Orange and Chocolate Marble Cake

My family celebrated my mom's birthday before we left for Bangkok.
Here's some photos of her birthday cake i baked!

Bangkok 05, 06

It's such a coincidence to be in Thailand twice exactly 1 apart. It wasnt planned and i wouldnt have realised it if i hadnt flipped to see my previous stamp.
Bangkok hasnt changed much and it feels nice to be greeted by things that remains so familiar. Interestingly, we even saw the granny who refused to give dad his change when my family bought custard apples from her last year!

Let the pictures do the talking :) Since i havent not uploaded any photos from the previous trip. I shall do a compare and contrast!

Most trips start with the flight.
In 2005, we flew with Scandinavian Air
In 2006, Swiss air

As you can see, Scandinavian Air provided us only with a sandwich and Swiss Air provided us with sth quite sumptous which filled us better! The chocolate cake was yum :)


Scandinavian Air was good in its own way :)


Wat Arun - The Temple of Dawn- Looked as awesome. This year, we visited a compound of the temple which was previously not opened to the public. I remember this place for its coconuts. We bought coconuts to quench our thirst here on both trips! I also saw the same cat outside the temple :)

|Food|




|Things Unique to 2006|

1. Kendrick joined us on this trip!
2. Happy Buns - Paos with a smiley faces at chatuchak market :) Cute?
3. The celebration of the King! Yellow shirts are sold everywhere and are worn by the locals to celebrate the King's longest reign (60 years) in the world and his up coming birhtday. They love and respect their king so much that their King must be very happy! They even have a "Live strong" look-alike band that says "Long live the King". How cute!
4. Kendrick having lunch with my family at chatuchak :)

Profiterole Eclairs

These cute little things made me so happy today. Being able to make them gave me the affirmation that my passion for baking can take me quite far! Guess i was half lucky that the choux pastry turned out almost perfect on first try.
I filled some of them with banana cream and the rest with chocolate.
Obviously, my chocolate coating skill still has room for improvement!
It never fails to make me smile when i dream abt opening a bakery after i retire :)


|Good Places to Go|
Mustafa / little India is a good place to go when it's quite late but u still want to stay out for a few more hours. Being a supermarket person, their supermarket itself can kill a lot of time. There's nothing to worry when you're not interested in foodstuff, cos Mustafa is so huge and it sells everything that you're bound to find sth that interests u. Good Prices too :) After Mustafa, you can always go for supper ard the area. I like the naan at this roadside stall which offers a wide selection of curry for you to dip them into too!
Gelare is a place i should go on Tuesday. I want to try their waffle!! Their marble cheesecake is not bad. Try it if you're a fan of both chocolate and cheese :) You'll love it.
Cedele is a bread-lover's heaven! I used to freqent this place only for their cranberry scones cos i find that their soup + free flow of bread is only a fun and satisfying thing to do when you have the company of a soup/bread lover. When you're alone, it's hard to try all the bread they have to offer, cos bread itself is rather filling. Try their new almond and strawberry scone. It's not bad.
[Obiously, i'm quite a fan of scones ;)]

Pancake Yum

|Apple Chocolate Chip Pancake|I never knew i will like pancake as much. I always thought MacDonald's Hotcakes were a tad too plain boring with just maple syrup and butter. So i tried making pancake for the first time today, and... with a fruity twist! I love how the apples give the pancake the added crunch. Yum.
Cooking makes me so happy :) More updates later.

Walnut Day

I made my second Walnut cake and first Bailey's walnut ice cream today. While the ice cream is still setting in the freezer, i still cant bear to cut into my walnut cake. This is why!


I spent quite some time cutting out a stencil for the "walnut" and then dusted the cake with cocoa powder :) I'm not hungry anyway, so let's hope it doesnt let me down when i try it tmr :)
If this cake turns out delicious, I would have found a pretty healthy cake to eat. The recipe asked for 25g of butter which i forgot to add. It smellt good nevertheless when i took it out of the oven, so i shall keep my fingers crossed :)
On an interesting note, i wasnt too upset after forgetting abt the butter. I felt that the butter didnt have any other role to play in the batter other than for the taste. And i thought since the icing has butter, the butter in the cake would be insignificant. Also, if the butterless cake turns out beautiful and yummy, my family will get to enjoy walnut cakes (w/o the icing of cos!) non-sinfully. YAY!
Anyway, now that i'm all psyched up abt cooking and baking, the following is just a list i've compiled of commonly unknown terms :) Hope some of u'll be enlightened :)

Torte: Rich cake usually covered with cream and fruit or nuts; originated in Austria

Anchovy
Apparently ikan bilis do belong to the anchovies family :)

Praline: Originally refer to a sweet food made from a mixture of nuts and boiled sugar, eaten as a confection
In Germany and Belgium, praline may refer to filled chocolate of any sort

Gianduja: Name of a sweet chocolate containing about 50% hazelnut and almond paste
Interestingly, Nutella was originally known as pasta gianduja :)

Stracciatella flavour: Vanilla icecream with chocolate shavings

How is gelato different from ice cream
Unlike ice cream, little or no air is whipped into gelato resulting in a dense and extremely flavourful product.

Some of my friends asked why when making ice cream, some recipes requires the mixture to be [semi-frozen and then beaten up] x several times.

Repeating the step breaks up the large ice crystals, which prevents the formation of 1 solid block of ice, like in making ice pops.

As a general rule, the richer or sweeter the recipe, the less stirring or whisking is needed cos sugar and large fat molecules inhibit formation of large crystals. :)

Food on TV

Can't believe that it is almost 2 weeks since i got back. Frankly, if not for consecutive late nights and early mornings for MUNUS games in school, there's a high chance that i may still be stuck in a sleeping cycle 6 hrs behind Singapore time :)
Seriously, dont you agree that with all the soccer going on and the fact that it's the holiday, sleeping late and waking up late doesnt seem like a crime.
Anyway, I'm really glad that there are so many things that are easing my europe withdrawal symptoms away. On one hand, people have been bringing all sorts of local food , which i miss on the trip, to me, and on the other, cook shows on channel 5 seem to be giving me more opportunities to see Italy and learn more abt their cuisine.
On one of the weekday morning, 2 cook shows coincidentally featured Italy. Rocco's Dolce Vita featured Florence and even started with the chef jogging near the famous florence bridge shown below. The subsequent Jamie Oliver feature Naples and it's Amalfi coast which my friends and i missed!

The famous view of Florence


The following is another sight typical of Florence


The Chef At Work

I truly appreciates this half and hour dose of Italy when i dont miss it in the mornings, especially when places my friends and i have been to are featured. I know it may sound silly, but i was so excited when the piazza that the chef and his friends played soccer was the one my friends and i visited after we ate kebab for our first dinner at Florence.

Chasing the Pigeons in a Piazza

Piazzas are so Italian. They're truly great places to hang out with ur friends when the sun is not too scorching. Love Italy for its unique atmosphere :)

On Russian Note, THANK YOU Colin for the Russian dolls. They're so adorable for the fact that they're 5 in 1.