If they have body odour, would you suggest to go shopping for a deodorant, too? Just wondering!
Have a brushonderful week!
August 23, 2015
Sunday Humour: How to be Tactful
Category: Entertainment
August 21, 2015
Fabulous Friday Flavour: Lychee Rainbow Chiffon with Mint Frosting
Category: Fabulous Friday Flavours
It’s been some intense weekend last week when we had to hustle along in preparation for Spud’s belated birthday celebration. It obviously included me being on my feet for hours on end in the kitchen, cooking and baking to prep up for our little gathering with a few friends.
Spud has specifically requested for a rainbow cake and like last year, she wanted to decorate the cake herself. Having spent too much time at work for 2 weeks at a stretch, how could I even have the heart to say no? I just couldn’t!
This is when I realized that I am just becoming like my mom, who, no matter how knackered she is after a long day at work, she’d have no qualms whipping them up whenever her kids asked her to cook or bake them something. She may not do it immediately, but it’s a guarantee that she’ll oblige in a matter of days the moment we kids open our mouth and told her we feel like eating XYZ. My brother and I have been lucky that way.
Inspired by last week’s success of my Rainbow Chiffon on Monthly Mystery Munchies #4, I decided that I’ll make another rainbow chiffon. Not just another rainbow chiffon, though, but a Lychee Rainbow Chiffon complete with pink mint frosting!
Spud wanted so much to help out with the baking itself, and while I was quite reluctant to, given the delicate ingredients used (egg whites!!!), I allowed her to put the ingredients into the mixing bowl or pass the necessary ingredients/ utensils to me. I also let her choose her colours and sequencing the colours for layering. She was happy with that, and happier at the prospect of being able to decorate her own cake again. Mind you, she didn’t even mind being called away from watching My Little Pony!
We had a great bonding time together, and she’s got her friend helping her out with the cake decoration. Nothing like making a child happy with a home-made birthday cake that was yummy but messy and completely imperfect!
This recipe has been tweaked a little bit as I used extra eggs for volume and I had rammed up the taste with Lychee extract for the cake and topped it with a good layer of light cream cheese for the frosting. It went by quite quickly.
That was my mommy’s redemption moment. The smiles I got was well-worth all the exhaustion I felt!
Lychee Rainbow Chiffon with Mint Frosting
2015-08-18 02:30:24
A colourful, refreshing lychee chiffon with light cream cheese frosting that has a tinge of mint.
Prep Time
1 min
Cook Time
40 min
Total Time
1 hr 40 min
Ingredients
- 8 large eggs, separated plus 1 additional egg white
- 2 1/4 cups (225 grams) sifted cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) superfine white (castor) sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil or safflower oil
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) low-fat milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon pure lychee extract
- 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (use to stabilise whipping of egg whites and allow them to reach maximum volume)
- 3-4 tbsp cocoa powder
- Colouring: I used blue, red, orange, green
Frosting
- 8 ounces Mascapone Cheese
- Half cup Icing sugar
- 2 cups whipping cream
- 1/2 teaspoon of lychee extract
- 1/2 teaspoon of mint extract
- A few drops of coloring
Instructions
- Separate the eggs and place the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Cover with plastic wrap and bring them to room temperature (about 30 minutes).
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C and have ready a 10 inch (25 cm) two piece tube pan (ungreased).
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, place the flour, sugar (minus 3 tablespoons or 42 grams), baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined.
- Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg yolks, oil, milk, vanilla extract and lychee extract. Beat about one minute or until smooth.
- Get ready empty bowls to separate the batter in #4, enough to accomodate the colours you need to use for the cake
- In a separate bowl, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 3 tablespoons (42 grams) of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Apportion the whisked egg whites into the batter in #6 equally. Add drops of colouring to each of the bowl. I also added in cocoa powder to one of the bowls for that subtle chocolate taste
- With a large rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the batter just until blended (being careful not to deflate the batter).
- To layer, pour the mixed batter (with egg whites folded in) one colour on top of the other until all the batter is used up into the ungreased tube pan.
- Bake for about 55 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (When lightly pressed the cake will spring back).
- Important: Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven invert the pan and place on a bottle or flat surface so it is suspended over the counter.
- Let the cake cool completely before removing from pan (about 1 1/2 – 2 hours).
- To remove the cake from the pan, run a long metal spatula around the inside of the tube pan and center core. Invert onto a greased wire rack. (I used an already detacheable mould for easy removal of the cake)
- This can be stored in an airtight container for a few days at room temperature or for about a week in the refrigerator. This cake can also be frozen for a couple of months.
Frosting
- Whisk cream cheese into a mixing bowl
- Add sugar, slowly until it becomes creamy
- Add in the whpping cream, lychee extract, mint extract and a few drops of red colouring. Whisk till it appears light.
- Store it in the fridge until it is ready to be used
Notes
- It is important that you do not over-beat the whipping cream
Grubbs n Critters https://grubbsncritters.com/
Awwwwww….
#FoodieFriDIYs #HomeMatters #SmallVictory #HowWeRollThurs #ThursdayFavouriteThings
August 20, 2015
A Re-blog: My Problem with Filipino Teaching
Category: Blogging
Estelea from Estelea Blog wrote something that is close to my heart. We should be having endless discussions with our kids about life and religion(s), teaching them how to respect the differences and the people around them for who they are.
Most of all, even if you don’t believe in religion, you’d have to respect other people’s belief and not impose your beliefs on others. Here’s a re-blog for such a wonderful post:
(c) zazzle.com
My kids are Jewish by their Mum and Protestant by their Dad. Mr Attila was born in a Buddhist country and his sister in a totally secular one. We worked in Muslim and Hindu places and we are currently living on a Catholic island. How could we possibly educate our children in a single religion? if there is one thing I learnt from all those years working in war affected countries, is that education is paramount to prevent violence. Teach your children how to respect each other and the people around them for who they are and to honour all religions – as each is a pathway to the One God.
The Philippines are a Catholic country, even though not formally anymore. But you’ll always be asked “are you a Catholic?”. My natural answer would be “why do you care? does it make any difference to you whether I am Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist or a worshiper of the Sun?“. It is cultural. In any document – even the kids subscription to their sports classes, you ll have to answer their obsessing question “what is your religion?“. It was the same in Thailand and it already used to drive me crazy. I never answered, and I must admit no one insisted on me filling the blank. Asian don’t make fuss. Under any circumstance are you allowed to lose face. Let the foreigners be. They are not here to stay anyway.
This cartoon of a girl praying in a church comes from my daughter’s school book. This is the reading material of a “private and non religious school that respects all faiths“. Wait another month and I know that my son will learn that “G is like God” and God is Christ. Period.
My toddlers, like all kids of their age are constantly asking questions. They wonders why we don’t go to church, why her friends’yaya are pregnant again, why so many of her classmates’ fathers are “living abroad“, why there are so many kids barely dressed in the streets and sleeping on carton sheets. All those questions are a chance to talk about respect and understanding. What each of us can do to help, at our own little level.
Read more of Estelea’s post here.