Tag Archives: snack

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.

Super Soft Mochi 超軟又Q的麻署

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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! 😀

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)

 

 

 

 

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

B-Caraibe (A Vanilla-Chocolate-Banana Entremet)

I don’t believe in hate.

Everyone has a good side.

When someone is hated, he was seen most for his flaws and less for his goods.

Loving everyone. Someday, that should be a rule.

This couple of days, I’ve been finding excuses to drag my bike out for a ride. It keeps me sane. The drones of the cars pleased my ears for they seem to prevent others from reaching that voice inside my head. Anger, frustration… that angel and devil commonly featured spinning around the protagonist of stories, I regret to say, do exist in real people. The devil encourages my anger and displeasure, my sadness, tears… while the angel encourages me to run away from reality, to create a soul that’s not my own. Put the two of them together, and a full blown war implodes in every fibre of me. It hurts all the time. The strikes happen at wrong times. Untimely. Like in most wars, its hard to tell who’s really right and who’s at fault. I would love a forward button that can let me skip all of the pain and unhappiness, and bounce me straight onto a happy life I hope I’ll eventually get. If its death, let it come quickly. If it isn’t, God, if all of these are the reasons I’m alive, please concentrate it, cram it into one intense short time period so that I can be happy again. You’ve never let me feel true happiness, smile a real smile, laugh a genuine laugh, feel real closure and really enjoy life for 6 years. I can’t remember how those feel. Please help me experience them again. Nobody, not even Hitler (I presume he’s evil), deserves do go through what I have and am going through. Its not fair to me. You of all people/beings should know that. This is me, saying ‘stop’. Right now. I honestly can’t take it anymore. You’re not helping.

Pray for me, friends. I’ll continue believing in Jesus. Its my only way out.

And thanks for the emails. I got some pretty hilarious ones. They made my day.

For those expecting something sweet…

It is an entremet with banana mousse, vanilla chantilly whipped cream and chocolate tofu cream sandwiched between springy almond sponge. The banana layer almost gave me a heart attack (though unlikely). I used some really ripe, soggy, close to rotting bananas that were just barely swimming in their own juice. I added lemon juice, blended the damn thing and went out to get something unique for about 3 hours, and when I came back, the mixture was stinky. It smelt like something had died in the blender and the bananas were cocoa brown. I freaked out in a small part of my brain, kept my composure, and tasted it. You can imagine how relieved I was when it tasted absolutely normal and even kinda delicious. After the cooking, the banana layer was fine and terrific.

The sponge. Best I’ve ever had. Moist, soft, easy, almond-y, has a nutty texture (because of the almonds, yet not so tense that it overpowers the sponge), no eggy at all. A dream! Definitely a to-go sponge cake.

And speaking of sponge cakes, I’ve recently got a hang on the whole beating egg whites till shaving cream business (stiff peaks of egg meringue). Now its easy! I used to not like it because it made me waste eggs. If you’ve had and are still having trouble, here’s my suggestion to you; the method I figured out after wasting CARTONS of eggs. Listen up.

All credits for the recipe goes to Foodagraphy, aside from the small tweak in the chocolate layer.

Bread Pudding Tart with Brown Sugar Crumble (low fat & whole wheat)

Dear Barney, or Mr Stinson (Recovering Mentally Unsound human being, Whatever you prefer I call you),

You’re handsome, hot, surprising sensitive, sometimes hilariously dumb, an insult to Barney the Dinosaur (since you two share the same name), terribly rich, gorgeously well-dressed and would totally win a Girls’ Choice Award. Unfortunately, I chanced upon your patent for “back boobs”. Seeing that its an atrociously disgusting idea, I take back everything I said.

Yours sincerely,
Representative of all who are grossed out by your warped ideas.

*wrote this draft last week but didn’t want to waste it. sorry if he took back the idea.
only if. 

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This Bread Pudding Tart enriched with cinnamon, the nuttiness of whole wheat flour, addictive crunchy brown sugar crumble and hints of apple is one of my most favorite creations. It may look not at all appealing, but be rest assured that its as flavorful as I described. Topped with custard-y vanilla goodness, its hard to resist!

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recipe notes:

Tart Crust is adapted from: 2至4人, 低脂轻量蛋糕甜点
author: 小欣子 

Brown Sugar Crumble ia adapted from: Crusta Bakes

Bread Pudding is adapted from: All Recipes

Vanilla Sauce is adapted from Oven Haven

brown sugar crumble: 46g whole wheat flour 70g whole wheat flour

Strawberry Caramel Layer Cake (Vegan, Whole Wheat)


Yeah, its me. Back after twisting another foot, surviving a fever that’s (thank God) not due to dengue, and bearing with the aftermath of the fever– the worst kind of cough that causes even air to tickle the throat. Yikes. Now I have Show Luo’s eye bags, my bro’s practically permanent panda eyes and a toad’s voice. 

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The Nonsense I learned this week:

Kiwis aren’t friend material. They bite.

When your fringe gets too long, it gets into your eyes. Its prickly and painful. 

Leaving a book untouched for too long causes it to cake on dust.  

Shoes that are too tight make feet hurt.

Guyliner still sucks. 

Cockroaches are creepy. 

A dancing detached tail of a frantic lizard is freaky.

If golden highlights don’t work, get bright red ones. 

Caramel cake tastes pretty good. Especially with strawberries (since their prices have dropped). 

Ps: strawberries are  are chockfull of antioxidants and other essential nutrients that can flavorfully help you reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, inflammatory diseases, and birth defects as well as mouthwateringly manage your weight. (source).

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Can you believe it? I made healthier (practically fat free) dulce de leche in 40 minutes, without stirring continuously all the time, from scratch. Some people are just lazy. Its easy.

800ml skim milk (vegan: non dairy milk of your choice)

300g sugar

1/4 baking soda

heat milk and sugar in a heavy and VERY deep saucepan over high heat. stir with wooden ladle till sugar melts completely. lower heat and allow mixture to simmer until mixture becomes slightly brownish. quickly stir in baking soda. let mixture continue to simmer. after mixture seems to have thickened, start stirring continuously. turn off heat when a dollop of dulce de leche won’t fall off your spoon. scoop everything into a heat proof metal bowl. Do not touch with bare hands. The dulce de leche is really really hot.

The ‘buttercream’ you see contains no butter, shortening or cream. My frosting skills have not matured. Let’s just pretend a three-year-old frosted it. Guy must be a genius.

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Recipe notes:

Recipe for vegan white cake is adapted from My Vegan Cookbook.

Recipe for non-vegan cake is adapted from Honey What’s Cooking.

Recipe for syrup is from Technicolour Kitchen.

Recipe for strawberry filling is from Chockohlawtay.

Cocoa powder in caramel frosting may be omitted!

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #18: Layers of Love (April 2012) hosted by Sam of Sweet Samsations.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Frangipane Pie with PB&J Ice Cream (vegan and gluten free)

That’s it. I give up being boring. Wry , senseless dry humour, incoherent thoughts, nonsensical behaviour (I’m guessing no second person has ever dislocated their ankle by being asleep) is the definition of my name, which I must add people have found many ways to pronounce– some in a way that terrifies every fibre in my body, some downright insulting, some ingenious… but almost never correctly.(PS, its not ‘cheating’, that’s a lame shortcut I respond to but no longer want to. QT is the safe way to go.) From next post on, I’m going back to my roots (or whatever they are).  These couple of days, I’ve been downing bowls of dead bitter medicine instead of yummy herbal chicken soup, exercising like a crazy person, studying, baking, trying to record the sound of my brother snoring for my ringtone (how fun would that be?), going for physio, learning to drive and so on. 

I’ve been experimenting on frangipane for the longest time. Typical frangipane is clogged with lumps of butter, sugar and eggs. Trying to make it healthy is one of the most difficult challenges I’ve ever taken on. I wanted to make it vegan, lower in fat and with peanuts instead of almonds since almonds are pricey. And finally, this happened.

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Peanut butter and Jelly Frangipane Pie with a gluten free crust, healthier frosting, berry cream and Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream, of which all components are significantly healthier than typical counterparts.

And the best thing about this pie is that it is really easy to make!

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Recipe for Shortbread Crust is inspired by Chockohlawtay.

Recipe for Berry Cream is also from Chockohlawtay.

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