rawr is "i love you" in dinosaur

I was so totally bored out of my brain in my Rural Planning lecture, so I decided to purchase something... anything at all. So I spent my time happily browsing through my usual websites searching for something I absolutely loved - I was limiting myself to a single purchase as I was low on funds - but then I remembered this T-Rex Crewneck from 7th Venture that I've been coveting for a very long time (my cousins and their partners have them). This meant that it wasn't merely an impulse purchase - it was in fact a well informed purchase, so it made me feel better =D So I charged it to my PayPal late Tuesday night for $45 with free shipping - always a plus.

I was expecting it to arrive the week after, but it was a pleasant surprise to come home on Thursday night and find this package on the dining room table. Such a speedy response - I very much liked it. In addition to my purchase, I also received some more freebies - an Old-School Snapback Cap, 7th Venture stickers and these awesome stickers, with a super cute note =D I can't wait till their new stock rolls out, and I'm pretty sure its sometime soon because they've been taunting us via Twitter & their blog about their new stuff for the past couple of weeks.

berry chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Lots of work had to be done last week (even more this week) - but I had to relax to keep myself sane. I tend to bake when I have things on my mind - or when I'm hungry XD. I used the Berry Chocolate Cake from earlier, but put in cupcake form.

They were kind of dense because I forgot to add some rising agents (I actually used a mix of plain flour and self-raising like the recipe told me to XD). I frosted them with cream cheese icing and I planned to put chocolate spirals on top, but they melted (because I was impatient and didn't wait for it to fully set before I started working with it), so I just mixed the chocolate in with the cream cheese. It didn't look too good, but they tasted okay.

cheese bread attempt #1

One of my favourite things about heading back home to the Philippines is cheese bread. I swear, if I can live off one kind of bread for the rest of my like - it would be cheese bread. There's something so addictive about cheese encased in soft, sweet bread. I could never get anything thats even close here in Australia, so I figured that when I was bothered I would try and recreate it.

Piecing together an ingredients list and a method from various sources, including Philippine Bakels and City Girl Gone Country for the ever so confusing "no time dough" method stated in the method in Philippine Bakels, I came up with my own way of doing things. It's kinda messed up and odd.

INGREDIENTS.

makes about 8

• 1 3/4 cups of self-raising flour
• 1/4 a cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of dry yeast
• 1/2 a cup of water
• 1 egg
• 10 grams of vegetable shortening (I used melted butter instead)
• cheese cut into sticks for the filling (the cheese should be flavoursome and meltable)

PUTTING IT TOGETHER.

• Mix together the yeast, flour, sugar, water, egg and shortening.
• It might be super gluggy, so add flour and sugar until it forms a nice doughy consistency.
• Knead the crap out of it.
• Lightly oil up a microwavable bowl and toss the dough in, then flip it over so it's oil side up.
• Cover with a wet towel, and a dry one on top.
• Put it in the microwave it for 25 seconds.
• Let it rest for 5 minutes.
• Run it through the microwave again for another 25 seconds.
• Let it rest for 15 minutes.
• Roll the dough out and and separate it evenly.
• Encase the cheese in each portion of dough.
• Bake at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes.

THE VERDICT.

I don't think I'm a big fan of the no-time bread method. It doesn't seem to produce the right texture (mine turned out dense as opposed to light), and the cheese I used wasn't right, but it was what my father wanted, so I guess it was okay. It tasted okay though =D

But just a query - every time, I've baked bread from scratch, the crust and outside is always so hard/chewy. Is there any way to make it softer?

impromptu baking: choc-banana cake/slice

So earlier my cousin Leanne (author of Le's Little Kitchen) baked this awesome looking choc-banana slice/cake. I had the urge to bake today (again) so I figured I may as well try it out - using the still depleted stocks in the pantry (I have yet to compile a list of things I need, and go out and purchase the things).

So I tried Ate Le's Chocolate Banana Cake with use of what I had on hand. I pretty much followed her recipe, but instead of the butter I used 3/4 of a cup of vegetable oil, light brown sugar as opposed to something darker (thus resulting in a lighter colour), sliced chocolate squares instead of choc chips and I added a teaspoon of cocoa powder for added chocolate goodness.

Needless to say, her's looks better (it's darker) and probably tastes better as well - but who cares. I achieved my goal: to bake something tonight. And now I have breakfast/lunch for tomorrow. Hooray for boredom and procrastination!

impromptu baking: berry chocolate cake

Hey guys, it seems like its been forever since I've posted. Well, there's nothing really new to report on my side of the screen. Same old, same old - procrastination. Today, I had this urge to bake something however searching the pantry, I found that there was barely anything in suitable quantities. However there seemed to be a lot of chocolate and cocoa powder - so I figured something chocolate-y was called for. Using the cake recipe from The Family Circle's Crazy for Chocolate cookbook's "Moist Chocolate Jam Cake with Spotted Collar", and an improvised version of a simple chocolate icing found on COOKS.COM I created something which apparently tasted good according to my mother. As usual, this is posted here because I need a place to make my notes of the different things I bake or cook, and whatever amendments I made to the recipes.

INGREDIENTS.

makes a 23cm round cake

Cake:

• 125g butter
  
• 1/2 cup caster sugar of sugar (it was a mix of different kinds of sugar coz I only had about a 1/4 cup of caster sugar)
• 1 teaspoon tablespoon of vanilla essence (I read the recipe wrong XD)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup of strawberry jam cranberry, raspberry & strawberry jam
• 1/3 cup of self raising flour & 1 cup of plain flour 1 cup of self raising flour (I didn't read the size of the measuring cup properly, nor did I have any plain flour)
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 cup of baking cocoa
• 3/4 cup of buttermilk low fat vanilla yoghurt (I didn't have any buttermilk lying around the house)

Icing:

• 1/4 cup of cubed butter
  
• 1/4 cup of cocoa
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence (I read the measurement wrong XD)
• Squares of milk chocolate (to taste for extra chocolate-y-ness)
• Condensed milk (to taste)
  
  

PUTTING IT TOGETHER.

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 180C
  
• Line & grease cake tin

Cake:

• Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence using electric beaters until light and creamy
• Add the eggs gradually, beating the mixture well every time the eggs are added
• Put in the jam, and beat everything together until smooth
• Sift in flour and cocoa and fold it into the mixture
• Next fold in the yoghurt
• Stir until smooth
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin
• Bake it for about 45 minutes, or until when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean
• Allow the cake to cool as you prepare the icing

Icing:

• Melt the butter in a saucepan (medium heat)
• Pour in the milk, cocoa and sugar
• Boil for 1 minute
• Have a taste and if it's not to your liking, add condensed milk and chocolate until the flavour suits you and add the vanilla essence
• Stir the mixture until it reaches the desired, smooth consistency
• Allow the icing to cool
• Spread the icing onto a cooled cake
  
  

THE VERDICT.

For an impromptu baking session, the cake actually turned out alright. My mother snagged the first slice and said it was yum (I don't know if she was just lying to make me happy XD), but when I tried it, I found it wasn't too bad. Slightly dry due to the measurement mix up of the yoghurt, but fine all the same.

The jam leaves some seedy remnants in the finished product, which is odd if you're not expecting it, bur delicious all the same.