(Marble) Chocolate Bread

My marble effect didn’t come out AT ALL. -sobs- Because I just can’t seem to follow instructions closely enough when it comes to cooking/baking. I always thought baking and cooking is like Chemistry; if I can titrate amounts to 0.01 cubic cm, why can’t I measure flour by the cups and cream the butter , whatever that’s supposed to mean in baking lexis? (Ok I know what that means. recently.) But my bread looked good and tasted well. And I even uncovered a bread knife in the house so I sliced up the bread pretty nicely.

My recipe (at least for the ingredients!) came from here. Hers is so much better.

I have no life

I was tell Ms. Non-committed Friend (who eventually apologized and agreed to hang out with me) last night that I think I have no life outside what immediately surrounds me i.e. my home and the internet. I’m a phantom in school who tries to evade all non-academic related activities, and any need for “group work”. And apart from school I don’t do anything else a normal university undergrad does - student clubs, part-time job, giving tuition classes, or partying all night long. And I go to bed at a time where it is still X pm, not X am like the rest of them. So given the conventional understanding of what activities a regular undergrad should part-take in, I offcially have no life. Ack.

And I do too many things alone - going to the movies, going to plays, going to the gym, shopping … I’m probably too antisocial for my own good.

Then again, who cares?  Man might be a social creature, but no one said we will die without social activities.

Simple Apple Pie

I am baking faster than I can blog. This was baked most recently, but I brought it up to blog first because it is simply so delicious. Of all the things I baked, this is the one thing I’d say I’ve succeeded, and have no complaints whatsoever. And to think the recipe for the apples came from myself; that sense of satisfaction just makes me really happy. Well, if I had to nitpick one shortcoming, it must be the lack of a brush to brush my egg coating on top of the pie, so I streaked it with the back of a spoon, resulting in, well, streaks of egg running across my pie. Apart from that, this must be the best apple pie I have eaten in my entire life, no kidding.

(Recipe below)

Do you have commitment problems?

(Arh, I’m lapsing into the question as a title thing. Sulz, all your fault :P)

I have this friend (whom I shan’t name but we all can guess). I think she has commitment problems. Say, yesterday was the 27th of November right, and I asked her out for the 7th of December, to celebrate the end of my examinations. Yet she couldn’t give me an answer if she can make it. I mean, if she’s already booked for that day, she should say no but if she’s not booked yet she should say yes? Or is the “I will get back to you” or “I have to check my schedule” thing a polite way of saying “I have better things to do than to spend time with you”. Strange isn’t it? And this is not the first time it has happened. Most of the time, the rest of us have to force her into a corner to make her commit.

So I mused a while and I feel that a lot of us have this commitment problem. Say, some of us go shopping, sees something we like, can’t make up our minds whether to get it or not, says something like “I’ll think about it” or “I’ll go to another shop” or “I’ll come back another day”. A commitment problem? A decisiveness problem? If you like something you’d commit; whenever I use the “I’ll come back another day” excuse, I wind up not going back, but I’ve seen people who go home, sit on the idea for a couple of days/weeks and going back to find the item not available anymore. My take is, if you like it and can afford it, just get it. If you can’t afford it,  just forget about it. Coming back another day or checking another shop wouldn’t work.

I’m not even touching on the commitment problem with respect to relationships, which is a whole big issue on itself. But can I safely say that people who are indecisive, and fail to commit in the small facets of their lives often cannot commit in relationships as well?

Exam blues

I’m not mugging (i.e. studying really hard in the Singaporean context) if it looks like I am.
My friend says there are more important things than exams, and I am convinced. Like when my Vpost application is going to go through, and when my application to be a spree organizer is going to go through. Pfft.

First paper at 1pm later- Architecture. Then my Chemistry paper at 5. I’m pretty screwed for both. -sigh-

Butter Cookies with Coconut Shreds

I had some leftover dessicated coconut shreds, so I thought I would bake some cookies. And partly also because I wanted to use my cookie cutters. And thus:

There’s the heart, circle, four-leaves clover, bear, and star of David. And I just find my bears too funny!

From left: Bear who lost his button, pro-ana skinny bear, bear who is going to lose his head, and Mr. Fat Bear.

Heh. This is a basic cookie dough recipe with some dessicated coconut shreds thrown in. And it tastes way better than my past microwaved cookies.
And I think I might have just discovered the way to make soft-baked cookies a la Subway.

Decadent Chocolate Cake

I baked this for my sister yesterday! A triple-chocolate cake, with illegal amounts of chocolate in the cake, and on top of it. I didn’t quite like the way it tasted though; the cake wasn’t quite what I had expected. And somehow my chocolate ganache layer didn’t “dry” (the leftovers were still wet this morning). Am I supposed to freeze it or something?

Apart from that, I’d say this was quite a success.

Last day of term

So today was the last day of term and I spent it in architecture, for a lecture and to hand up my term essay.
Seems like time is flitting by so quickly. Some of my peers who are doing a 3-year-course will be graduating next year. That feeling is so surreal, you know? That day I was talking to Angela and I was telling her about how I actually still remember how we met for the first time outside a tutorial classroom in year 1. And look at us now, half way done with our third year in university.

This term has been somewhat tumultuous. I started with six modules and dropping one in the third week because I just didn’t want to do group project with a bunch of Philosophy majors. Then I had lecturers who attended seminars and symposium and hence cancelled classes. Then I killed my ankle and was hobbling/limping around school on crutches. Then I somehow survive writing a couple of research essays and term essays, endured a group project and a couple of presentations. At this point I still don’t know how I did it all, really. And then there’s this newfound talent in writing abstracts. I attribute this to my concise writing style, well, at least for academic work. (I am prolix otherwise.)

It’s been quite a fun term, if not for a certain tedious module that I really hate. Modules like that suck the life force out of you and I don’t quite like that. I haven’t really made many new friends, unfortunately. I think it’s because I tend to kick my group mates to get things done, and I’m guessing conventional regular university students don’t like to follow instructions nor take initiative at doing work?

And with this I retreat to study for the next 3 weeks.

Coconut Pound Cake

I actually baked this last week, but hasn’t had the time to post it yet.
Anyway, my pound cake didn’t rise enough! My mummy says it’s probably because I used plain flour instead of cake flour or self-raising flour. Also, the baking books tell me that it’s probably because my oven isn’t hot enough. But, since it’s hot enough to crack my cake, I’m sure it’s hot enough to make it rise and be thoroughly cooked. So I’ve got my hands on some SR flour, which I will try out soon.
This cake was a modified recipe; instead of buying a whole bottle of coconut essence, which is essentially laden with chemicals, I substituted it with coconut cream. And I dumped in some dessicated coconut shreds. I felt it could have been better if I used fresh coconut shreds from the wet market. And I should have soaked my raisins in warm water first to soften it.

And looking at my pictures, the section in the second picture resembles a muffin more than a pound cake. Heh.

[edit: Recipe up!]

Ingredients:
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1.5 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut cream (concentrated)
1.5 cups sweetened flaked coconut, toasted and cooled

Instructions:
Preheat over to 325degF (about 160degC)
Butter a 9 by 5 by 3 inch loaf pan, dust with flour (not needed if yours is non-stick ware)
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl .
Beat butter and sugar till pale and fluffy.
Add eggs in 1 at a time
Beat in the extracts and coconut cream.
Fold in the dry mixture (flour, salt, baking powder) and coconut flakes gently. (Note: the mixture might be a little wetter than the original recipe; probably add 1/4 cup more flour to achieve usual cake batter consistency. )
Bake for about 45 min - 1 hour. (Insert a pick in the centre of the cake; it should come out clean)

Alternatively one can use 1 tsp coconut essence in place of coconut cream.

The Kite Runner

 

Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the approval of his father and resolves to win the local kite-fighting tournament, to prove that he has the making of a man. His loyal friend Hassan promises to help him- for he always helps Amir- but this is 1970s Afghanistan and Hassan is merely a low-caste servant who is jeered at in the street, although Amir feels jealous of his natural courage and the place he holds in his father’s heart. But neither of the boys could foresee what would happen to Hassan on the afternoon of the tournament, which was to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return, to find one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I like it, yes, but I just can’t help it but feel this sense of distance from it. I never knew anything about Afghanistan and countries in that region, so I had a hard time trying to understand and empathize with what the author was trying to portray. To me, this is just a good narrative, and I really want it to go deeper than that. I’m currently reading Wild Swans by Jung Chang, and I can understand what the book is trying to show me because I know the historical background and I know what went on. But not for The Kite Runner. The historical events highlighted in this book was nothing more that a backdrop; it didn’t feel as though it was intrinsic to the plot because I just don’t know the gravity of situation. Do you feel that way sometimes? That you cannot fully enjoy a book like this because there was some gap in your background knowledge of setting? In comparison it’s much easier to digest and assimilate a fantasy novel because the setting is made up.

That aside, I really like this book because of the raw emotions that was coursing through the entire book, it’s like wind - it goes straight at your face and goes “wham!”. That was how I felt throughout the entire book,  that making amends is not enough. Now I know why a lot of people like this book; the (self-inflicted) victimization/guilt of the central character resonates in many other popular novels, such as The Five People You Meet in Heaven (actually all of Albom’s works, huh?)

So, read it if you have the time. It’s a good book.