Checkmate!

I nearly drove my mum up the wall with my incessant questioning about how to get the checkerboard pattern right...I thought I knew but after checking with her I realised that my method would have resulted in...disaster? Or something close to that.

Thinking in 3D gives me a headache 'coz its so ABSTRACT and confusing...but thankfully it was alot easier once I got down to making the cake!

Seemed to me that it was quite sometime since I did a mousse cake so I thought I'd do one...but I wanted something that was going to be a little different from the ones before.

Also decided to make a mousse that I haven't tried before so I went for a Chempedak mousse. It's one of my favourite fruits since I was a baby and the heady, almost perfume-like aroma of the fruit is rivaled only by His Highness, the Durian himself!

ARRGGHH. Stupid crinkles.

The surface of the cake was kinda ruined as I forgot to smooth out the crinkles in the aluminium foil covering the base of the cake ring and the crinkles on the foil got transferred onto the cake once the mousse  was set. The pattern also didn't come out as it was supposed to...one of the "squares" of mousse went missing amongst the cake pieces and it would have been nicer if there were more layers. =(

Guess it's back to the drawing board for this one.

Finally!

When I saw a picture of the Lemon Meringue Pie a few years ago, I was so utterly fascinated by it that I told myself I just had to make THAT one day.

Well I certainly took my time and got down to doing it today after a few days of 'research'. Spent the whole morning slaving and fretting over it and managed to get it out in one piece. I was supposed to do up my timetable today but...guess there are better ways to waste time away.

Didn't really know what to expect - this being the first attempt and all...but I think it turned out OK. Loads of room for improvement and modifications but at the end of the day, nothing blew up in the kitchen...so I guess its SUCCESS! =D

Kinda liked the look of it before it went into the oven actually(compared to the finished one above):

 Pardon the newspapers underneath hehe...

After waiting almost an hour for it to cool...I finally get to see what it looks like on the inside:

Gentlemen...Start Your Ovens!

It had been months and I was seriously itching to bake again...so I jumped at the first chance I had to throw something into the ol' oven!

Presenting......the very humble and traditional Chocolate Cake! Only this time, its eggless and according to the recipe, was supposed to be a very moist cake. Well it was...only that its hard to tell whether the cake is moist or not when each slice is smothered by scoops of heavenly ice-cream! 1 scoop each of Haagen-Daz's Strawberry and Macadamia Nut(awesome stuff) ice-creams. Hee hee...

The recipe was taken off the Net by my mom and she was looking for the right time to try it...I was more than happy to step in and do it! Extremely simple steps and pretty basic ingredients that are easily available anywhere. If you want to give it a go, get clickety-click on the link -> Eggless Chocolate Cake

The Cupcake Lineup

Cupcakes have been on my mum's mind for seemingly ages and she finally made a couple yesterday. It wasn't so much about eating them but rather, decorating them. I was amazed at how a simple forlorn looking cupcake could be almost unrecognizable after decorating it! Most of these(except for two) were decorated by my mum and sis. I was just so devoid of ideas that I just sat there staring before finally doing 2. =X

I present you now...the Cupcake Lineup.

These were the 2 that I came up with! Well 1 1/2 actually 'coz I only did the rose(I hope it looks like one!) design while my mum did the green bordering hehe.

A Sinful Slice...

Deciding on a cake for my sister's birthday was pretty easy. She loves chocolate and cheesecakes so I think it was QUITE obvious that a chocolate cheesecake was the way to go...but it was going to be very very RICH(think tons of melted chocolate and cream cheese mixed together) and BOY WAS IT RICH..!!

The innocent chocolate cake...

Cheese, cream and sliced-up cake...

After the 'grand' unmoulding...not the best looking cake you've seen though...

I really liked the decoration and the best part is that its extremely easy to do! Very fuss-free.

It took about 2 days to turn it out but it would have been alot longer had my mum not helped me all along the way, that's for sure. Decorating a cake always leaves me clutching at straws but my mum is always full of ideas so that wasn't a problem this time.

Couldn't resist grabbing a picture of the table...my mum has a real good eye for presentation!

The morning after...hehehe =D

If this isn't sinful, I don't know what else is!

Jolly Green Thing

Success!! Look out your window RIGHT NOW! You might just see celebratory fireworks in the sky sprouting from my room!!!

Well not exactly...but its the most decent looking chiffon cake I've turned out in 4 attempts. Not sure why but chiffon cakes are the hardest for me to make - so I absolutely hate them. I think they might have come up in my nightmares once or twice...deflating dramatically when taken out of the oven (if for some reason I 'm having a nightmare and I'm making cakes in it?!)

But my sister loves these little slices of air (its so light and airy, it feels like eating a mouthful of COTTON WOOL.) so I think it wouldn't be a waste to try and get it right.

Getting presents for birthdays are never easy for me - I just don't know what to buy! It's going to be my sister's birthday in a few days time and I'm still racking my brains.

Boy wouldn't it be GREAT if I could read minds??

Then again...maybe not.

Gooey Goodness

Blueberry Pie! Blueberry Pie! Get your Blueberry Pie here!!


Cake that went between the bottom layer of the pie crust and the gooey blueberry filling.


After slathering on the blueberry filling!


And the top goes on...


Fresh out of the oven. All done!







1)Slice 2)Serve 3)*gobble gobble* 4) Repeat.


Hehehe...