Let's bake away our friday night, shall we?

I stayed home on Friday night to bake 2 brownie cakes, 1 strawberry shortcake, 6 mini strawberry short(cup)cakes, 1 cheesecake and 1 oreocheesecake all in the name for charity. Not bad huh? And I did all of the above in 4 hours! I think, I've officially reached cake superstardom.

To be honest, I actually wanted to finish up the baking this morning, but I was on a roll last night. And when you're on a roll, you just don't stop, do you? Nothing, and I do mean nothing, beats seeing the butter+sugar+flour in their various proportions combine to form morsels of yumness. And of course, seeing your brownie falling out perfect from your (crisco-ed really well) William Sonoma pan really, is as good as having strawberries with champagne.

Okay, I think what was truly gratifying was that my tiny nuclear family wouldn't have to bear with eating the same thing for a few days straight. Which then meant that I could actually go CRAZY baking, without feeling guilty (which is a truly amazing feeling).

And in case you're still wondering, the huge cake with 'Cookie' emblazoned across it is my brownie which I'm damn proud of thankyouverymuch! Such a misnomer really, but don't the prints look amazing?


























I do need to make a special mention that doing all of the above within 4 hours wouldn't have been possible without the darling sister's help. My little commis de barrière's invaluable contributions really made cake superstardom achievable. (No, she didn't force me to do this)

So, till the next bake sale then (:

When life gives you strawberries..

you make a strawberry shortcake. Decided to bake a cake for a colleague's farewell over the weekend, and because Korean strawberries are all the rage at the moment- I thought the Strawberry shortcake would make a yummier alternative to any chocolate cake I could whip up.

Unfortunately - I did have a cake emergency! Imagine going back from your friendly neighbourhood supermarket only to find out that half your straws are rotten! Okay, that still wasnt as bad as finding out that I was on my way to finishing the second (and last) box of straws, double eeps!

Still, it did turn out pretty okay i'll say :) could have been better save for a few factors but yayness! looks better than the last one I did.

Mint

Meet my new-ish pot of mint! It has wilted and revived itself twice (after a dose of water) within the two weeks that I've had it. Not bad huh?

Don't get me wrong, I haven't been deliberately ill-treating my mints- its just the mercurial weather that we've been having that's causing all these freakish behavioural patterns. Plus, I've been conscientiously watering it- once in the day and once at night. Yay me!

Now I sound like I'm suffering from pre-mature aging (with me being proud of my plant and all). Or maybe, I'm just really looking forward to retirement.

Marbled.

'When I ORD-ed, you guys were still playing marbles!', said the dad randomly in the car one day while sharing another anecdote from his army days.

While I'll never get the chance to go through the war paint, sweat and mud (thank god), my life has been a pretty marbled mess. And all that talk about marbles resulted in inspiration for the rainy Sunday so I went back to basics with the marble cake. Yes yes yes, its all incongrous and all too random but you know what, I couldn't care less. After all, it is probably the cake unanimous with my childhood days where things were simpler and a whole lot less complicated.

Decided to attempt two different looks- one with the marbling done on the surface and the other not so much marbled but layered. Both turned out pretty good, I'll say.

And I'm just hoping my marbled mess turns out sweet.

Flippancy

Zero commitment. Proclamations of those three words are said way too much.

Neat resolutions and proper endings are just fabrications of the media, non?

So let's just sod all the expectations society has imposed, forget the world. And breathe.

Maybe decisions made will be better ones. And even if they aren't, at least a chance was taken.

Push the (shortbread) buttons

Seriously, where do my weekends go too? I've begun to feel that somehow, two days never ever seem enough. On top of that, I've gone as far even to decide that maybe somehow, a lack of a social life and spending more time spacing out and doing my own things doesn't seem half as bad.

D-I-Y Sunday involved the sister and me furiously shaping shortbread into buttons before the merciless heatwave our country is currently facing softened everything to nothingness. But external factors can always prove to be useful excuses when things don't usually go your way. Attempt Martha Stewart in a non air conditioned kitchen was really not the wisest move.

And yes! the cookies are PINK! I think the heat finally got to me.

of Yogurt Cakes and The Invasion of the Monkeys

I've been in a bit of a yogurt renaissance at the moment. I used to go crazy thinking up crazy variations of yogurt cakes back in London (and despite that, usually almost always ending up with the lemon poppyseed yogurt cake). But being in SG where poppyseeds are almost non-existent and where mommies are going eww to the idea of yogurt cake, I've dismissed any inclination or desire to even suggest, let alone attempt to embrace it.

Seriously, it is different living with 3 guys who would eat almost everything I bake with extremely supportive attitudes and living with the mom and sis and the dad who doesn't eat anything with fruits in it. The idea of a much lower average consumption and too much wastage (and eating the same thing for breakfast 3 days in a row) has constantly weighed on my mind.

So thank goodness for the lunar new year holiday break - where an abundance on food is actually encouraged! Baked up a mandarin orange version of it on the eve (for our visitors as a change from the usual bakgua snacking) and a blueberry version on the 7th day (since it was 人日). Blueberries, unfortunately, were a tad sour, so thank goodness the sweetness from the yogurt cake helped to counterbalance a little. Is it too much to ask for sweet blueberries? ):

On a separate note, the monkeys from the forest nearby have once again restated their claim over my neighbourhood. But this time, they've actually taken to walking into more kitchens (mine included) and stealing the lollipops we bought for the nieces.

Looks like a huge scrub down and dettol-ing is in order. Sure hope the invasion is only temporary.