PINEAPPLE UPSIDE- DOWN CAKE

Here's the true story of a disaster named Pandan Cake........almost verbatim.......(typos, short forms n silly expressions included) but superfluous sentences omitted.

Hi Ju,

Remember my comment this morning about making the pandan cake for a lunch 2morrow? well It turned out beautifully BUT because I didvided the recipe mixture(wh I doubled) between 2 8" pans they turned out a little thin.

BUT I was prepared to use them anyway and decided to make 2 more thin layers so that I get 4 layers in all.

In the meantime b4 i made the 2 xtra layers I made a white choc buttercream to go with the cake (wh I got frm another blog) but it turned out a little on teh sweet side.

Because of that n the fac tthat the lunch is for ladies who, I think, do no tlike anything too sweet I then thought that a four layered cake with 3 layers of buttercream in between and all over the cake would be a little too much.

Even I shudder to think of the richness.

So I decided to make the same total amount of the recipe again BUT this time to divide them between just 2 pans.

In other words I will be sandwiching a 2 layer (albeit higher cake)...which means less buttercream than a 4 layer cake.

I hope Im not confusing you ....LOL


Anyway ....

So I baked just about an hour ago and I had one fiasco after another....I think my eggs were not fresh so they didnt beat up to the right consistency...that failure I then turned into a plain cake n I used oil instead of butter cos I did not want to waste butter or the mixture.(but lets not go into that)

Then I made the pandan flavoured again (a whole new batch of mixture) and while I was folding in the flour and pandan juice etc. ..etc.. the whole thing deflated right before my very eyes!!!!!!!!!! like a burst balloon but without the sound.

WAAAAHHHHH....!! I felt like dumping it all over my head! LOL

So now I ma left with no cake ready for tomorrow!

IM now thinking of making a pineapple upsidedown cake instead wh does nt need buttercream n is easy (I hope murphys law doesnt play with me here again)




So I just want to tell you what a day I had.The whole afternoon was wasted...I couldnt do anything too because the maids were here . when they come I become the third maid...I have to watch n supervise them d whole afternoon! Wasted time for me.

I have only a few hours to redeem myself n I hope I manage to make a decent cake...those ladies expect a lot from me cos Im known as teh CAKE MAKER LAdy ...wh stresses me out even more!!!

Anyway I'm just ranting and I couldnt think of anyone else who would be willing enough to listen so I thought of you :))))

I just wanted to get it out of my chest....phew!!!

Thanks for reading this JU..(I know you will) Youre the sweetest! :)))

hugs
zurin

PS Ill let u know what happens tomorrow :))


JU's reply................(.about 2 hours later...).


Oh Zurin!! No no no no!!! Oh why?! The whole thing deflating like a burst balloon?? OK, that part was sad but hilarious ;P

I was clutching my chest as I read your email, my eyes almost popping, and then I burst out laughing in between. Oh dear!

It's one of those days. I know the feeling, and it always happens when you need to deliver. If it makes you feel any better, my grandma came over to my place last week (she seldom comes, cos I go over to her place) and I said I MUST cook something nice for her since she is always cooking for me. And for some reason, of all days, my curry turned out terrible. It's a dish I am so confident of, but that day, all the chicken and potatoes disintegrated into mush. MUSH. Who wants mushy curry, raise your hand. Bones in every bite for crunch. My grandma must have thought, your poor kids. They have to eat this kind of food everyday. LOL! Thank goodness she doesn't know about my food blog or she'll shake her head in disbelief! In the end, she still ate quite a lot (I removed all the bones) :) She said the taste was nice, but "for heaven's sake, use bigger chicken parts lah".

So Zu, what I want to say is, it's OK. It's frustrating but it's OK. We all have our "off" days. And your friends are going to love what you bake anyway. We are our harshest critics.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for you that Murphy's Law has knocked off for the day already! Tell me how everything went!

Sending good luck straight into your kitchen and oven!

Ju


My next email to Ju.........(the following day)...

Dear Ju,

So what happened was.............I baked a pineapple upside down cake last nite...Hub was kind enoughto drive me to the minimarket for a can of pineapples. I bought 2 cans. Just in case. Duh.



I decided to go with my tried and tested recipe from teh mango cake I have made b4 only to replace the mango with pineapple.

No problem...everything was measured out and glared at twice...the ingredients, the measurements and teh mixing was impossible to screw up...although I faltered at the butter sugar topping. In teh end I melted the butter and poured it inot the pan and sprinkled the sugar on top.

I placed the pineapple rings on top and the red glaced cherries in their little holes and it looked so pretty that I said Yippity doo daa. poured teh batter over and pushed it into the oven.

I baked it. set the timer for 45 minutes.

Watched tv then I smelt something .

Well guess what. the top was ssooooooooooooo brown . like....... burgundy...like..... balsamic vinegar...like..... red wine...like ..I think you get it by now.

Gosh I felt so like..kena sumpah..you know...like ive been cursed by the cake goddess or something....and what was worse was that it wasnt even fully baked yet. I had to push it back into ....covered the top with foil and let it cook somemore.

In the meantime I took out teh butter..AGAIN.... ready to bake YET ANOTHER CAKE.. AGAIN.

ANyway..

to cut a ong story short............. It turned out ok ..the top was too brown but I told myself ..."waht the heck its an upsidedown cake!" THANK YOUUU CAKE GODdess.

so at the lunch today...everyone was happy an d as usual I got the nods of approval and little breaths of oohs and aahhs here and there :))))))) (ok maybe I imagined that)

actually I think they expected some fancy shcamancy buttercreamed decorated cake....wh was my intention BUT....

anyway, the platter was swiped clean Ju! not the best cake Ive made but quite beautiful ..saved me some butttercream (goingto use it for another cake) and I redeemed myself to myself. SIGH!:)))

Thank you Ju for listening...me and my rantings :))))

I'll spare you the next time :))

btw ur curry chicken mush story ...thank god ur grandma doesnt know u have a food blog...LOLOL ..if she knew she would think the world was coming to an end! lol

hugs
Zu

This is a true story. The names of people and places have not been changed because it's too silly. The protoganist now resides in Blogland to escape Reality.


The recipe is here...just replace the mango with pineapple rings and glaced cherries. I also brushed the top (after the cake was baked and cooled down) with some orange marmalade that has been warmed through to make it a little runny.

Moral of story.................Food bloggers make nice friends!

My very nice blogger friend is Ju, The Little Teochew

A PASTA SALAD WITH SARDINES IN OIL

I don't want to rant about the weather. Well............maybe I do.

The sun shines in the morning nice and bright. But by at least 12 noon its starts to get cloudy and it drizzles. And 2 hours later it pours like we are being hosed down by the fire department. Everything is grey outside and while its kind of cool in feeling it's certainly not 'cool' a time to be taking photographs.

I scurry with my plate of whatever to my garden/front yard after fumbling with the keys to the grille (we must be careful these days in the city...snatch thieves and baddies can pop up anywhere and at any time) and place my props (which sometimes trail and drop all over behind me in my hurry) and place them as nicely as I can under a slowly closing sky (it's too dark in the house) and then I start snapping in between drizzles before it threatens to pour.


I scurry back inside with me plate and props.......perspiring.....in the humidity, un-click my memory card and snap it in to my comp. I check out the photos and they are all DULL.

I haven't been posting for some time and those are the reasons up there. Dark skies, pouring rain and dull pictures.

And ....hub drags/threatens/lectures/reads out the list of benefits of going to the gym.......every morning (Yes.... I'm like that). So that leaves me with dark, dull, grey afternoons to contemplate the worth of a photography session.

But post I must .....so here's a dish of a noodle salad weaved with sardines, chunks of tomatoes, chopped green chillies, minced red onions and a dressing of mustard seeds, olive oil and lime juice. And a nice crunchy tasty topping of fried breadcrumbs. Nice and quite healthy.

This is a very easy dish to prepare. I would have used local noodles if I had some but pasta was good too. The only reason I prefer local noodles is because they are more tender and I could get the ones made without eggs.

I am sure freshly made pasta is awesome and is no comparison to the dried ones that I use, which I find a little 'tough' if I could use the word. Because I have never tasted freshly made pasta, I have, as a result, always preferred our local noodles for their texture.

Being a fish person I also love the use of sardines in oil in this dish. If I had my way I would have added some bird chilies to give it a bit more of a kick. But what topped it all was the use of the crispy fried breadcrumbs. It added that crunch. Jamie Oliver has some wonderful ideas and these breadcrumbs are one of them!



The recipe.................. for 1 or 2 persons

6 0zs of spaghetti, boiled in salted water with a dash of olive oil till till al dente and drained
1 small red onion, minced
1 green chillie or bird chillies,chopped
a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 small can of sardines in oil (I used 120 gm can), drained

The dressing......

2 T olive oil
1-2 T lime juice
1-2 T mustard seeds (biji sawi), roasted in dry pan and pounded or 1 T whole grain mustard
1 or 2 cloves garlic, pounded or crushed
salt n pepper/chillie flakes

Topping............from Jamie Oliver's book (not to a T though)

A cup of breadcrumbs seasoned with salt and pepper and some herbs if you like..
4 -5 T of olive/vegetable oil

Heat up the oil in a small pan. Drop the breadcrumbs in to the pan, spread it out evenly in a layer and fry till golden brown. Once crisp and brown lift off an d drain on kitchen paper

The Salad...........

Mix all the dressing ingredients with a whisk. Taste and adjust for salt and tangy-ness.

Place boiled and cooked spaghetti in a medium bowl, pour in dressing, followed by the chopped veggies and and sardines. Mix and toss well. Adjust for salt and pepper and tangy-ness again. Top with fried breadcrumbs. Serve cold. YUM.

ROSE APPLES OR JAMBU AIR AND A SWEET SPICY DIPPING SAUCE

Literally translated from the Malay language the Rose Apple/Water Apple/Wax Apple would be called 'water guava' to differentiate it from the other guava (apple guava) which is called 'stone guava' in Malay.

Although the apple guava are plants of the myrtle family and the rose apple is a genus of flowering plants that also belong to the myrtle family they are however completely different in texture and taste, the former being very firm and solid while the latter tender and almost cottony in texture and are sweet in different ways.

But the one thing that they can both be is....to be eaten with the same dipping sauce.

The rose apple is beautiful. It may be a dark ruby red, it may be a bright blushing pink or when not quite ripe it would be a pinkish green.

It is completely pristine white inside, cottony in texture, tender but firm and usually with a couple of knobs of roundish seeds in middle.


It's usually sweet and moist and at worst it's tasteless and dry. But never sour.

It's shiny. It's beautiful.

I couldn't resist them when I caught sight of these ruby goblets at the Sunday night market recently so I paid 7 ringgit for a kilo. I got 9 of them. I chilled them in the fridge overnight and the next morning I made a dark, tangy and spicy dipping sauce. All the while picturing, impatiently, a sauce-slathered slice entering my face.


Now, if there was a torn and worn rattan chair waiting on a carpet of lush cow grass at the top of a gentle slope in the backyard of an old, sprawling colonial bungalow, where the sun sets in gold in the distance, where I would be able to sit and scrutinize a crawling row of large red ants heading towards a mango tree and be contemplating my next dessert in fruit form, with a cold, wet glass of sweet pineapple juice in one hand and a spicy, dripping sauced jambu air in the other while the hem of my floral skirt ruffles gently in the tropical breeze and all the while comprehending and enjoying the lyrics and melody of Les Champs Elysees playing in my head through my headphone I would say that my life was quite complete.


But alas...... as always....... it was not meant to be and life is usually a little less comforting than one could hope for.

So I'll settle for some slices of jambu air in the pretty bowl next to me and its sauce in another bowl on my left, facing my quite unromantic laptop while the hovering fan above my head spins to cool me down and not understanding a word of the pretty French song from the CD, which hub had just bought me as a present-for-no-reason 10 minutes ago, while I continue to blog about both my fantasies and the divine taste of the slices of jambu air dripping with a luscious sauce that I had just consumed.

So be it. And may tomorrow be another fantaisie.


The sauce is a wee bit tangy, slightly spicy (or more if you like), somewhat salty and with a pinch of sweet all thrown in. You just have to love it. As I do.



The recipe..................

4 large red chillies, seeds left in or de-seeded OR some bird chillies for fire
1 garlic clove
3 - 4 T of thick dark soy sauce
1 T of granulated sugar
Juice of 1 lime

Pound the chillies and garlic in a mortar and pestle until quite fine or slightly coarse and then mix in all the other ingredients and mix well.

Serve with slices of jambu air. Divine.

DOGGIE COOKIES FOR HUMANS

Yes I'm guilty. I ate them.

Don't look at me like that.



They are yummy. They are crunchy.

They are holy darn dang cute too. Them little darlings.

Ring o ring o rosies..............
Pocketful of doggies
a woof woof a woof woof
They all got chomped down


So cute I could bite them.

And so I did.

Sonia made me do this. Sonia the Nasi Lemak Lover.

I was hesitant at first but she assured me that they were good. She said "....try! try!...never try never know!"

So now I know. I know I can eat cute little doggies no matter how imploringly they looked at me.

Wake up little doggies. Time for dinner..............my dinner



Flavoured with Horlicks, a popular malt drink taken as a hot beverage in the UK and Asia, these doggies have apparently travelled around a number of blogs and enchanted many.

I'm honoured to have them grace mine.

Thank you doggies.

Eenie, Meennie and Mo................


I woof ya...........


The recipe.............

250 gm butter
30 gm castor sugar
1 egg yolk

250gm cake flour (Iused plain/all purpose)
40 gm cornflour
120 gm Horlicks
40 gm milk powder (I omitted this and made it up with horlicks instead)

Koko Krunch for the ears
Chocolate rice for the eyes
Chocolate chip for the noses

Preheat oven at 170 C

Sift flour and mix in the cornflour, horlicks and milk powder if you're using it. Stir to combine evenly.

Cream butter and sugar together until creamy. Add egg yolk and continue beating until the mixture is light and flufy.

Fold in the dry ingredients until you get a firm dough.

Pinch about 10m grams of dough and roll them into balls. Decorate into a cute doggie face.

Bake for about 10 minutes. Cool and store in an airtight tin.

Enjoy them.

How much is that doggie in the bottle?.................
The one with no waggely tail
How much is that doggie in the bottle?
I do hope that he is for sale......