A little bit about baking fails

My baking has failed a couple times. I even failed to make cookies :((
Sad... so sad... Here are the failures from the last few months...

So I made carrot cake. Which, when you think about it; 1 slice = one serving of vegetable. Therefore: 5 slices = 5+ a day.

 Grated carrot; so much easier done with a food processor.

 Into a lined tin.

Oh this recipe is from Edmond's cookbook which I got for my 14th birthday

It comes with cool stickers like these, and so many good recipes, just not the carrot cake one :P

Looks okay?

But it did not rise.
I had my doubts when I poured it in the tin, because it didn't seem like a lot of mixture.

Still, I iced it with cream cheese icing. The cake was good, but it did not rise. Where did I go wrong?

Next I tried chocolate sponge cake.

Tips for making sponge cake:
Sift the dry ingredients 3 times to make the cake light.
Once poured into the tin, tap it to get any bubbles out and place it in the oven.
Do not test with a skewer, it will release the air. Instead, when lightly touched, the cake will spring back.
I followed these tips...

and made simple buttercream icing too for the middle.

2 cakes with icing layer. But. . .
Once again did not rise.

Where I went wrong:

I think I didn't beat the eggs enough, and the eggs weren't at room temperature which affects the volume when beating. Either that or it was the tin itself, since I used the same one for both cakes.

I also made russian fudge and that failed. I didn't know how to do the soft ball test, where you drop a little mixture into cold water and it should form a soft ball when it's right. And I didn't beat the mixture well enough. It tasted good, but it just did not set.


And the latest fail was caramel chocolate cookies...

I was trying a new recipe that uses vegetable oil instead of butter. But I didn't have vegetable oil, so I used olive oil.

I chopped up jersey caramels, you can get these from Pick n Mix section at most grocery stores, and the other half of the energy chocolate block from my wheat free chocolate cookies.

You can tell from the dough that it was too oily... Maybe I put too much oil in it?

The cookies looked fine, but the olive oil was way too fragrant and made the cookies taste funny :/
What could I have used as vegetable oil substitute that isn't olive oil?

And to conclude,

I'm still striving towards that goal of being the mother who makes really awesome birthday cakes for her children and the grandmother who always has home baking in the vintage biscuit tin.
Ain't nothin stoppin me!

Signed,

Elisa

A little bit about Christchurch adventures

I went to Chch :) The city where there are bike lanes on the road, you can see right up to the horizon because there are no hills, and the people are super lovely... 

I enjoyed the hospitality of Gee, her cranberry sauce, the teddy bear she gave me and the room that smells like vanilla. Look at this light above her staircase! Ever since Year 13 graphics project, where we had to design feature lights, I have been easily impressed with the aesthetics of electrical features. I just love that light.

Calci and I had breakfast at Addington Coffee co-op, recommended by four friends, and they were right! Breakfast was delicious...

Although known for its excellent fair-trade coffee, I am unfortunately giving up my every-second-day-trim lattes due to impulsive behaviour. But Calci had a cappucino and she said it was delicious :) It looked very good...

Eggs benedict with bacon

My buttermilk waffles with golden syrup kohu road ice cream, maple syrup and berry coulis.

So delicious. 

I am so craving some right now, I am going to make waffles right after this. 

I think deep belgian waffle makers produce better, crispier waffles because they turn out thinner and the squares trap more maple syrup :)) mmm...

They have flags instead of table numbers, it reminded me of Little & Friday in Auckland, where they have painted animal figurines. Does anyone know what flag that is?

What is this; murky tap water!! 

It was fine to drink though, apparently.

Oh and I saw this guy that looked like Shia LeBeouf from the side...

Agree??

Homemade bread cooling on the window sill...

Yup, I am definitely making waffles after this.


Being keen civil engineers, Calci and I went to the city centre to look at construction sites

Restart mall with its shipping containers

Look at those trusses

The timber construction here impressed me. I think it was the 2 degrees, ANZ building

Why are the steel poles bent? Is it because it would be harder to buckle (moment of inertia) ?

Arches!

I had my last trim latte at Luciano, but do you know what I'm still allowed? Affogato.

Gee and D-man and made affogato with vanilla ice cream, espresso shots...

and Baileys.

Oh wow I am so craving that right now too.

However the food highlight to the trip was when we went to J'aime les macarons and I got salted butter caramel and peach iced tea macarons.

I am not kidding you, the salted butter caramel was SO AMAZING. It felt like... amazingness. I have no words to describe how delicious those three bites were.



And to conclude,

Highlight of the trip?

Signed,
Elisa

A little bit about wheat free chocolate chunk cookies

Lauren's going wheat free for a while to see if she's allergic to it. Which is funny because I recall on Saturday she had a cider and then knowingly ate chocolate birthday cake. The next day she went to a picnic, hahaha...

Nevertheless, I was meeting her parents for the first time so I thought I'd bring along some baking :)

She's always been like, "You have to come meet my mum! She's heard so much about you!"
And finally we made it happen!

I spent a couple hours trying on outfits and my bed was covered in clothes- oh wait that's for this Sunday when I'm in chch :P




These cookies use rice flour instead of standard plain flour. I don't know what else rice flour is used for commonly? But we had some in the pantry, maybe asian dishes?

Wheat free chocolate chunk cookies

115 gr butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp vanilla essence
165 g rice flour [1 cup]
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
 pinch of baking powder
100 gr [half a block] energy chocolate, chopped into chunks

1. Cream the butter and sugars until light
2. Add egg and vanilla and beat together
3. Sift in rice flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder and mix well
4. Stir in the chocolate
5. Shape dough into small rough shaped- balls and bake at 180C until firm to the touch, roughly 12-15 minutes.

Yum. Look at them rise

The dough is a lot stickier and tackier than normal cookie dough, but I promise you, you won't even be able to tell they're wheat free.

"until firm to the touch." So I touched it... and made a dent.

Lauren loved them! :D

We had a delicious dinner at her house

I learnt that she got her cooking skills from her mum.

We walked around her farm... That is her backyard right there. So beautiful.

This is Zorro, her cat

That's Zorro on the roof...

meow

And this is Jala, the german shepherd :3

And to conclude,

I have some more cookie dough ready to be rolled right now... Caramel and chocolate chip! Tomorrow is a special day!!! :))

Signed,
Elisa

A little bit about this chinese cake

I was hanging out with my Cantonese speaking friends one night and they introduced me to this cake!!!

We tried so hard to get it out of the tin lol...

You can see the cracks we made from prying it out with a spatula, fork and knife. 

And banging it on the bench... then Miss Shell accidentally dropped it in a bowl of hot water while trying to loosen it from the pan...

But wait for it,

She cut it up into slices (not wedges), coated it in egg...

AND FRIED IT.

!!!!!!!

Life changing, I tell you.

It was like crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside... And it smelled AMAZING (we accidentally set off the fire alarm at 10.30 at night :/ )

I can't remember what it's called and if I did I can't pronounce it, but I know how to say I'm hungry in Cantonese

ngo tou ngo

ngo gaam gan fei aa [I am on a diet]

And to conclude,
look at this tshirt!

Feihae won a personalised printed tshirt featuring one of Geoffrey's drawings. So cool!

Signed,
Elisa