my other finished projects

These had been sitting around for a very long time and I finally had them framed last week:

These are my finished cross-stitch projects. This particular craft was introduced to me by my home economics teacher during my high school days. At that time, I wished she could have thought of a project that is less time consuming as me and the rest of the class were studying trigonometry, geometry, world history, chemistry and literature… Nevertheless, I did like it.

Nowadays, I don’t do embroidery as I am more into making clothes and learning new sewing techniques. But with all of these hanging on my walls, maybe I’ll pick up a kit or two.

 

red beauties

I made some cupcakes last weekend to help myself boost my esteem after the recent near-disaster baking adventure:

 

I adjusted the sweetness of these beauties like like my family would love. The cupcake were frosted with cream cheese frosting. The purple hue was unintentional; it had been sitting in my fridge for some time and the cakes wait for a new batch!

a series of unfortunate events

Every holiday gives us an opportunity to try out a new recipe. I have to admit, often times, it would turn out to be a disaster. This time around, however, it was not as disastrous per se but this cake met quite a few challenges from getting the ingredients to frosting.

First, the recipe calls for “caramel condensed milk” but condensed milk nowadays comes in tetra brick packaging instead of tin cans hence, there’s no way I could have immerse it to boiling water for 2 good hours. Yet, I went ahead and bake the cake.

The following evening, New Years’ Eve, after prepping and cooking the main dish and appetizer, I went ahead in assembling the cake by making its filling. I realized I ran out of cooking gas! So my family and I had sliced fruits for dessert

After nearly 2 days and at least half a dozen of “inshallah’s” later, a cylinder of cooking gas had been delivered to our apartment and the time to assemble the cake finally came. I remove the centre of the cake leaving just an inch thick at the edge and about half of an inch at the bottom, put the filling in, and let it set for 4 hours.

Finally, after pouring the marshmallow frosting, my blow torch didn’t work! Hence, my suppose “Caramel filled Chocolate Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting” turned out simply as “milk filled chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting”…

 

 

a couple of vests

My brother has been begging me for months to make some vests for him. He must be convinced by one of the characters in the popular TV show to own at least one.

I’m not very confident in drafting patterns so I used Simplicity 2346. I decided to fused the fabric to add stability and body. He had worn this once at work and one of the compliments he received was “it looks expensive”!

Of course, it should

a summer birthday cake

It was my sister’s birthday last weekend, so I decided to make a cake for her.

I used Nigella Lawson’s Swedish Summer Cake; there should be more strawberries for the cake if I have not ate some (or most) of it while baking…

And to my Muslim friends and readers, wishing you a “Ramadan Kareem”

till then…

the night’s theme is french

After watching Julie & Julia for the nth time, I remember the bottle of red wine given to me by my kind boss that had been sitting in my apartment since new year. I don’t drink but it doesnt mean I can’t indulge myself with its goodness. 

So I decided to make Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon for easter.  

And we concluded our easter feast with easter-dolled up Chocolate Almond Cake:

Hope youall had a nice easter.

rustic pie = love

I’ve been craving lately.

I haven’t had this pie for more than a decade. The last time I had this was during an out of town educational trip when I was in high school. So it is literally, more than a decade.

So finally last weekend, I did something drastic:  stopped by to my nearest coffee shop (street restaurant) to get the main ingredient – fresh young coconuts. I came home to prepare the pastry, but before proceeding further I indulged myself with coconut juice, then let my brother stepped in to split the coconut to get its meat. Made the coconut filling; then assembled and baked the pie in the afternoon. My pie looked more rustic than store-bought, but thats love.

And by the following morning I am all satisfied. Nothing compares to the salty crust with sweet coconut filling shared with the people I love the most.