ayonecan-cook

I blog in spurts. I keep telling myself that I will never blog in spurts again. It's bad. As bad as gorging on chocolate cream filled chocolatey biscuits when you're trying to be healthy. Or trying to walk in a straight line. Sorry for the an unplanned absence. I have been uninspired and distracted. For many reasons. The heat, mega sales, the heat, friends, the heat and family. And mainly mega sales. And the heat. Nevertheless, these English chocolate cream filled chocolate biscuits are reminiscent of the chocolate bourbons from Marks and Spencer that I gorged on thirty years ago. So busy was I that I got yelled at by a man with a heavy load on his shoulders. I almost walked into him. I jumped out of his way in the nick of time. I'm sure he would have hit me on my head if he could. Thank god Mary Berry had a recipe for it. Thank god I bought her Fast Cakes recipe book thirty years ago. And thank god they taste just like my memory of it. The biscuits I mean. These a...

N says she would be frantic if the factory that makes Nablus Soaps were ever to close down. As she reveled, caressed and soaked herself in the soothing dead sea mud suds she wondered how she would survive if it did. I know because she told me. She had waxed lyrical about it while she still had a towel wrapped around her head in a turban. It's like stepping out from a spa, N said.... totally relaxing, calming especially after a long work day at the office and particularly after using the dead sea mud soap.... she tried convincing me (like I needed convincing). Now, she says, her skin squeaks when before the use of shower gels or other soaps would only leave a slippery film on her skin (like I didn't know).  She gushes about it, she feels rejuvenated, she feels like a totally new person after a shower. I look at her and she is. I like this new person. I like dead sea mud too. This is not a sponsored advertisement or review.  I just totally love these soaps and I have on...

These are what kept me busy the past 2 weeks. For a close friend. I'm glad it they turned out all right and that A was very happy with them. She wanted them pink with touches of brown. I made the simplest of roses. One of the type of roses that I had learnt to make at the sugar craft class ...a few months ago. I am so glad I attended the class. But after a hiatus since the class it took time to get my mojo back and after a few trials I managed to make sense of the process required to make those "simple" roses. They were simple really but like everything else it takes consistent practice not to lose it.  I wish I had been calm enough to take some photographs to show you how they were made but as usual I just wanted to get on with them and at the time nothing was more important than getting the roses completed satisfactorily. I will show the steps in a future post though. So keep a look out. The cakes were simple and the ribbon was chosen by A to match the decor for the res...

Remember the Thai Sweet Chillie Sauce I made in my previous post? Remember? Remember? Remember when I said things could only get better from then on? Well it did. It did ~ Just like the first spring rolls 'recipe' these hardly needed a recipe  Which was good because I was feeling kind of slap happy ~ So what you'll need are some ~  finicky carrots ~ julienned see through glass noodles ~ softened in warm water, drained pinky prawns ~ gently boiled, peeled imposter crab sticks  ~ from a packet, unsealed sprightly sprigs of cilantro ~ plucked pretty basil leaves ~ whole minty mint leaves ~ itsy bitsy bits or anything else that strikes your fanciful highnesses ~ But don't you ever forget those slippery glass noodles ~ Because they add such a crunchy feely-ness, people ~ Then I crushed some strands of saffron thread  And soaked them in warm water ~  Until it turned into a liquid sunset  A minute later So I slipped in a disc  Of the fancy rice paper...

  Thai sweet chillie sauce is syrupy, sweet and hot spicy. It takes under 10 minutes to make from start to finish. It's super quick. But I think the most satisfying part about making sauces, pickles, chutneys, jams or relishes, super quick or not,  is in the bottling.  Because you just know better things are about to come. I really wanted a square bottle for this. So I went to Daiso. Got it.  Daiso has everything. They have the littlest sauce bottles in the world too. Each slightly longer than an inch and perhaps skinnier than your little finger.  They are to bring along with you when you travel.  For when you're feeling homesick. Or perhaps to work. So quirky. Even silly me wouldn't buy them. They are just too little. :)  But I did buy that cute spoon in the photo. I can't stop myself buying things from that store. H e l p . And then I made sauce. The recipe ~ This sauce was so easy. I got the recipe off Closet Cooking who got it off She Simmers . Ho...

She, who invented this "Burnt Cake" cake, would not have seen an oven. This cake was baked over a fire and under a fire once upon a time long, long ago. Probably in the wet kitchen of a remote kampung that was isolated into the backwaters by vast expanses of paddy fields. The batter would have been poured into a brass 'flower' mould, placed on a fire and covered with a brass lid. Red hot coals would be placed on top of the lid so that the cake was being baked in between the two sources of heat. And this cake is called, in today's namby-pamby world, the "Baked Cake". Thank god for ovens. Proper ovens.   Brass moulds are beautiful. And it distributes heat evenly. However, it has become quite impossible to acquire these lovely brass moulds today. They have been replaced by aluminium ones which not only look flimsy and cheap, are insubstantial in weight but are also rather rough around the edges. And they have a very peculiar finish. With a look like they ...

Again I have used a siliconemoulds.com mould from Sarah-Jane and the cake turned out looking as beautiful as the savarin mould itself. Was I surprised? No.  This time I made a burnt sugar cream cake. While the cake was still comfortingly warm I had brushed it with burnt sugar syrup. It took on a beautiful golden sheen immediately. And needed little adornment. I love cakes that speak for themselves without need for the slather of rich buttercream. It means less work for me and less calories all around for everyone. But they have to be beautiful. So Sarah-Jane's pretty siliconemoulds gave them the finishing touch perfectly. Every time I use the moulds unmoulding is effortless and sigh-ingly satisfying. Do go here for more lovely moulds... This cake had no butter in it. The 1 1/4 cups of heavy cream made up for the fat in the butter and the drizzle of burnt sugar syrup in the batter gave it a more golden shade inside and out. It was very, very delicious, light yet moist with a subtle ...