Short Update- Busy With School

   I'm sorry I haven't posted anything. Writing takes a long time, and I've more than enough to do at the moment.

   I have posted a few things about my new school though, on my other blog.

   If you'd like to know what I've been up to, and give some words of encouragement, do head over! I'd love to hear from you.

   I miss baking. I live at the school hostel, and there isn't really any opportunities for making cakes. I'm thinking of looking around for recipes for sweet treats that do not need to be baked. I know I can make cheesecake. Any ideas?

   I promise to go around and leave comments on your blogs this weekend. I miss reading and 'meeting' you. Take care and have a good week everybody!

 

Devil's Food Cake & Some News!

   Why do people have to name such wonderful sweet treats with such weird names?


   I shall speak no more on the matter or I'll never stop.

   I decided that I'd try a different version of the DFCC that I usually make, and went for this recipe by David Lebovitz (who is apparently a famous food writer. Forgive me for my ignorance).


   As usual, I used what ingredients I could afford and had. So this is what I put in and did, and it turned out well. You should visit the link provided for the original recipe.


   Chocolate Cake a.k.a. the DFC
   Source: David Lebovitz


   9 tablespoons cocoa powder
   1 1/2 cups cake flour (I used all-purpose flour & replaced (amoun) with cornflour
   1 teaspoon baking soda
   1/4 teaspoon baking power
   4 ounces margarine
   1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
   2 large eggs at room temperature
   1/2 cup water
   1/2 cup whole milk


   Preheat oven to 180C.


   Grease and line two 7-inch cake pans with baking paper.


   Sift cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and baking powder into a bowl.


   Beat margarine and sugar (for about  5 minutes if using an electric beater) until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one by one, and mix until well incorporated. 


   Mix water and milk. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture  into the margarine+sugar+egg mixture (F-M-F-M). Mix until incorporated.


   Divide into the pans prepared. Bake for 25 minutes. Test doneness by inserting a toothpick. Leave for 5 seconds and pull out, if there are no crumbs, the cakes are baked.


   Frost using your preferred frosting or follow the original recipe. I used the cream cheese frosting and ganache recipe that I usually use. However, this time I followed a tip I read somewhere and whipped the ganche until it was stiff. This sort of thickened the ganache and made it easier to spread and it wasn't as messy, but the result was a much thicker layer of ganache than usual. Some might like this, but I prefer what I usually do.

See how thick the ganache is?

   Anyway, I have some news! I've got my posting results! Insya-Allah I will report to the State Education Department (or JPN) on Monday. I'm going to start my life as a teacher! I can't quite believe it.


   Pray for me, and wish me all the best! I may be a bit occupied after this to have time to bake, but I shall try my best to post something. Meanwhile, if you're interested, I also write a blog dedicated to teaching in Life as a Teacher. I'll probably post there a bit more often than here. For one, I'll probably be moving away from home, and I won't have an oven Maybe I'll take photos of my cooking instead? Blergh. Do I even know how to cook? Oh well we'll see.


   Take care, everyone ;)   

Life is Good with Good Friends

   I went to meet my friend Wawa when I was in KL.

   I delivered the apple pie I made her.

   Since it was her birthday a few weeks ago, she got the pie pan as a gift. Hehe.


   She treated me to lunch. Yahhu! We had lunch at a food court at Times Square. The food court was interesting, it had stalls selling dishes from different Asian countries like Malaysia (of course!), Thailand, Japan, Korea, China and India, I think.


   This is what I had. Nasi Goreng Tomyam. There wasn't anything particularly Tomyam-my about it, but whatever. It was free!

   Wawa had a Korean lunch. I quite like Kimchi. I don't love it, but I can swallow it. Hehe. The beef was particularly good:

   Wawa also got some sushi. I love sushi!

   I hope we can go out again Wawa! I'll bring you a cake in exchange for  lunch next time!

Of Apple Pies & Carrot Cakes

   This was the day I made 5 apple pies and 3 carrot cakes. All in one day. And I had to catch a bus to KL after that too.

   First, let's look at the apple pies. I love making pie pastry, though they never turn out the same each time,. Unpredictable, these people.

   First, I made this for mum's cousin. It's quite a scare isn't it? I meant to just cut out holes using an apple-shaped biscuit cutter, but it turned out to look like this:

   Should cheer anybody up, that! 

   Next, I made this for my driving instructor, who unfortunately forgot to come and take it, so we gave it away to somebody else. I'll make her something else next time. It was quite the prettiest pie I made that day, I think, with the apple cutouts all around the edge: 

   I meant to leave this for the others to eat at home, but they gave it away to Little Brother's teachers, along with the second pie. Little Brother got 9As for  PMR, so it was sort of thank-you gift. Congratulations Little Brother, you nailed it!

  I also brought 2 with me to KL, one for Big Sister and her housemates, and another for my friend Wawa, for her birthday which was on 15th December. Latecomers, we both are!

   I only managed to take a photo of one carrot cake, which Mum gave away to her friend. I rather like this baking and giving away thing, it makes me happy (for getting the chance to bake something) and the people getting the baked stuff happy too!

   This is a recipe that I stick to whenever I want a carrot cake because it uses only 5 easy to remember ingredients. The only things that take time is grating the carrots and baking it. I sometimes reduce the amount of sugar, but it's okay to use the actual amount, it's not too sweet.

As usual, this is what I put into my cake, you can visit the link for the original recipe. Jules uses almond flour in her recipe, which she says makes the cake super moist but if you substitute it for all-purpose flour or self-raising flour like it did, it's still pretty good.

I love Stonesoup. Jules recipes are so simple, and so far the ones I've tried have turned out really nicely.

CARROT CAKE

Source: Stonesoup

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used corn oil)

250g brown sugar

3 large eggs

250g self-raising flour

250g grated carrots

1. Preheat oven to 170C.

2. Line a baking tin with baking paper and grease the bottom and sides with a little oil.

3. Measure the oil into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and whisk together until well-combined.

4. Add the eggs, one by one, until well-combined.

5. Sift in the self-raising flour. Fold in until well-incorporated. 

6. Thoroughly fold in grated carrots.

7. Bake in pre-heated oven for about one hour. If the top of the cake browns too quickly,  cover it with a piece of aluminium foil until the cake is cooked (do the skewer/toothpick test).

8. Cover with yoghurt cream cheese topping, which is really easy to make:

Yoghurt Cream Cheese Topping

I'm afraid I forgot to measure the amounts. Just whisk together soft, room  temperature cream cheese, castor sugar and yoghurt. If you want the topping to be stiffer, use more cream cheese. if you want it to drizzle over the sides, use more yoghurt. Add sugar to taste. 

If you like, you can bake the cake in a large, square pan. When its baked, cut the cake into little squares, and pour the topping on top, like a sauce:

This is also useful if you have to cut of the top of the cake to level it. Use the scraps for this, it makes a lovely dessert.