Tag Archives: dessert

Decadent Milo Layer Cake

I’m looking for guest posts once again! The guest post can be a recipe post, a “tips” on how to bake/cook something post or a nutrition related post. Just email it to qiting93@hotmail.com and I’ll get it up and going!

Warning: please do not read if you’re very prone to depression or to having suicidal thoughts. Scroll to the bottom for the recipe.

Sometimes, the person who seems to be happiest on the outside is the most depressed. Sometimes, the person who seems most patient on the outside is the angriest. Sometimes, the person who seems most outgoing is actually the most inconfident and lonely. Its sad, but its the truth.

even if you don't feel like dancing at all.
even if you don’t feel like dancing at all.

It all goes really well.

You learn to deal with it.

Hiding the pain becomes easy. When someone says something that hurts, you get used feeling the pain, hiding it inside and not letting it show at all. You learn to smile when someone says something or does something that hurts. They don’t know that what they say can hurt. You don’t want them to know. Until one day, you can’t take it anymore. The suppressing gives you headaches. Your depression is getting out of hand. Suicidal thoughts surface more often than ever before. You learn that suppression isn’t the answer to everything. You find it hard to smile a real smile or to genuinely find something funny. You remember the 5 years that you couldn’t smile at all. You don’t want it to happen again.

One of the troubles I’m having with this is this friend of mine. (I have no idea how I keep becoming close friends with people detrimental to my mental and emotional health but it keeps happening– somebody stop me please!!)

We are supposedly close. At least she thinks we are close. Because she’s able to share all her troubles with me and I’ll try to be really helpful and help her all I can. But the thing is, I’m never able to tell her anything because she’ll always turn the focus to her in the end. Say, if I’m having a bad day, I’ll be so happy to see her because yay, finally a friend in sight, and I’ll say “I’m having a bad day. This morning, blah blah blah happened…” and she’ll stop me mid sentence, saying “I’m so happy today! I had a bad day too last week and I’m still reeling in its effects though. A couple of my friends were so nice to me and…” In short, she’lll totally ignore me and shift the conversation to herself.

Every. Damned. Time.

And she wonders why I always seem happy. Hey friend?! Maybe its because you never bother to listen at all??!! I hate always being the comforter and never the “comfortee”.

"I'm always there for you, for every silly little detail of your life. 
But when I need you, you couldn't care less."

I tried to tell her this once, to finally share with her how I feel and this is how the damned conversation went.

(After she tells me about how she was sad that a friend did not talk to her for three days and was it her fault? What did she do wrong? And me saying he was probably busy, don’t think too much about it alright and blah blah blah because that’s all she’ll let me do.)

Me: Hey, you know I’m not actually not as happy as you think I am. I do have troubles too.

Her: Then why don’t you tell me about them?

Me: I always try but you always don’t listen and change the subject!

Her: Really? Maybe I didn’t know you were trying to tell me something! Maybe you should be more clear about it.

Me: Okaaaaaayyyyy…. I’ll try. So, um, these couple of days have been really bad for me…

Her: It’s been horrible for me too! You know, I had a meeting with my project group just now… (proceeds to tell me about her “misery” for the next 10 minutes and ignores me yet again)

As you can imagine, every conversation I have with her has become me screaming on the inside the whole time. The other times, she keeps telling me that she has the worst life ever when she’s actually freaking lucky. Her mother loves her and dotes on her like crazy. She hates peanuts and her family make damn sure not even half a peanut appears on her plate, as do the hundreds of other food she refuses to eat. When she has troubles, she has at least five friends who will listen to her troubles. She has never been through an illness worse than a flu, contracted any disease, is as fit as a fiddle, and aside from a false lack of confidence (she actually has tons of confidence. You need a lot of confidence to believe tons of people enjoy listening to you whine about how horrible or awesome your life is), has had a smooth sailing life. Yes she has been bullied, but even when she was, she still had at least 10 friends behind her during then, so she said after interrupting me when I was saying how horrible my childhood was, which really is terrible to the max, and you’ll know if you read my other posts. In other words, she wants everyone to think her life is horrible though at the same time, she’s trying to make sure everyone knows how terrific it is. When a friend has troubles, she pretends she can’t hear them or ignores them completely. But when she has troubles, everyone has to listen. One word– selfishness.

There are, of course, other things, but I think I’m already dedicating so much of this post to her its annoying yours truly.

Someday I’m going to find a friend who will not only share with me his/her feelings, but will let me share mine too. Someone who’ll give me advice and not interrupt me every time I say something, someone who’ll accept my deep and dark side but will not be influenced by it. Its hard. I thought I had found a good friend in that friend I mentioned above, but as usual, I suck at making the right friends, always finding the ones that’ll push me to suicidal thoughts and whatnot.

Someday, I’m gonna find a true friend.

And to all the horrible friends I’ve made before,

so many times… I guess its time for you to go.
"If your friends cause you to lie or pretend about liking or disliking, enjoying 
or loathing something. 
If you're having to change yourself for them. 
They were never friends to begin with. 
Choose them wisely."

Trust this man. He’s hell a lot smarter than I am.

And to end the “heavier” part of this post,

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MC1b

I made this cake for a great friend of mine for a couple months already. She’s a Christian like me, listens to me, is genuinely sad when she can’t offer me good advice. Although I can’t yet bring myself to tell her everything, I know she’ll always be there for me, and I’ll always be there for her, even though we are miles apart.

MC2

This cake is moist, crumbly and decadent. Its milo flavoured, which really means malted chocolate flavoured.

MC9

For the text version of the recipe, click here.

Pierre Herme’s Cheesecake, Blueberryfied

I’m looking for guest posts once again! The guest post can be a recipe post, a “tips” on how to bake/cook something post or a nutrition related post. Just email it to qiting93@hotmail.com and I’ll get it up and going! 😀 I’ll need as many as I can get.

In the past year, I decided to challenge myself in baking. Put aside all fear of failure. Step out of the basics. Venture into the world of gourmet desserts. Because that’s what “growing” and “learning” is supposed to be. Doing what you’ve never done before. Making most out of the money spent on buying the ingredients. Why make bread with flour when you can come up with a product that’s worth more with the same ingredients? Why spend the same amount time making everyday desserts when you can make expensive, exquisite ones? And need I remind myself of the beauty of all things gourmet? Those simple ingredients, through my hands and equipment, transform, from a blank canvas into a valuable piece of art. This is the beauty of baking. This is why I fell heads over heels in love with baking. Edible art.

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This cheesecake is easily a good example. Simple yet beautiful.

Recipe for crust is adapted from here, recipe for blueberry swirls is adapted from here, and Pierre Herme’s recipe for cheesecake is adapted from here.

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Its rich, heavy, with the just right amount of sweetness and a hint of sourness. Just small slice is adequate to satisfy a cheesecake craving.

Make it yourself for the full experience. I assure you– its good.

For the text version of the recipe, click here.

Hazelnut Opera Cake

After months of school in Taiwan, I’ve realised that there’s something scarily wrong in society. It may be the influence of the media, according to my analysis, that’s making girls feel that they have to conform to the media’s definition of what is “beauty” in order to fit into society. My skinny underweight friends in medicine complain that they are too fat while their chests are as flat as most guys and even flatter than some guys (you know, those who work out). They set weight loss goals which would turn them into skeletons while the other girls, still slim but of acceptable weight, whine about how they need to lose weight all the time. Its downright annoying, and to an extent, even disturbing. 

I can’t understand why people can’t accept their weight for what it has been the last 5 years of their lives (the same weight since past puberty).  My other friends tell me its because guys like girls that way– bony and slim– and so girls, in order to attract the guys they like, want to look skinny for them. Honestly, I doubt guys enjoy girls yapping to them about how they should lose weight without fail everyday. I believe its not the guys’ fault. True love is about loving the person for who he or she is, accepting the person for being him/herself, whether he/she is thin or fat, ugly or beautiful (everyone’s bound to get old one day). Trying to make yourself look skinnier to attract guys, or just because you want to look like a model is wrong. Its alright to believe in yourself, and to believe in God, because He will lead us to the right person.

More about “Fat Talk Free” here:

http://feminspire.com/fat-talk-free-week-changing-the-way-we-talk-and-think-about-our-bodies/

Find the “Fat Talk Free” Pledge here: http://bi3d.tridelta.org/Pledge

Alright, and what better than a calorific Hazelnut Opera Cake to end this post?

opera1

In case you were wondering, here’s the layering of the cake components from top to bottom:

Ganache

Cake

Coffee Buttercream

Cake

Ganache

Cake

Coffee Buttercream

Cake

opera2

This recipe was adapted from Honeybee Sweets

opera3 opera4

opera5

Recipe for Coffee French Buttercream was adapted from 萧影欢城

opera11

opera8

opera9


For the text version of this recipe, click here: Hazelnut opera cake

Ciao!

Super Soft Mochi 超軟又Q的麻署

mochi1

One of my favourite foods is mochi. That soft, chewy texture and fragrance of glutinous rice never fails to trigger my appetite. In Taiwan, I ate some of the best mochi I’ve ever had in my life, from 一之軒. It was super soft and almost melt-in-the-mouth, with the right amount of chewiness. I decided to come up with a copycat recipe, and here it is, made healthier.

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Sorry for the short post! Enjoy the mochi! 😀

Guilt Free Decadent Malted Marbled Banana Bread

Good ol’ banana bread. With swirls of malt. And studded with chocolate chips. Topped with crumble. A banana bread really can’t get better than this. That its low fat is just a bonus. 

The recipe for the banana bread/cake base is from: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/11/02/polka-dot-banana-bread/

I changed it by:

  1. Using sugar free maple syrup instead of agave or pure maple syrup
  2. omitting the 1 stevia packet
  3. using 1 cup cake flour + 1 cup whole wheat flour instead of 2 cups spelt flour 

The other changes, like marbling the bread/cake with milo batter are given in the following picture.

The ‘milo truffle’ mixture mentioned can be found here.

Recipe for milk crumbs was adapted from here.

I am submitting my post to Aspiring Bakers #22: Lightened Up Cakes (August 2012) hosted by Qi Ting of A Dessert Diet.

Aspiring Bakers #22: Lightened Up Cakes (August 2012)

Hi everyone! It’s my turn to organise Aspiring Bakers this time! Many thanks to Small Small Baker for giving me this chance 😀 

Okay, let’s get this straight. 

Everyone has a cake they love. Everyone. Whether they are a savoury or sweet person. But the problem is, stuffing your face (well, at least, if I stuff my face) with cake, you’ll pack on pounds. No difficult science around that. 

So! Seeing that, for the Aspiring Bakers theme this month, hopefully all the bakers out there would like to join in, baking healthily, or rather, healthier cakes! I’m really excited to see what you can come up with so please join in! 

Let’s eat Lightened up cakes this month! 😀

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Definitions

“lightened up” refers to either 1 of the below or preferably a combination of the following

1. reduced fat (by at least 30%)
2. sugar free e.g. using natural sweeteners like xylitol, stevia and maltitol, etc.
3. reduced sugar (by at least 30%)
4. use of unrefined flours (at least 50%) e.g. whole wheat flour, spelt flour, etc.
5. low GI
6. low gluten e.g. you can use glutinous flour, brown rice flour,  white rice flour, sorghum flour, millet, and teff. This option is similar to the previous Aspiring Bakers guidelines which you can find HERE
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Who can join?
Everyone! (if you do not have a blog, just send me a photo and recipe of your bake)

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How to join?

Step 1 :
Make a lightened up cake, whether sweet or savoury, in the month of August 2012 (thanks WendyinKK for correcting me!). This does not include stuff like carrot cake (kuih kind), yam cake (kuih kind), etc. i.e. No kuih, though things like ma la gao (馬拉糕) are allowed. 

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Step 2 :
Post it on your blog between 01 August 2012 and 31 August 2012.
Your post must include the recipe or link to the original recipe. If you are using a recipe from a book, please include the title of the book too.
Any entries that are posted outside the date range will not be accepted. 
Any entries that do not include a recipe or link to the original recipe will not be accepted too. 

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Step 3 :
Please mention that you are submitting your post to Aspiring Bakers #22: Lightened Up Cakes (August 2012) hosted by Qi Ting of A Dessert Diet and provide a link back to this post HERE.
Entries will not be accepted if the above is not included. 

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Step 4 :
Email to qiting93@hotmail.com in the following format:

Your name or nickname:
Your blog name: (omit this if you do not have a blog)
Name of your bake/dish:
URL of your post:
URL of your photo (one photo for each entry): 
(alternatively, you can attach your photo in your email).

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Please use “Aspiring Bakers #22” as your email subject. You may submit more than 1 entry.

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The roundup will be posted on 01 September 2012.

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If you are interested to find out what’s on the previous Aspiring Bakers #21: Gluten-Free Bakes (July 2012) entries, hosted by Hankerie, see the roundup HERE.

 
 

 

A Cookie Special

less than 8 weeks left!

till I leave Singapore for seven years or forever.

till I can no longer bake. (or for at least 7 years anyway)

and its all worth it.

So many years of struggling and trying to get there… all worth it.

 

That news is all for another time! For now, enjoy some cookies!

You know, that really shows nothing.

 

 

Yup, that’s it. Way better!

 

 

In case you were wondering, these cookies have chocolate chunks (hand chopped from a bar) and Oreo pieces.

A peep at the oatmeal raisins ones, which were ridiculously un-photogenic. Urgh.

 

 

The Chocolate Chips Marshmallows Cookies. My favourite! Marshmallows make a whole lot difference. They are my mandatory cookie ingredient.

 

Puffy, chewy, soft in the middle, gooey from the chocolate chips…

 

 

Recipe is from How Sweet Eats: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/07/giant-rainbow-cookies/

 

 

 

Try making them for yourself! You won’t regret!

 

(Below: failed madelines)

 

 

 

 

Fudgy Chocolate Cake with Nutella Frosting and Cheescake Filling

Sometimes, I’m scared.

When cockroaches fly-pounce onto my shirt (avoid bright colours near cockroaches).

When my health is out of my control because  even a change in diet or taking medicine doesn’t work.

When a “complex numbers” question appears on my examination paper.

When I dislocate my right wrist but can’t feel any pain.

When I’m doing supposedly-fun-stuff-that-are-not-so-fun-because-my-reflexes-are-not-quick-enough-when-cockroaches-are-not-pouncing-onto-me-or-when-scary-cats-are-not-chasing-after-me.

When I have nothing to do (rarely happens because my dear Toshiba is still alive and kicking thank God!).

When I’m baking cakes via the beating-egg-whites-till-whatever-peaks method (in this case, positive, healthy fear).

When my asshole of a brother aims his heavy and dirty basketball at me.

When I get reminded that the future is uncertain. Though it’s better now, life is still stuck at suck-ish, depressed, pissed and “my soul is stuck in the wrong body” stage. 

And people say praying works. I say it doesn’t work for everything. 

PS: Somehow, I think its rather weird to pray for cockroaches to not jump onto me since I’m asking for it by wearing bright coloured tops stained with chocolate, cake batter or whatnot. Those cockroaches don’t exactly deserve death. Poor little 小强s.

But as always, distraction works! Especially distraction in the form of baking. 

 

 

My friend and I made this for another friend’s birthday. Its a chocolate cake with cheesecake filling and Nutella frosting. As usual, because of Singapore’s crazy hot weather, the frosting liquidated almost immediately and needed multiple trips to the freezer. 

That said, it turned out fine in the end! I love the cheesecake in the middle, which balanced out the fudgy chocolate cake perfectly. 

 

 

 

Recipe notes:

Chocolate Cake is adapted from : My Baking Addiction

Cheesecake is adapted from : Pencil Kitchen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m getting sick of chocolate!

 

 

 

 

Like a Sachertorte

I made this cake with a lady friend of mine with an intense love for anything dangerously rich and calorie-laden, and who despite this, owns a slim physique. The world is unfair, I know– that is until I get well again. I will live for that day… if I do manage to get through the months and possibly a year or two leading up to it… 

Enough about me. Take note of purple nails and mature wear. That’s my friend. Or signs of her anyway. You’ll see another young lady in one of the pictures. Its a nice picture. You don’t get to see pictures of people around here. Take a deep breath and savor the moment. 

You’re looking at a ‘Sachertorte’ that has no characteristics of an actual Sachertorte, save for the cake base which is from a Sachertorte recipe. We frosted it with a thick peanut butter chocolate glaze that is too peanut butter- ish for some so its a failure I think. It needs whipped cream. Mountains of whipped cream!!!! I miss my Emlea whipped cream!

No prizes for spotting her. 😉

I highly recommend a ganache recipe that I tried 2 weeks ago. It goes well with this cake. 

Recipe for Cake is adapted from : http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sachertorte-231043

Use the Chocolate Ganache recipe from here: http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2011/04/tim-tam-cake.html

Revive Your Buns– Just another Bread Pudding ?

Since school ended last December, I’ve ‘discovered’ some really impressive stuff. So I decided to compile everything and call it “Wrappy’s Recommendations” (not “Qi Ting’s” because I don’t really like my name, because its given by some Buddhist Temple in Taiwan and I’m Christian.) Hopefully, I will pass this ‘enthusiasm’ to you guys.

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Wrappy’s Recommendations

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1. TOUCH (Season 1, thus far)

File:Touch s1 Poster 001.jpg

TOUCH is about this little kid who happens to be super cute, mute and is able to see the past, present and future through numbers. Every episode, he leads his really awesome Dad through a series of puzzles/ personal stories that are somehow related to each other in the most amazing way. The stories are touching, thrilling, sort of creepy, mysterious, heart-warming and just about everything everyone needs in a story (in this case, a really long one). Lori Rackl, of the Chicago Sun-Times, said the show “operates on the mind-blowing premise that people around the world are linked to one another and their lives intersect — with potentially major repercussions.” which is how I should have phrased it. That. That’s absolutely right. Michael Landweber of PopMatters called the show “stunningly effective” and praised “its mix of spirituality and science, familial and global struggles.” You get the idea. (Quotes from Wikipedia the FREE Encyclopedia. Isn’t the world getting better by the day???) And did I mention how talented all the actors are???

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2. SoundHound

In the midst of wandering around in Whatsapp (no idea what that is I now know what that is), Facebook, Instagram, and other privacy-invading, stalker- encouraging programs, probably few of you’ve heard of SoundHound.  What’s SoundHound?, you-who-don-t-know-how-to-use-Google ask.

I’ll put it this way. Let’s say you walk into a 7-Eleven, Cold Storage, Walmart, Whole Foods, or wherever there’s music. You hear this mind-blowing song. You have no idea who sang it or what song it is. You’re angry, pissed off at the world (probably exaggerating, but if its a good song, this is no exaggeration) for making you feel deprived for the last few years of your life. Here’s where SoundHound comes in. You activate the application, hit a button, and in about 5 seconds, the name and singer of the song appears on your screen, along with buttons that link you to its YouTube video and lyrics. And that’s how I found “Jetlag” (Simple Plan, featuring Natasha Bedingfield) and “What Makes You Beautiful” (One Direction). You can even sing a song to have it identified. I hope you sing in tune. Simply revolutionary! I have it on Android 😀

Curious? Check out http://www.soundhound.com/.

(Unfortunately, it can only identify songs in English)

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3) theoatmeal.com 

This website features tons of dumb, ingenious stuff. It’s taken me through a few of the times when I’m being stupidly sad. You’ll probably get hooked on it. 

Be sure to check out airplanes feature. Those are my favourite!

Check it out here: theoatmeal.com 

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4) Shake to Charge (for your Android/iPhone)

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This app transforms the kinetic energy (movement in the form of shaking)  applied to electrical potential energy (i.e. energy for your battery).

You get a workout AND your phone charged. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

Its supposed to work. I think it does. 

Then again, I’m easily deceived. 

Check it out here: http://download.cnet.com/Shake-to-Charge-Battery/3000-2094_4-12504829.html

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5) Blender

Sample images from http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/gallery/art-gallery/

Its not a real blender. You  know, for juices and stuff.

Nonono. 

Its a FREE 3D software. You heard me right. FREE!

You can make 3D images and videos of say, Nemo from Finding Nemo, your friend, yourself, your room, your favourite cartoon, anime, etc.

3D softwares are always a challenge to me. I’m still suffering from the after-effects of my blue donut and purple coke can. No joke.

Check out Blender here: http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/

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Nevermind the above. Its now time for this. 

On first glance, it looks sort of like a cake. Yet it’s not cake. 

No, its a bread pudding. And made from buns! Best of all, you’ll only need 5 minutes of preparation, excluding all the waiting time. Its the kind of bread pudding that’s not wet, that makes you feel like you’re eating s french toast cake, that makes you want to reach out for another piece. For the foundation of the bread pudding, its preferable that you use buns filled with a sweet smooth paste like red bean paste, kaya, lotus paste, nutella, peanut butter, cream cheese, etc. 

The recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen