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!