Precious Moments

                                

                                 

Little N told the father about her what she wanted to be when she grows up. And here is her list in order of preference:

1. Author 

Not surprising. Even though she does not spend time writing all the time,she is an avid reader. That's the time that she spends investing in her future as an author. And those beautiful books that she read were the ones that inspire her to become an author.

2. Plays as a solo pianist in an Orchestra (playing Fur Elise).

In fact she has already planned her whole musical career. She wants to take her grade 8 ABRSM piano exam, after which she is taking her piano diploma and at the same time she intends to take violin as her second instrument. With so many kids dropping off from their piano class, I am just grateful she is savoring her time playing piano and diligently practising her piece over and over and over and over again,and she did it at her own will.

3.Scientist

What? No comment!

4. Actress 

I don't know how she can conceive the idea of being an actress. Despite my love for movies and drama,being an actress is not something that we would even discuss. So it should be coming from external factor.

I really find that her list is very adorable. I can't wait to see what life has in store for her. 

Just an excuse to have cake

I did not have time to come up with a cake for hubby on his birthday. We were in Jakarta on his birthday, and we went to Kidzania with the children on that day. We had dinner to celebrate Y and my mother's birthday together, but we did not have cake. With the holiday season in Jakarta, my parents have got two cakes that they have not finished eating yet. One cake was from Dapur Cokelat and the other cake was from Harvest. Both were chocolate cakes, but not up to my standard. Both were disappointingly dry. Or I am biased, because I am just not a fan of chocolate mousse cake.

Since Y went back to Singapore a few days earlier, I asked him to buy a cake from Awfully Chocolate. Maybe it's a post birthday cake, or just another excuse to have cake. I am not sure. Y always wanted to try the banana chocolate, although I love AC's chocolate rum & cherry better. I was thinking, I should try out something that I've never tried before and figured that chocolate banana should be a good choice.

So, here's the cake:

I usually love Awfully Chocolate's chocolate cake, but this one, is definitely not my thing. Or I just hate the combination of banana and chocolate. Y's uncle and aunt also commented the same thing about this cake. There is nothing fancy about this cake.

But then again, Y loves his banana, tracing down from his Darwinian origin. And he loves his chocolate.

I asked Y if we are going to buy the cake again. He said, "No! Your cake is much better than AC!" I am so happy with his compliment.

So, I have this entry, although I don't bake this cake, and I am still disappointed with this cake! But I figure, Y's compliment is worth to be blogged!

So, everyone, if you want to buy Awfully Chocolate, don't buy Chocolate Banana. If you want to have better cake, you can even contact me for some pointers on how to make a mean chocolate cake, okay! Even better, when I have nothing to do, I can even bake chocolate cake for you! 

Pre-Birthday Cake : Chocolate Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Any excuse just to bake cakes! This time, since Y's birthday is coming soon, I thought of coming up with some pre-birthday cake before the real day.

Y, as you all know, celebrates his birthday in September. And since he has been a nice husband since the day I married him, he deserves to get more than just one cake for his birthday. So, I plan to have pre-birthday cake, birthday cake, and post-birthday cake just for him.

Oh yes, anything just to bake cakes!

Y loves chocolate cakes. Last year, I baked Sacher Torte for him. And this year, I was inspired by my dear friend, Sitha who kindly shared her special secret recipe, chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. Doesn't it sound heavenly?

And it does taste so too! The special cream cheese frosting will definitely stay in my priceless recipe list!

Sitha, my apology for not following your recipe thoroughly. I did not follow your cake recipe, for very simple reason; I hate cup measurement! So I used another recipe that I always use for layered chocolate cake (the recipe is in metrics). But I followed your cream cheese frosting to a tee. And I just love it!

So, anyone who's interested in getting this recipe, please contact my friend, Sitha! She will gladly share this recipe to anyone who ask. Ya, kan, Sit?

For your information, Sitha is an experienced english teacher. So, do contact her if you need any english tutorial. If you ask very nicely, she will even give you one-to-one english tuition at discounted price *_*

To my little boy on his 5th birthday

My dearest little boy,

Has it been 5 years since we have you in our life?

Somehow, we just can't imagine our life without you.


Looking at you now, it's just hard to imagine that you were actually the same baby that we saw in the 3D ultrasound long time ago! The baby that we saw in the screen were only 6 cm long. But you were such an active baby even then. I remember looking at the alien on the screen, boxing and cycling non stop, and wondering if the doctor were actually just lying. Maybe you're not really our baby. Maybe your father and I were just looking at some video on someone else's baby. So hard to believe that the little thing we saw in the screen turned out to be you. The perfect you.


You and your cheerful smile. You and your mischievous laugh. You and your sunny nature. You and your kind heart.


And, it is even harder to believe that the little baby with twinkles in his eyes, can already praise me, "mama, why are you so good in baking cakes?"
You really made me blush when you said that.


Your mama learns baking so that you and your little sister will have a home-made birthday cakes year after year.


Happy birthday, my little boy!

My Masterpiece

Call me a show-off. I am one.

But I am just so proud that I could come up with this Little Mermaid birthday cake for my little girl in early April. 

Not the best in cake decorating. And I did a shortcut by using edible image. Icing was still badly done. But give me credit for effort. I just did not have time to practice.

But for a 3-year old, the above mentioned flaws did not matter much. She loved it all the same. And the kids in her school loved it too, or so I thought.

And how exclusive it is just to receive cake order from my daughter! 

Next one in the line: Ben 10 cake from my little boy!

Chocolate Pudding, an Indonesian Dessert?

As we're saying goodbye to year of 2007, I've got many invitations to the Christmas/year end gathering. One gathering that I went to, was a pot luck BBQ with office colleagues. The host asked us to prepare one unique dish from we come from. That's tough. I need something that's easy to make, yet universally acceptable for the multi-nation guests' palate who attended the gathering.

After long thought, I decided to bring the chocolate pudding. Indonesian style. The pudding was made of agar-agar (seaweed) powder. That defined the Indonesian-ness of the pudding. Because usually people associate pudding with gelatine/Jello or cakey-like pudding. Not for this one. Unlike gelatine, agar-agar resulted in a light texture of the pudding. And as for chocolate, who could resist its omnipresence!

For the final touch, it was served with the custard sauce, spiked with lots of rum! That's how I grew up with, eating this kind of pudding in weddings, birthdays, family gatherings.

I presented the chocolate pudding in a lovely serving dish (not pictured here), courtesy of the wonderful host of the day. The pudding looked so decadently tempting and shiny. And it prompted the question from the guests, "is it an Indonesian dessert?".

I have no idea. But I think, it is.

A wife of Indonesian colleague commented, "This is just the pudding I have always known, made of agar-agar, eaten with custard sauce with rum!"

I guess, I did not make the wrong choice with this one.

Recipe was taken from Detikfood. As explained above, the custard sauce was not mocha, as specified in the recipe. I omitted the dark chocolate and coffee powder and replaced them with 2 tablespoon of jamaican rum.

Part of Working Life Puzzle

I was in a middle of phone conversation with my counterpart in Japan, who happened to be a Japanese (surprise..surprise).

C: So Kimura-san*, can you find out the reason for the shipment delay of our unit?
K: Of course, Cindy-san. Just provide me the serial number of the unit.
C: It's TOHV005
K: So, it's T-O-H-D-005?
C: No, it's,...T for Tokyo, O for Osaka, H for Hokkaido, V for Victory, zero zero five.
K: Aahh..Sorry, Cindy-san, is it D for Dog? Dog, the animal?
C: No, Kimura-san, it's V for Victory, not Dog.
K: Aah..B for Bird?
C: No, it's V for....(fish, fly, finish..yellow,..blue..pink..I can't think of any word that start with V) Victory! You know..peace!
K: Aahh..Sorry, Cindy-san..I don't know that!
C: Oh, it's V for Victory....win..gamble, you know..V for Victoria..the queen? Queen of England?
K: Aahh..Sorry, Cindy-san, I don't know what you are talking about!
(I started to get panic. Calm down, don't panic! It's not that bad, recite the alphabet..ABCD...RSTUV.that's the V, he should get the point)
C:Kimura-san, in the alphabet..it's the RSTUV. That's the V.
K:Aah..Cindy,san..I still don't understand.
C: Do you want me to email the serial number to you?
(This didnt make sense, the reason why I had to call him was because he never replied my email)
C: Hold on, Kimura-san.
(I put the phone on mute. Knocked on my next cubicle neighbour, Colleague 1. Coll. 1 worked in Japan for 3 years. He claimed to be conversant in Japanese. By now, everyone had been intently listening to my phone conversation, since my office did not have voice absorbent facility. Everyone just could hear me, loud and clear).

C: Coll 1, what's the word that start in V in Japanese?
Coll.1: Japanese does not use letter V, Cindy!
(Thanks a lot)

Coll.2: Try..very..very bad..very very stupid!
(Good idea!)

C: Kimura-san, it's V for very..very beautiful!
K: Oh ..yes, I know..V for very very beautiful! It's TOHV005?
C: Yes..yes..yes!!!!!

After that fateful conversation ended, colleague 2 commented, " I can't wait when you have to spell out the serial number with the letter F to them!"

Oh well, just an excerpt of my daily working life!

*name had been changed to protect privacy.

Happiness found: Cheesecake Brownies

For a short period in my life, I was part of the (then) yuppies in the city area in Jakarta. I wore suits to work, I put on make up, I went to malls for lunch. The guys also put in the suits and ties. Fridays were filled with creambath sessions or foot reflexology, and also my newfound happiness.

It was in a cafe in Bursa Efek Jakarta (Jakarta Exchange Building), I found this very addictive slice. I found cheesecake brownies. I was so madly in love with it! And so did my family. There's never a weekend passed without this heavenly cake in our family. High in sugar, high in fat, high in calories. Sinful as it was, it gave us such a worldly happiness in a bite.

So, what's this thing really? It's just simple brownies topped with cheesecake. And it's so me and Yohan. I am a cheesecake person, and Yohan, a chocolate lover!

Been searching high and low for a recipe that comes close to what I had in the BEJ Cafe (can't remember the name, but sometime ago, I made an effort to go to BEJ just to buy the cake). 

And guess what, only last week I bought a new recipe book just because I wanted to come up with the evil twin of the cheesecake brownies of my past.

So, after so many failed attempts at brownies, I braced myself for this one earlier today.

I took the recipe from here. With some modifications to the original recipe.

The result was better than I expected. The cake was so lovely. The brownies was fudgy and chocolatey, while the cheesecake was so soft and cheesecakey. Pardon my poor choice of words, I am an analyst, not a food critic nor a recipe writer.

Isn't it great if we can find our happiness in a slice of brownies?

Reminiscing - 6 years

You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore....but let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. - Kahlil Gibran



4th Nov 2001

I remember the heat. I remember the guests. I remember how beautiful my mother looked on that day. I remember my father's tears when we gave him the slice of our wedding cake. I remember my husband and I giggling over the withered rose pinned to his jacket. I remember someone mentioned that my uncle cried when my father gave me away. I remember the priest quoting John Gray's book during his sermon, and I said to myself, "you expect me to read Men are from Mars, Women Are from Venus?...Don't you know Yohan and I were John Gray's muse?". I remember I had fried rice for my breakfast on that day. I remember my lipstick colour on that day. I remember I was crying when I read out my wedding vow.

I still remember that day as if it were only yesterday.

4 Nov 2007

Yet, today, we celebrate our 6th years together. Six years of happiness, laughter, anger, tears! Six long years, but they feel so short.
We know each other well, but not well enough to always understand each other. We love each other so much, but not so much as to avoid the silly little arguments. We spend our time together but sometimes we just did not put our heart together.
But...
Despite the differences, we are still together.
Despite the silly little arguments, we still love each other.
And if we compare ourselves with celebrities, yes, our anniversary calls for a celebration!

Happy 6th Anniversary to us!

And, in the above picture, that's us, 6 years ago..when we've only just begun!

And my 6th wedding anniversary gift: PINK KitchenAid!