~ Microwave Chocolate Cake

An interesting idea came across my mind while I was brainstorming for an easy recipe to make (ops, I conveniently chucked out the mung bean cake idea that day). Why not make something using one of the fastest way of cooking - the microwave! I remembered seeing some recipes on that, so I googled and lo and behold, countless recipes of microwave cakes popped up on my web browser. Most of what I had seen contained eggs, which I did not desire on that day, so I continued my search for eggless types but to no avail. Not wanting to give up on the idea despite not having any results, I just dug up a previously-tested eggless recipe originating from allrecipes.com, and tried it with some modifications (to increase taste and moisture content) in the microwave!

Ingredients: 
3 tbsp flour
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp oil
3 tbsp milk
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp vinegar

Just mix everything up in a mug and nuke it. I thought it would take 5 min at hi, but it was already overdone 4.5min and it was slightly charred.. and hard as rock. There was considerable contraction as shown:

Every cloud has a silver lining, so same for this cake too! There was a small little area just above the cake that was soft and fluffy as cake. The rest was really caked, like biscuits in fact.

If the correct timings are established, this would be really a fast way to satisfy one's chocolate cake cravings, though it would be more of a steamed cake rather than baked cake. I would cover the mug with a plastic wrap too, to contain the moisture for a soft cake. Shall give it a try again next time!

~ Unagi Soba

What do the mice do when the cats are out of the house? Raid the kitchen and turn it upside down! There is only one mouse in this house though, and she was bound for the kitchen early in the morning to make breakfast for her brother!

~ DIY Lint Roller

Fed up with removing those stubborn lint on your black clothes with scotch tape? I am! =/ Why not ditch these:

and embrace this:

through making your own lint roller from leftover bottles easily?

What you will need: an empty bottle , a smaller bottle with a diameter that fits into the bigger bottle, scotch tape, and a pile of clothes "angry" with lint (I have plenty).

What you will do: Take scotch tape and wrap the unsticky side over the big bottle, so that the sticky side is facing outwards.

Insert the smaller bottle into the big bottle and roll away! Lubricate the contact points with hand cream or whatever you find suitable if the roller does not roll, and continue to apply new scotch tape over the old one.

Once done, use a scissors to snip off the layers of scotch tape. What convenience! =) Watch my DIY Linter Roller in action:

Bye bye Lint!

Note: I know probably this wouldn't be a suitable post for my blog, but still being a proud creature, especially of my own DIY stuff, I will post it nevertheless =p

~ Instant Noodles Again

Shan't talk too much, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.


2010/1/23

2010/2/1

~ SweetSpot Patisserie

What a surprise, my parents had decided to make decent use of their money instead of squandering them at the IR! Well, not exactly "money", as they had used the membership points garnered from their gambling sprees to purchase the sweet stuff instead. Whatever. So here we have almost the full CNY collection from the SweetSpot Patisserie (names all unknown):

I was thrilled to see such gourmet treats on the table since my parents rarely "splurge" on such unnecessities, and without-furtherado, I scrambled to get all of these adorable plastic tins to my room for some cam-whoring (<-- did I use this term correctly?) and sampling (<-- I know this is right, for sure).

First on the list, icing-coated dark chocolate almonds. Not as fantastic as the name suggests. The chocolate was not very fresh and there was a rancid sour taste at the chocolate area in closest proximity to the almond.. My first thought was that the chocolate could have been made from Lindt chocolate (with characteristic sourish taste), but after a few of these, I chucked the idea aside. My conclusion? A pity.

Next on the list would be the dark chocolate hazelnut. The chocolate was infused with a faint trace of coffee, and each hazelnut was full. Quite a luxury I would say. However, I did not take to the likings of the taste. The coffee made the chocolate taste slightly burnt, and yes, hazelnut still goes better with plain chocolate on its own. You know, like ferrero rocher or nutella?

The cocoa-dusted dark chocolate macadamia was a pleasant addition to the r'epertoire of chocolates. There was a hint of orange flavour to the chocolate, and each macadamia was humongous. I found it quite odd to not be able to savour the buttery aftertaste that macadamia nuts leave on one's palate, possibly due to the chocolate overwhelming the senses. Still a good experience, dis' the best of the lot.

I don't know it's me or what, I found that the oil that was used to fry this peanut puffs were poor in quality. Or did they use olive oil? The puffs were quite oily, and did not smell very appetising. The filling was relatively generous compared to the size of each puff, and the pastry seemed to be a cross between a puff pastry and chinese curry puff pastry - flaky but not entirely so.

This one caught me by surprise. The exterior pale crust coated with icing resembled dry undercooked butter-based dough, which crumbles easily despite its apparant smooth texture. So much like.. a melting moment. Just that the skin's thicker, and there was peanut filling. Unlike the previous peanut puff which had coarse sugars visible among peanut bits, the peanut filling for this one was thicker and smoother, like peanut butter but more gritty. Once again, I can't help but emphasize to be gentle with it, for a slight squash on this delicate baby would send it crumbling to reveal it's hidden peanut treasures. I wished that the skin would be made less thick and the whole delicacy could be smaller so that I can put it snugly into my mouth without gagging.

The first impression I had when I caught sight of these cookies were that they looked really appetizing, and I would aptly call them: sugar-crusted icebox chocolate butter cookies. It was indeed a chocolate variation of the much-loved sugar butter cookie! A tad bit on the sweet side though, but what's sugar cookies without the sugar? 

There was kueh bangkits too, but I did not manage to get a picture or two before they disappeared. On careful examination, they appeared rather tough, but don't let that fool you. A few moments in the mouth is all a bangkit needs to be partly dissolved.

Along with the goodies, there were cakes slices too. I figured that the top one was a custard strudel, while the bottom would be a cheesecake. It was quite an extravagance to have each slice of cake enclosed in a plastic case and then again with a paper one. The cake holder had a little tab for you to pull the cake out from the plastic case as well, ingenious.

Look at the crusty flaky layers sandwiched with two layers of custard cream, the sugary powdery layer of icing, the charred touch with two heated rods on the icing layer that lends a contrast to the white - a divine aphrodisiac isn't it? 

 
But look what happened when I dug with a fork? The flakiness was all a facade, and there was not much of any other flavours save for the saccharine taste of the white powder. I had immense difficulty getting bitefuls from this. The appearance of the custard strudel was indeed deceiving, and a total disappointment. Perhaps, it might be a better and fairer judgement for such types of cakes when savoured fresh. I do not remember having such problems with few-days-old Ritz apple strudels though.

The cheesecake was much better. The creamcheese portion was really whobby (dropped on my table) and had a slight hint of lemon. There was a thin caramelized layer topped with gold shavings, a dollop of whipped cream, a piece of dark chocolate thin and some sticky coated cookie crumbs, all of which were cloyingly sweet. I was more satisfied with the lower half underneath - there were layers consisting of chocolate sponge, lemon curd, almond or hazelnut mixture (couldn't make out which) and then another chocolate sponge. The lemon curd imparted a tangy flavour and the nuts added contrast to the whobby mess. I ended up eating the creamcheese layer separately from the bottom layers, and I'm sure anyone would know why.

For an establishment that caters to the distinguished foreign guests and the rich, SweetSpot's run-of-the-mill webpage seems inadequate in my opinion. Furthermore, there is still room for improvement in terms of the quality of their (supposedly) forte - desserts. Exquisite packaging may attract a customer, but it is ultimately the food quality that keeps customers coming back for more, for that's what hits the customers' Sweet Spots.