Sponge Chiffon Cake

Are you confused with my blog title? So is it a sponge cake or a chiffon cake? Well, I'm not sure either. All I know that it was really soft and moist and it turns out more like a sponge cake but I used a chiffon cake recipe. Hmm, great!

I made this on a Saturday afternoon while Bryan was enjoying his tv time. Actually he is in front of the tv on most times if he is awake but as usual, he never sits more than 5 mins at a time. So in between whatevers on tv, he will be running about or calling out for me or wanting me to carry him (still!) like 20 times within one cartoon show. Anyway ...

To start things off, I dont have a chiffon pan, so I used my regular 8" round pan and I think its because of this that it turned out more spongy than being a real chiffon. It didnt have the height of the pan to help it rise nicely. But it was a good try for me. My first time. I've read of so many failures in attempting chiffon cake recipes but I was happy with mine.

Ate some for Sunday breakfast, then tapau-ed some for in-laws to take back home. Left a few more for breakfast today and some for my mom to try this morning. Hope she likes it. So this is how I usually spend my weekends lah .. stay home and be a good mother & housewife *blek*.

My All-New Kitchen Aid Baby!

Just like many other bakers (and bakers wanna be like me!) there is always this choice that you have to make between a Kenwood or a Kitchen Aid. Its a never ending debate if you log onto forums what discuss which one is more superior than the other!



I had a chance to see one of the local baking sifu at her home and she was using a Kenwood Major. It was pretty bulky and noise compared to the Kitchen Aid I was eyeing the past year. Despite it being a "Major" model and big physically, it was light! The sifu placed her Kenwood on top of a pedestal and the pedestal was moving like 5 inches away from the original position within 10 seconds of beating on high! And boy, was it noisy!


Therefore, my choice would be a Kitchen Aid! Its smaller and more svelte in size and looks really sexy with its natural curves ... hehehe. And its very stable! It does not move and inch even on high speed! And its pretty silent too, which was good cos I can whip up something late at night and my neighbours wont complaint. Oh boy! How I love it! And the colors are so vibrant and can brighten any kitchen up!


However, being a very simple me, I decided on one of the safest colors in the world. It blends well into my kitchen (ie not standing out!) and that is what I want. My focus in my kitchen is the kitchen and not its appliances *wink*.


What's your choice?

Instant Nasi Briyani ... almost!

I feel slightly guilty if I dont cook on dinner on Sat nights. Cos its the only day we get to eat dinner alone (just hubby & me, Bryan too of course) and on most Sats, we tapau something simple like fried rice, fried noodles and these days, hub is hooked on this nasi lemak with fried chicken from pasar malam that he accidentally discovered!

While at Carrefour, I spotted some instant nasi ayam, nasi briyani and even nasi tomato packs which I thought was a good idea since it was so quick and simple to prepare. So I decided on a nasi briyani as a start.

Asked mom to help me marinate some chicken thighs in curry powder (Indian style) overnight. And I was thinking of something simple like just fried eggs and fresh cucumbers as side dishes to complete the meal.


The brand that i bought was Chef Bop. It consist of one package of brasmati rice and another smaller package of curry paste mixture. All you have to do is to wash rice (as per normal lah) and add 480ml of water then add the curry paste mixture into the rice and mix thoroughly. Add a pinch of salt. Then cook rice (as per normal lah again) in rice cooker for abt 20 mins. At this point, I added some golden raisins and almonds and gave it a quick stir. Continued cooking rice for another 10-15 mins until done. That's it.

Verdict:

Rice does not taste like Briyani at all (ha!ha!) Maybe more like nasi kuning than briyani. But it was ok. I liked it cos it was different from our daily brown rice. At least this one has got raisins & nuts .. hehehe.

Will I buy it again?

Yeah why not? This pack can feed abt 5 adults (average eaters lah) and it does taste ok. Its more like a flavoured rice and can be convenient for entertaining small number of guests.

Pianist in the making ...

I never thought of sending Bryan to music class since he has yet to turn even 3. I always had in mind to only 'expose" him to "extra curricular activities" at the age of 5. What I have in mind for the future is one musical instrument class and one sport. Or maybe 2 or 3 types of sport for a start but to later stick to one. Or let's see what he enjoys more. Or I dont know lah, let time tell .. hahaha.

This pics was taken at BIL's place during CNY. He just loved hitting on the keys! At some point, he is like pro! It's his first time ever setting foot (oops, sorry, setting fingers) on a real-sized musical instrument and I think he loved it.

Will see if there are some musical classes nearby our housing area.

1Malaysia cupcakes anyone?

Last Friday was a public holiday and coincidentally, I had some ex-colleagues visiting the country from Sweden, so we decided to have a pot-luck party at one of our ex-colleagues houses. As usual, we prepared/bought local food like siew yoke, roasted duck, satay and some really delicious home cooked hainanese chicken rice for them. And not forgetting "lou sang" cos its still Chinese New Year mah. Boy! Did we toss them high alright!!!

We all loved the times we had at this ex-company but due to unforeseen circumstances, most of us headed our own way but we do make it a point to meet at least once, if not twice a year for a gathering with our families.

Bryan behaved quite well simply because there were tonnes of toys for him to play (nevermind if they were Barbies!!) and thank god there were 2 hamsters to keep him occupied too.

Albeit all the fun and laughter, we got to know towards the end of the party that, the ex-colleague who was hosting the meet, has decided to migrate to Australia for the sake of his kids. We were happy for him, but sad to have another friend leaving the country. Sad that we have less one friend in town. Sad that our group is really parting in more than one way. Life is such right. He has been a really wonderful friend to all of us and I am sure we will meet again. After all, Australia is not THAT far away .. only 8 hrs flight mah ... hahaha.

For dessert, I made some cupcakes. I baked a chocolate cupcake (my first time) and had no idea how to decorate it. I didn't want to tint the icing into too many colors, so I stuck to the original and thought it would look great by just decorating it with sprinkles. And they turned out like ...... 1Malaysia cupcakes, dont you think??? I had a good laugh when I completed it, but sorry, too late to bake again.