batch of tastiness

I had forgotten about blogging for quite some time. It's been a little bit of a bumpy journey for me and things have yet to settle down but I'm trying my best to put everything back to normal. Life is so unpredictable at times; it feels like I'm living monotonously one day and the next everything has changed. I'm sure I don't have to remind anyone of this, because we've all got our own struggles and achievements.

I don't think I can put many words down today. I guess it's just one of those days where you're not sure of anything enough to make a definite decision. But I wanted to review the food experiences since the last post, because there is quite a bit and I think it deserves mentioning.

 This is the Chinese New Year feast at my aunt's house in which all the separate families contributed their personal signature dishes. As you can see, it was a celebration of colours, textures, smells and tastes that we all devoured happily. 

This was my aunt's special Chinese New Year biscuit platter, which consists of shortbreads, peanut cookies, pineapple cookies and pineapple tarts in the center. 

My yoghurt cake which I'd forgotten to include baking powder. The result was a dense soya-like cake loaf; not so popular with the household. Nevertheless it was finished within the week. 

That month I also made an orange chiffon pie with uncooked egg whites. It gave it a fluffy and light texture, but left an eggy aftertaste. I don't think we managed to finish this one before it went off.

Dinner one night: fried pork dumplings I think.

Banana cake with cream cheese frosting. The cupcakes went to my friend who needed some cheering up.

Results from my cooking class. :)

For a friend's 21st; the dress theme was animals and she was the glamorous butterfly.

from past to present

While on my daily peruse through the internet, involving the checking of several popular food blogs, I suddenly realised that I hadn't actually posted any of my individual cakes and baking adventures. So here we go.

These are banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from one of my morning cooking classes. I have them every Wednesday for two hours, starting from 7.30 when my eye lids barely open to 9.30 which is considered my 2nd session. I dread the mornings; the biting cold and terrible sleep deprivation, but in the end it was worth it. I got to make many different meals ranging from meat pies to sponge cakes and its been so much more enjoyable than I'd anticipated.
My mother does not prefer the cakes and sweet treats I like to make and bring home, but out of all my school creations this is her favourite. I consider that to be quite a job well done.


This is a carrot cake made on the 17th of June from my need of a major baking project. And the whole process was going smoothly until I put it into the oven, and it came out 2 and a half hours later. Now I've most definitely learnt that when a recipe asks for several shallow pans I must not chose the lazy way out and use one deep pan. Though the actual cake turned out rich and slightly moist, just the way I like it.


Well as you can see, I kinda like cupcakes. Actually I love them much more than I'm expressing right now so I guess this isn't the best example.
I apologise for the quality of the photos again; I always happen to take pictures under the dull yellow light of my kitchen. This occurs mostly in a hurry and right before I take a massive bite out of it.
I've tried several different cupcake recipes and they've all been delectable, but I've yet to find a staple recipe that I can alter and still be reassured that it will turn out okay. I don't suppose anyone out there has anything they'd like to recommend to me? :)


And to finish the journey through my short and inexperienced (but hopefully improving) baking life we have a snapshot of a plain sponge cake with cream, jam and some melted sugar which was a toffee shard in a previous lifetime. On the way home from cooking class the poor box container took quite an unnecessary bump and I was lucky that the half-cake still stood upright.