Wow, it's been almost 2 years since my last post... OMG..I have been that busy! So what brings me back to this site. It used to be my fave blog when I was not swarmed with my other duties.

Well, i was toying with the idea of making a cake for a friend's birthday.  Since the last post, there's been many challenges & changes to my life. I have stopped baking (temporarily) because I now live with 2 large dogs in the house. One sheds fur very frequently and i am paranoid that it will end up in my cake batter and icing.

MANGO/GLUTINOUS RICE birthday cake
On the topic of birthday cakes - i am remembering all the strange cakes I've make and had in the last two years. First was of course the Mango & glutinous rice pseudo-cake (sitebar on the right).

AGAR-AGAR birthday cake
Another was made by my friend when I was in the 'vegan' stage of my life. How to make a cake with no eggs, no dairy products. So, i hinted making another pseudo-cake. This time using what we call "agar-agar', something similar to jelly but firmer and with more bite.

PRINCE WILLIAM'S groom cake vs BATIK cake

http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2011/04/prince-williams-grooms-cake.html

Now back to the present -  I accidentally googled and found  Prince William's Groom cake, which is again a non-bake, chocolate & McVites biscuit concoction.  It seems that its on of the Queen's favourite tea cakes.

Strange... it looks just like what we here in Malaysia (Sarawak, specifically) call "Batik cake" because the slice looks a piece of traditional batik cloth, where the cloth is immersed in a thin layer of wax, dried and crushed to give that crackled look. Then dyed with dark brown dye that seeps through the cracks. Remove the dye and you have plain white fabric with brown crackled lines.

http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/2008/11/22/kek-batik/

With sincere apologies to both site owners, I've lifted off one photo from each site to illustrate the similarity. Both use biscuits. Malaysians like the Marie biscuit, the Brits, McVities :

Fool-proof cake - as easy a 1-2-3-4 !

Afraid of baking? Cake always sinking in the middle? This recipe from Rachel Ray's website is suppose to be FOOL-PROOF, a no brainer... Do try & let me know, ya?

1-2-3-4 Cake

You only need these --

1 cup margarine or butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
4 eggs
1 cup any clear soda
Additional butter and flour, for greasing the cake pan

http://www.rachaelray.com/heirloom.php?heirloom_id=55

Bumble Bee & Beehive cakes

Got to check out these cuuuute cake pans !

http://www.rachaelray.com/article.php?article_id=206&section=kids

More durian cakes! (2)

Durian, an acquired taste! As mentioned before I don't eat durians but I was attracted to this little shop "HAPPY MEAL", near Petaling Street, by the sheer smell of its durian butter cake! Its at the traffic light junction where you can find the large Popular Book shop, Hotel Malaya, flower boutique (wholesale).

It had freshly baked cakes & tarts (I saw them mixing the batter & baking it, right behind the cashier). .... I got carried away and bought durian butter cake, banana butter cake, plain butter cake (all@ RM1 per slice- worth it); durian tart, almond tart (@RM 2.50- a bit pricey there); durian cream puff (@RM2.40 per pack of 6 pcs), pineapple tart, chocolate cake slice and mixed bean tart.
My friends loved it, especially the durian butter cake & durian cream puff.. It had REAL DURIAN pieces inside, not just the bottled 'essence/flavour'! Only one problem... I wanted to buy some for the Arts & Crafts Guild AGM mentioned in the Crazeepatches craft blog. http://crazeepatches.blogspot.com/

I went at 11.30am .. the durian cakes where not ready.... I hanged around until 12.00noon... it was not baked yet... maybe 12.30, they said! Well, I had to go to work, ... so no cakes :(

I went @12.00 noon a couple of days later... again they said.. may be later in the afternoon... My friend went in the afternoon and .... Oh! it's all sold out!! Apparently, they only bake one large square of the cake a day!!

So, durian lovers and butter cake lovers... Try your luck when you are nearby, around lunchtime! It's a hit with the tourists too! One American backpacker I spoke to bought a slice of banana butter cake. When I recommended to him the durian cake, he said has tried durians & liked it, but wanted to try the banana cake (or maybe his GF didn't like durian). However, minutes later, they were back.. to try the durian butter cake !!! One more plus for tourism !!

Caesar's Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday !!

Caesar is two years old!


This is his cake --->

... a tulip shaped, peanut butter carrot cake !!


See him enjoy his cake at http://petcrazee.blogspot.com/