Birthday Baker

Oh yeah, that's me! And I'm quite happy about that.
After baking my own birthday cake, there were of course more birthday cakes to be baked throughout the year!

Here's one for MH which I baked last Saturday for her 21st birthday. Let's hope I can keep up with the important birthdays and make everyone happy!

Deja Vu

I think many food bloggers have a common problem. We avoid making the same thing too often. Because if we did, we would run out of things to blog about! But we all have recipes we turn to again and again, don't we?

So I baked white chocolate and cranberry jam cakes again. But it wasn't for myself! My classmate, Daisy, placed an order for these and a dark chocolate version (dark chocolate, peanut butter filling, nutella topping) to bring back to Indonesia for her family for Chinese New Year. Now I'm really glad because she placed the same order last year. Which means they were well received by her folks the last time!

And that makes me a happy girl.

I think I did a better job this time round with the cakes because they were more fluffy and had a moister crumb than those last year. And the white chocolate ganache isn't grainy like the previous time. I just have to work on spreading the topping on the cakes because I don't seem to be able to do it without getting the crumbs all over and destroying the smooth toppings, especially with the nutella. I think it has to do with the consistency.

More practices needed!

Valentine

心, originally uploaded by Ms_evinrude.

New Year Detox

First of all, let me wish you all a Happy Lunar New Year! I know I should have done that a few days ago, but hey, there's 15 days to it! (i suddenly realise how similar this is to my Christmas greeting) And of course they say it's better late than never. (Did I say this too for Christmas?) For you who doesn't know what the Lunar New Year is about, wiki is your friend!

With all the celebrations going on, all the food and booze, it's really about time we all got a detox. And what better way than salads?! You know how much I love salads. They're oh-so-easy to prepare and even more so when you buy wash-and-toss salad mixes from the supermarket. It's the first time I got the a salad veg mix from the supermarket and it's a change from the usual ice-berg lettuce that I always use for my salads (because it's like the cheapest salad veg around!). And it's so convenient.

I don't really have a recipe for this 5-minute salad but if you really want something, I could tell you how I mixed my vinaigrette. As usual, I think you should just add whatever you like to your salad. I love nuts in my salad because it adds texture and I'm not keen on eating like a cow. I added lightly salted cashews and almonds this time, because I love cashews. I also added some corn (after I took the photographs) for added sweetness.

I admit I wasn't eating healthy all the time. In fact, I've always liked salads but with mayonnaise or thousand island. And I've only started using healthier dressings like vinaigrettes recently. I think it's also because I like stronger flavours and I don't think I could ever evolved to eat salads only with olive oil.

Now, if you really need to know, I mixed some apple cider vinegar, olive oil, about half a teaspoon of honey, pepper and about 1 teaspoon of soy sauce together to get the dressing for this salad. I don't even remember the proportions. But you know, taste test!

Have I succeeded in keeping my blog alive and reminding you that it's time to stop the new year binge?