My cake!! Urgh!

What happened when u lost ur baking mojos? A "broken" cake I guess. That was what happened yesterday. Iman ada jamuan hari raya kat sekolah. I was supposed to bake a cake for her the nite before. But I dont have milk, and I was too lazy to go out. So, pagi semalam, aku pun buat ler cake. My heart wasnt really into it. I havent been baking cakes for more than 3 weeks dah. I just lost it.. I cant find my mojos even now..

It was a simple enuff to do cake, the devil food chocolate cake. No matter how limited the time is, I always managed to bake this cake to perfection. But yesterday was a disaster. The cake crumbled when I flipped it on the cooling rack. I guess it resembles how I feel inside. I wanted to cry. Everytime aku bake, my failure percentage has always been almost 0. But not yesterday.

Iman waited kat pondok guard at her school, hoping for mama's freshly baked cake, but only to be greeted with store bought cake. Takpe la kakak, nanti mama buat lagi ye. Cake semalam, mama buat popsicle cake je la

*sigh*.... 

Gambar Raya?

Errk.. Sadly, this year, kita orang lupa nak ambik gambar raya. I did bring back my camera, but I was on a different planet sepanjang cuti raya, and in the end, langsung tak ingat pasal gambar raya.

 Boleh tak gambar ni aku letak as gambar raya too? Ni on the way back to KL. I love this photo. This is them, on happy days :)

 This photo was taken on 1st day of raya. My friend Yeen made a comment, pesal gambar raya aku semua bertema kan katil. hahahhaa..

With my BFF, Sally, 25 years of friendship. TQ Azli for the photo :)

PS : I lost more than 5kg during Ramadhan. 

Selamat Hari Raya

After two weeks of MIA, I'm back!! Thank you everyone for the support. I really appreciate it especially the emails, sms-es and calls. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Sempena hari raya yang mulia ni, izinkan aku memohon maaf diatas segala kekurangan, terlebih, tersalah, tersilap, dan segala2nya. InsyaAllah I'm back for good :)

Lost....

The truth is, I've lost my blogging mojos. I updated my blog daily, but, there's no essence in it. Too many things in my mind now. Some days I feel like crying, some days, I feel like laughing. But the crying days came more often that the laughing days. Bila K.Lili post a beautiful doa on her blog, I cried buckets

"I know you are there ALLAH. I know you see my tears. 

I know you hear my prayers. I know you are testing me.

And all I ask from you is to strengthen my Iman, so I can handle the struggle in life and have patience.

I love you my Lord. My Allah. Please keep me safe." Ameen.  

 

Wordless Wednesday again..

..........

Pandan Coconut Cake

Bila cakap pasal Pandan Coconut Cake, aku teringat Silver Bird cake. Their pandan coconut cake is the best. But it's sold chilled, so bila nak makan, kena thaw. Dulu, masa aku mula2 beli, it was selling at RM4.90. Now dah naik to RM6.90. Dah lama aku tak beli.

Semalam, entah apa hantu yg dah merasuk, aku teringin sangat nak makan cake tu (sebenarnya nak try bundt pan nordic tu.. hehehe). Setelah puas google recipe and study few recipes, aku decided to use the recipe by joy of baking. Bila kek tu dah masak, aku was at awe with the result. I should have bought nordic pans earlier. True, as Rima said, you can never go wrong with Nordic.

I baked the cake for iftar semalam, pagi tadi aku bangun, cuma tinggal 1 slice je lagi. Separuh telah dihabiskan oleh Shariff dan Raina! Luckily aku sempat merasa and hubby pun sempat makan last nite. I give some to Nisa and Ju.I love this cake a lot! It's very moist and soft. Bau cake pun sangat harum because of daun pandan and santan.

 

Pandan Coconut Cake
Adapated from Joy Of Baking

Ingredients

6 large eggs - separate

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 3/4 cups  granulated white sugar, divided

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

300ml coconut milk/santan

120ml of air daun pandan (from 4 helai daun pandan yang di blend)

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Method

1. In a mixing bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. In bowl of electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes). Gradually add 1 cup of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

3. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and santan mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.  

4. In a clean bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, (or with a hand mixer) beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup (50 grams) of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. 

5. With a rubber spatula gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites until combined. Do not over mix the batter or it will deflate.

6. Pour into the prepared pans, smoothing the surface with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in center.  

7. Place the cakes on a wire rack to cool, in their pans, for about 10 minutes. Then invert the cakes onto a greased rack.

Perfect Cake?

Among other things that I ordered from amazon are nordic pans. The result?

Perfection!

Barang from Amazon. Yay!

Rumah ku yang bagai tongkang pecah..

 

One row of kotak

 Another few more boxes at another corner

 Eh! ada lagi few more boxes kat different corner

Luar pun ada!! 

TQ K.Siti tolong angkatkan the boxes!! Kitchenaid pun semua dah selamat sampai, alhamdulillah. Thank you to those yang ordered the kitchenaid. Rumah aku dah jadi tempat borong pinggan mangkuk. TQ Suzana!! *muahs*.

A Day at Bookxcess

We went to rumah K.Mei semalam. Takde pun niat nak pegi bookxcess. Tapi bila dah sampai rumah K.Mei, tengok jam, baru pukul 12 noon, rasa macam rugi la pulak kalau tak gi mana2. So, K.Mei pun ajak pegi Bookxcess. Kalau duduk kat bookxcess, seharian pun takpe. I love going there. I can sit and read the whole day kat situ.

Sampai je kat Amcorp Mall, rasa nak demam kejap tengok parking yang penuh. Aduhai! Aku terlupa kejap yang Amcorp Mall on weekends is always crazy. The flea market kat ground floor is an attraction. Every weekend, penuh dengan manusia because of the flea market. Luckily it didnt take me long to find a parking spot. Kita orang lepak kat situ sampai pukul 3pm.

At 2pm, ada story telling for children kat situ. Iffah wanted to join the session. Iman and Zuleika were like bleh.. Dia org cakap it's for small kids. And true enuff, they were the only young adults there. Hahahaha.. The rest, kanak2 ribena yang berumur bawah 6 tahun. Terkulat2 muka dia orang duduk kat tengah2 tu.

 Iffah segan sangat, dia duduk kat tepi rak buku kat belakang tu. 

 Look at Iman's trade mark, the brooding expression. 

The animated story teller.

Pelas Jagung

Bila hubby takde, memang malas sangat nak masak beria2 for berbuka. The girls only eat what they want to eat which normally will be meehoon soto. Aku pulak, sangat la malas nak makan bila takde kawan. So, for the past few days, our iftar menu, teramatla sempoinya. Nak gi bazaar ramadhan, memang kim salam la. Aku dah lama boikot bazaar ramadhan. Besides food yg cepat basi dan tak sedap mana, orang yg bersesak2 macam semua kebulur sebulan tak makan buatkan aku rimas.

Satu lagi, pakaian yg menjolok mata. Kat Melawati ni, dah jadi mcm trend pulak gi bazaar ramadhan pakai baju seksa2. Why seksa? Sebab kesian kat orang2 lain yg berpuasa tengok. Nauzubillah anak2 aku berpakaian macam tu.

Malas nak mengata orang bulan ramadhan ni. Actually kalau bukan bulan ramadhan pun aku malas nak mengata orang. Letih! Back to iftar semalam, makcik ton suggested a menu yg selalu dia buat kat Jawa during iftar. Something new, aku tak penah makan before, and sedap yang amat. Iffah and Iman pun suka, tapi for kids, aku suggest to kurangkan pedas.

It's very important that bila kepalkan the pelas, make sure, it's nipis so that pelas tu garing.

Aku makan at least 10 bijik!

Pelas Jagung
Adapted from Makcik Ton

Bahan2
4 cups jagung - coarsely grind using dry blender
6 tbs tepung gandum
4-5 helai daun limau purut - mayang halus
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

bahan blend
1 tsp jintan manis
1 tsp ketumbar
1 inci lengkuas
10 ulas bawang merah
3 ulas bwg putih
2 biji buah keras
10-15 biji cili padi (depends on how pedas u want it to be)
1 biji cili merah

cara2
1. campur jagung, tepung, daun limau purut, garam, gula dan bahan blend, adun sampai sebati.
2. the dough will be very sticky. panaskan minyak, ambik sikit dough, kepal dengan tangan and bentukkan jadi bulat dan nipis. goreng sehingga garing.

note : Some recipes added 1 biji telur. This is authentic Indonesian recipe. 

Best Brownies by Hershey's

I hate brownies! Why? Erm.. Aku tak sure kenapa. Aku buat brownies maybe 2 kali je kot seumur hidup aku. Or maybe more, but definitely less than 5 times. Iman and Iffah pun tak makan brownies. Their abah makan semua, but since now dia dah jadi health conscious, maka, cakes and cookies, dia memang avoid like a plague.

On the day aku antar kuih sekaya to rumah Ju, Ju balas dengan brownies which use recipe from Hershey's website. Tak sangka sedap sangat. But Ju letak cheese topping kat atas. Iffah loves it too. Dia kata sedap and suruh mama dia buat. Huh! Me? Baking brownies??  Aisey! Memang bercinta la nak buat. Tapi oleh kerana dah ada request from anakanda, maka, terpaksa la buat jugak.

Kebetulan, aku dapat Callibaut cocoa powder from Rina (Thx Rina), so, aku pun terus la study the recipe. I made minor changes to the recipe based on the review written by viewers.

Kalau berkenan dengan butterfly tu, sila place order for the silicon pan dengan k.min ye. hahahhaa.. pening kepala k.min :P

Best Brownies by Hershey's
Adapted from Hershey's

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter melted
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Callibaut cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used wanuts and almond slices)
• CREAMY BROWNIE FROSTING (recipe follows)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch square baking pan.
   
2. Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs; beat well with spoon. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in nuts, if desired. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.
   
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Prepare CREAMY BROWNIE FROSTING; spread over brownies. Cut into squares. About 16 brownies.
   
   
   CREAMY BROWNIE FROSTING
   
   3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
   3 tablespoons HERSHEY'S Cocoa
   1 tablespoon light corn syrup or honey
   1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
   1 cup powdered sugar
   1 to 2 tablespoons milk
   
   Beat butter, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla in small bowl until blended. Add powdered sugar and milk;
   beat to spreading consistency. About 1 cup frosting.

Tag by Citra

I'm honoured when Citra dropped by and told me that I've been tagged. I've always love Citra's blog because of the simple and yummylicious dish that she featured. It's fool proof too! And through Citra, I found Pide! Been in love with Pide ever since :)

Here goes.. I copy this from Citra's..

This tag is all about your own stuff. I think it's a great idea to highlight some long forgotten posts or some lonely, neglected, uncommented recipe ... especially during one's early days of blogging. I'm happy to be tagged by Citra to take part in this 7 - Link Challenge. That's 7 of your own posts in relation to the categories and then to nominate 5 victims bloggers to join in. No extra cooking or baking required. (I'll tag my food blogger friends). 

2 simple rules:

1) publish links for the categories below (1 link per category)

2) nominate up to 5 bloggers to take part.

     K.Nor of Secubit Garam

     Ju of Junotdbaker

     K.Min of Salam2benua

     Zarin of periukbelangazarin

     Rina of cintarina

Here are my links:

1. The most beautiful post:

Wow! This is hard.. Let me think..  It will be the Kek Batik Jawa. The memory of one of the earliest cooking classes that I attended with mok. Dulu, masa aku still kat PPP/ITM, mok selalu pegi kelas memasak. And aku la yang jadi mangsa kena temankan dia. Mok tulis in classic melayu rumi. Maka, aku la yang jadi tukang dengar, tukang tulis, tukang explain to mok. And because of those cooking classes too, aku jadi hook on cooking. Thank you mok. I heart you. 

2. The most popular post :

With almost 20,000 hit from Kongsiresepi.com, I'd say Buttermilk Pancake post is the most popular post. And it's a hit with the girls too. They love this pancake and their classmates adore it. Siap berebut among them bila bawak pegi sekolah.

3. The most controversial post. 

Why is  Lompat Tikam post so controversial? Actually, takde la controversial sangat. Cuma it's more of sakit hati when someone made a comment about the possibility that aku bagi recipe salah sebab taknak orang buat lompat tikam menjadi. I was like... WT... you can read it here. 

4. The most helpful post

I'd say, this Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread Step by Step is the most helpful. I actually took the time to take photos with the help of Iffah because many bloggers thought I weaved the bread to make it look like that. It's a beautiful bread :)

5. The post that was suprisingly successful

Alamak!! What post?? Haiyo! Wait! Lemme think.. It has to be the Upside Down Pizza. I wasnt planning on baking that day. But Ju made a suggestion for me to bake this pizza. It took me 15 minutes to prepare this and voila! It was ready in less than 1 hour. Suprisingly, it's also in the top 10 post. LOL.. 

6. The post that did not get the attention it deserved

I made this Banana Cake many many times over the years. I did post the photo aeons ago but of course it didnt get any attention it deserved. I'm telling you, the recipe is a keeper. Once you taste the banana cake, you wouldnt want any other banana cake. Tak caya? Cuba la buat :P

7. The post that I'm most proud of

It's beautiful, it's breathtaking and it's perfect!! Iman and Iffah were very excited with the cake. I was estatic with the result too. It's one of the most talked about cake in the bloggersphere, The Rainbow Cake.

10 Ramadhan - Butir Nangka

One of the must cook dish during Ramadhan. Tapi aku buat masa bulan Ramadhan je sebab tak kuasa nak menggentel banyak2. hehe.. Normally, Makcik Ton akan buat the dough and gentel jadi small oval shape butir nangka. Aku akan buat the kuah.

Oleh kerana semalam adik aku, Mas nak bukak puasa kat rumah, and aku pulak malas sangat2 nak masak, so aku cooked nasi ayam and buat butir nangka. I used K.Lili's Hainanese Chicken Rice for the nasi ayam. Memang senang, masak kurang dari sejam, dah siap. Instead of using whole chicken, aku guna ayam yang dipotong 4.

Butir Nangka

 Bear and Monkey from Shariff. Sibuk la suruh letak tepi butir nangka tu.

Butir Nangka
Dough
Tepung Pulut, air daun pandan - uli, make sure dough tak terlalu lembik and boleh digentel menjadi bujur. sama dengan dough onde onde

kuah santan
500ml santan
500ml air
2 inci halia - mayang halus
1 tbs halba
1/4 tsp salt
8-10 tbs sugar

cara2
1. Panaskan santan dengan air sampai menggelegak (mine is really cair sebab bila dah masukkan butir nangka, and kuah dah sejuk, dia akan jadi pekat), masukkan halia, halba, garam dan gula.
2. Masukkan dough tepung pulut yang dah digentel menjadi bujur, biarkan seketika sehingga masak. (once dah butir nangka dah timbul, maknanya dah masak). Hidangkan

Wordless Wednesday

 

Nasi Ayam Hainanese K.Lili Heta

Panjangnya title post aku hari ni.. hehehe.. Thank you K.Lili. This nasi ayam has become a hit among the girls. My girls jenis yg tak makan nasi ayam. Kalau makan pun maybe 2 kali setahun. Nasi ayam melawati yg famous tu pun dia org tak makan, ni kan lagi kalau yg i masak. But, the nasi ayam hainanese yg K.Lili ajar tu, licin! They love it so much. Siap request lagi nak nasik ayam this friday.

 I should have used beras siam AAA. Tapi takde stock. Terpaksa la guna beras tempatan. Tak lawa nasik ayam tu :(

 Iman loves the kicap.

Nasi Ayam Hainanese K.Lili Heta
Adapted from K.Lili

Ayam
1 ekor ayam approximately 1.8kg. Lagi banyak lemak, lagi sedap. - clean it, keep the lemak
2 stalk daun bawang
4-5 ulas bawang putih, crushed
4 hirisan halia - approximately 4 cm each
1 batang celery - potong 4
1 batang carrot - potong 4
1 biji bawang besar - potong 4


1.Clean and drain the chicken for at least 1 hour.
2. Kemudian, lumurkan garam pada badan ayam dan cavity, biar kan for about 1/2 hour. Then bilas sekali lalu.
3. Masukkan halia, crushed garlic and daun bawang dalam cavity ayam. Rebus ayam sehingga masak. Masukkan celery, carrot, bwg besar dan garam ke dalam periuk. Just before angkat ayam tu, sediakan ice water untuk submerge ayam tu to stop proses masak. I used huge basin with lots of ice. Celup ayam ke dalam bekas berisi air ais few times sehingga ayam sejuk. Drain dan ketepikan.

For the rice dan seterusnya, sila ke blog k.lili ye. :)