate tart that her daughter helped to decorate.

Can't get over the brilliance of the croquembouche.  It went well with Trisha's green grass jelly (nice and refreshing after the rendang).  Ellie had also scored some tubs of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and I tried Chunky Monkey for the first time in all its banana goodness.

Helen's popcorn cupcakes were a winner with me - the cake was smooth and moist, and the icing was amazing - salty is the way of the future, my friends!  Speaking of amazing, Suze's chocolate bowls, moulded using a balloon, were filled with brownies and fresh berries. They looked almost too good to eat.

Would it surprise you to hear that there was a lot of dessert left over.  No matter, all the more for us to take home!  It just goes to show that too many sweets can be enough for 15 lady bloggers.

Thanks to Ellie for her hospitality, and these lovelies for a great afternoon:
Suze from chocolatesuze
Karen from Citrus and Candy
Linda, Minh and Teresa from eatshowandtell
Helen from grabyourfork
Betty from The Hungry Girl
Jen from Jenius
Leona from pigged-out
Steph from raspberri cupcakes
Lisa from Spicy Icecream
Trisha from Sugarlace
Trissa from Trissalicious

And thanks to Trissa for being my brilliant chauffeur - the GPS lady needs a lesson in directions, though.