I find that the more the PlanAheads there are, the more prepared I would be before I start a cake.

This cake certainly has its share of Plan Aheads beginning with the search for the elusive Seville oranges which I didn’t even attempt to find, living right here in the tropics. I used Navel oranges from my local grocery store.

The orange curd was just superb. The right tartness and the right sweetness. Perfect. The dark ganache i thought wouldn’t be enough but Rose clearly had more sense than me.

The genoise was something I meant to try from the TCB but never got round to it. Just the thought of cake brushed down by syrup ain’t appealing. But I’m a changed woman!

This is the cake, out of the oven. I adored the height, explaining why I took this picture.

For one I followed the instruction to a T and composed the cake a day ahead. When I licked my spatula, the mixed curd and ganache was just superb. It was hard waiting for the next day.

I was gonna have a cake-tasting session but we had a little kenduri at Leha’s place and I brought the cake, minus a slice.

The picture of the cake before it goes into the car. Well, the baker’s gotta taste it before it gets criticised. Excuses mexcuses!

Verdict. That was just heavenly. Orange and chocolate combination’s perfect and the genoise was moist and tasteful and just wonderful. Think I’ll be making this again. I’m not sure which I like better, this or the Lemon Luxury ?

Anyhow. A little delayed, but this is my Individual Pineapple Upside Down. The best little cakes I’ve made. I love the pineapply taste, sweet and just right. But I think it was a little underdone as it has compressed look near its bottom, but the pineapple slice hid it well.

Side View of the cake. Forgot to take the picture of a whole cake, so this was the cake at its one third stage.

Closeup of the cake. Looks spangled alright.

Gosh! I’m a bit late in posting this and I’m aghast at Marie’s and Butteryum’s Fallen cakes. Reminds me of Transformer 2, though. I digress. *hugs*

Anyhow.

I was looking forward to this as I’ve never made angel cakes before. The gazillion number of eggwhites just never add up. But there’s always a first time for everything and since I have 8 eggwhites sitting in the freezer, this was a great chance. I needed another 8 and the RHC’s Chocolate Marbled cake jumped out at me, as it needed 6 yolks. Yay! That tasted really good although I forgot to take a picture of it. *kicks self*

My angel cake rose wonderfully, but nearing completion time, it sunk back to the pan level. I thought that was funny since all my chiffon cakes rose and never sank back. Yikes! And plus, I’ve never used a spatula to coat the sides of the pan ever and I was worried about that.

But 1.5 hours later, as the cake hung precariously on the neck of a honey bottle, I guess all was safe.

I forgot to mention that the spangling went fine as I had the chocolate frozen at all times but processing the chocolate made a heck of a noise as it sounded like I was grating bricks!

The frosting went well. After the Les Treches, I had a newfound love for whipped cream and that tasted wonderful. Ayisha had her hand in my bowl all the time, asking me if this was raw eggs or not.

I cut the cake into 2 layers, as I thought if I were to cut it in three, I would never put it back together so perfectly and would end up with a severely lopsided cake. Heck, even with 2 layers, my cake was senget i.e. lopsided.

Slathered on the frosting and chilled it. I wondered how you would frost a cake with a big gaping hole in the middle. But i covered it anyhow and had aglob of creamy goodness inside as a suprise. Had some usual cake tasters friends in and they zoomed straight into the cake. I had the other less celebrated Chocolate Marbled Cake out but that lost out to this, even though it flew off the handle when I brought it into the office the next day.

It wasn’t that sweet, but I thought the texture was curious. Mine wasn’t moist and it tasted a little overdone. Of course I was jinxed by Marie when she warned against underbaking the cake. Now I understand.

Think I’ll try the non-chocolate angel cake next time I have a stash of eggwhites in my freezer.

In the meantime, this will be, in 2 months time, I hope, my new KITCHEN! Yay!

Behind plywood walls is actually my current living room. Once this is done, we’re gonna have to live like nomads and shift around until the whole house is done. Sigh!

What to do?

This was the cake I mulled over a few times before deciding to make.

First it was the complete and utter failure in finding a simple tin of sweetened condensed milk. Just shelves and shelves full of its inferior cousins made of palm oil. The second was the thought of a soaked cake. Not something I would do on a normal day.

But these days are not normal days. Rose and Hanaa did a great job of convincing me to make this. And Faithy saved my skin by giving me a link to make my own condensed milk here.

I discovered with a shell-shocked expression on my face that condensed milk has butter in it. But I was more shocked to learn that home-made condensed milk is far far superior than store-bought. Yummeh!

Anyhow. Made the Leche and it took me half an hour or so to reduce it to half. The only problem I had was the skins it developed while it simmered. Everytime I stirred it, I removed a skin off it. By the time I was soaking the cake, some of the skins were on the cake. On the hindsight, maybe I should’ve sieved it to remove the skin as it’s not pleasing to the eye. And I wondered too why didn’t Rose just recommended the use of evaporated milk instead of reducing whole milk?

The biscuit rose above its 3″ pan height and I was so pleased with it. And even after I unmolded it, it kept its height and I was so glad I went ahead and make the cake.

I must’ve messed up the crisscrossing of the wrap as when I was serving the cake, some of the leche was trapped in some nomansland zone. And I should mention that I had to soak the cake, one ladle at a time for about half an hour, I think.   I had to wait for it to soak before I add more, as it was spilling over.  Maybe because I didn’t remove the top crust, feeling such a waste to remove such golden crust.

Anyhow. I let the cake sit overnight and when I opened the maze of wraps, it smelled really really nice. And sure I had a puddle of leches in the serving plate. Good to know that early so I could put it in a plate instead of a board.

And it tasted really really classy and nice. I love the milky taste and although I thought it was an overkill to eat a slice with whipped cream, I found that I ate ALL of the cream that came with my slice. It was that good!

My brother loved the cake. My kids were squinting their eyes and my Mom loved it too. Guess this is one of those adults cakes.

Verdict: It was heavenly!

The cut cake. I really love the whipped cream. Overkill, but much needed.

Close up of side view of cake.  I wanted to show the skin on the sides. Not that cute, aye!

The Torta De Las Tres Leches

Almond Chiffon with Peanut Butter Whipped Ganache, decorated by Birthday Girl herself.

More cake view.

Aliya, surrounded by cousins.

What a hectic Sunday!

I know this was late since better late than never, I thought. I wanted to have a small do for Aliya’s grand 12th year birthday and called my parents, Mak and Abah and my siblings and a bunch of nieces and nephews. 13 of them grandchildren for my parents, counting mine.

Anyway. I said I’d bake a cake and make lasagne. Mak will bring lunch stuff and I’d cooked rice. And Mak came with buckets of food. From pecals to pisang to goreng and laukspauks. And I supplied rice. Well, I always always feel so inferior to her cooking, so we always get her to cook whenever she comes to the house. I know I know. *hangs head in shame*

So, we blew candles. 3 times and we hugged and we ate.

And Aliya turned 12! Yippee! Now I wish MrGart could take some time off and get her to get her formal first identity card. A cornerstone of adulthood.

Sigh! *feeling happy and restless all in the same line*

Don’t quite get along. But hey, I’m the admin and I do get to choose awful titles for my posts.  Hahaha.

Anyways.

Image courtesy of NutGraph

First up. Sweetened Condensed Milk. If you’ve lived in Malaysia for as long as I have .. *ehem ehem* .. all 36 28 years of it, you’ve tasted this tins of oozing, creamy stuff in your teh tarik or as I liked it, spread over a slice of bread and eaten as snacks during busy school days.

Now, fast forward back to 2010. Sigh! I’m saddened to report that I can’t find a measly tin of it anywhere on any shelves in any hypermarkets or minimarkets or even kedai pakcik ali at the corner anymore. What we have is this darn sweetened condensed creamer, which I never thought would matter. But a closer look would reveal that there’s not an ounce of milk in it. Just palm oil. Darn!

Now, read NutGraph’s take on why the sweetened condensed milk have been replaced by its inferior cousin, the creamer and you can join me in feeling like kicking someone.

Anyway. I’m ranting because this weekend’s cake for the Heavenly Cake Bake-Through is a Torta de las Tres Leches. A mouthful aye? I’ve not skipped any cakes yet and intend to skip only when my massive house renovation forces me to close the kitchen. So, the recipe calls for a tin of condensed milk and I can’t find any. Annoyed , I am.

So how now brown cow? I can sit it out, but Rose heightened the excitement by saying we’re all in for a treat if we make the cake. And I’m always taken by what Rose says anyway. I think I should just go ahead and use whatever I have and rant more and have a darn good excuse if I fail miserably, aye?

Now the dentists story.

My kids just don’t take vegetables but they love sweets and ice-creams and whatever’s not entirely good for them.  That makes them kids, I reckon.

Anyhow.  Knowing that, we’ve been religious in getting them to see our friendly, extremely nice dentist, Dr Rozita every 6 months.  All four of my kids.  One goes, all go.  No one sits this out.

So, the last week of 2009, there we were at the dentist’s office, expecting a long afternoon there.

It turned out that Adani and Aliya’s teeth were all hunky-dory and fine.  Phew!

Ayisha though has a caries and needed a filling.  A little history.  Ayisha turned 9 last December and exhibits all the Second-Child syndrome especially the tantrums and the grumpiness and the no-no and more no-s.  When something is not right, she’ll just shut down and refuse to do anything.

My dentist meanwhile must have training in child behavioural and she insisted that Ayisha takes responsibility over her decision.

So, the option was an anesthetic local injection which involved a little pain up front and a painless procedure later.  Or a painful procedure.  Ayisha clammed up and refused the needle.  She cried and she bawled and nothing could make her open up.  The dentist shooed me away and an hour later, Ayisha was cooperating, with tears and the filling was completed within 5 minutes.

I’m not sure to congratulate the dentist or to scowl at her.  Good thing she did was to talk to Ayisha like an adult, accountabilities and responsibilities.  But being a mom, it pained me to see Ayisha being put under such stress.  Maybe she needed to experience the effects of her choices and maybe the dentist was God’s way of showing us, a way to deal with Ayisha.  And I’m need of direction where Ayisha is concerned.  Alhamdulillah it came to me is a twisted way, but that’s Allah’s way.  So, this year, insyallah I’ve resolved that we may need to deal with her differently through her tantrums.

School has never been easy on Ayisha as it has been for Aliya.  I’ve always made excuses that she was born in December, hence she’s not as ready as her peers.  But she’s 9 now and she needs to really catch up, especially where Maths are concerned.  I’ve also resolved to have more patience with her and to work it out with her every night and not lose my temper, as I always did last year.  Nights where she had tears streaming down her face and me, tears down my face will be long gone.  Insyallah.

I digress.

Back to the dentist story.

Ariz, the not-so-baby in the family is one very opinionated boy.  He said no to sitting on the dentist chair and a lot of other things too.  Not even when he gets to wear the cool sunglasses if you sit it in.  All through Aliya and Adani’s breeze checks and Ayisha’s long, lengthy, full of drama and teary sessions.

I didn’t have high hopes that he could cooperate.  Suddenly just before Ayisha got off the chair, snoot and tears and all.  He asked me if it’s his turn.  I said Yes and almost ignored him, as I needed to comfort Ayisha.

He took off his shoes and climb up the chair, much to the amusement of the dentist and us all.  OMG!  Readily, opening his mouth even when the nurse wasn’t ready yet.  Unbelievable.  One thing I learnt there that I knew all along was that, Ariz is one of those kids who will just say no, but when the crunch time comes, they’ll be up for it.

He had to have a filling too and my heart sank.  But Ariz agreed to an injection to numb the pain and everything was over within 15 minutes.  He even dozed off and the dentist had to wake him up.

Aliya, Ariz and Ayisha.

Adani and MrGart

For 2 solid hours later, he amused us by him not being able to smile symetrically since the local anesthetic has not worn off yet.

I’m so proud of him and all of the kids.  I’ve warned them that this is 6 monthly affair and whatever you do, think about the next dentist visit.  Gertak!

A coffee lover, I was baffled when I couldn’t find coffee in the Cake Bible. And much later I found out that Coffee Cakes aren’t meant to have coffee in them, just that they’re meant to be eaten with coffee. Duh!

Anyhow.

This was one of the easiest cakes in the book. I decided to all all cupcakes since my only bundt cake pan is 10 cup. It was easy enough actually.

On the calls to use muscovado sugar, I used what we local call it “gula merah”. It’s deep amber, tend to clump and hence pretty moist. I’ve googled whart exactly muscovado sugar is supposed to be and it’s the highest content of molasses that characterised it. So I guess this comes close. I really shouldve put a picture of it. Next time, I guess.

Anyhow. Not much mishaps this time around. The struesal part was easy enough. And the batter was easy too. It definitely needed a spatula to smooth the top.

I used 12 liners and I was doubting myself as each cuppy was filled almost to the brim. I thought of adding more liners, but I had faith in Rose’s estimates. So, I trudged ahead.

And it turned out perfect. Although the baked cuppies rose above the top, it domed a bit and almost leveled itself off. The streusal chocolate did layered half way up, creating wavy lines.

I had one, when it was hot from the oven and it sure tasted great. The crumb was delicate and very moist. Opps, I subsituted sour cream with yogurt since I din’t have any. Guess that attributed to the moistness if the cake. If I had the real sour cream, it wouldn’ve been better, I guess.

I really love the streusal part. Not a cinnamon lover, the taste was perfect, although I braved it and not reduce the cinnamon.

Ayisha in this pic loved the cuppies and later was pinching off the crunchy tops of the cupcakes.

Verdict? Definitely will make these again. Easy and tasty. Rose, did it again!

Batter in cupcake liner.

All 12 cuppies in the pan.

The chocolate struesal. The best bit.

Official cake taster. Ayisha.

How time flies!

Wasn’t not too long ago that she was born, all wrinkly and wet, with hair sticking out and barely a whimper which through the first few weeks turned its volume up, really well?

And yesterday, the 9th January 2010, Aliya turned 12. Twelve yeard old.  Dua belas tahun. Typing it 3 times in different manners didn’t make it any easier to digest. My baby is 12 years old. Another year and she’ll be in her teens. This sure puts damper on my youthfulness (or not).

Well, I should report that Aliya is a really big girl now. She’s really tall and in a couple of inches, she’ll dwarf me. Now, instead of 4, I only have 3 shorties looking up at me. Hahaha!

Aliya is always very responsible to her brother and sisters and Ariz, especially adores her. In the absence of me, Ariz prefers Aliya and never the helper or Ayisha. She plays the role very well too which is really good to know as I do envision my children to be able to take care of themselves and among each other.

She’s in year 6 of school now, the most taxing of primary school right here in Malaysia and she’s feeling the pressure since her cousin, Norsyamsina  scored the coveted 5A. I told her to just focus on her studies and not get too stressed out. MrGart seems to think that my no-pressure strategy sounded fake. Sheesh!

Fashion-sense I think the past year I’ve been buying more tweens and more and more Roxy-ish styles for her. She loves that and now scorns what her sisters are wearing. She’s got this penchant for very abstract, swirly kinda designs and well safe to say, everything in Roxy. Jeans for her, I’ve been buying a heck of a lot too since she’s getting taller by the minute and outgrows them fast. She only wears jeans now and skirts are a major no-no.

She hit puberty too last month and that was a relief as she’s been expecting it like for a year, at least.  Yikes!

Anyways.

I plan to have a little do for her, invite a few friends, bake a cake and cook something up.  Unfortunately the house is in a ship wreck.  Our renovation is in full swing.  The walls dividing the 2 houses (we bought the house next door and making into ONE home) have come down and although my contractor/designer erected a wall with a curtain to prevent flying dust, there’s a film of dust everywhere.  I have a feeling by next month, the kithen’s closed.

So, I told Aliya that once the house is ready, we’ll do a doa selamat do.  And we’ll have her party then, when the house is insyaallah bigger and she can have more of her friends around.

In the mean time, Happy Birthday Aliya!

Daddy, Mummy, AYisha, Adani and Ariz love you so the very much!

Having scraped through my teensy-weensy baby food processor, I’m finally ready to move up the bakers’ ladder and get me a real, full size food processor. *don’t I just sound baker-ish already?*

Whatever I decide or I find will be replacing this baby. *blows kisses*

So, I’ve been google-ing and bing-ing and amazon-ing, reading thousands *exaggerating* of reviews and forums and been writing down little notes and addresses and I’m down to these 4 models.

Mind you. I’m right here in Malaysia, not that far from Singapore but the prices are sure exorbitant, enough to pop your eyeballs.  Easily 3 times more expensive if I were to get it in the States or the UK. Blame it on the excessive import duty they slap on us, mere poor citizens needing some sane powerful food processor.

I digress.

Option 1 : Magimix 4200.

I called Eurochef this morning and behold! they carry the brand. Not so sure if they have the right model that I want. Am excited to go check it out soon. This doesn’t appear in most reviews but I’ve read blogs and forums discussing it and they’re quite loyal to it too.  Nicola is advertising this too.  I think Rose too once mentioned Magimix.
Price is gonna be at least RM 2000, I think.

Option 2: Kitchenaid KFP770 (in black or chrome)

Now.  Now. Now.

I’m a great KitchenAid fan and am still kissing my sexy red Artisan Mixer. This model comes head to head with Cuisinart and it should be a no brainer for me. Except that I read a lot of comments on the way the small bowl sits inside the big bowl and spewing processed food all over BOTH bowls. Yeah. Stuff like that. And something about the blade come whirring out and stuck permanently. Apparently Kitchenaid’s support is superb wherever I’m not which is questionable right here in Kuala Lumpur.

Apart from that, I really want this for its kneading muscles and looks. Price wise RM2399 for a white and RM2699 for the chrome. Which is very very disheartening when it retails at just USD170 and converts to RM578. Mind-boggling! I know. *pulls hair out*

Option 3: Cuisinart Data Prep 11 Plus.

So, according to the review, it’s either KA or Cuisinart. According to the prices, both will kill me. I can’t find Cuisinart anywhere except at Robinsons and they only carry the rollsroyce of cuisinart i.e. the chrome-plated machine with 20 year warranty at a whopping RM2999.

Trust me. I’ve been to Robinson’s 3 times in this week alone touching the sleek machine, imagining it sitting right next to my red KA mixer and it works for me.  And it breaks my heart to leave it once I realise the salespeople have started to congregate near me, like vultures ready to strike.  *rolls eyes*

My only problem is that Robinsons don’t carry the more practical and cheaper DataPrep 11 Plus instead of this RollsRoyce. After-sales service would be tricky I guess. Kitchenaid is more well-known here than CUisinart, I guess.

Last Resort : Kenwood KFP 925

This is by far the cheapest at RM 1099 and widely available here. Opss I take that back. Not that widely available but I found 2 places that carry the model. But at least Kenwood is very well known here so service would be okay, I guess.

But I need a food processor as I want it to knead dough too and I have a feeling that that could be tough for the long run for this machine. And the last time I checked the thing, the stick that the bowl needs to sit on comes loose i.e. can easily be misplaced. KA and CUisinart have their sticks (for lack of a better word) fixed but rather precariously placed as it can be snapped broken.

For all the good reasons for researching any topic, it sure beats me when I’m back to square one, still unsure.

So there. I’m confused. And it’s so hard to get it here anyway.

Yesterday I decided to just get the Kenwood but today I learned about Eurochef carrying Magimix. Back to square one.

Help?

School year here in Malaysia begins in January.

It’s that time of the year again.

The time when parents would be scurrying around with pens and folders in their hands, necks strained from peering to take a glance at their precious kiddos at school during the first days.

This year like the last, all of my Lil’Garties are going to school. makes me feel very ancient, seriously.

Aliya is now in her most stressful year, Year 6 and in September she’ll be sitting for her first major exam UPSR. Her cousin, Nor obtained 5A in hers and Aliya seems a little worried.
*am trying not to have a fit about it in January, though*

Ayisha hops over to Year4, in the morning session with Aliya. For once, both sisters are in the same session. This year, I aim to really hold Ayisha’s hands as she in need of constant supervision where Maths is concerned.

Primary education here sucks in that too much emphasis is given to academic excellence and if you’re not moulded that way, then you’re just an ordinary person, regardless if your outlook of life is far more enriching that the next 5A student. I digress!

Ariz is now in his Pre-Kindy 2 i.e. 5 year-olds. He attends the Bahtera Ilmu kindy , right here in the neighbourhood. I thought he would need a little more support in the first few days but he proved me wrong.

On Day 1, he refused to be sent to school by either of us, insisting to go with Auntie Manjit, out transporter. He reprimanded me when he saw me at school but went home with us anyway.

This morning on Day 2, he seriously told me not to be at the school ground. That’s it! My baby’s a big boy!! Sungguh la macho !*sigh*

In her line before entering her class. It’s 1 Beruas. Bukit Jelutong prides itself of being an environmentally and kayu-ish place. The classes are named after large hardwood trees.

Aliya’s in 6 Bakau. Ayisha is in 4 Mahang and Adani is in 1 Beruas. We used to have the girls in Dedali, Keruing and Resak. And apparently there’s a pokok named Jelawai. Mati-mati aku ingat Jelawat.

Adani meanwhile has the most change this year. Graduating from kindy to Primary School, the focus was more on her. And again, she over exceeded our expectation. She waltzed into her new class and immediately found her friends. At her KAFA, more of her friends. So, it has been a breeze.

MrGart thinks maybe tomorrow we can get back to work. Or go on a date, just the two of us, celebrating the year when the kids are old enough to not want to see them at the school. *sobs*

Adani in her class of 1 Beruas, SKBJ. She sits next to her friend from kindy, Iman and the boys in front of them are their friends from kindy too. So, Adani’s pretty much at home at this new school.

After the running around between SKBJ, Tadika Bahtera Ilmu, Ad-Daris and more sessions in the afternoon and not to mention Aliya’s night tuition sessions, I fell asleep at the couch before it was 10pm. Sedih sungguh!

True to its name, the ingredients were just a whole lot of cream a few other very typical cake ingedients.

I used Anchor brand cream as it’s cheapest at my local bake supplies store and the other brands I checked out ahev their butterfat content at 35%. No where could I find anything at 40%.

Ah well.

The whipping was uneventful. Though rose warned not to chill the whisk, I chilled it anyway since it’s the tropics here and anything chilled gets back to room temperature within prolly 5 seconds.

I didn’t snap any pics of the in-the-process since it was over in a jiffy. Seriously!

My only grievance is that the came came out slightly underdone at the bottom. I had the oven temperature at 180C since the pan I was using was a dark pan and baked it for about 30 mins and tested it alright. But when I cut it, I was a little dissapointed. Another glitch is that when I leveled off the surface of the batter in the batter, it baked to the top but the sides remained lower than the center, making the cake looked like it was floating. Get what I mean?

Anyhow.

The taste was amazing for a cake with no butter and no oil. It was more delicate, I thought. Aliya liked it as she loves unadorned cakes. Ayisha didn’t as she likes her cake frosted to the moons. Adani and Ariz are not cake eaters. Mrgart finished his slice and mine. Sheesh.

I gave a quarter of the cake to GartRed (my twin) and another quarter to Ras. Haven’t heard from them yet.

All in all. A great tasting cake. Definitely a do-it-again especially if I have cream fast expiring on me. The best part was the crust. I love browned cakes and the crust was really nice.

An original, really! .. Kudos Rose!

The cut cake. See the underdone portion. Sigh!

Close up of the cake.

Hanis is my cousin, the youngest in my MakLang’s family.  Shaiful meanwhile is attached to cars and sun glasses.  Opps, sorry !! Is a looker and adores Hanis.

And last weekend, we the clan of Tok & Wan drove up north to help out and be there for the wedding.  A tiring event indeed.  We had a homestay for some and some took refuge at the nearby hotel but we all pulled our weight during the nikah ceremony, the tahlil ceremony and the main event i.e. the big kenduri when we had close to hundreds of friends and neighbours come to pay visit a visit.

Here’s Hanis is her resplendent nikah attire waiting for the groom for the put the ring on my finger ritual.  It was held at the new, huge and uper beautiful new Al-Bukhary Mosque.  There was a fountain and we later found the kids, all wet from the knee down.  Obviously they’ve been dipping their feet in the fountain.  Unfortunately, my only hero Ariz came up wtih his jeans dripping wet from the butt down! Sheesh!!

Adani, Annissa and Ayisha at the masjid’s compound.

These are the cookies that I made for the wedding, meant as doorgifts for close family and friends.  Her theme was silver and I was short of time, so I hoped that she was happy with these.

Having given the Gingerbread cake a miss, I was so eager for this. I even made this like 6 days before it was due and then posted a day late. Klutz!

Anyhow. For weeks I was torn in decisiveness. I wanna make the cake and the ganache. But I wasn’t sure of the fondant. I made Rose’s Chocolate Fondant from the Cake Bible many moons ago and it was seriously tasty but I had a lot of leftovers and after months in the freezer, I had to toss it.

Worse, this is the rainy season in Malaysia at the moment and it’s like 90% humidity here, so any fondant work is bound to fail. Weather rules aye. Not my laziness. It’s the weather!

So, I decided to make the roulade and everything else and not the fondant. The ganache was easy enough although I had a major issue with too small a food processor. But it yielded a lot of ganache for a little cake and from the picture you can tell that it’s more ganache than it was cake. But I like!

The cake was easy enough. 7 minutes was hardly time to even wash up.

So, I just lathered on the ganache and then rolled it back and frosted it with the remaining ganache.

Scrumptious!

The completed Non-Pine Cone Chocolate Roulade.

Seriously! I need to get some serious food processor here! I’ve been surviving on this teensy weensy food chopper, actually. This was meant to puree baby food for my babies, Adani who’s now 6 and the last baby Ariz who will be 5 on valentine’s Day. I can see you smirking. *wags finger* Sigh!!

The Ganache. I absolutely love this ganache. The chunks of almond made it all the better, although putting them on the bare no-so-pine-cone was a little none too pretty. This tasted just wonderful. I found myself licking it every now and then. And then I founds my girls been licking it off the bowl in the fridge, where I left it to stiffen a bit.

Beaten eggs. Did I tell you how big a fan I am of KitchenAid? I am. A huge, huge fan! It takes tasks like this effortlessly. What’s missing is a Beater Blade. Now, is MrGart reading this??

My favourite vanilla essence. I got this at CakeConnection where I teach the cookies class and I haven’t gone back to my usual brand. It does make a huge difference on everything that requires a spoonful of vanilla essence. Seriously!

Verdict!  Ganache was superb!

We’re at Kedah at the moment. This is one of the states in Malaysia located at the northern part of the country.  A state where it was famous for its laksa and its paddy fields.

Another wedding we’re attending, but this time it is a very close cousin’s of mine. Hanis. We’re a very family with many aunties and uncles with respective children who quickly become our cousins and second cousins and whatnots.

Kedah is also the birthplace of my mother and when both my grandparents were alive, we came home for Eid every year and it was a blast, year after year.

The Kedahans too, at least the ones I’m related to by blood are great cooks. You will not get through a day without stuffing yourself silly. The Laksa Teluk Kuchai, white plump noodles in spicy fish broth, served with shredded vegetables are by far my favourite. As well as fried ikan pekasam and kacang poi and ubi kemili and a myriad of other dishes.

All of my aunties and uncles are generous people and the dinner tables seem to refill itself all day long.

I can’t wait.

We’re going over there tomorrow to join my clan.  The kids are whining that they should spend a night here when their cousins are already there.

BTW, a little note on the cookie picture.  It’s one of my favourite cookie design and cutter too. I love the Topsy Turvy Wedding Cake .. but sadly it’s not a typically common choice.  So, when Azzu requested for them, I chanced upon it.

It took a bit of time to make since I have to fill in the different colours in the bottom tier, one by one. But the rest were so much fun to make. She wanted lime green and purple and the rest was up to me, she said. Whoohoo!!

Despite Marie’s effort to keep the sanity of the Heavenly Baker group intact this hectic season, I decided not to take up the challenge for this cake.

First, I thought if a gorgeous prize winner, deliciously decorated carrot cake was a hard sell in my household, a plain gingerbread would be left alone. And I wasn’t a great big fan of spice cakes, anyhow.

Secondly. There’s just no secondly.

Funnily enough. When I decided not to bake it, I felt compelled to bake a cake, regardless. And I had a lot of eggs in the fridge. The day before I bought 3 pcs of 6″ tube pan for a steal. So naturally, I had to try them out.

No orange. So, can’t bake my favourite Orange Glow CHiffon. A Chocolate Chiffon it is. BTW, I shoudl mention that I still have about 7 eggwhites frozen from the Lemon Luxury Cake.

It was a scrumptious. Clearly, I didn’t take a photo. But I thought making them in smaller pans was such a great idea for giveaways. MrGart took one to his office, I took one for Haiza’s birthday and the last piece went to GartRed. The 4th piece was baked in a 6″ pan and it such in misearbly. hahah.

Ciao.
Excuses mexcuses aye?

It’s been close to 3 months already since the day she left us. My grandmother, Tok passed away of old age.

It was hard as she was bedridden in the last few years and I could see her slowly slipping away. Her cushy body shrivelled and her bones went crooked. She used to be very fleshy, a great big bear huggy kind of a grandmother. The kind that cooks your favourite dishes for you, at the mere mention of you coming to visit.

Not one to sit still for longer than 5 minutes, she used to drive my mom crazy whenever she came by and rearranged her cabinets. I was more than happy to have Tok at home with us when I was growing up cos it meant more food, even in our plentiful food state already as my Mak is as good a cook as my Tok was.

I cannot remember when was the last she came over to my house and fussed over the kitchen and rearranged stuff.

And I cannot remember how she used to sound like.

That makes me odd and saddened to realise that I’ve forgotten how she sounded like. Is it always like this? Does moving means forgetting?

Well.

We, the clan held a little kenduri for her, where we read Quranic verses and made a lot of du’as that Allah will forgive all her sins and bestow her His blessings.

I brought the Classic Carrot Cake I made and since it was a grown up cake (even I don’t eat carrot cake) and Ayisha’s birthday has passed without me baking a special cake for her, I made this.

My very beautiful Ayisha, who is finally 9 years old! We waited THAT long.

A German Chocolate Cake with Dark Ganache as a filling and frosted with Peanut Butter Whipped Ganache.

Ayisha and cousins and aunties all gathered around the cake. Truth be told that I was supposed to level off the tops of the cakes before filling them, which clearly I didn’t do. So the cake kinda tilted to the right, very visibly too! Arghhhh!!

Since a few well-meaning relatives asked, I just came out with it can called it the Senget Chocolate Cake. Senget means lopsided in Malay.

We sang the Birthday Song and Ayisha blew her 9 candles, 3 times.

The similarly decorated cake. See the but bits in the frosting? I was supposed to use creamy peanut butter but only had the chunky jar. Haha.

Senget Chocolate Cake. I really like the whipped ganache and peanut butter gave a great zing to it. I will surely make it again, but it kinda melted a bit in the hot weather.

The cake was a success. The even crumb told its story alright. AT the insistence of the girls, I made MrGart went and got me a bunch of bananas and put some slices in.

Happy Birthday AYISHA!

.. and the Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting !

There!

I don’t eat a lot of cakes and least of all is cakes with vegetables in it. So naturally carrot cakes aren’t high on my list. So, I figured this is the only time you can get me to bake a cake with carrots in them.

And I made Rose’s Refrigerator Banana Cake with the same frosting and it had rave responses so naturally I would not want to miss this.

Marie was right. The hardest thing to do was GRATE the carrots. Gosh! I almost grated my palm off and I had stumps of carrots I was too afraid to grate left behind.

I baked the cakes and wrapped them up in the fridge the night before I was taking them to a family do the next day. I love the deep brown colour the cakes acquired. Looked so moist.

Since my white chocolate is just white chocolate, I thought I’d use a teaspoon of this super nice smelling vanilla bean paste for that speckled and dotted effect on the frosting! Worked like a charm.

I had 6 girls in the house and they all swooned over this design. I for one, thought I needed a new technique. This looked exactly like my Luxury Lemon Layer Cake. I tried the swirls but Ayisha commented that it looked funny. I tried the concentric circles. But my arms aren’t concentric enough and they looked funny. So, spatula markings it was then!

I had the cake as a masterpiece dessert for a big kenduri and it flew off the plate. I had a tiny bit but I didn’t like. the thought of carrots in a cake just put me off. Just like zucchini. Something mentally wrong with me.

But the rest of the clan thought it was a blast. Especially the frosting. Ohhh I have to mention here that I’ve finally figured out the white chocolate. The last time I did it, I microwaved it but it looked hardened. This time around, I stirred and I stirred and even though it was cooled, it was still fluid. Just stir it! It really works!

Anyhow, I also baked anoger German Chocolate Cake with Dark Ganache as a filling and Whipped Peanut Butter Ganache frosting. Another post I guess cos we’re off to watch the Princess and the Frog now. I look forward to a bucketful of popcorn on m lap and a cartoon!

It’s a pretty laid back time of the year, this is.

I’m finishing off remaining leaves and having completed the school stuff shopping weeks ago, we wanted to go and watch the Dolphins and Sea Lions ..

But a little googling later, I think not! It’s like RM50 per adult for a ticket and RM30 per kid. And it’s not like it’s a proper place. It’s a makeshift tent at the open car park. Unbelievably expensive! I can’t believe it’s so exorbitantly priced.

Last week we went here and it set us back about RM200, and that, mind you is already very much discounted as I had some discount cards my brother gave me. It would’ve cost us actually double that, seriously!

But the kids had tremendous fun. Ayisha was upset tough. She’s 9 and at an awkward age where she’s too tall for the kiddies rides and still shorter than she wants to for the big rides. So, she was refused for the rides that she wanted. A few more years, dear!

Aliya in the meantime had a blast. I learned from my previous mistake that I should bring some daredevil person like Aliya along too. So, we brought along Nor, her cousin. That saved from from having to ride those white-knuckle rides she longs for but Daddy refuses to and Mummy has no choice but to comply.

Well. Off to the zoo now!

I think we’ll go to a zoo instead or get some stationeries.

I know this is a little delayed, but better late than never aye?

We didn’t have any canned pumpkin here in my local stores, but fresh pumpkins are a dime a dozen. Figuratively, speaking. Pumpkin or labu is better known as a vegeratble dish in coconut milk, best eaten with rice. Hardly ever in cheesecake, so I was thrilled.

I boiled the cubed pumpkin and pureed the flesh. Was worried that it would be too watery,but mine was thick, no problems there. I didnt have any 9″ springform but I do own a 10″. So there it goes, the gingersnaps base.

As expected, it didn’t go up the sides. But I looked at Marie’s cheesecake and thought the not so high sides are attractive too. Why not!

I made the Caramel Glaze and although I read Rose’s comment on it would come off as a big gob if the temperature was too high, I just exactly that!

It came off in one big gob.

Worse, my cheesecake was drenched in seeped water from the waterbath. I kinda suspected that since I saw bubbles in the water during baking time. I was red in the face but I had hopes, you see.

Taste-wise. It was super-nice. Although the caramel came off in one big gob, it was fought over by my girls, especially where the pecans were.

I think I would definitely make this again in the future. maybe quadruple my warpping of the pan.

Alhamdulillah.

It has been quite a whirlwind, this girl of mine.

She’s passionate. She’s highly temperamental.

She’s kind to animals.  She’s intense.

She’s quick to smile.  She’s quicker to lose her temper.

Regardless. We love you just the same. Even more.

Ayisha is just the most vivacious girl I know. Her name is borrowed from the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) wife, ‘Aisha (ra) who was known for her great personality, a joy to be with as well as a great scholar among many other great qualities of a muslimah.

Our Ayisha meanwhile is very bubbly, a joy to be with with her bright smile and her oh-so-wide eyes. But those same round eyes can turn to slitty, don’t-mess-with-me eyes in an instance, if things don’t go her way. I’m happy to report that those days are defnitely far and few in between these days.

She’s more agreeable and more accomodating these days, being easier and more able to reason with.

She’s grown taller but still as slim as always. She complains that no matter how much she eats, she never puts on any weight. I keep telling that most people would love her weight. Like me, for instance!

This year, she gets a phone all to herself and she’s busy texting and calling her friends more. Something she really wants for the longest time and we succumbed to it.

Ayisha is a cat’s champion. Always. If we’re away from home, she talks about missing Rexx and Bubbles and how she thinks Rexx is missing her too.

Ayisha dearie. Happy 9th Birthday! Mummy loves you very much.

btw, This is a belated entery as her birthday fell on the 1st December 2009. She came into our arms on the 4th anniversary of our wedding and that make sthis year, our 12th! WHoohoo!!

[Edited to include pictures]

Truth be told that I nearly gave the cake a miss. One because the name suggested a cake with some salty/sweet interplay and I ain’t a big fan. But a couple of pages later. Heck, I could do this in a few hours.

All in the weekend where I taught a Cookies class, played futsal in a league and emerged as champions, visited a cousin at a hospital and her new cute baby after she had a very serious complication and packing for my meeting trip to Indonesia. There!

Anyhow. I am at Pekan Baru, Indonesia at the moment attending a meeting that’s to start in about an hour’s time and should be flying home to Malaysia tomorrow.

Well. I meant to write a post on it. Had a few pictures to upload and realised that my camera cable in not in my bag and my notebook doen’t recognise the memory card. Bummer. Imagine, can you?

Well. True, I would have passed by this cake if I didn’t join the group. But I did and it tasted a little not-my-favourite.

It was easy enough. I only have blanched almonds so my cake turned out whiter than Marie’s. That was ground with a couple of tablespoons of sugar. I think I didn’t grind it fine enough as the almonds was grainy in the cake. But I thought about pasty almond and that stopped me right in my track.

The eggwhites whipped up beautifully, all thick and glossy and the red, fireengine kitchenaid did all the work of the 20 mins of whisking.

I was so glad I found my 9 x 3 pan as the batter almost came up to the top of the pan. I did the parchment and thought it did look professional indeed, like I had a reason for that. And not merely following instruction. Heh!

Batter was runny but thick. I had high hopes when I saw it rising in the oven, almost to the top.

But after 30 mins, and I took it out of the pan in its parchment. Before my eyes, it sank a little. Aliya, my daughter touched the top of the cake but it didn’t spring back. It felt spongy and stuck to your finger. I pricked the cake and it’s done.

I now understand why it’s a pinch cake. You can’t slice this without messing up the cake or the knife. Pinching is the way to go. But I was going to a hospital and I sliced them up in a tupperware.

Verdict. Mine was fluffy at the top and became dense at the bottom. Mine sunk in the middle and if it weren’t for the tall parchment, it would’ve sunk right in.

The almond taste was nice but grainy and crunchy which was great. But it was a plain cake. I didn’t have raspberries and cream and that didn’t help. My kids just pinched the top of the cake and it didn’t have a lot of takers at the hospital, among aunties.

Hmm. I love sponge cakes but this is not high on my will-do-again list.

p/s will edit and include pictures soon.

When I started playing with sugarpaste, I was fascinated by the myriad of things you can do with it. But most of all, I love that I can imprint designs on them.

But to my dissapointment, embossing pins or mats specific for cake are exorbitantly expensive, I seriously felt like strangling someone. Hahah.

So, I turned to ebay and found these. These Cuttlebug embossing folders are meant for scrapbooking, where you put a paper in between and run it through a pressing machine and out comes beautifully embossed paper.

And bonus points, there are plastic thin folders and cost me about USD9 to ship 9 sets. The only snag is that you can only do a small portion of fondant at a time. But I do cookies, anyway.

These were for Farahiya for a wedding doorgift. I made the ribbon rose the easy way, no tool whatsoever. Take a ball os small fondant, make it into a sausage, and thin the up side and just roll.

My favourite new colours .. pink and orange. Looks cheerful and happening.

Our first time.

This is the ceremony to commemorate Aliya’s and her friends success to completing the mandatory Quranic study, demanded by Islam. All Muslims must learn how to read the Quran correctly, the pronounciation of the beautiful Arabic words and its related rules.

I’m so proud that Aliya at 11 years old completed hers so soon. Next year would be a hectic year since it’s her first big exam so, khatam at 11 years old was so perfect.

Each khatam student must bring a “bunga telur” (flower egg, or the likes). I am not great with creative flowery stuff, so this cost me RM94. Hahah, minus the 40 eggs that I boiled and placed inside each little pocket of the flower.

Here’s Aliya, in her graduation robe.
Note: All of MrGart’s pictures of Aliya were fuzzy, someone’s been playing with the camera .. good thing, I found Aliya and took this picture of hers with my phone, in a bad lighting, otherwise it’d be lost.

Well, it was a very well rehearsed ceremony, in a classy ballroom and ended with high-tea for all the parents.

This are all the khatam students reciting the last 10 surahs of the Quran. Aliya’s at the back with all the girls. When the students were walking in in a parade, it was so apparent that the girls were much much taller than the boys. Very significantly shorter. Seriously. But I guess, boys’ growth spurts will start when they’re prolly 12 and they’ll overshoot the girls soon. In the meantime, such short boys! *cheeky*

Notice all the bunga telur down at the stage. When it was all over, it was given to all parents. We get about 10, colourful ones.

Alhamdulillah. I hope that Aliya will now begin to read the Quran more frequently and will start to read the tafseer and understand the meanings of the Quran, now that reading it is a breeze to her. Insyallah.

So, Ayisha, next?

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The week’s cake …. *drum rolls*

Doesn’t it look just inviting ? But 4 pages later, I had doubts. There are just too many waiting time, and plan-ahead steps and “curdling” issues to deal with. But. I remembered AnitSirk’s comment and decided that if I didn’t try this, I’ll never figure it out. So, determined to show my kids that even if it looks hard, i’m sure it’s not THAT hard, I made the lemon curd.

Hmm, all is well .. and the curd’s chilling alright. Done for the night, Saturday would’ve been a busy day for me. The Custard Base and the Cake and gosh, there were so many steps. But, I’m persevering here, people!

The instruction for the custard base was simple enough, except that once I have the chocolate and the butter melting in the double boiler, I started to daydream because it was taking a while. Then suddenly, all the butter melted and it’s floating on top and the white chocolate remained as a big gob at the bottom of the bowl.

Gasp!

I decided to go ahead and add on the 4 eggs and whisk like mad, with the look of horror on my face. It was looking better. Phew! Upon reaching 60C, I took it off the heat and let it sit in a fridge for 45 minutes and started on my ingredients for the batter.

To make the buttercream, you’d have to beat butter till smooth and add the custrad base gradually.

Gasp!

Mine looked curdled to bits. Yikes! This spelled disaster. I turned the mixer on high and it still looked curdled. Ah well! I left it for 2 hours as intructed and proceeded with the batter.

Ingredients for cake batter. I used my last pieces of varlhona’s chocolate. This had better be fantabulous!

Now, this is right down my alley. All was well and I poured the batter into the pan and wondered it looked kinda of “little” in quantity. Looked around and saw my melted white chocolate sitting there staring and wondering why was it still on the counter and not in the pans?

Gasp!

Poured them back in the mixer, added the chocolate and poured in in pans again! Yikes! By this time, my pans were getting slightly or seriously messy.

But they smelled wonderful. The lemon zest was wonderful and both cakes had risen wonderfully, though one was slightly lopsided.

Now, time to assemble the buttercream.

I bet the custard base and butter the hell out of them and suddenly it looked so smooth and creamy. Amazing! It was so relief. I guess I really should’ve trusted the recipe more. When Rose asks you to let it sit for 2 hours, you’d better let it SIT! The lemon curd added later made it smelled heavenly.

I split the cakes into 2 and assembled it. Clearly my division of cake thickness was off, but hey, I’m learning here. Eye-balling things have never worked terribly well for me.

Tada!!

I was so impressed with myself. Wow!
Note to self: Must learn how to make decorative swirls. Rose made it sound easy but when I tried it, it looked messy, so I decided to go stripey. Easier and I thought this looked wonderful.

*some clapping would do wonders, folks!

And the cut cake. *dreams*

Gosh! I am so glad I made this because this just smelled heavenly!

SUnday morning, I called a few close friends for a cake-tasting session. Great idea to catch up with friends, I thought. And it was great.

Linda: The frosting was really delicious!

Ras & Amalina : Super nice. You should sell this !

I am just glad I tried it, it was superb. Worth all the effort and it was fantabulous, just as it’s supposed to be.

We would be walking in ..

233 combs and hairbrushes,
45 thought to be lost swim goggles,
4326 colour pencils,
12 sets of water colour sets,
176 erasers,
561 pencil sharpeners,
431 bags of various sizes and shapes,
551 bracelets, chains and necklaces of different shapes, colours andn materials,
423 arms/legs of some batmans, spiderman, ultraman etc ..
145 wheels of a car,truck, planes, fighter jets ..
56423 hair clips and hair bands and those stuff.

sigh!!!