Chocolate cake is good

Everyone from work was up til late last night baking a cake. We had a cake 'bake off' competition this morning! I signed up to be one of the contestants a few weeks ago. Our bosses even took part (and quite a number of boys).

It was a long 3 weeks of googling recipes, arguments of WHAT constitutes a cake, etc. The organiser was slightly annoyed to the point she sent an email to all contestants the Wikipedia definition of a cake. Some argued a cookie is a cake. A tart is a cake. A brownie is a cake.. endless! There were 3 categories – best tasting, best looking and best effort. Hell, I wanted to win all 3. It was made clear that we have to make the cakes from scratch, and there should be no HELP (NONE AT ALL) from our partners/wives/husbands/boyfriends/girlfriends/mum/dad/sisters/brothers/friends, etc.

I decided to make a flourless chocolate cake. It is the one of the few cakes I can bake. Way to go Jules!

Had to melt the butter and chocolate.

I like to prepare all my ingredients accordingly.

Whisked the egg whites.

And the best part of baking – the washing up.

My most loyal supporter. He sat by my feet the entire time. Praying for some chocolate to fall to the ground.

Then I popped it in the oven. And voila – an ugly looking cake was born!

Whateverrrr, you turn it the other way round, and you have a nice flat looking cake.

And now for the decorations. As ambitious as I try to be, I had to be practical. I have to hand-carry this freaking cake all the way to work, in a train which is overcrowded by Monday morning disgruntled passengers. While a friend suggested I make flower petals out of marshmallows, I just ended up lining them up around the cake.

And to make it complete, a nice little smiley figurine!

10.40pm, it will do. I have to go to bed soon.

Made it to work in one piece. Thank gawd. But when I saw the other cakes (about 20 other cakes), my cake was no contender.

Then we heard news about shootings in the city. 8.30am! OMG, 3 shot, 1 dead. Flinders Lane! That's the back entrance of our building.

YEA Whatever! Back to the cakes. French girl said "There is a shooting in Melbourne, and nobody cares?"

Come ON! The show must go on!!!! Cake cake cake cake cake! Give me the cake!

Results were announced at 10.40am. I didn't win. Disappointed? Not really…I'm proud of my cake.

I should've taken pictures before. But everyone was too quick to dig in.

Here's a pic of the many cakes. See my Mr Smiley! Guarding my cake topped with pink & white marshmallows. Hey, there's barely any left. Yes, a lot of my team members had a piece of MY cake – out of obligation. Haha.. "Its nice Jules, very moist" Yes OK, sure..

These 2 cakes were actually winners. The gorilla cake (pic of one of our colleagues) with banana lollies on the tray – won Best Effort. It was done by my male boss!
The other cake won Best Looking. It was actually a pink carousel with paper horses around it, it looked sooo pretty. But the top part was removed by the time I took a pic.
It was a good event. I'll end this post with the cake recipe – worth a try.

Chocolate Cake
4eggs separated (large)
125g butter
125g dark cooking chocolate (suggests - Nestle Plaistowe)

125g almond meal
125g castor sugar

• Melt choc &butter in mixing bowl over boiling water
  
• Lift off heat & cool slightly
  
• Whisk egg yolk lightly & add to butter & choc stirring vigorously
  
• Add almond meal & sugar, stir well
  
• Fold in whisked egg white (soft peak)
  
• Bake in moderate oven at 180° for 40-55 mins
  
• Check with skewer to ensure cooked
  

Furniture shopping is not for the faint-hearted

Dopey and I went furniture shopping on Saturday. We drove to the 'West Sideeee' by ourselves to look for this place called Homemaker at Highpoint. Its like a place where you can find everything you need for a home. Dopey is such an idiot with the map. We were lost for about 30 mins at Highpoint, looking for Homemaker. Finally we found it. Dopey needs a new bed for his 'neo-retro-bobo' room at our new house. I was to look for a new dining table (compliments of Dad). As much as I hate to admit it, I'm no fan of furniture shopping. I find it boring, I hate being hassled by sales people, its boring.. and its boring.

We actually need a new sofa too (although our existing sofa is still OK). I'd rather buy a 3 seater on its own. Then have a 2 seater or just a unique 1 seater next to it. But Grumpy insists on getting a sofa with a chaise and an ottoman. I swear I never knew what a chaise & ottoman were until recently. To me, a sofa's a 'sofa'. Chaise is like the name of a band and ottoman is like an animal… (I'm thinking of the otter).

I found this 3+2 sofa for a mere $1200. I thought it looks ok. Showed this pic to Grumpy, and he goes "NO!!!" ARGhhh whatever you BIG baby, you pay for it yourself then.

How about a sofa with a nice tray to put your drinks? And a built-in fridge inside! Hahaha..

Or even a bar and a jukebox? (On second thought, Grumpy's drinking habits are a bit worrying at times.. maybe the bar is a no-no)

A grandfather clock? It would be funny… to have the chime sequence play every hour, driving the dog insane coz he's locked in the house all day.

And maybe this Blues Brothers figurine? I thought we could put this in front of the house. Scare the living crap out of the neighbours! Haha

OK, while Grumpy wasn't pleased by the outcome of my trip to Homemaker because I did not even take a picture of a dining table for him to see… I'm sure we'll find something soon… there's always Ikea, right?

Happy holidays

Lazy winter morning. My fingers and toes are freezing. Queen's birthday today. Waiting for Grumpy to cook me lunch. Ahhh.. I'm such a spoilt princess sometimes. Dread going back to work tomorrow. Grumpy is going to stop by at his office to do a little bit of work. And he wants me to go with him… but I don't want to. However he's bribed me with a $30 voucher to go shopping in the city while waiting for him. $30 wouldn't get me very far… silly boy.

You hang up!

"You hang up"

"No… YOU hang up"

"NOOO you hang up"

"Ok Ok.."

*pause*

"You're still there?!" *giggles*

"You hang up"

"NO.. YOU hang up!"

"NOOO you hang up!"

Don't we all have our 'You hang up, NO,YOU hang up' moments? (remember? Ross in an episode of Friends)

Today at work, while my nosy-ass colleagues were listening to my 2 min conversations with Grumpy over the telephone, I did a 'You hang up, NO, You hang up' just to make their skin crawl.

Grumpy, as usual, being his Grumpy-self, said "Are you done? Because I'm really gonna hang up"

Sheesh. FINE, HANG UP!

You can sleep on the bloody sofa tonight.

Home

When the going gets tough… I think of 'home'… back in KL.

I miss getting cheap French manicures and facials. (NO, I don't normally wear sunnies at home in my own room. Dopey took this pic)

I miss being silly with the family dog, my true love, Simba. (Again, pic by Dopey. Gawd I look awful here! haha..)

My Simba.. the loyal watchdog. Baby boy, you're looking in the wrong direction. The gate is the other way.

I miss being with the family during Chinese New Year.

I miss seeing the boys in the family get pissed drunk on the eve of CNY, while having steamboat, in front of all our parents.

I miss the all the swearing $#%^%$# and 2^nd hand smoke coming from the mah jong room. Next to me is my cousin, the gang leader of the boys. At the table, Grandpa, uncles and Dad.

I miss my cheeky little cousin, Dinosaur Boy. I still love every inch of this little devil, despite the fact that he hardly remembers my name. I'm never around.

I miss how my little cousins annoy Mum and still put a smile on her face.




I miss sitting in the car with Grumpy, driving around KL city (swearing #@$%#@), because we're L-O-S-T… trying to get to KL-freaking-CC.



I miss my friends. I miss sipping 'teh-o-ais limau's' any time of the day/night with my BFF's!!

Most of all, I miss HOME!

Birthday gifts

Grumpy is turning 26 y/o soon. His birthday happens to fall on a month which has never been kind to me financially. And he knows it. Which is good because it's not my fault that everything is due in May.

We've been together for nearly 9 years now. I still can't believe it. But back then, we used to ask each other what we wanted, and we'll even buy gifts in front of each other and pay for it there and then. And if each of us wanted something expensive really bad, we'd go halves (or 60/40, 70/30, etc…. you get the picture..) But it's a whole different ball game now. Recently, we've been surprising each other with something none of us would expect. Which is fun! He could wrap me a can of paint, I'd still be amused!

So anyways, Grumpy said "Please don't buy me clothes, OK" and hints that he'd like some fancy schmancy Bose home theatre sound system.

"Oh shut up! I'll get you whatever I feel like, OK?" Then he goes on and on about the Bose system.. Yea WHATEVERRR…

But look what I got him…

An Ed Hardy tee-shirt. How cool is that?

It's not Grumpy's style.. but who cares? Lets give 'em Ralph Lauren polo tees a run for their money!!

The dog likes it.

And look, even Ed Hardy's a doggie lover. I love the bulldog prints.

Love is blind

It's quite bizarre but recently, I've been hearing nothing but weddings, marriage, babies, etc. I'm so happy for the 'soon-to-be' or 'just-turned' newlyweds. It's such a joyous and amazing chapter in their lives. While I've recently purchased my first home, I've been getting the "So, when are you guys tying the knot?" questions. I'm not annoyed by it… but my aunt sent me an email recently. She told me about what a Buddhist monk discussed recently. While I call myself a Buddhist, I'm not really that religious… spiritual? Maybe..

He said "As we all know love is blind, so what is marriage?"

"Marriage is the institution for the blinds", rather funny but is true to a certain extent.

"So what is the wedding ceremony?"

"A ceremony to seal our entry to the institution?"

Oui!