Baking for Dummies

Taadaa! THIS is what I spent practically the whole of today doing. I must have watched too much Nigella lately to think that even I could whip up a cake in less than an hour like her. Have you ever watched her shows? She scoops out ingredients at whim without proper measurements, whips them all together, bungs them in the oven and everything comes out looking professional and delicious and perfectly done. So I thought, hey, she makes it looks so easy. Let me bake Ray's cake by myself.. the perfect solution since I'm on a pre-Raya budget, it's too short notice to order a cake and we're all sick to death of SR cakes anyway...

So during the past week I began gathering the ingredients and planning my design. I did some research on the web. Apparently the easiest birthday cake to make is a layered butter cake which you could then decorate however you want. Looks simple enough. Excited though I was, even I wasn't confident enough to make my own cake from scratch (not even using the "idiot proof" recipe I found on eHow), so I bought some butter cake mix from my local bakery supply shop yesterday. Got the eggs and butter. Good to go. This morning I was digging around in my mom's supply cupboard looking for cake tins when I discovered she didn't have the right size. There was a couple of square tins, some 10"s and something that appeared to be 9.5". So, another trip to the bakery supply to get a cake tin (they were out of 8"s so I got a 9" and at a 10% discount pulak tu, good deal).

This is how it went:

Oven pre-heated. Measure measure, mix mix.. everything's looking good. Poured batter into my 9" and mak's 9.5" (besar sikit takpe, boleh trim, I figured). Bunged it in the oven, set timer for 45 minutes. Went to check on the kids, put Ray down for a nap. Remembered I forgot to add in vanilla essence (wasn't in the recipe on the packet, but I usually add it in for extra flavour). Takpe kot. Came back almost an hour later, cakes still looking suspiciously wet and uncooked. Let them bake for another half hour. Cakes risen, but still looking pale and wet. Maid pointed out that the oven door doesn't close properly, letting out the heat hence oven not heated properly and cakes taking forever to cook. Damn. Yet another half hour later, cakes finally beginning to brown with nice smell wafting from oven. Some time later, cautiously opened door and patted nearest cake. Seems firm. Poked a skewer in which came out clean. Removed cakes from oven and set on wire rack to cool. Mixed up a batch of buttercream mean while, tinted it blue. Almost dislocate shoulder mixing the the colouring in. Mak helps to remove 1st cake from cake tin which comes out perfectly. Elder sister attempts to remove 2nd cake but it collapses in a soggy mess. Scoop everything back in and put it in the oven for another half hour. Meanwhile, lightly ice 1st cake to seal in the crumbs.

Remove 2nd cake which has gone all crusty on top. Once cool, remove from tin. Is cooked but uneven and lopsided. Trim off the bumpy bits and cautiously place 2nd cake on top of 1st cake. Nephew comes in and laughs at cake. Ignore him. Lightly coat 2nd cake with icing to seal in crumbs. Just remembered that had originally planned to put blackcurrant jam between layers. Crap. Too late now. Slather icing all over cake to create illusion of evenness. Elder sister comes in and helps decorate cake by poking Sm*rties into the sides. Nephew and niece look on hungrily from the sidelines, lamenting the fact that they're fasting. Haha. Finish off poking Sm*rties to create no "1" and sprinkling hundreds and thousands all around. And voila! My first cake is done.

After buka, Ray cut the cake with help from Eez. The cake was pretty good with the exception of everyone saying the icing was too sweet. Hmmm better luck next time. I had fun though baking this cake even with all the unsolicited advice and angst and stress. So with the 1st ghastly experience over, maybe next time I'll do better. Like Nigella.

Living In The World Today

Have you ever just woken up one day and felt really worried about your future? I do, most of the time these days. Just watch the news and read the papers. The increasing rate of inflation with prices going up, up, UP! The declining state of our society with the escalating crime rate. Rapes, murders, muggings, robberies, kidnappings, tainted food, pollution, crooked politicians.. What kind of world are we creating for our kids? I wonder.

Once in a while I do tend to get morbid and a tad depressed, so bear with me, please.

Do you live in KL? Do you have kids? Do you own your house? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you'd understand how hard it is to actually survive in KL nowadays. Even with both my husband and I working full-time, we're barely managing to stay afloat. That's the sad sad truth. I read somewhere that even if you earn RM3k in KL, you're considered poor. Seriously? It definitely feels like it. Honestly, I don't know where it all goes sometimes. House payment - RM1,xxx. Car payments - RM1,xxx. Broadband. Phone bills. Utility bills. Growing up formula. Diapers. Clothes. Credit cards (gakkkkk!). I don't know how my parents managed to raise 5 kids on their civil servant's salaries. But then again, things didn't cost as much as they did today.

I always dreamed that once I had kids, I'd stop working and look after them full-time. You know, be a housewife. Or a SAHM, as it's trendier to say now. The way things are going now, looks like I'll have to put that dream on hold for... a few years, if not forever. Sure, my husband does earn a decent sum, but it's clearly not enough to support our growing family in KL. We can't rely on our parents too much for help.. segan lah. I know some lucky lucky people who are fortunate enough to be SAHMs. I envy the hell outta them. They get to raise their kids themselves, be present at each stage of their development, go for school-runs and be totally involved in every aspect of their kid's lives. They have spare cash to shop, buy fabulous things, go on exotic holidays... Maybe their husbands are loaded, maybe their parents supplement their income, I don't know. It's still an unbelievable life to lead for someone the same age as me.

Sometimes I blog surf and read about some of these fortunate moms griping about their "imperfect" lives. One complains her husband spends too much time at work (gotta earn that cash for u to spend, baby). Another laments the fact that her children are taking over her life and she has no time for herself (err.. hello? SAHM?). Another mom hints that her husband will be buying her yet another high-end brand handbag but she wants a different brand (important for the school-runs and mommy brunches). The winner is definitely the super shopaholic mom whom we all love to hate. It's exactly like all those chick-lit books we love to read so much. Sometimes I have to refrain myself to tell them to stop whining, take a look at the real world and get a life. Or maybe I should just stop surfing the Internet altogether.

In the world of have and have nots, the grass is always greener on the other side.

** Please note that these are just my thoughts and I do not intend to offend anyone, SAHM or otherwise. It's probably my PMS talking. Some of my best friends are SAHMs and the most wonderful people on Earth. **

They're My Babies and I'll Spoil Them If I Want To

A friend of mine once asked me if I'm fair to my kids. Before I could get offended, she quickly explained. She has a beautiful baby whom she loves to bits. Her family simply dotes on this cutie as this baby was the long-awaited cucu due to a past personal family tragedy. She has all the pretty dresses a girl could want, toys galore and all the in and up-to-date baby paraphernalia. My friend does want more children, but at the moment she can't imagine dividing her love and lavishing it on another person, not even a second offspring.

"Are you going to have a big party for #2's first birthday like you did for #1?", she asked.

"No," I said. "Can't have a party 'cos his birthday falls during Ramadhan. We'll just cut a cake or something."

"Won't he feel offended?" she went on to ask. "Like when he's older?"

Hmmm. "I hope not, once we explain the situation to him." I replied. "He's still special. We'll have parties for other birthdays. It's not like his birthday will fall in Ramadhan forever."

My friend presses on. She asks if #2 gets the same toys and clothes as #1 did. It would be uneconomical to buy everything new for #2 since #1's stuff are perfectly fine and usable, I tell her. They only have 2 years between them and they're both boys, after all. I do buy #2 his own toys, though. It's just that I try not to be wasteful. I grew up wearing hand me downs and I turned out alright. In my family of four girls and one boy, my parents had to be prudent and economical on their civil servant's salaries. So we used each garment to the fullest and shared whatever we could. My dad did get us our own teddies and B*rbies, though.

It doesn't mean that once you have your second child, you love the first one any less. Or you love the first child more than the second child just because he was there first. To me, a mother's love is boundless like the ocean. There's plenty to go around and it's automatic. Once the doctor places that warm bundle in your arms, automatically the love just blossoms. The toys, clothes and accessories are just material possessions. Your kid could be decked out like Little Lord Fauntleroy but it wouldn't mean a thing if you didn't spend time with them.

For #2's birthday tomorrow I'll be baking a cake. After iftar, we'll sing him the birthday song, hug and kiss him and take lots of pictures. So that when he's older, he'll see that he did have fun on his birthday.

Apa Nak Jadi?

The state of our nation's politics are a big joke. I can hardly bear to read the newspapers or watch the news anymore without laughing. Or gagging. When is it all going to end? Next week? In 2 years? We've got enough things to worry about and now this is happening right on our door-steps.

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At the risk of being blocked, or worse, that's all I'm going to say.