我们首先来看这样的一个新题：

Describe a homemade gift to your friend.

You should say:

what you made

how you made it

On what occasion you gave your friend the gift

explain why you made it to your friend.

看到这样的题目很多学生第一反映是描述一件手工艺品，这样无形中增加了难度，所以为了更容易回答同时保证高的分数我们应该简化内容。

Michelle老师推荐大家描述一个自己做过的一道菜或者是烤过的一个蛋糕。我相信在澳洲的留学生肯定至少做过一个菜,至少参加过一次朋友组织的聚会。有的聚会上会要求大家“bring a plate”。字面上看是带一个盘子，其实是让参加聚会的每个小伙伴带一道自己做的菜，那么这道菜正好可以回答我们上面的问题。

在悉尼的小伙伴们都知道名扬万里Black star pastry家的西瓜草莓蛋糕，也有很多的小伙伴专程去Newtown排很久的队就为了品尝其中滋味。其实大家并不用耽误太多时间去排队，有了西瓜草莓蛋糕recipe就可以自己在家完成啦。

下面就给大家介绍一下需要的各种配料以及具体的步骤：

Ingredients

250 gm seedless watermelon,thinly sliced

60 ml (¼ cup) rosewater

4 tbsp caster sugar

40 gm almond meal

500 gm strawberries (about 2punnets), halved

10 seedless red grapes, halved

1 tbsp slivered pistachios (seenote)

1 tbsp dried rose petals (seenote)

Almond dacquoise

150 gm almonds, coarselychopped

150 gm pure icing sugar, sieved

5 eggwhites

135 gm caster sugar

Rose-scented cream

300 ml thickened cream

30 gm caster sugar

2 tbsp rosewater

Preparation method

Serves 8

Prep time 45 mins, cook 15 mins (plus cooling, macerating, chilling)

For almond dacquoise, preheat oven to 200C. Process almonds in a food processoruntil finely ground, then combine in a bowl with icing sugar. Whisk eggwhitesin an electric mixer until soft peaks form (3-4 minutes), then gradually addcaster sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form (1-2 minutes). Gently foldthrough almond mixture, spread on a 750px x 1000px oven tray lined with bakingpaper and bake until golden (10-15 minutes). Set aside to cool on tray, thencut in half lengthways.


Arrange watermelon slices in a single layer on a wire rack. Sprinkle with 20mlrosewater, then scatter with 2 tbsp sugar. Stand to macerate (30 minutes), thenpat dry with absorbent paper.


Meanwhile, for rose-scented cream, whisk cream and sugar in an electric mixer untilsoft peaks form, gradually add rosewater and whisk until stiff peaks form (donot over-whisk).

Spread one-third of rose cream evenly over one half of dacquoise, scatter withhalf the almond meal, then top with watermelon, trimming to fill any gaps.Scatter over remaining almond meal, spread over half remaining cream. Top withremaining dacquoise, spread over remaining cream and refrigerate until firm(1-2 hours).


Combine strawberries, remaining rosewater and remaining sugar in a bowl, tossto combine and set aside to macerate (15 minutes). Carefully arrange on top ofcake, gently pushing into cream. Trim edges of cake, scatter over grapes,pistachios and petals, and serve.

有了这份Recipe，大家既可以做出美味可口的西瓜草莓蛋糕，同时又可以转化成雅思口语话题，岂不是一举两得！所以，备考雅思口语时大家将生活中的各种素材巧妙转化便能成功征服考官拿到高分！