A Week of Thursdays

Howdy folks!

It's been very Christmassy here at home. I've been baking cookies and wrapping tons of presents. 'Tis the season!

I have, this week alone, baked 2 different kinds of cookie, made a chocolate tart and wrapped approximately 22 presents. I feel accomplished:) I still have 2 more batches of cookies to make and a couple more presents to complete. But hey, Christmas is still 3 days away.

OMGLOB!

I JUST REALISED THAT CHRISTMAS IS THREE DAYS AWAY!

THREE DAYS!

THREE!

AHHHH!!! :)

Ok. I have calmed down.

I am really excited about this Christmas. I'm actually baking more than one cookie. I usually just make one batch of butterscotch melts and mum buys the rest. But this year, we're not getting any from outside so it's up to me to make sure that the coffee table is stocked with cookies!

Which is why I have made 2 different types of cookies so far. The usual butterscotch melts and chocolate meringue cookies. I still have to make the peanut cookies and coffee snow melts. So, yes, this Christmas is definitely special.

The other thing that makes this year special, at least for me, is that I've actually managed to get presents for everyone on my list. It has worked out beautifully. :) I made an effort and it paid off! I still have a couple more gifts to get but it is considered done.

So, good Christmas:)

Have I mentioned how excited I am?

I think I have.

Anyways, I want to watch Supernatural but I have them on DVDs and my laptop doesn't have a CD player therefore I can only watch it on TV. And that can only happen when I have control over the TV. In this house, I rank the lowest on the remote control controller list. So, not much hope. But 'tis ok because I have till 7th of January. :)

One more thing. Back when I still had classes, I had Thursdays off. And right now, this whole week just feels like one long Thursday. Everyday is Thursday!

Till we meet again.
Allons-y!

Short o' cake

Ok, so I've recoloured my blog. It looks ok now I guess.

I'm supposed to bake a cake for someones (or two) birthday which is tomorrow. It's a chocolate cake with some special butter cream orange icing. And chocolate fans!

Well, according to the recipes, the batter is supposed to fill two 8 inch round cake tins. Meaning, I'd end up with two round cakes. Then I'll cut the two cakes horizontally to get 4 layers. Problem is, I don't know what the book means when it says 8 inch round pan. Does it mean 8 inch in diameter or 8 inch in circumference? That's two different sizes, you know.

So, since I was confused, I used a 5.5 inch square pan instead. According to the logic in my brain, i should be able to get 2 cakes from that batter if I use the 5 inch pan. Logically la. But then again, how logical can that conclusion be when I don't even know what the book means by '8 inch round pan' ?

Anyway, I used the square pan and it turns out that the batter is only enough for 1 cake. Does this mean that the batter really was meant for one cake and I was supposed to make 2 batches? Why didn't they just say so!
Now, I have a 5.5 inch square cake that's not really very tall. It won't look birthday cakey at all. So, I have to whip up another batch of batter and bake another cake.

Which is when I realise that I only have 1 egg left. Not a good sign. So, I've sent bro to the shop to get some eggs. He's been gone for a while now. I think he sent his car for servicing too. Mangkuk.

Oh well, I'll just have to wait then. :P

Sensory Meltdown!

I love to bake (which I'm sure if you follow this blog, you'd know but I still want to mention:)). I make cupcakes and cookies and cakes and even non-dessert stuff like Shepherd's pie, roast chicken and roast lamb.

The savoury stuff, I love to eat. Making it is fun too but I'm not very good at it. I have no sense of what spices go together or if something needs more salt. Which is why I love to test my abilities on my own. I make stuff for myself. I'll give it to others if and only if it passes my quality control standards. Most of the time it doesn't but I get lucky once in a while.

As for the sweet stuff, I love to make more than eat. I may sound conceded but I'm pretty good at making the sweet stuff. I can adjust and bake by feel and I know how it's supposed to taste like before and after baking. My pastries and desserts turn out quite awesome powsome! Or, at least they used to. The last few times I made cookies (which was on Christmas day) and cupcakes (which is today), they turned out terrible! They're edible of course and not actually disgusting. I just can't seem to pass them through quality control. They're not as great as they used to be and I can't do anything to adjust. I feel like a failure. My sense of smell and taste have deserted me. I don't know if my cupcakes are good and I can't tell if my cookies are done right. I'm stuck!

Disappointment assumes me.
My sensory organs have failed me and I am lost!~

Who Live's in A Pineapple Under The Sea??

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!

I found something to get my blood pumping and all excited about making a cake! Jez just got her driver's license and she's a little stressed about SPM (trials and all) so I decied to bake her a cake. A spongebob cake for the spongebob freak!

I made an Almond Butter cake and used a creamy butter icing (as per the recipes given in the class I went for).

Work In Progress~~

I spent a little more time on it than anyone else would but that's because it's my first cake and I wanted to get it right. I found a picture of the 'Yellow Fellow' online and I used it as a template.

FINISHED!

I'm so proud of myself! I managed to make this cake all by myself and wasn't a huge disaster! At this time, I would like to thank Aunty Clara for teaching the ways of baking and decorating a cake:) THANK YOU!

Blueberry + Free Time + Recipe Book =

BLUEBERRY CUPCAKES!
It didn't take me long at all. I had all the ingredients so I just made it. Although, they didn't turn out very well. I think I might have over filled the paper cases because the cupcakes overflowed and they look kind of deflated. Passing oer the looks, however, they actually taste good. The butter cupcake is sweet and then once you bite into a blueberry you get a kick. A little chocolate on top wouldn't be too bad either.

not exactly an award-winning cupcake
but ILIKEIT!

Anyway, cupckaes aside, we (as in Aunty Lucy, my brother and I) are going to watch the Reluctant Saint musical tonight. I'm not really looking forward to it that much but it might turn out to be quite fun. We'll see.

Too Ambitious? NOT!

There are a few things I want to get of my chest.

First, I'm so glad I dropped Economy. The Macroeconomy teacher is really something. I honestly couldn't concentrate on my book while she was teaching. She punished almost everyone (with the exception of the new students) for not completing their notes. I don't understand this. She was the one who said that notes we're all up to us and she didn't care. Now she's punishing those who didn't write notes. What insanity is this? Also, she's so boring that no one understands her at all. Coming back to her voice, I gave up trying to read Harry Potter 10 minutes into her class. It was too much work. So I opted instead to finish up my Business Studies exercise. That worked well since I needed my full attention and the teacher's voice couldn't penetrate the concentration field I set up around my head :).Microeconomy on the other hand, isn't too bad. The teacher is really friendly and interesting. I managed to read Harry Potter in her class quite peacefully. But still, 4 periods back to back of Economy can drive anyone mad, even someone who's not taking the subject (me!)

Moving on, when I came home from school, I was finally in the mood for some baking. So I geared up for some major cookie-making moments. I took everything down, set up my apparatus and just as I wanted to start mixing stuff together, I found that the self-raising flour had expired, the brown sugar was disintegrated by ants and my favourite spatula went AWOL! What a discovery. Anyway, that didn't dampen my spirits. I ran to the store behind my house to get the self-raising flour. They didn't have brown sugar so I had to drive to the supermarket to get some. As for the spatula, I made do with the other one I had (not as great to use as the first but workable). So after treasure hunting, I was already an hour behind schedule. I started baking and just as I was about to put in the last batch of cookies into the oven, I remembered something important: I FORGOT THE SALT!! *sigh* After going through all that trouble to get the ingredients I needed to make some really great, chewy, chocolate chip cookies, I forgot the key ingredient. Now I'm left with salt-less cookies. They taste quite good even without the salt but my favourite part of it was the salt. I loved biting into that one grain of salt in the sea of sweetness. It was heaven, it was what made this cookie the best. Oh well, better luck next time.

Now, let's talk about dreams. On the off chance that you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll remember me mentioning something about a list of things I'd love to do before I kick the bucket. A bucket list, if you will. I know, I know, a bucket list is a for when people know they're dying and they want to experience things before they die and a list is the best way to organise their thoughts. But if you think about it, we're all dying anyway. In fact, I'm dying right now while I write this and you're dying as you read this. It's a fact of life, we're mere mortals and death is a part of life. So, about my bucket list, I want to start crossing things out as soon as possible (crossing them out after I've done them, not because I changed my mind or gave up on it, that's not an option). One thing I know I can cross out this year is to drive from North to South (or South to North) on the North-South Expressway. I'll do it on a holiday and I won't stop for sightseeing. It'll be a pure journey. I'll stop for petrol and food and stuff like that, but nothing else. It has to be during a school holiday, and non-peak periods. I'll work out the timing soon. One kink is, I'm located kind of in the middle of the NSE. So I'll have to travel to the south ('cause it's nearer) and then drive up north to complete the journey and cross out one thing on my list. Then, I'll have to drive back south till I reach home. So technically, I will have driven twice on the expressway :P

So, that's all for now. Enjoy!