And she said yes

Last weekend was all about wedding, and I thought that I'm too old to be a "Ji Mui". Boy I was right. Experiencing the whole process again after a year (since my very own wedding) was as tiring as I can remember.    

The bride was one of my girl friends whom I've known the longest (mind you I don't have that many), 11 years to be exact. We were neighbors since our college days, and I used to "tumpang" (as my fellow Malaysian would say) at her small little room during my KL-UK trip those days. And boy oh boy, time really flies. It seems like just yesterday when her current husband then not-yet-boyfriend was still courting her. It stirred up alot of emotions in me seeing her said yes and finally became his wife after 7 years of courtship.

Back to my point, I am really too old for this thing called wedding. I stayed overnight at her place the night before wedding, and supposed to wake up at 630am the next morning. I couldnt sleep the whole night for some reason, woke up with puffy eyes and started the whole drill of getting ready -  make up artist / photographer / videographer came - prepare the tea for tea ceremony - lots and lots of photography session - leave the place to go to groom's place - another tea ceremony - more photography session etc. By the time the whole procession end, it was 1.30 pm, and I have to quickly rush back home, had a small nap and then went for the wedding dinner reception. By the time I reached home last night (or early morning) at 12 something, I was totally flat, but thank God I'm excused from the "playing games with the grooms and  groomsman session, if not the damage would have been even greater.

So the conclusion is, wedding is tiring! Don't get me wrong, I am really happy for my friend and felt honored to be able to be of some help to her, but seriously, after went through the whole bride thingy myself and being a 2 times bridesmaid and a 2 times Ji mui/ wedding coordinator, I think I would like to "retire" from this whole wedding "business" if I can. While I had stayed simple with mine, it always baffled me every time I heard about the sophisticated plan for weddings and the amount of moolah couples willing to spend for a single day. With that being said, its not my wedding, and its a matter of personal choices. So as long as they are happy, i'm also happy for them. BUT then, I am so glad that Peter is on the same page with me when it comes to these things. ;)

Anyway, my heart goes to the newly wed couple and I hope they will enjoy the companionship of each other in a deeper way in the days ahead.

Happy 31

It was Peter's BIG 31 last Monday. I wanted to give him a special birthday by treating him a 3 course lunch at a proper restaurant since I have an off day from work. After alot of online research, I have chosen DISH of the Delicious group as there are many good reviews about their food. They are famous for its steaks, wines and cheeses, but also the relaxing and surreal ambiance of the restaurant. I would like to think that the factors determining a first class dining experience is not just good food, but also good environment. Oh, not forgetting good companion as well.  

Well, it turns out quite ok, the food didn't really blown us away, but it was quite a nice experience overall. This was the first time I had a 3 course western meal by a proper chef. In fact its not just some other chef,  its Consultant Chef Steve Allen. There’s been a buzz about DISH ever since chef Steve Allen took over and rolled out a new menu. The British chef is used to be head chef with famous Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s in London.

Check out Gordon and his team (see 4, Steve Allen)

Previously I wasn't a big fan of Gordon Ramsay because I think his personality and foul words and bigger than his cooking, but after watching his latest show Ultimate Cookery Course on Channel 4, it sort of changed my perspective, in fact I like most of his recipe as it has a well balance ingredients with added Asian twist. Anyway, go watch the show if you like to cook at home, highly recommended.

Gordon Ramsay's ultimate cookery course

Anyway, back to the food. Here comes the menu. 

We started with some of the complements from the restaurant, which consisting of fried aubergine with dipping sauce, watermelon with feta cheese, and crispy Ciabbata bread with herb-ish butter, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

I enjoyed the fried aubergine tremendously, great texture, great flavors.  

Next is our starters. Avocado tempura, crab mayonnaise and apple dressing for Peter. Cured Halibut Carpaccio, pickled  cucumber and mascarpone for me. The Crispy avocado tempura was our favourite, no wonder the Chinese called them the "butter fruit" because its has the richness of butter and the freshness taste of a fruit. Halibut has a very creamy texture but I would still preferred beef / pork carpaccio over fish. 

Here comes our main, braised wagyu beef cheek, horseradish mashed potatoes, fricasee of mushroom for Peter, and sauteed fillet of salmon, truffle gnocchi and red wine fish sauce for me. Wagyu beef cheek was so tender and it nearly melted in the mouth, mashed potatoes was very creamy but we didn't get the hint of the horseradish. My salmon was alright, nothing special but the portion was seriously over generous.

Last but not least, our desert cheeseplatter and the passion fruit creme brule with a cup of coffee/tea. Unfortunately the dessert was a huge let down. The cheese platter comes with 4 type of cheese along with some other small bites like apple, raisins, walnut, crackers. According to the waiter the cheese are consisting of bree, cheddar, goat and cabot (or something sound like that) cheese. For some reason, the cheese doesn't goes well with our Asian pallet at all. I mean I've tried cheddar and goat cheese before, but it wasn't as bad as what the DISH served. There is this cheese in the platter which has a very pungent and stagnant smell which makes me felt like throwing up. To make it worse, it started to attract bugs! And I cant help but feel sorry for Peter for having such a bad ending to a great meal for his birthday. 

My creme brule have the perfect crisp outside, softy inside texture but it was a slight too sweet. The passion fruit taste was very evident in the creme brule but it was out-shined by the bitter chocolate ice cream. 

All in all, i think it was an good meal (taking the cheese platter aside). We enjoyed the atmosphere there and the overall dining experience.   

Last but not least, another pictures of the man himself, happy 31! Hope we have a great year ahead.

The BIG 30

* Take a deep breath * It's less than a year before the BIG 3 comes. Can you imagine that? Its so true that time wait for no ones.

Lately every time when the girls and I hang out, somehow this topic of being 30 will inevitably surfaced in our conversation. We'll said things like we must do some crazy shit thing before turning 30, maybe going to some exotic island for a holiday without our husband (actually its just me) and boyfriends; wearing sexy bikini and had the most memorable celebration of our youth before we wave it goodbye etc.

But putting those crazy ideas aside, seriously, when the day comes, I want to celebrate the great 30 years  I've lived instead of mourning for its end. Although there are ups and downs, but I've achieved many great feats which I think I can be proud of. And the funny thing is if i put myself in the shoes of my younger self, I would have never anticipated that life at 30 will be so much different from what I've planned since I was young.

When I was young, I have this funny thought that I am in the process of preparing myself to live THE real life, which is something yet to happen, who I'll be, where I'll go, what I'll do... In my head I have pictures and plans cataloged and stored for the day when my real life begins, because when it finally comes, I'm damn sure it will be BIG like Katy Perry's firework - show them what my worth, let them go ah- ah -ah, as I shoot across the sky.  Harboring this belief, I was eager for the moment of ignite-the-light-and-let-it-shine to come.

You would have guessed by now that the moment never comes. Before I've even realized it, a series of events took place- I fell in love, went to study abroad, graduated, landed myself with a job back home, bought a car and an apartment with Peter, got married and then the BIG 30 is smacking right in front of me. Wow! where the hell did my grandeur plan of REAL life goes?

And then, I came to realize that: There will never be a life changing, earth shattering MY-LIFE-HAS-FINALLY-BEGUN moment, because life is right now. However, by sheer luck or divine intervention, some of the pictures which I have painted for my REAL life were miraculously realized somehow throughout these years without much cautious effort. For example, bag packing to a country which I've never been before, alone, is one of the priorities in my catalog. But I've did that 6 years ago when I visited Paris! And it was an ad hoc spur of the moment decision without much planning at all!

When I was 23.....

So I've asked myself now, I'm living my real life now, and soon I will be 30, have all the pictures in my mental catalog became a reality? So I tried to list some, well, not just some... 30 actually. So that this will be my resolution for the next few months. Thirty things to do before I'm thirty, maybe big maybe little, but it must be new. Maybe not a big deal to most, but it will make the 30 years of my life chapter complete.

Here is comes the BIG 30:

1. Go for a dessert buffet
2. Re connect with 1 lost friend
3. Highlight my hair 
4. Do a message in a bottle and throw into the sea
5. Plant a tree or grow a garden
6. Get a piece of art for the living room 
7. Write a will
8. Have a bon fire at the beach
9. Do a dance performance 
10. Tell a stranger about the my life story
11. Attend evening mass in the church which Peter and I got married
12. Run a marathon 
13. Travel to another country with girl friends
14. Buy something for myself which cost more than RM1K  
15. Volunteer in a soup kitchen
16. Make myself a cup of cappuccino with latte art 
17. Watch a sunrise on a hill
18. Go to a dress up party
19. Eating a burger with at least 3 layers of meat patties
20. Go to a concert of my favourite band
21. Take a photo with someone famous
22. Attend a non work related workshop 
23. Had a candle light dinner with my love one
24. Make a souffle 
25. Participate in a singalong session or flash mob in public 
26. Try the best Char siew ramen in town 
27. Have a proper dance with Peter
28. Watch a theater / famous musical (Peter Pan doesn't count)
29. Go for a movie marathon
30. Invent something new

Anyone wanna join me in my BIG 30?

The brain is wider than the sky

Meet the new love of my life.

His name is Joshua, a 1 year old boy who is super alert, smart and just started to walk! Its not like I understand what's the level of intelligence a 1 year old should have, but I was constantly amazed by the way he responded to instruction and music, and how alert he is to new things happened around him. His spongy brain absorbing tons of knowledge like there is no end. 

Its funny that when we get older we no longer absorb information as well as we used to be when we are young. I don't have a scientific explanation to this but I think it's because when we get older, as we know more and more, it reach a state that we just lose interest with simple things in life. We started to subconsciously filtering information which received by our senses and before we realized it, only sophisticated and extra ordinary things can excite / stimulate us. It's such as pity that our brain is conditioning to only taking in new information when they are so called significant or serve our purpose, for example boring stuff like job related knowledge. I hope we can always remember the inner child in us, not just by heart, but by brain as well. 

I like to play with my mobile phone, yeah yeah

Baby Joshua like to see new things. He got hooked on every little things like the strangers walking passed him; the birds flying in the sky; barking sound of the neighbor's dogs and even how the vacuum cleaner works. 

I like to clap when i heard clapping sound. I like to blow big kiss and making big "puttttt" sound on someone else's arms using my mouth

There is this beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.  

The brain is deeper than the sea,
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.

The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.

The Brain is Wider Than the Sky is not just a sciences of a biological organ, but a state of mind, an attitude and aptitude towards life. I hope as baby Joshua growing up day by day, he will not just continue to learn more and more things, but more so find joy in learning.

Baking Addiction 6: Blueberries Buttermilk Cake

Remember in my previous post i mentioned that I have alot of buttermilk leftovers to make use of after baking the rainbow pancake? Well, this beautiful Blueberry Buttermilk cake is the outcome of it. 

Blueberries Buttermilk cake, made in less than a hour 

Before I am proceed with the recipe, just wanted to elaborate abit more on Buttermilk. Buttermilk is not a common ingredient you can find in grocery stores, so far I only manage to find it at cold storage and local baking store, and its expensive. However, there is a substitute for this but I haven't test it out yet, basically buttermilk is equal to Acid + Milk + a few minutes to rest. According to a baker's blog post -Just add one tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Add milk until the amount reaches one cup. Let this mixture sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. The milk should look curdled. Stir the milk and use it straight away.

Recapping what I did was I searched randomly online for any recipe which utilize buttermilk, whereby most of it ends up with either cookies or teacakes. But frankly I wasn't too convinced with these recipes since buttermilk has a very distinct yogurt-ish taste, so I'm pretty sure the output would be something cross between chewy and dense. However, since I have so much of buttermilk to spare, I tried both cookies and teacakes recipes. And I was right 50-50. The buttermilk cookies was a nightmare, I was too ambitious with the fillings by adding too many chunks of dried cranberries, chocolate chips and topped lemon glaze. It was too sweet to my liking, and the texture doesn't seems right. of course, i will not mentioned the recipes of my failed products here. ;)

Here comes the successful half, the blueberry buttermilk teacakes was fabulous. It takes half the time of baking cookies to bake this cake, and its no fuss recipe, nothing sophisticated nor analytical, just simple straight forward mixing and baking. 

BlueBerry Buttermilk Cake

Recipe adapted from linden and rosemary.com
Makes 1 (9-inch) round cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for topping
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh blueberry, plus more for serving

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and coat a 9-inch round cake pan with some butter to prevent sticking.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
3. In a larger bowl, whisk together oil and 2/3 cup sugar. Mix in vanilla and lemon zest. Add egg and buttermilk and beat well. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients in three batches, mixing until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan and scatter blueberries evenly over top. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.
4. Bake until cake is just golden and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 20-23 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes then invert onto a rack to cool. 

This teacakes is perfect with a cup of aromatic tea (duh!), both my brother and sister in law love it. Will bake another one with strawberry soon. 

Apps Goodies 2: Pin your your interest on Pinterest!

I wonder if you have a small pinboard hanging on your office cubicle wall for you to pin the calendar, post it notes, photos and of course the-ever-common motivational quotes such as "Never give up!", "The key to success is hardwork" to psych yourself up at work.

However you need not pin those boring stuffs on your board all the time. Imagine if you have alot of interesting stuffs to look at the board everyday and what's even better is that you can pin it on a virtual board so that you can bring it everywhere and share it with anyone. This is what Pinterest all about. 

I was introduced to this app by my good friend ky quite sometimes back, as she found some crazy food ideas and recipe on other's pinterest board which is interesting for girls hangout activities. The variety of ideas on the website really caught my attentions and I'm hooked on it ever since. So, its basically an apps which allows you to pin yours and other beautiful things you find on the web (images, videos, post etc.) onto your virtual pinboard. Its easy to view, organize, search as well as to share with others. Notice the small red pin-it button along with the facebook, twitter buttons at the end of each post in my blog. If you have a Pinterest account and like my post, you can pin it to your pinterest board so that others who follow's you can see my post as well. 

You can also create boards of specific theme. Currently I have 4 boards - Glorious food, Apps Goodies, Home design and Gift ideas. So whenever I've written a post for my baking addiction or apps goodies series, I will pin it on my Pinterest board to share with others. The first time my recipe got a repins from a complete stranger, I was over the moon. And that motivate me to write more! 

One of the great benefits of Pinterest as I mentioned before is that you can find so much of ideas from other's pinterest board. I've tried out many recipes pinned from others as well as planning to work on some diy craft ideas as well.

For example this rustic diy living room table made from the crates, how beautiful it is. I saw some similar one from Ben's cafe, so now I just need to get hold of some crates, anyone can tell me where to get some crates in KL?

Image from http://www.etsy.com/listing/105156860/rustic-crate-coffee-table-reserved?ref=sr_gallery_20&ga_search_query=crate&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=ZZ&ga_min=0&ga_max=0&ga_search_type=all

And this beautiful pebbles mat, according to the creator, you just need pebbles, glue gun and shelf liner!

Imaged from http://entirelysmitten.typepad.com/entirelysmitten/2011/03/fun-with-river-rocks-tutorial-and-bonus-ideas.html

If I get to know Pinterest earlier, I would have done this for my wedding

1) cactus for wedding favor

Image from http://myecowedding.blogspot.com/2010/02/wedding-favors.html

or 2) wedding invitation postcard

image from http://www.etsy.com/listing/93818178/save-the-date-magnet-or-card utm_campaign=Share&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_source=Pinterest

or 3) cute little candy pot for guests to munch while waiting

Image from http://www.bridalpartytees.com/blog/?p=1390

Anyway, what are you waiting for, start pin it today and don't forget to pin my post if you like it!

Apps Goodies 1: Picture perfect with PicMonkey

I'm starting another series of posts apart from my "Baking Addiction" series, its called the "Apps Goodies" series. In the course of my years of blogging, I've come across many useful website/ apps which do wonders. These apps basically do stuff which is beyond our intellectual capabilities and it simply enhances our entire online experience. I will share some apps which are interesting, it may not necessary popular/ widely used but it must be FREE, so that it can be beneficial to many.  

The first Apps Goodie i'm gonna share here is a photo editing app. I was looking through some of the last pictures of Miko, as I wanted to choose some to sent for printing and framing. However most of the pictures turn out to be quite dull and boring, mainly due to the lighting and of course amateurish photography skill. ;)

Usually I will use an application called Photoscape for photo editing. It is a very light, user friendly application and most importantly its free! However, it lacks some of the futuristic filter algorithm (like Instagram) which can enhance the photos with a single clicks of  button. In another word, I'm too lazy to go through step by step editing to improve the color, brightness, add special effects etc. With that being said, usually I don't edit photos that much, at most I'll just adjust the brightness. And I'm kinda against those sepia or retro binge who instagram every photos before they publish to the facebook. I mean its fine to edit a few photos just to show a different kind of feeling or perspective, but EVERY photos, come on... 

Anyway, being the usual me, I detest using the main stream photo editing application i.e. Instagram. In fact Chrome webstore has a very good app which literally does everything for you. Its called PicMonkey. The thing I like about the application is that you don't have to register or install the application in order to use. On the main page of the website, just choose to edit a photo or create a collage, and you can start to use right away! It allows you to save all the edited photos and export to social network website and even Pinterest.

I love the pastel color and seasonal design of the website, its looks very different from the usual black sleeky techno themed website of the similar kind.

The most useful features of this apps is the basic edit and effect tab. Like I mentioned before its really a dummies for photoshop app, whereby with a single click, you can enhance your photos to create different kind of effect with various filters such as Dusk, Urbane, Cross process etc. 

For example, this is a original photo of miko and me. It was taken without much lighting and it lacks character. 

And these are the photos after applying different filters (the filter used are stated in the photos), see how different the before and after is. Personally I like the Time Machine filter the best, the colors goes very well the flourish curtain at the background 

This is another favorite of mine, which is added with old photograph frame and caption

I think I'll use this photo, love the Cinematic effect! 

Not a big fan of I-am-an-elite-facebooker-because-I-instagram? fret not, you can always try out PicMonkey!

Pork, music and friends

3 things that made me very happy last night. 

Firstly, the glorious pork meal at Swine, Ben's, Publika. We had Pork Ribs, potato skin with mozzarella cheese fillings, spaghetti carbonara and pork confit with watermelon and lychee salad. I know the name of the salad sounds kinda weird, but its a definitely must have. Fruity and herb-ish, sweet and salty, crispy and soft, all in 1 plate.

Great desert and coffee at The bee's, with beautiful and relaxing ambiance. It was the perfect place for hang out after a good porky meal. We had a sinful  Chocolate Berry Ice-Cream Cake which is served in a glass, it's a dark chocolate ice cream mixed with berries and a biscuit base. Dove into the layers of chocolate ice cream, berries and biscuit, and have a mouthful bite of all the three combination, I assure you it almost feel like magical. We also had apple crumble, cuppucino and the Last Polka's vanilla bean ice cream. We have high hopes for the vanilla bean ice cream but it was a tad too milky to my liking. Made from a blend of Javanese and Papuan vanilla pods, the Last Polka ice cream was famous for its 100% natural ingredients, combining creamy french style ice cream with regional Asian flavors we love, such as teh tarik, salted gula melaka, pandan kaya etc. 

Photo taken from Nana's facebook

Second thing that made me a happy girl last night was the fantastic music performance on the stage by a pair of rugged looking girl and a nerd-nerd looking guy (as described by my friend). They performed some of my favorite songs which I haven't heard for ages, Jason Mraz's, John Mayer's, Lifehouse etc. Nothing fancy nor pop-ish, just a great pair of voices accompanied by acoustic guitars.

Last but not least - friends to enjoy good food and music with. Lying on a lazy couch while chattering to each other, the feeling reminds me of a song by Jack Johnson, "Better Together":

"There is no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing, but I can try for your heart
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things
Like a, shoebox of photographs
With sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer,
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together"

I know this song is about couple's love, but sometimes the feeling of friendship do reminds me the feeling of falling in love. It can be as simple as laughing together at some silly jokes, or just chattering endlessly till the night fade away, you know that its always better when friends are together. 

Baking Addiction 5: Rainbow Pancake with Natural Coloring

I've been baking for only less than a year, there is no shame in admitting that my skill are pretty much amateurish, like I still couldn't figure out why certain recipes calls for 1/2 tsp of sodium bicarbonate, and other requires 3/4 tsp; Sometimes my cakes/ cookies are cloyingly sweet although I follow the recipe exactly (my baking sifu, Hannah said that I should always half the amount of sugar in the recipes by the Westerners, apparently Caucasian have sweet tooth). I've tried many recipes but I can never predict what will eventually come out from the oven, some turns out to be great, some was thrown into rubbish bin the moment it was out because it was way below my modest quality standard.

Well, I can pretty much sum it up by saying my baking experience for past 1 year was nothing but a trial and error process. If I bake a lousy one, I'll bake again until i get it right. It's sure not a cheap hobby but hopefully I will get better and better. This post describes the toughest ever challenge in my entire (relatively short) baking history - a birthday cake for my 1 year old nephew. I mean who wants to screw up a 1 year old's birthday by baking an ugly or yucky birthday cake right. So the pressure is tremendous. So much so that i fell sick after having the 1st bake trial last Saturday. 

Initially, my sister requested for a cake which used mostly healthy and organic ingredients.  And below is the recipe which she painstakingly went and scanned from a baby cookbook and email to me.

Oh boy it was a damn challenging recipe, I never use half of the ingredients stated in the recipe for any baking before- rapeseed oil, wheat germ, apple juice concentrate.... And after 1 week of futile search (at countless baking stores and supermarket) for all the ingredients, I finally give up and suggested another cake recipe to my sister. 

Picture taken from wendyinkk@blogspot.com

I present to you the beautiful Rainbow Pancake by table for two. The 'cake' has many colorful layers which is not just a pleasant sight to see, but all the coloring are from natural food source so its healthy to eat as well. The only downside is that its a pancake recipe which utilize buttermilk (again, its something which I never use in my baking before), and heck this is my first time making a pancake! The reason why pancake is preferred is due to the fact that it requires less amount of time for baking (imagine baking 7 layer of cakes, one by once), and high heat during baking will dis colorize the natural coloring. The original recipe calls for 7 layers since I cant find the blackberries (and also because I'm lazy), so I have omitted 2 layers. I've also changed the whipped cream to cream cheese.

So here comes the recipe: 

Natural Rainbow Pancake Cake (Recipe source: Wendyinkk)

Makes a large 10 inch wide, 5 inch tall cake. Easily feeds 20.

Each layer

1 grade B egg

1 Tbsp oil

50gm buttermilk

50gm cake flour

20gm sugar

¾ tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

Pigment sources + additions

Red layer = 50gm beetroot , raw

Yellow layer=50gm carrots, raw

Orange layer = 40gm carrots + 10gm beetroot , raw,

Green=40gm pandan juice + ¼ tsp baking power –baking soda

Purple = 20 blueberries(microwaved for 10 secs) + 2 Tbsp water+ ¼ tsp baking power -baking soda

For all layers, do them separately

1. Prepare the wet ingredients. Put oil, buttermilk and pigment sources together and blend ( I used

an immersion blender). Mix with egg.

2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder) together in a bowl.

3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Combine until a batter is formed, do not overmix.

4. Cook on frying pan on low heat (covered with lid) until surface is cooked

5. Flip over onto cooling rack to cool off.

6. Stack pancakes, separated with non stick baking paper. Keep chilled until time of use. 

Cream cheese frosting

One 8-ounce (227 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (240 ml) heavy whipping cream(contains 36-40% butterfat)

1. In the bowl of electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. 

2. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the vanilla extract. 

3. In a clean bowl, beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Gradually fold or beat the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

Assembly

Spread cream and stack the layers according to sequence. Spread cream over pancake and chill for another 5 hours before serving.

Although there is alot of work but it was kinda fun to make all the different color of pancakes layers. The colors were vibrant (especially the beetroot and blueberries) and the pancakes smells great when it was slowly cooking on the pan. However, it wasn't as beautiful as I would have expected. First of all, the pandan extract which I prepared for the green layers came out as dull faint green, guess I should prepared it at least a night before so that it would be concentrated. The cream cheese was quite runny, its highly advice to add gelatin. But the killer was the pancake itself, imagine the usual McD breakfast's pancakes, but times 5 layers, its very thick and carbo-ish, I felt so full even after just 1 slice, so i guess its not so suitable for baby. The pancake itself doesn't have much taste compare to cake, most of the flavors actually came from the cream cheese. 

So I end up with big pancakes good for 20 people to eat but no idea what to bake for my nephew birthday. fret not, I will reveal what I finally bake for my nephew in my next post, stay tune. 

Baking Addiction 4: Chocolate Walnut cake

Two weeks ago I made a Chocolate Walnut Cake to bring to church. The recipe requires multitasking- mixing, baking, toasting etc. So you can imagine I'll be holding a whisk or a spatula while running around like a headless chicken in the kitchen. But I have to say that it is a straightforward recipe which can never goes wrong. By just using good quality of chocolate compound, you can almost guaranteed that the cake will be yummyliscious. I usually use the local manufactured Beryls Gourmet dark chocolate compound and not some expensive imported goods. You will be surprised that its just cost RM15.80 for 1 kg. Frankly you can make at least 5 cakes with such a big amount of chocolate. 

Well, I dont know whether its a girl thing or what, but I am obsessed about Chocolate. For me its the most versatile food in the whole world.  If you are health (or weight) conscious, just grab a dark chocolate bar rather than Snickers. Dark chocolate has tons of antioxidants which is great for heart, skin and release some chemicals called serotonin in your brain that makes you feel like you're in love! So ditch you bf/gf and start munching chocolate :)

I made my chocolate cake based on www.joyofbaking.com. You can get the full recipe here.

Chocolate Cake:

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

1/4 cup (25 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup (75 grams) unsalted butter, melted

1 cup (240 ml) warm water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 177 degrees C and place rack in center of oven
2. In an ungreased 8 inch (20 cm) square cake pan, stir together the flour, sugar, sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
3. Add the melted butter, water and vanilla extract. With a fork, mix all the ingredients together until well blended
4. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

For Walnut, you can buy at any baking store, I bought mine from Bagus Melawati, it costed me around RM10.50 for a 500g pack. In actual, you maybe just need 1/3 of it for the cake, so just keep the rest for other nutty dishes/desert. Lightly toast the walnut in a hot pan without oil. Caution not to burn the nuts! Once its cooled down just crushed it to smaller pieces, and spread half of it on top of the cake. Sprinkle the rest of the nuts after adding the chocolate frosting.

Chocolate frosting

170 grams dark chocolate, chopped

80 grams of unsalted butter, room temperature

Basically, you just have to put the butter in the microwave, zap with high heat until it melted, took out and add in the chocolate, microwave on high heat again for 2 minutes, stir unmelted chocolate in the butter until its dissolved evenly and pour it on top of the cake. You can do this the "proper way" by melting the chocolate and the butter together in a glass bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. But I find this really tedious plus I have cracked a glass bowl due to the high temperature of the pot. Do you know that Chocolate is technically responsible for the invention of microwave?

Scientists were experimenting with micro waves in hopes of creating better radar detectors and in the wake of World War II, scientists were testing devices called magnetrons. A scientist named Percy Spencer entered the lab with a chocolate bar in his pocket and realized it quickly began to melt. Spencer then realized that the magnetron could potentially be used to cook food.  

Read the full article here.

Anyway, back to the recipe. I've improvised the recipe of the chocolate frosting by leaving out the fresh cream, which causes the chocolate frosting to solidify on top of the cake, well, the texture is abit different from the usual Chocolate Walnut cake, but nevertheless its still tasty. ;)  

A good cup of tea

It has been a blogging drought since the sad departure of Miko. Life still goes on as usual, but it saddened me whenever I think of her. I try to think more of the good memories about her but when the emotional gate opened, it hit me hard. Well, though am not an optimistic person, but I do strive to be one. I mean we can bitch about bad stuff in life occasionally, life is never bed of roses after all, but we shouldn't ignore that there are roses among the thorns as well. And I'm still learning to appreciate things I have in my life, everyday. Whether its a sweet kiss, a good movie, or a good book, or a cup of good tea. There is always something to be thankful for. 

Coming back to a cup of good tea. I bought a bunch of different type of Chinese tea with a nice teapot lately. It was an ad hoc decision and frankly I am not a big fan of Chinese tea at all. I had always prefer English's simply because Chinese tea is not sweet. In fact, I used to get scolding for putting sugar in Chinese tea like Hiong Pin (Fragrant tea leaves). Anyway, it all started with a random conversation when my colleague, whereby she told me that there are Chinese tea that are sweet, like hua cha or simply the flower tea or some may refer to as aromatic tea. I was tempted to try hence we went for a Chinese tea shop and she recommended me to buy a few types of it to tryout. 

The fun of hua cha is that you can just mix and try. I bought i think around 6 types of flower tea leaves and a pack of dried lemon slices for flavor enhancement. Then I painstakingly stored it in IKEA small glass jar and label it accordingly. Don't even ask me why I store it so neatly, I'm kinda anal when it comes to packing/ arranging /storing spices and condiments and baking stuff and coffee and tea etc. in the kitchen. 

Anyway, today I tried the combination of apple tea leaves (its the small bud of flower before its turns into apple), Stevia Rebaudiana Leaves and some dried lemon slices. Anyway I never knew what is Stevia Rebaudiana Leaves is all about until my friend introduced it to me. According to our friend google, 

"The species Stevia rebaudiana, commonly known as sweetleaf, sweet leaf, sugarleaf, or simply stevia, is widely grown for its sweet leaves. As a sweetener and sugar substitute, stevia's taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar, although some of its extracts may have a bitter or licorice-like aftertaste at high concentrations.With its steviol glycoside extracts having up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, stevia has garnered attention with the rise in demand for low-carbohydrate, low-sugar food alternatives. Because stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to people on carbohydrate-controlled diets."

In short, its perfect for girls on diet. The Stevia blah blah blah leaves has this unique sweetness taste which makes the Chinese tea super nice to drink. It differs from sugary taste or honey taste, in Chinese we have a term to describe it, which is 甘甜. Anyway you get the point.

This is how the tea leaves looks like after draining with hot boiling water.

A good cup of Hua cha, such a simple yet satisfying cup of drink.  

  

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Fabulous surprise and something on V neck

I received a fabulous surprise last month. 

Then another one in September ;)

Its a new service which sells like hot cake in town, whereby ladies (maybe man too) pays RM35 per month and receive a box of surprise right at your doorsteps every month. The surprise is consisting of 5-6 latest skin care/ cosmetics products in sample size, but sometimes you get 1-2 full size too, like the Elizabeth Arden's ampules I received this month!   

So if you like to try out new skin care/ cosmetic products before purchase, then this is the perfect deal for you, but if you are those who use same type of shampoo since 20 years ago till now, then don't bother to subscribe this, because you'll end up with too many sample item in your makeup case.  

Anyway, moving to the next topic. Something about stereotyping and men in V neck. Notice how the fabulous surprise box is in stunning pink color, even the ribbons and paper fillers are in pink! By just one look at the box, I think most of the people will think that- this is definitely for ladies, even before checking what's inside. But if you think about it, so what, its just a color! The color has no gender. However, most people like to associate certain colors, design, character, clothing (and the list goes on) to specific gender. Sling bag- lady, gossipy- lady, football- man, muscular- men etc. 

Now, Malaysian has its own guideline on gender specific clothing, V neck- gay. Ok, let me not just picking on single point, here's the entire story. On Sept 13, at a parental seminar in Penang, Yayasan Guru Malaysia Bhd and Putrajaya Consultative Council of Parents and Teachers As­­­sociations distributed guidelines to help pa­­rents and teachers spot lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) tendencies. Quoting from the star online, below are some of the controversial guideline:

1. If you’re muscular, like v-neck or sleeveless tight and light-coloured shirt, like big handbags, you’re gay;

2. If you like to sleep, eat and hang out with women and you’ve no affection for men, you’re a lesbian. 

LOL. The first one is funny, the guideline had just gay-fied all my guy friend in the church, because I saw all of them wore light colored shirt (a.k.a pink) before and some even in V neck. But wait, the second point is HILARIOUS. To my dearest kupo friend, probably you girls are all lesbian, because you all are hanging out with the same gender way too much. 

As what Malaysian Insider said, it's breathtakingly stupid, and you would have thought that only universe is infinite, apparently human stupidity too.