Paying Off My Nigela Lawson

I have a resolution. In order to pay off my investment in those cookbooks that I've collected over the years, I am going to attempt to do at least one recipe from each cookbook. The reality is not that simple. I've got few obstacles that I still can not overcome till now.
I enjoy reading the recipes and the books. I have a long list of things to bake from each cookbook. But to find willing guinea pigs to devour the stuff that I bake is another thing.
Those who know me should know that I only eat things that are fruity. And Y and Big N only eat chocolate and its derivatives. Little N watches out her diet carefully, she does not take any cakes as it may ruin her slender figure. Of course my maid is my next target, but she too has had enough of my weekly baking. I think I enjoy baking more than I enjoy eating the final product.
So, coming out with the rendition of the baking stuff is the easy part. But finding the market for my stuff, that remains the challenge. And have I mentioned the low success rate that entails each experiment?

Ever since my successful yogurt experiment last month, I've been making yogurt almost once a week. Sadly, I am the only one eating the yogurt that I make. Sometimes, little N will help, but, most of the time, I am the one finishing the whole tub.
Until one day, the tragedy struck. I got food poisoning. Not because of the yogurt, because on that fateful day, little N also took the yogurt and she was okay. But the doctor asked me to stay clear out of the dairy products for a few days. Meanwhile, I've got more than half a liter of yogurt in my fridge. And I've turned into Cleopatra, applying my all-the-goodness-in-the-nature yogurt as face mask. But I figured I could make something better with my yogurt stock, than just turning them into face mask.

So, I turned into my recipe book. And Nigella Lawson and her blitz everything for a few minutes captured my attention. After all, she's the domestic goddess. And the best part is, I've never done ANY of her recipes.
So I whipped up "Baby Bundt" from Nigella's How To Be a Domestic Goddess. But, since I don't have a bundt pan, I used my muffin pan, and turned them into cupcakes.

And the review from my food critics cum husband went something like this, "hmmm...it's not too bad!"
'Not too bad' is a safe comment. It's something that a husband said to avoid arguments with the wife. Should I come up with this again, I asked. He nodded unconvincingly.
But then he ate most of the cakes for his breakfast. So it could not be that bad since he is very fussy about cakes.
As for me, as much as I love the yogurt, but I find that the cake is very plain and lack the the certain oomph in it. I am not too sure what kind of X-factor I am looking for.

But, to finish off the yogurt in the fridge, this is not a bad choice. And at least, I've done another recipe from my cookbook collections. Investment slowly paid off.

PS: nobody got food poisoning after eating this cake.

Just another weekend project

The last 2 weekends, I had enough fun experimenting with things that I put in a 'to-do-but-never-get-a-chance' list. I made yogurt. And I baked cake: Pandan Kaya Layer Cake.

My yogurt experiment went quite well. The yogurt was too runny for my liking. On the second attempt, I managed to get the texture that I want, at the expense of the fat and calories. Well, life is full of trade-offs. You can't get your creamy yogurt and not get fat!
Note: A friend who watched Oprah's Dr. Oz told me that calcium actually helped to bind the fat. So, if yogurt is full of calcium, so I don't have to worry about consuming too much of the full cream milk yogurt, do I? Again, I did not watch Oprah, so I don't know how true is the statement.

If people ask me on what can define the south-east asian food, my answer will be: Pandan. In the funny english terminology, it is also called screw pine. While green-tea is now such a hit, I still favour my old fragrant friend, Pandan. Although my son thinks that it's smelly, I still think that this is an exotic herb from south east Asia. Something that define Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai, and all the other Asian countries. The soft fragrance that the leaves ooze, that is so comforting.

People in Singapore and Malaysia are more than familiar with Pandan Kaya Layer Cake. I think this is a modern twist on traditional cake. The so-called pandan kaya fudge is supposed to be the kaya layer of the cake, made of coconut milk, pandan (screw pine) and green pea flour. It reminded me of the custard layer in kue sarlat. The same tastiness of the coconut milk. And don't forget the Pandan smell. The cake is either sponge or chiffon cake. I chose chiffon cake. Chiffon cake is not something that I have mastered, so I figured, it's good to have a chance to practice. For some reason, my chiffon cake always shrank after I took it out from oven. I figured it has something to do with the temperature management.
This time, I baked my chiffon cake in 160 C. The cake did not shrink at all, to my delight.

The fudge turned out easier than I thought it would be. It's not too runny. In fact I enjoyed making the fudge so much, I was thinking of making this cake every week.
One problem, though. My other half does not like Pandan. So, he sacrificed himself when he ate this cake for his breakfast.

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!