I am back!

I am sitting on my bean bag, at the usual corner at where I put my laptop, in my room here in JB. Ahh yes finally I am back in JB! Actually, it was two weeks ago. Mom frantically called me everyday, updating on our cats who were badly sick from a virus. All of our cats got infected and died eventually. But when Mom called and tell me Krystal (the second cat) who just delivered her babies died, I just couldn't stay still. I cried so bad when finally I texted Mom;

"I wanna go home.... So bad! Boleh?"

"Yes I know you're worried. Go and book you flight ticket"

And I was relieved!

It was two 10 days before Eid al-Adha and I already on plane flying back home.

To see one by one died including the babies was really heart wrenching! I barely had time for myself. We had to sanitized their home, fed them medications (twice a day), fed sick cats who lost appetite, fed the babies when the Mom(s) died, countless trip to different vet clinic and prayers (a lot!) along the way.

Phew.

And lost few kg which I think I will gain back in a few days. Oh no!

And, the last kitten died yesterday :(

I didn't realized I was exhausted until I spent a good 6 hours sleep that morning.

Ok. Move on.

Simple cakes I baked (again) for last Raya. OMG I am so backdated! Huhu. Sorry guys!

Chocolate Banana Cake

And American Chocolate Cake. Been trying to baked one since ever. Copied the recipe a year ago only managed to baked it last Raya :p

Wait, I still have some recipes to try! Hopefully manage to try all during my not-so-holiday!

American Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Kak Ummi

2 cups flour*

3/4 cups sugar*

2 tsp baking powder*

2tsp baking soda*

2 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp nescafe added to 1 cup of hot water

1. Sift together all * ingredients.
2. Mix all ingredients except the sifted flour, milk and water in a large bowl using a wooden spoon. Beat well until incorporated.
3. Add in the sifted flour, milk and water and continue beating.
4. Pour into your pan and bake at 170 degrees for 45 minutes.

1 can condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup corn oil

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1. Mix all together in a deep saucepan and heat on low heat until it thicken. Continue stirring with a whisker for 10 minutes.
2. Turn off the heat and let it cool before spreading.

ps: Just so you know, this post was in my draft since 4th November!

Hydrangea inspired.

Engagement cake inspired by Hydrangea ;) Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese filling and buttercream topping. Thanks Haliza!

Good news!!

I might be around in November!

So you can place your order, InsyaAllah :)

Will let you guys know soon teehee!

Pavlova

Just like Kek Alunan Kasih and macarons, pavlova has also become one of the most seeking desserts. I was skeptical at first, I mean, what's there to eat other than the high content of sugar in it?

Even my mom couldn't stop telling me, "All you eat is white eggs and sugar!".

But it didn't stop me.

I'd never had the guts to bake macarons, so I tried pavlova instead.

The first time I tried pavlova was from Alexis. It was tall! It almost toppled over and crush all the berries on top of it. And I loved it.

Then people kept telling me Serai had a better pavlova. My friend tried it and it was too sweet! Darn.

Then I stopped searching high and low for the best pavlova.

I don't know why I stop, but I did anyway.

I always scared making something using eggs white so after few months, I finally made a pavlova last raya for some friends who were coming over. And let me tell you, it was the best pavlova! It wasn't that sweet as Alexis (and Serai as what my friend told me), but I just love love love it!

Even my mom kept on filling up her plate with it. I think she had more than any of us at home!

I think there's nothing much different between different recipes of pavlovas. I used the most basic one, well, mostly said that for every egg white, you should use around 50g if sugar.

Pavlova

4 egg whites

1 cup superfine or castor sugar

2 tbsp corn flour

2 tsp vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius.
2. Make sure you used a clean mixing bowl, free from grease or water, whisk the egg whites until stiff peak form. Gradually add the sugar until it become stiff and glossy.
3. Add in the corn flour and vinegar and continue whisking until it is just combine.
4. Line a baking tray with a baking paper. Trace you desirable size of pavlova (I used 6" here and got two) and spread the egg whites mixture on it.
5. Reduce the oven to 120 degree celcius and bake for 1 1/2 hour. Turn off you oven and let it cool in it.
6. Serve whipped cream and berries when it has cool completely.

As for me, I just left the pavlova in the oven until serving time!

Cakes & Cupcakes

Some from pre-Raya and Raya orders.

4" Red Velvet Cake from Farah. She lived next to our neighbourhood in JB so it was nice knowing someone from hometown :) Well Farah, I know you're supposed to giving birth this month. Hopefully everything went well :)

Mini Ladybirds.

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting from one of my student, Tiara.

My schoolmate, Haliza ordered a Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting, also as a pre-tester for her engagement cake (which I did! Will upload a bit later).

And a repeat order by Syima, a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting :)

My mom couldn't stand still seeing this cake. She kept bugging me to put something on the centre as it looked too simple for her. But I do love a simple cake :( I won anyway hahahaha!

And lastly, for Shikin. She wanted a red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I love this design so much! Had fun playing with the nozzle and love how the petals turns out.

Thank you guys!

Bread Pudding

One day, I realized that I baked too many bread pudding in a couple of months. One, because we always had bread leftovers by the end of the day. I was wondering what happened to us. We used to love bread, but in the end, there was only me and my bread.

I was itching so bad to bake my students. And I was itching very very bad to finish the stale bread.

So there, banana bread pudding.

I used Dole's banana for this one, which had a strong fragrance and taste compared to other types of banana.

There's nothing special about this pudding, at least for me. But some of my students loved it so, try it then you know. Hehe.

Banana Bread Pudding

2 cups milk

4 medium eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp vanilla essence

1 loaf a day old bread, shredded

2 bananas, sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celcius and grease your baking dish.
2. Mix eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla essence until incorporated. Stir in the bread and let it soak for 5 minutes.
3. Pour into your baking dish, toss the banana slices and bake for an hour.

But my suggestion is, toss the banana into the mixture together with the bread.

And this is bread and butter pudding. Recipe you can google kot? Hahahaha. Nothing special also. I still prefer Paula Deen's bread pudding!

Actually, I have one more bread pudding but I couldn't find the picture (or maybe I forgot to snap cis).

RV

My bestfriend, Nana ordered a Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and fresh strawberries for her boyfriend's birthday. Alhamdullillah, eventhough I left all my baking utensils in JB (because I am based in JB now) and brought only the basic thing to KL, the crowd loved it! So much!

Haha the wording was a bit weird actually. I was in a hurry, I only had few minutes and forgot to buy the plastic cone (ok lupa apa tah nama dia) so huhuhu sorry Nana! Even nama boyfriend termanja disitu yea hahaha.