Just A Slight Delay

An announcement

To the Daring Bakers, do come back tomorrow for the post. I'm making the second batch of the challenge today and it'll be ready tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

Toodles~~

hehe...

Daring Bakers's Sweestest Challenge

Daring Bakers did it again!! this time it came back on track from savory (not that I mind savory through) to the awesome sweetness dessert. Sometimes crazily so. In particular this baby I we made this time around. The amount of sugar in this cake could easily gain me a few pounds if I eat the whole cake! Maybe it's because we haven't made such sweet dessert the last couple of months. Anyway, the hostess Dolores from Culinary Curiosity , and Alex of Blondie and Brownie plus Jenny of Foray into Food chose Shuna Fish's Caramel Cake as taken from the Eggbeater. (Hope I got that right)

Well, I have to say this is one challenge where I made it more than once in one month. And I still didn't get it right! (arrgh.. the horror~) let's start with the caramel first as it was the first element that I made (more like ruin). Ever heard of the saying "too many cooks will spoil the soup" ?? or something to that effect. Usually in the kitchen whenever I' baking, there's always some helpers around to clean em up (ain't I lucky?? heheh) Or when my hands are sore from making too much biscuits, there's always someone who'd vollunteer to mix the next batch of bicuits. But when I was making the caramel;

me: ma, tengok nie gule hangus die cam itam gle jeh?
ma, look at the caramel. is it too dark?
mum: laaa.. apesal lame sangat dalam periuk. memang la jadik camtuh
laaa... why did you left it too long in the pan?
me: abes nak buat balik ke?
then should I redo it?
mum: buat la balik
yup
there goes a cup of sugar (through I save it to cemomerate my first failure, ahaha)

while I was making the next batch of caramel

KJ: meh sini aku tengok gule tuh. (took the wooden spoon and start to stir)
come, let me see the caramel
me: eh, resepi die kate jangan kacau!!
eh, the resepi said NOT to stir!!
KJ: lambat sangat, biasekan kite kacau aje..
it's too slow, and we usually just stir it anyway
me: ye la.. tapi nie kan resepi laen (by that time all the sugar have dissolve! gasp!!)
yea, but this is a different resepi
KJ: banyak sangat pulak air die
why's there is so much water?
me: duh.. dah resepi die camtuh.. sebab tuh arahan die laen?
duh... that's according to the resepi, that's why we should follow the instructions.
KJ: biar je. lame2 kunng la die
just let it be. It'll caramelise later
me: *grumbles* Ok

after 15 minutes

me: sume da jadik gule ketol-ketol. aiyooo!!
all the sugar have become lumps!! my mum came,

mum: meh la sini aku buat. korang nie tak reti pulak buat gule hangus.
let me do it. how come you people can't do it properly.
me: then I'll just proceed with the other stuff (i.e; mixing, sifting flour, and creaming the butter)

safe to say, 20 minutes later, we lost our patience and proceed with another batch of caramel, this time, I followed the instructions properly and made a batch of golden caramel.

let it boil by itself. NO STIRRING!!

Right before it turns into caramel

Tadaa!!

then it was time to mix in the caramel.as soon as the caramel touches the creamed butter, the butter melts and then the caramel hardens and become lumpy! arrrghh, sh*&%^%@!#!! I forgot to wait for the caramel to cool down first. Daymed..

And to top it off, this was supposed to be a birthday cake for one of my friend. And another friend was supposed to pick me up in three hours!! Luckily, I still had that one jar of dark caramel I made earlier. I worked with the recipe right down to the frosting. And as many other's had put their frosting on top of the cake, I was thinking of putting it between the cake too. So I cut it into two layers and spread some of the buttercream. But, hey, one pound of confecctioners sugar? that's waaayy too much sugar. Good thing I tasted the cream before proceeding with the frosting. So I imediately scrape of the idea to top the cake with more buttercream. that's just maddness I tell ya.

The naked cake, very dark colour from the caramel

However, this is supposed to be a bithday cake and there's no decorations?So with some impromtu chocolate coating (more like chocolate slab) and some fancy iced writing; behold a birthday cake. not my finest cake, but hey, after a disastrous day in the kitchen, I had to have a break. Good thing it received an okayh from the tasters. Someone said it tasted like pumpkin! hehe.. maybe it was the darkish caramel? who knows.



by the way, I didn't get to take the pictures of the finished product as there were many people at the time and I don't want them to think I'm crazy; taking pictures of a cake at differenrt angles using a pda phone... hahaha..

p/s: the cake plate was home made too (layers of cardbord covered with foil paper). maybe next time I'll do a homemade box too!! ahahahaha...

UPDATE: I noticed that other people seem to have either a very dense cake of a fluffy one. My first cake was very dense as expected ( because we Malaysians also have a version of caramel cake which has a very dense, sponge like texture.) Seeing as others have done such wonderful fluffly ones, I decided to give it a try *erk!!* and this is what I came up with:

A dense layer in the bottom, and a fluffy one on top of it.

Guess I'll have to try again! but not in the near future *sigh*

Daring Baker's Tossing Blunder :)

Hey ya'all

I had a class the whole day to day and missed the revealing time, through it's still Wednesday! so technically speaking I'm not LATE!!! hahaha

so this time around, we're asked to bake PIZZA!! and not just a plain old pizza mind you. We were asked by the lovely Rosa to toss the pizza. Yup, you heard it right. We're supposed to toss the pizza and let someone (ideally) take a picture of it. I'm really excited with the recipe as it differs somewhat with the one I use for a pizza base. Plus, tossing seems like a fun challenge to do!



through the downside is, nobody was around to take the picture. and I don't think so I could toss the pizza high enough to give me time and take the picture myself (that would be crazy!! haha) and the crazy thing is, I actually TRIED doing it. (first I make it into 4 pieces. Then I worked the dough till it was slightly bigger than a dinner plate. And then, as I hold my breath,

the dough was flying up in the air.

Flour covered hand grabbing the camera phone.

Camera phone rolling over the table.

The dough falling flat on the table.

good thing it was cleaned specially for the occasion. That was the only time I tried taking a picture while tossing. I know, I know... it's stupid, but I just had to try it. hahaha..



so anyway, here's the picture of a finished product. As you can see, there's a lot of topping on one pizza alone. too much, I think. Well, my family like it this way. we been changing the topping ever since the first pizza was made. through one thing they have in common is the quantitiy and types of topping are always excessive in nature.


Don't forget to check out the other people here.

Till then, bye~ (I'm hoping we get to do something with mousse next month, hehe)

Daring Baker's Takes On Gluten Free!!

Owh, my gosh...

I'm very, very, very sorry for posting out late. I had completed the challenge in the first week, but I forgot to post about it yesterday! I'm really sorry Natalie and Shel..
so anyway,

This is the first time daring baker's tries on a gluten free free recipe (recipe here). It's also the first time for a savory challenge in DB. Wow, just when you think we'll be covered in sweet delicacies through out the year.

I didn't have any problem making the dough. the recipe was pretty easy. However, when the crackers was finally out of the oven, I noticed most of the sesame seeds had fallen off. I thought it would be such a waste that I just incorporated it into my dipping sauce :) My mom suggested to give it another roll after you pat it with the sesame seeds next time. Ah well, at least the seeds were in the sauce right?

it started off very small, I only knead and mix by hand

owh look how she grows!

roll it out paper thin on the large baking sheet. this one is about 14'' x 16''

sprinkle your hearts out, hahaha

the crackers was a bit dull on the taste it was crispy alright. And the toppings (i made it with black pepper, black and white sesame seeds, paprika and cumin) plus the dipping sauce manage to cover up for the taste.

bake and serve :)

Don't forget to check out what others have done here.


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After much thoughts, I'm not going to move out of this blog after all. There's so much recipe and there's also DB, so it'll be a waste to just dish this one out. So I going to turn this blog into a full foodie blog *yeay!!* I decided to just create another blog for when my mind is going on a rampage, hehehe..

Leavin

currently listening to : Explosions in The Sky

I'm thinking of leaving blogspot now.

had a hard time to access this blog for some time :(

so yea, I'd probably leave for another blogsite..

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So many cakes with much stories behind it. But I have no time to tell you since the ward rounds are already starting.

later~

This is a cake I baked for the daring baker's July challenge. Much work was put into this one, through I end up messing up a little bit. will post bout it soon!

Dorie Greenspan's perfect party cake. simply marvelous if I say so myself ;)

My Orange-Banana Birthday Cake :)

Van Houten's Rich Chocolate Cake

this one was a mess indeed. the top crack open like there's no tomorrow which end up looking like brown lips... hahaha.... the outer skin was a bit 'burned'. through it never tasted like ash or burned food at all. truthfully it tasted GREAT with a rich chocolate fill. maybe that 's why the recipe coated the cake with huge amount of chocolate ganache?

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An Early Celebration

haven't been updating again have we?

malas, malas...

anyway,

I went back home last weekend. katelah my elder brother was home too!! for the past two weeks!! they were keeping it quiet from me, just to surprise me. Ceh... huhu.. he brought back a lot of stuffs and spices. Weird ones, even for me!! the only spice I could recognize are bay leaves. all the other spices was definitely strange. there were even sticks with tiny white hairs on it. And my brother (who brought it back home) also didn't know how to use them! So we're stuck with some unidentified spices now. Through my mum said the soup made with two of the spices was delicious. Well, that's a step. I'll try something next week!

Wanted to bake something in Saturday, but by the time I woke up (read: 11 am) my younger brother is already halfway mixing through a butter cake. Using my ingredients. Shyte.. Ah well, he never done it before and I was in a happy mood as well. So I just went to shower. after showering, he is still not done yet with the cake and I took over. See, I can be nice.. So, later, he put in some essence;

me: what did you put in?

brother: orange essence

me: orange?

brother: duh. this is orange buttercake!

me: is that really orange essence? the smell is different la..

brother: (reads the bottle) shyte, it's banana's essence!

me: wuahahahhaha *evil laughs*

we still throw in the orange rinds and orange juice. So it's an orange-banana cake. Hahahaha.. then while I was putting the cake into the oven, the other family memebers are so busy ordering pizzas. I was like; heih? are they organizing a party? what for?

then it hit me.

it's my birthday this coming 30th July!!

and I just baked (well, half way through) my own birthday cake!

I was laughing all the way.

Owh well, at least I baked something. My mum put in some frosting and stars from my leftover ingredients when the cake was baked. Cut the cake and we had a large lunch :)

So, where's my hadiah, mum? huhuhu..


p/s: I made hibiscus jam from the flower petals my brother brought home (from Egypt) Will post about it later.

Going Back to Terendak!!

well, tomorrow's the day.

My one week holiday have finally come to an end. Starting tomorrow, we'd be prepping patients for surgery and on Monday, we'd start the class. The holiday started with four objectives in mind. Through, only one objective was completed and even that was barely successful. Ah, well, I can try again next time to increase my weight ;P

anyway, here's what I've made throughout the week.

Danish Braid for DB

Dorie Greenspan's PP cake

Strawberry Parfait

Chicken Pie

Chewwy Chocolate Chip Cookies

The cake and the danish bread took the whole day each. It was exhausting. But really WORTH it. For those who got to sample them, thank you for your comments. You guys really are my wonderful testers (read: guinea pigs) these recipes are definitely a keeper. I'm going to make them again in the future for sure. Just wish I could get some pictures before everything was finished.

Goodbye holiday, Hello SURGERY (takot)


EDIT: this was supposed to be up like 2 weeks ago! hahaha.. well, will update next week. Promise!