or pehaps i never did have it..
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All I Wanna Say is….
Baby I Miss You So Much!
X’mas Prelude
“Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle all the way”
Yeah! X’mas is here.. My favorite winter festival though there is no snow in Singapore.
I always had this lil wish that I can spend Christmas in a country with snow, a small house, a cosy fire place, my good old friends, food, wine and of course PRESENTS .. haha .. shall make it come true one day..
Without fail, we are having a potluck party this year at my place. No game ideas for gift exchange yet though Carole suggested using last year’s game .. shall think about it.. 🙂
Food List as below (TBC)
Appetizer:
Mixed Fruit & Prawn Salad — Jessie
Smoked Salmon & Asparagus Roll — (TBC)
Hot Items:
Spaghetti “Bolognaise” (Chicken) — Jessie
Roasted Chicken with Cranberry Sauce — Joyce
Honey/BBQ Ribs — Joyce
Whipped Potato — Stephenie
Chicken Shepherd Pie — Carole
Half Shell Oyster — (TBC)
Dessert:
Christmas Log Cake — Stephenie
Fruit Platter
Drinks:
Cocktails (if anyone knows how to mix.. “bartender” in dubai)
Red Wine
Cordial Drink
Shall update the list again..
cheers…
Photos from the Past
My parents were in Malaysia this week and they happened to find some of our old photos. The excited Dad immediately scanned and sent over to us.
Sis Jean commented that Grace looked just like me when I was four.. hubby.. what do you think?
Among the other photos were my siblings taking a group photo at ECP and some individual photos. One of them caught my eye because my beloved grandparents were in them.
Somehow looking at these photos made me want to go back to the past.. If only time machine stories are for real…
Mother’s Day 2008 Special
i’ve decided to do something special for Mother’s Day this year.. bake a cake for mum! but why special? 1st.. i’ve never bake a sponge cake before .. 2nd.. this is first time i’m going to attempt frosting.. and lastly i celebrating with 3 mummies together on Vesak Day.. 🙂
i was thinking of strawberry sponge cake and off i went to surf the net. Found this perfect recipe @ Happy Home Baking. This mommy has so many ideas and receipes. She also provides tips on techniques. Great blog i would say.
i had my first trial run today… here’s the outcome…
and instead of one cake.. i made two.. haha.. that’s because i’ve used a 15″ round pan instead of 20″. so i gave one to my mum-in-law and the second to my hubby’s aunty living nearby.
the problems i encountered was during frosting. 1st .. i overwhipped the cream and it became watery… no choice got to get more from the supermarket.. 2nd.. i underwhipped the cream for the second cake and it’s not as stiff… 3rd.. i took an hour just to frost 2 cakes!!!! gosh.. by the end of the process.. i’m dead tired… with aching back and legs.. but looking at the results.. it’s worth the effort… 🙂
my mil thought i got it from a cake shop and was surprised that i did it myself alone… 😉 she liked the cake as it’s not too sweet and taste just right… she only commented that it needed to be a little bit softer and with more moist to be perfect.. (that’s probably due to over-baking of the cake) 😛
my hubby didn’t seemed to be interested with my cake though… well luckily it’s not for him… if not i’ll be extremely disappointed, especially on my first baking trial since secondary school.
aunty commented it looked very good for a first timer… well hope it will taste good for her too.. 😉
so i shall keep my finger crossed on Vesak Day.. and try my best to make it better than today..
Strawberry Sponge Cake I (Makes 2 15″ or 1 20″ round cake/s)
Ingredients:
4 eggs, bring to room temperature
150g caster sugar
4g salt
140g cake flour
30g olive oil
30g fresh milk
filling & frosting:
400ml whipping cream
250g strawberries
1 pack of slice almonds (roasted on pan)
Method:
- Sift cake flour, set aside. Grease and line a 20cm round pan, set aside. Pre-heat oven to 180degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.
- With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar & salt on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7mins, until the batter double in volume and is ribbon-like (the beater should leave a ribbon-like texture when the batter is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilise the air bubbles in the batter.
- Add sifted cake flour into the batter. With a spatula, gently fold in the flour until well blended.
- With a spatula, mix about 1/3 of the batter with the salad oil in a separate bowl. Fold in this mixture into the remaining batter. This method will help to ensure the oil will be fully blended and at the same time will not deflate the batter.
- Add in fresh milk and fold in gently with spatula.
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and cool completely.
Assemble the cake
- With an electric mixer, whip the whipping cream still stiff.
- Slice the cake horizontally into 2 layers. Place one of the cake layers cut-side down on a cake plate. Spread the whipped cream over the layer.
- Arrange rings of strawberries to cover the whole layer.
- Fill with some more whipped cream. Top with the other cake layer, cut-side up.
- Spread the whipped cream over the top and side of the cake. Decorate as desired.
original recipe taken from Happy Home Baking > Strawberry Sponge Cake
I’m upset.. so UPSET
I think I’m getting very upset with my current life… yes… terribly upset…
First, I don’t seem to have any energy or interest for work or personal life. Next, I seem to loathe going anywhere besides my meals. But the worst thing is, I really want to do something satisfying, be it … filing my huge pile of personal documents, accomplishing my work goals which are delayed like mad, or spending quality time with kyson.. but I just couldn’t perk myself up to do it…
The stupid nausea and 1st trimester “bad” symptoms are driving me crazy … i now suspect myself having pre-natal depression. Haha.. sounds scary.. but perhaps my two pregnancies are just too close together. To go through 1st trimester is never a easy task. Only women who had experienced the worst of it will understand. So shan’t do much description of it.
Urrggghhhhh…… time time… pls fly asap…
