Orange Cake

Laila my daughter wanted to have a cake, and she kept on pestering me for it since yesterday. And when she mentioned it again this morning, I know I have to make it for her. After lunch, I took the butter out of the fridge. While resting, I suddenly have the urge to make that macaroons that I failed doing about a month ago. So I asked my youngest daughter to ask her sister whether she would consider making macaroons instead of a cake. She's always in her room upstairs you see, like any other teenage girls. The response was - no, it has to be a cake, and it has to be an orange cake!

So at about 3.30pm, I called her down to the kitchen, and made her help me with the preparation for the cake which include making the orange zest, orange juice, reading the recipe which I got from http://www.exclusivelyfood.com.au (called lemon and orange cake), and help me wash the utensils :D I just bought a pack 0f oranges at Tesco yesterday, and today it went down to only 1 orange! The zest was enough but not the juice. So I topped it up with a bit of orange flavoring (about 1/2 teaspoon).

After about 50 minutes, the cake was done. Everybody was eagerly waiting to taste the cake and fortunately the cake came out great. It could've been better if I have more oranges or lemon so I could make the lemon orange glaze or citrus icing as the recipe mentioned and pour it onto the warm cake. But hey, Laila loved it, and so did my husband. I am happy.

Pina Colada

All my children are at home today, and to make lunch a little more special, I decided to try make my version of pina colada. I put 2 cups of diced pineapple in a blender, add 1 cup of sprite, 2 cups of coconut milk and of course sugar which is up to your preference. Start with 2 tablespoons and add if you need more. Then blend it away. Then add ice. Done! Sooo... simple.

Owh by the way, the pina colada is the one with pineapple slice at the side of the glass. Next to it is my hubby's fresh orange juice which err.. was a favorite at lunch just now. Not to say that the pina colada wasn't good ya.. it's just that the kids are not accustomed to it yet. Yeah! That was the reason :)

Muffins you won't go bananas over

Last evening I came home a little bit early. I had a meeting in an office which is close to my hubby's office, that's why. When I got home, I saw that there were still a lot of bananas in the kitchen and I thought it'd be good to try make banana muffins using the recipe that I got from the internet. So I did.

My kitchen smelled so nice when the muffins were in the oven and I thought, great, this recipe will be a keeper. After about 18 minutes, the muffins looked done. I waited for 5 minutes and tried one of them. What a disappointment! It looked and tasted quite good but it was not the muffin that I had hoped for. The texture was far from fluffy. Everything was not as what I had imagined!

Long story short, I have to search for another banana muffin recipe,which is not that hard. The hard part is to have patience trying one recipe after another, and finding somebody to eat them!

Bubur pulut hitam

It's been a while since I made bubur pulut hitam (black sticky rice sweet porridge). Bought 300 grams of the grains at the wet market this morning, and I cooked all of it. As a result, I have half of the 5 liter pot full! Way too much! After consuming 2 bowls of the porridge just now, I've decided that I have to share it with a neighbor, and I did. Hope they like it as much as I do.

Making this porridge takes patients. We need to soak the sticky rice for at least 3-4 hours, overnight is better. Then boil it for another 2 hours till the rice softens and in the process you have to stir it often so that it doesn't stick to your pot (hence the name 'sticky rice'). Add more water if the rice feels too 'heavy' to stir. Then put in daun pandan, sugar and lastly coconut milk.

Aaahh.. nice!