The husband and the mom

Over the weekend, i brought all these home for the husband.

Not from me of course, but from the husband's mom - my mil [mother in law]. And i'm not even a teeny weeny bit of jealous i assure you. In fact, i was pleased. I like it when pil dote on their son :P

some clothings, hb's favourite snacks, some self-grind cordyceps in tablet form + cell protection supplement

Mil is a little more expressive. She dotes on her only son whenever she can.

Buy him this, but him that. Cook him this, cook him that. Sometimes, when i say something about her son, she would no doubt defend him too, especially whenever i complained that the boring son always wanna eat porridge almost every weeekend.. Lol.

But when i think of it, if i do have a son like the husband, i would also dote on him ah!

I still remember what happened on my birthday eve this year.

I had a date with the gfs in town. Hb was supposed to send me there and have his facial nearby at 7.30pm. It was already 7.10pm when we were about to leave in law's place when suddenly, mil asked if we could drop her off at the nearest bus stop [she was going for a meeting at Jurong West, at the very West].

At that very moment she asked, i knew what will happen, knowing the husband so well.
Obviously the husband wouldn't drop mil off at the bus stop and let her take bus to her destination! Hb will definitely send her there.

Sidetrack : I am one who dislike being late. I like being punctual.

Before hb said anything, he put his left hand on my right thigh and squeezed lightly. Kinda like getting me ready for what he would say next. I knew what he was gonna say and i was spot on because i was contemplating on doing that too..

Because the place mil was going was pretty far and if i were to tag along, i will surely be at least half an hour late, so hb turned to me and suggested that i take a cab instead. He will drop me at the nearest bus stop. As for his appointment, it doesn't matter anymore.

Imagine how my face changes colour then. Haha. Volunteering it myself is one thing and asked to do it is another different thing. But then, i was really expecting it so.. it wasn't so much of a 'heart attack'. But as all of us know, 7pm is peak hour time. Getting a cab from the road side is as good as getting a cab near midnight hence i told hb that i will to tag along afterall.

Throughout the journey, i couldn't even manage to say a word. I don't trust my own voice. I dare not even look at mil too. I am one who cannot mask my own true feeling. I do not know how to no matter how hard i try. My face is me. My face expression cannot lie and i know it.

All i could do to ease my anger and frustration was to sms the gf :P

What's more is that halfway there, mil actually asked hb to pick her friend! *smack forehead*

Anyway, after we dropped mil and her friend off, i couldn't bring myself to speak to the husband anymore even though i know that what he did what the right thing to do. But i was too angry about the whole situation and me being 35 mins late. So i calmly told the husband to leave me alone for the time being until i feel better which i did after i met up with the girls. When hb picked me up again, i was talking to him as though nothing had happened before and i can tell hb was pleased.

The thing is i was extremely angry then. Angry for what happened. But i wasn't angry with the husband [okie, maybe a little because he did place me at no.2 afterall! grr.. :P] nor mil. If hb is the kind who would really drop off his mother at the nearest bus stop, i don't think i would marry him in the first place. Seriously.[btw, that was how hb won me over in the first place after an almost failed courtship, by being so very nice to my mom.. conman donkey!]

And i also happened to know that mil was truly happy that day for what had happened and i am glad. When i relate the story to my own mother, my mom was sighing.. say this is the kind of son that is worth giving birth to. Grin. So, how can mil not dote on her this only son aye? :)

Financiers

OOooo.. i love these lovelies.

They are absolutely delicious!



They're made from egg whites, melted butter and almond meal. Again, looks can be very deceiving here. Heh.

I love its texture, soft and moist yet light. The almond meal is almost not there, you can't quite taste the graininess but the nutty almond taste is definitely there.

I like this better than Friands if you were to ask me. So if i've got extra egg whites next time, Financiers is the word :P

Because i did 2-3 types of cakes within a 2 days' span, i gave some to the boys' very nice paediatrician when we went to the East side to send the mixer for service.

Quite a girlie gift box aye? No other boxes!

In it, i packed 2 Financiers and a slice of Chocolate Truffle cake which i made specially for the husband before we left to KL. The husband has been requesting for it for months! Heh.

Cakes for the doctor :)

Hope the doc loves them as much as i do...

Recipe :

1/2 cup slice almond
6oz unsalted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 large egg whites (room temp)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/3 cup icing sugar
1 cup plain flour
3/4 ground almond

1. Toast the almond slices till brown
2. Brown butter in a saucepan with vanilla. Cook over medium heat till butter is foamy and light brown. Cool to lukewarm
3. Beat egg whites and tartar till soft peaks. Then slowly add the icing sugar and whip till firm and glossy peaks
4. Fold in the flour into the egg white in 3 stages
5. Fold in the ground almond into egg white in 3 stages, follow by the cooled browned butter mixture in 3 stages
6. Divide batter. Take note that batter will not rise that much. Only slightly. Sprinkle the top with toasted almonds and bake for 12-15 mins in 150 degree oven

Bon appetite! :D

Bad kitchen day

Last thursday was an extremely busy and tiring day for me. It was my fil's birthday. I decided to bake fil a mango mousse cake after receiving 5 ripe mangoes from mil but mainly because i wanna try it after much raves from some floogers :P

Decorated using some what-is-left-in-the-fridge-and-snacks-cupboard-presentable bits :P

Heh.. ignore the messy mousse! I was too, too tired to beautify it and don't laugh at the anyhow piped fresh cream at the bottom! It was an impromptu design where the pipe followed wherever the hands went when the mousse didn't manage to cover the last quarter of the cake :P

The day started at 7am all the way till evening. It was that hard a work. Unfortunately nothing went right.

First, it was the sponge cake. When i took it out from the oven, the baby started crying. By the time i went back to the cake, it sank. But luckily the spong cake was meant to be in between the mousse so it didn't matter that much. However, that somehow put a dent onto my jolly mood.

Then, the cupcakes. I wanted to make orange butter cupcakes for the boys' teachers during the meet-the-parents-session the next day and also a very nice girl at Amore as a token of appreciation. But. First thing i did was to mix up the ingredients during the creaming and mixing stage. This resulted a slightly heavy, dense texture instead of the expected soft and light cake. Sigh :(

From there, i proceeded on with the mango mousse. I over beat the whipped cream! *sobs* Instead of the mousse texture, i got the whipped cream texture *sniffs* :(

So what we were eating in the end was actually mango whipped cream cake, not mango mousse cake.

Aiihhhsss... :P

I don't hate it or like it but others were quite taken by the cake except the fussypot hb who thought the cake was so-so only. Somehow, i think the cake will taste real good if i were to do it correctly. Which i hope i will tomorrow. Heh.

Apart from the cupcakes and the mango whipped cream cake, i also did mango pudding [this was an exception from my bad kitchen day though. It was good! Similar to those served in Crystal Jade/East Ocean Teochew Restaurant. At least something went okay. Grin] and mini mango whipped cream cake in cups.

Mini mango whipped cream cake

But that was not the end of my bad kitchen day. My dreadful day ended with dreadful buttercream. Again, due to some distraction (think i was in the midst of stirring the mango pudding ingredients in a saucepan on the stove), my buttercream was over beaten. It turned watery. The pink colouring which i intended to use was finished up by my confinement nanny and she didn't even inform me!

In the end, i ended up with pandan flavour buttercream?

Hope and pray that the recipients don't dislike it as much as i did. Hehe..

I was too tired to re-bake the cupcakes and re-do the buttercream, which i wanted to initially. Dislike giving others something which isn't up to my standard.

My atrocious cupcakes

Because of the watery buttercream, these were the only designs i could pipe out *hide face in the bag*. So ugly! LOL.

There you go, the tale of my very bad kitchen day...

Actually there are more but me ain't gonna bore you with the little details. Writing this post is no fun at all. Haha..