Life is like a layer cake

Was so glad when the layers came out almost evenly!

Life indeed is like a layer cake - just when you thought the first layer was good, comes the 2nd layer - even better than the first, then comes the 3rd layer, well, it can be a bit bitter or tasteless, but when you put them together, then, you get blown away by how incredible the taste is!  

Putting in the 2nd layer - the cream cheese

No matter what age we are at, life will bring more surprises for us and in the end, we will be amazed at how everything turns out for good.  We just have to hang in there - holding fast to God and to one another.  We just have to continue to encourage one another to "eat on".

With his new favorite cake

Baked (or rather, steamed) this cake for Hari Raya recently - loved it so much (as in so easy to make) that baked this more than once to give away.  And because Noel almost wallop the cake at my Aunt's place (which we gave to her) - I baked this again for him.  Got the recipe from Dapur Tanpa Sempadan - check out the recipe here.

Because I can (and because I'm a freak in a way) - I measured the mixture to make sure the layers are equal.

I'm sure this cake is nothing new, and many of my friends made this before - another classic case of me being "late in catching the craze".  Oh well, better late than never so they say!

This is how I steam my cake - to make sure water does not drip on the cake - use a muslin cloth (i.e. lampin)

Have a great week ahead mates - let's hold on as we "eat on" in our lives!  Jiayou!  Aza Aza Fighting (Updated to Aja! Aja! Hwaiting - on the advice of my *clever-er friend :)!!)

Pink Ombre Cake

When I first saw this gorgeous cake, I was soooo.... in love.  It was so sweet, dreamy - just the kind that would fit into a fairy tale wedding.  But it needed a special befitting occasion to make this and since none was coming up for my side, I quickly enticed Merl (hi Merl :D) to give it a go.  Little did I know, my chance was coming up too!

A pastor invited us for his family's thanksgiving dinner and one of the reason of the dinner was to celebrater his + wife's anniv.  So I quickly grabbed the chance to make this cake!  And receiving the pix from Merl, it was a sealed deal for me!  Here goes - a series of photos - I took lots - coz it was really special and beautiful for me! :)

The different layers and shades of pink

Now stacked up together - from the darkest shade - all "glued" with Swiss Buttercream

Crumb frosted - ready for the roses to be "planted".
The beauty of this piping is that, the basic frosting layer doesn't have to be nice and smooth - perfect for lazy me!



With the white roses... I thought it looked sooo... "wedding-y" already!



And now, with the pink roses added - OH!! Even more befitting for a wedding!



I love how it looks under our fridge light :)  I left it there for a while as I needed to make a new batch of buttercream



And now.... it's completed!



And from the sides...



And from the top....
Please bear with me.... lots pix! haha



And from another angle....



Rows upon rows of sweet roses...



Looking all dreamy and sweet "resting" in the fridge



And I was glad that the Pastor's family decided to share the cake with guest present that night - not because I wanted to eat the cake - but because I wanted to take the photos of the insides!

Verdict?  I didn't use the recipe as in the link, I just used my trustworthy butter cake recipe and it turned out perfect.  Everyone expected the cake to have strawberry flavour because of the colour - but nah... didn't want flavoring in the cake.  I did (and still do) wished I had lemon at home when I was baking it though, so that there's hints of lemon.  Unfortunately, I didn't.    But it was still nice and buttery.

While piping isn't my greatest skill - but I was really happy how this one turned out.  And... I simply love having a Lazy Susan while decorating - it made life Oh! so much easier!!  Thank you Lazy Susan, you aren't that lazy after all!

The cake on my Lazy Susan... ready for frosting and deco!

I'm soooo.... glad that I made this cake.  My arms now hurts from the many hours spend piping, but it was well worth it.  This cake - like the checkerboard cake took a few days to complete (as least a couple of days), but it's great that you get to bake the cake a day ahead - so it's all settled and ready to be frosted on the next day.

Looking forward to Noel's birthday - gonna take up the Rainbow cake "fever"!

Have a great, dreamy, sweet, lovely day peeps!

Checkmate

May!! That was my last entry... aduinakkkkk... ages ago!!  Meant to update every now and then, but when I think of the "work" involved - especially since I like having lots of photos, I become lazy.  But I thought, I'd update today :)

It's creepy when it comes to July / August, a lot of death will be occuring.  I'd hate to connect it to the Chinese's 7th month (i.e. the ghost month), but somehow, the timing is always that way.

Google tells me that Benjamin Franklin said - “Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events”.  In chess (not that I play the game...), then the king is being checkmated, the game is over.  Over the past week, 3 lives had been checkmated.  Game over for them.  One, an old lady from the LongHouse we frequently visit for mission trips, another - a young girl; 15 of age - Leukemia and the last one - a mid age Korean missionary (in her own way) died after being hit while crossing the road.

The black king has been checkmated; the game is over - courtesy Mr. Google

The later 2 was more of a shock to me, but the last one, had the biggest impact.  Eunice had come to Sarawak to learn English - but also was called to reach out to the Ibans / Natives.  So she had been with us in the BM ministry since Day 1.  She then brought over her 2 nephews since pre-school age and raised them up as her own.  Their parents were (as are still) in Korea.  She had thought the 2 nephews - James and Daniel, to be humble, to love the natives as their own, to be faithful in serving.  The 2 handsome now young men were serving in our music team and on some weeks, eventhough it weren't their turn to play, they still came faithfully.  Eunice's English was bearable, but her Bahasa :D was.... "interesting".  We always tease her faithfulness despite the language barrier.  And faithful she was until the end.  She was crossing the road and a high speed car knocked her down.  She went into coma for 3 days and died.  Checkmate.  Oh what loss!! Oh how much our heart was shattered in disbelief at her passing!!  Oh, what pain!!

I guess, our lives are really - just as the bible says - like a flower quickly fading; Here today and gone tomorrow, A wave tossed in the ocean, Vapor in the wind.  When God says "it's time, mate" - it's time.  Checkmate.

The inside of a Checkerboard cake

On a happier note - I made this checkerboard cake early August for someone's birthday.  Ideally, a checkerboard cake pan would be the best thing to have while attempting this cake, but despite's my mate's wholehearted search, alas, it the pan eluded me... to which, I needed to do it manually. So, I baked 2 cakes - one the normal butter cake and the other, choc cake.  Then, slice the duo into half and cut into 3 sections.  Let the photos do the talking now...

This is how it should look like - clean.  This is an extra layer - which we all gobbled up of course.

Step 1:  Slice into the thickness that you want - or bake them in thin layers - whatever you find more convenient.  Then, cut into 3 segments.

Step 2:  1st layer.  Place the outpart on your cake board, ready some cream (or jam if you wish) - to act as glue - slater on the inside.

Step 3:  Put in the opposite colour in the cavity, slater on some more "glue"

Step 4:  Fill up the last hole with the opposite colour.  Then, slater more "glue" on top of this layer, before proceeding

Step 5:  Layer 2:  Repeat process, ensuring colours are opposites.  Noticed a layer of "glue" before I start the next layer. 

Step 6:  Last layer - repeat same process as layer 1 and layer 2

Your cake is now complete.  You can leave it bear (what a mess though :D) or you can frost it of course.  Here's mine after being crumb-frosted. 

And this is after I frosted / deco it with sprinkles.  This was a cake for a guy, so I really couldn't be bothered with flowers and what not.  Just sprinkles.

 Now, there is a reason why the pan sold are round and not square.  I should have gone with the "norm" but no.... instead I decided to use my fav square pans.  If you use square pans, you will end up with sections in the cake that looks layered and not checker la!!  So, please, do yourself a favour and don't be too "smartass" like I was :D

See?  Layered instead of checkered!

Alrighty... super long post.  Anyways, alang - alang update, I'll just add in some more :D  On weekends, sometimes I get crazy and will bake and bake and bake (with my brains trying to think, who to give it to!).  The same weekend I was baking the checkerboard cake, I was also invited to buka puasa at a friend's house, so I baked her a choc cake.

Kerajinan melampau - I baked some coconut blossom apam as well.

Was supposed to bring the whole batch for Sunday morning refreshment in church.  But this little culprit gobbled up more than 1/3 of the yield!  (about 90 pcs).  They are really small so it was really easy for him to keep popping them in his mouth.

And because Noel and I are carnivors and can't live with those apam alone, I made Chicken Mayo buns as well.  Phew!! All in ONE Saturday!!

That's it Mates - my update for now... Let's hope I don't wait for another 4 months for the next update.  Take care!! 

Dear Eunice, you might be gone - not sure if you can look down from above - but know well dear sister, you have left a legacy not only for your nephews but also for us to follow.  I miss laughing with (and at) you in tambourine class.... We will miss you dearly.  Rest well dear sister.

Lemon Butter Cake

I blame it on my parents. I blame it on the way I've been brought up. I blame it on the satisfaction it feels when the deed is done. You see, I have been brought up with the idea that when someone gives you something, it needs to be reciprocated - a container is never returned empty, a favored always returned, a treat always countered.

So when on one sweet day, whilst standing at the PA&AV crew console area (where he memang always hang out - the only kid there), Noel was given a lemon, this "teaching" was passed down to him too. He's got to "give back" to the lemon-giver. Well, shhh.... don't tell Noel, but actually, I was just looking for reason to make this recipe! So on a Saturday, Noel got down to business. He was incharge of shifting the flour and grating the lemon zest.

The cake was baked and left overnight, as it said to do in the recipe and I made a small cupcake just to try (incase it didn't taste nice enough to give away!). To my horror, my cupcake tasted so sickly sweet. However, it was so wonderfully lemony that I risked giving it away anyways. So mom cut the cake beautifully into 3 portions and I packed them for Noel to distribute. We didn't want to give a big portion to just one family (what if they don't eat simple butter cake? what if they don't like lemon? blablabla), so packed to give away some to other "PA/AV crew family" as well.

With 3 portions, I actually had 1 pack extra and since I was busy and couldn't find any other family to "deposit" the cake to, I brought back one pack and it became my personal office snack time treat. Boy, oh boy!!! Was I glad on my decision to give the cakes away anyways coz it.was.heaven. Fresh lemony tartness countered the just-right-sweetness and the crunch of the lemon zest on top of the cake made the cake burst with lemon flavor with each bite.

The families we gave the cakes to were pleasantly surprised and send wonderful texts indicating how lovely the cake was. The problem is.... I've now received a few packets of coffee from them as thanks and me being me, I'm now scratching my head for the perfect coffee bake!!!

Chocolate Cravings....

Because I've not updated this space for ages....

Because I need to show that I'm still alive and kickin'....

Because today is a Moan-day (hey, this is the day especially made you'd say - yes, yes, I know!)

Because we all love chocolate....

Because choc is supposed to make us happy....

Because we need to be "happy" on a Moan-day...

And just because... Hehehe... berapa banyak because la....

OK, here's a very special bake... I don't really favor baking layer cakes because it takes ages, but I will still bake it on request. My first time baking this Kek Lapis India was last Hari Raya when Ms. Bestie requested for it. Believe it or not, I didn't even taste even a bit of the cake (talking about big faith!!). But she loved it (YEAY!). And so did her sister-in-law (double YEAY!).

Recently, her SIL had a craving for this cake (the little one in her tummy craved for it, la). So, though she was in Bintulu, she requested that I send over the cake via bus. So I got busy busy happily. This is an... expensive and rich chocolate layer cake... lots and lots Cadbury bites (no cheating... this cake calls for Cabdury, so Cabdury it is!)

I used the chocolate rather "sparingly" (yes, yes, lokek I know), but then this much is really enough to bring out the chocolaty taste... Normal process... put the mixture and layer with chocs... over and over again...

And here's a baked layer... Yeah, a bit burnt :P opppssyyy!

I just realised I didn't take the photo of the completed cake... hmmmm... oh well... there's always a next time right? :)

Anyways, once again, with my super confidence, I didn't taste even a bite of the cake. And off it went to Bintulu to satisfy the little baby... and satisfied was the Mummy :)

And for a moment, the world seems at peace.

Basic Butter Cake

This is almost like a staple in our family. We bake this at least once a week. Very easy and versetile. This is a lame photo of my bekal today - taken in a hurry, in discretion in the office and with my humble mobile phone. I won't say that this is the best butter cake recipe in the world, but it's easy enough (and yields a nice, soft, porous buttery cake too!). Beats any bakery bought cake anytime I'd say. And the aroma of the cake baking... pheeewwwww... You won't wanna miss it! As I baked this last night, my nephew waited not-so patiently near the oven - he got the 1st piece hot & fresh from the oven ;) I got this from Agnes Chang's book - Baking Made Easy. Give it a go!

Basic Butter Cake

Ingredients:

250 grams butter - soften to room temperature
200 - 250 grams sugar - I used 200 grams
4 eggs - at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla essense
250 grams self raising flour
4 tablespoons milk - I used Dutch Lady UHT milk

How to do it:

Put butter and sugar in mixing bowl. Beat on low speed till well mix. Then, beat on medium speed till creamy (sugar not fully dissolved yet).

Crack in 1st egg. Mix till creamy. Repeat this till all 4 eggs done - egg - mix till creamy, egg - mix till creamy.. you get the idea ;)

Put in the vanilla essense. Mix.

Divide the flour to 3 portions and dump in this sequence - flour - mix well, flour - mix well, flour - mix well.

Then pour in the milk and give it a final mix.

Pour in lined baking tray and bake in oven @ 180C for 40 minutes.


Here's a few tip from not-so-pro-me:

* All throughout the mixing process, make sure you stop every now and then to scrap the sides of the mixing bowl, to make sure everything is mixed up along with the rest. Everyone needs love :)

* To make the butter soften faster (like you suddenly have the craving to bake in the middle of the night *ahem, ahem, speaking from experience*) - cut them up in small cubes. I usually can bake after 15 minutes ;)

*If you wanna make orange cake, substitute the milk with orange juice - freshly squeezed from an orange fruit please :) And also make sure you grate some zest from the orange (to make 1 teaspoon) and put into the mixture. No zest makes the cake too mild (you can't taste the orange-ness). When you grate the orange, make sure you don't grate the whitish layer - that's bitter.

*If you want some bite to this cake, throw in anything you like - I've done raisins, choc chips, blackcurrent - anything and everything goes with this simple cake :)


*If you wanna make marble cake, pour 3/4 of plain batter into the baking tin. Then put the remaining 1/4 aside. Next, mix 1 tablespoon cocoa powder with 3 tablespoons HOT water till well mix. Pour into the 1/4 mixture. Mix well. Then, put dallops of the chocolate mixture on top of the plain one in the baking tray (like 1 tablespoon per dot - creating a polka-dot cake). Then, take a sharp knife and swiiirrrrlllll... Swirl as you like.

*On the lining of the baking tray, I am usually a slacker on this on - my mom does it too perfectly so I normally do not bother. What I would do when making for own consumption is to grease the baking tray with butter (just take any paper and take some butter and rub all over the tin). Then, throw in some flour and "powder" the whole butter layer - all around the tin (even the sides). This creates that "lining" layer so your cake does not stick. Well.... a BETTER alternative would be - get a none-stick baking tray!

*All ovens are different. It says in the recipe to bake at 180C but if I put my oven at that temp, my cake will be burnt within 15 minutes. So I keep mine at 110C. It's better to start at lower temperature :) Another thing will be - heat up the oven before you put the batter in. I normally heat the oven up @ 150C for 5 - 8 minutes. Nice and warm for the cake mixture :)

*Oh, and Agnes says this - all flour except sponge cake mix needs to be shifted. I shift mine all the time (erm, I take that back - Noel shifts flour for me all the time. Haha.)

Moist Coconut Cake

Another "moist"?? I can hear you say it. Really. I can :)

I can across this recipe and it looked very interesting to me. Wondered how prominent the coconut would be in the cake. So decided to give it a try. Now, it's a well known fact that it's hard to find buttermilk in Kuching. Just impossible. While this recipe does not require buttermilk, it called for sour cream. When I set my heart on this recipe, I didn't know sour cream is another "hard-to find-in-Kuching" item. But it was. Kept a look out for several weeks and one sweet evening, just as I was about to give up, and while just strolling in a supermarket (yes, I like to stroll in supermarkets!), this fella shouted my name. He was the only tub left - as if he was reserved for me. I gladly picked him up and rushed home to bake the long awaited cake.




The verdict? The cake was indeed moist - the texture, somehow reminded me of something - but I couldn't recall even for days after. But one day it clicked that the texture was quite like the local Bingka Ubi Kayu. It was dense, but in a rather lovely way. One thing I was disappointed about was how little did the coconut stand out. I would have wanted more coconut taste, but it was mild in this cake. The lovely coconut smell didn't really come up as well - very much the opposite of this - where you would immediately be surrounded by heavenly coconuty aroma. Too bad. Given a chance (when I run out of things to bake), I might bake this cake again. But I will put in more coconut and see if the smell comes up.

The fear of Cheese

Turophobia - the fear of cheese. Such condition exist. But no, the fear that I have is not the kind which will fear eating, smelling, or coming near cheese. It's rather fear of making & baking cheesecakes! Can you believe it?

When people finds out that I bake, they will ask me - what do you bake? Cheesecake? Chocolate Cake? Whilst choc cake is not a major problem, I will not even venture into making cheesecake. A few days back my Bestie gave me a link for a no-bake / no mixer needed cheesecake and I simply told her that I will never venture into trying to make any cheese related cake. Then, coincidentally, a few days later, my son just got to ask me with pleading eyes - "Mummy, can you make me a cheesecake?" I almost called the lady who bakes better-than-Secret-Recipe-Oreo-Cheesecake and beg her to come over to Kuching to bake for Noel! Thanks to her "not-in-the-mood-to-start-blogging-yet", I didn't have a guru to lead me through! Boo Hoo HOO! Haha. Well, the little one still deserve to be pleased, so onwards I march.

Even if I fear making cheesecakes, I've bookmarked quite a number of recipes related to it. This Ribena Marble CheeseCake is one of them. I love the fact that it's a no bake (thus I don't have to worry about water-bake method - whatever that is :P) , and that it uses Ribena - our well loved evergreen fav cordial. So, I picked this to be my ground breaking recipe into the cheesecake world.

I had to work with unfamiliar ingredients... Cream Cheese, Digestive Cookies and Gelatine... Nervous will be a fairly mild word to describe how stressed up I was.

The base layer was relatively easy with crushing the biscuits and mixing it with melted butter. Freezing needed an hour.

Then came the filling. Never. I have never worked with Cream Cheese so I didn't know if the consistancy was supposed to be this watery? Oh well, one need to proceed anyways.

This is a marble effect cake and with the mixture being so watery, I was wondering, how on earth will I get a marble effect. So I simply threw in the portion with Ribena and top up the "white"portion, then swirl around and tada.... Not bad eh? Refrigerate for 2 hours.


And because I do not have spring form baking tin and I was lazy to line my normal baking tray with aluminium foil / baking paper, I decided to just make the cake in a Tupperware. I think I should have used a smaller one and my base was a tad too loose when the cake was sliced.


The recipe called for a glass layer. The original blogger did not cover it up and she said it lacked the Ribena flavour, so I decided to go ahead with full recipe. Leave to refrigerate (I left mine overnight).

The next morning, I almost jumped out of bed wondering how the cake turned out. This is a very light cheesecake as it called for yogurt. It's a nice cooling cake - almost jelly like sliding down the throat. The Ribena gave it a nice sourish taste and the colours are freshing.


Brought 4 tiny pieces for the Loyal Guinea Pigs to try in the office - on the scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the worst), this cake got a vote of 8.5. Which is rather high for a first timer. Hurray! So, since this attempt was considered a success, I will now, venture more, into the land of the unknown and overcome my baking turophobia!