Habitual Baking

When we were living in Sydney, I used to make this orange cake quite often. It was such an easy recipe and I am a lazy baker. Or maybe call me a creature of habit, that's probably a fairer description. I bake what I am used to and rarely try new stuff. Once something new gets on my list, I just repeat it over and over again.

But somehow I stopped making this orange cake once we moved back to Singapore. I think it was out of necessity that I started baking bread and then the whole creature of habit thing took over and I almost exclusively made bread, interspersed with rock buns, another old-time favourite. Occasionally, I would make a quiche for lunch or dinner. And that was it. Oh except for that couple of times I tried my hand at making hot cross buns.

Anyway I decided to revisit this old friend last weekend. But instead of making the cake in a loaf tin which was how I used to make it in Sydney, I used little cupcake moulds. They cook faster this way and were easier for handing out in the office.

I made myself a nice cup of Earl Grey and had one for dessert right after dinner.

They were well-received in the office today. I think I will reinstate this recipe to the "Frequently Baked" list once more.

It's funny how much our personality traits are deeply embedded in different aspects of our life.

Form Over Substance?

Today we were faced with a dilemma. We went to a cafe which serves good muffins of interesting variety and other baked goodies like dark chocolate tarts. The coffee was pretty good too. So what was the problem?

Well, the decor was rustic country meets modern. It was confused and did not go together. The space was long and narrow. The tables were wrought-iron garden furniture style, the hanging lights were contemporary. The wood laminate were light-coloured and looked quite tacky. The shelving were used in an untidy manner and there were stools stored under them. A showcase for cakes and pies was stacked on the shelf backwards so that the employees could open the doors however that meant the customers had to look at the knobs and untidy wires. The airconditioning also dripped.

We struggled with the form over substance issue. Many other cafes looked good but the food was mediocre. This one was the complete opposite. It was not a difficult fix, they need to tidy up and decide what look they want. I say ditch the garden furniture and fix the drippy airconditioning. And tidy up!

Baking Disaster

Am flexing my muscles in the kitchen, trying to bake the orange cake and various other variety of cupcakes for the high tea tomorrow. However, not having baked in ages, I seem to have lost it. The process takes ages, the butter seems a bit too much for the other ingredients and just would not be absorbed into the cake batter, it seems over-saturated. I am beginning to suspect the online cooking conversion website. Things were better and easier when I used the old rule of thumb method I recalled from Home Economics 101. Now my cake batter is over-saturated with butter and too sweet. I had to remove lumps of butter, add more flour to balance the sweetness out, and throw in another orange worth of juice and pulp.

Then I find out my oven doesn't work! Had to hotfoot it down to G's house to use his oven. We finally packed everything and popped the cake trays into the oven. The overly saturated batter starts sizzling with a layer of oil when the cake starts taking shape. I had to tip out the extra oil a couple of times, dang that stupid website, the conversion is really wrong. I completely blame it. This is a disaster.

The next day, I had to make the mushroom pizza thingy and in the process, I suffered a really bad burn on my left index finger, the pain was intense and lasted several hours. A raised long welt formed immediately and that will translate into an enduring battle scar of this ongoing baking disaster.

This baking saga is a labour of love for this English high tea which we have been fantasising about for ages. It had better turn out good.

Feeding The Body, Feeding The Soul

Another Saturday night, alone in the shoebox. Almost the whole day was spent in front of the laptop finishing up my research paper. I think I am done, just need to go through it again and edit it some more to make it more succinct, but am not in an editing mood.

Took an hour off in the afternoon and collected the hand-held vacuum from C, and then went for a walk around the Paddington shops. I'm sure sitting in the same position in front of the laptop is going to cause DVT some day. And my eyesight has deteriorated with all the computer work as well - that much I'm pretty sure of. Must protect my lasiked eyes, must protect my lasiked eyes...

Decided to indulge in some baking therapy when I got home. Poppy seed cupcakes this time. However, because it took such a short time to get it done, the baking wasn't much of a therapy session. I think I will need to start making bread or something harder and more challenging. And more distracting.

Fresh from the oven, I soothe my tired body with a poppy seed cupcake. Mmm, warm and yummy, the cupcake had the right amount of "chew" to it. I just love the silicone moulds, they are the right size, not huge like muffins nor tiny, baby one-bite-and-all-gone either.

Feeding the body is easy. Feeding the weary soul is a wee bit harder.

Baker's Dozen - Get Happy

Baking is therapeutic. I baked date cupcakes this evening, and inaugurated the new lime green silicone cupcake moulds I bought last week. Not that I was in need for therapy cos I'm doing fine. Another 3 papers to write in another 5 weeks to the end of my Masters course. Into my third week of life after toxicity eradication. I am doing well, things are looking up. I have TV and am getting reacquainted with "NCIS", "CSI", "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" and also have recently been introduced to "Brothers and Sisters" and "Ugly Betty". I am toying with a trip home plus a short holiday using home as a spring board, come mid-June or so.

In my own inspirational words of wisdom, "With every sunset, there will come a sunrise". I dedicate this post to my friend who is going through an uncertain and difficult period right now.

Chocolate Cupcakes Spell H-A-P-P-Y

I do realise that it's been a while since I wrote on anything that wasn't (1) angsty; (2) bluesy; (3) encouraging in a self-help way. As such, tonight I am breaking the pattern with an entry on food. Which also has been conspicuously absent in a long time (I think).

The shoebox has wonderful chocolately smells wafting around. Perhaps I should shut the balcony door to try to confine the smells in a little longer. Baked chocolately smells, mmmm. I made chocolate cupcakes and tried out the silicone baking moulds I just bought. These have been in for the last year or so and I have been meaning to buy some to try. They apparently survived the trial, and have not melted. But as I had limited moulds, I overfilled the cups and now I have ginormous cupcakes which cup runneth over. Actually upon closer inspection, several of the the baby cupcakes are so overfilled they have merged together to form little continents. I should go and get another half dozen of these silicon moulds. And encourage the happy baker to make a quick and complete comeback.