Happy Birthday Eben!

Another baking project! A birthday cake for my nephew Eben. Last Saturday was his 3rd birthday.

Here’s the birthday boy.





















I was going to bake him cupcakes and make a cupcake tier to put the cupcakes, but Abram was sick again, so I couldn’t find time to make the tier. Anyway, making cupcakes require lots of time because I only have a small oven, so I have to bake in batches. I finally decided to bake him a simple butter cake , the same recipe as the LOVE juice cupcakes, reduced the sugar to 120g , and replaced the LOVE juice with 200ml Buavita mango juice. The mango juice flavor did not taste too strong, in fact, you wouldn’t be able to tell that this cake was using mango juice, I didn’t try to make it a mango flavored cake, I was just looking for other alternative to flavor the cake beside using vanilla essence because I think the essence tastes a bit bitter when used too much. I should buy vanilla extract but the price stops me from doing that =)

The theme of the cake was jungle. I got the idea from a video in youtube from wilton decorating. I was planning to make 2 layers of butter cake, put a layer of whipped cream and grated cheese between the 2 layers and decorated with colored whipped cream and animal candles.

The first layer came out nice……..I put it on the cake board smoothly. No problem at all.

















Then I made the second layer. When it was done, hmmmm…….now, how should I put this on the top of the first layer??? I decided to put it on a plate then picked it up carefully with two hands and put it on the first layer. And…………..it broke!!!! Haiiissssss!!!! What to do???? I didn’t have the time and material to make a new one…..T_T…… Finally I made a pudding, It would be a pudding cake. I had canned longans and lychees and made longans pudding. The pudding was put on the top layer.
















Pheeewwww……Thank goodness the pudding set quickly in the fridge, and it didn’t break when I took it off the cake pan and slide it from a plate on to the cake. *I took it off while praying “please God help me” cos it stucked in the pan, I had to tap it on the counter several times before it slide off*

Here’s the finished cake. I didn’t cover the sides with whipped cream, used chocolate wafer instead because I thought it was easier (actually, I ran out of wafer to cover 1 side so I had to go to a mini-mart near-by to buy more wafers, so, clearly, it wasn’t as easy as I thought).


















The pond should be blue, but I couldn’t find a blue coloring anywhere, so I use Fanta blueberry, but it wasn’t blue enough. Well, it wasn’t bad either……





































Curiously looking at his cake.





















Got excited when we started singing Happy Birthday ^_^




















With grandma.




















Actually, I took some more pictures, but they were blurry because the object (Eben) couldn’t stay still. =D
Happy Birthday Eben!!! Kiss from Papi Donny, Mami Lois and Abram.

The Book of Eli – Believe

A few days ago we watched the movie “The Book of Eli”, starred by Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Beals and Mila Kunis. The genre is called post-apocalyptic, that is a movie about what happens after an apocalyptic event (e.g World War, huge natural disaster etc).
I actually don’t really like this kind of movie because of the gloomy and dusty background with violent scenes. In fact, I felt a bit bored watching it….. If you like cowboy movies or movies like “The Departed”, you’d probably like “The Book of Eli”.
But this movie has wonderful Christianity messages in it, and I recommend to watch this movie (not for young children, not appropriate because of some violent scenes).

It is told that after an apocalyptic event, Eli (Denzel Washington) has been walking to west for 30 years, his mission is to bring The King James Version Bible (the only one left in the world) to a safe place. He doesn’t know what kind of place that “safe place” is and where it is exactly, he’s just following a voice telling him to bring the book and go west. The voice say he will be protected against anyone or anything that stands in his way, and apparently the voice doesn’t lie. 30 years walking on foot, facing hijackers and robbers, hunting bizarre animals for food, with limited water supplies, and only an ipod (is that an ipod? Looks like an ipod to me ^_^) as an entertainment, yet he survives. Eli walks by faith, not by sight.
This reminds me a lot of the journey of Abraham. He also didn’t know his destination, he was just following God. God promised him that he will get a very good land to live in, and that his descendants will be many, like sand in the beach and stars in the sky. It will be a big nation and all the people in the world will be blessed by his descendants. Abraham did not see all God’s promises fulfilled, but he still believed. That is why he is called The Father of all Faithful Man. Abraham walked by faith, not by sight.

Eli carries a hand gun, a riffle (I think that’s the name, I’m not really familiar with all types of weapon) and a big blade. He uses them very well, he can easily kill 5 hijackers in one fight scene. One time, he sees some people in motorcycles robbing 2 travellers, they kill the travelers and take all their belongings, but Eli decides not to help, he decides to stay on his path and that it is not his business.
Later on, when Solara (Mila Kunis) joins him in his journey, he regretly says he read the book (Bible) everyday, but he hasn’t live by it.
I remember the story of The Good Samaritan. A priest and a Levite didn’t help the half dead traveller. They surely knew the word of God in the available scriptures and should help the traveller but they didn’t! They read God’s words everyday but they didn’t live by it.

When his ipod needs recharging, Eli stops by a shop in a small town. He meets Carnegie (Gary Oldman) who’s been searching for the Bible to own it. Carnegie finds out that Eli has the Bible and forces Eli to give it to him. When asked why he wants the Bible so much, Carnegie answers the words from the book can make him more powerful than now, he can control more people and people will follow him because of the words from the book.
Hearing Carnegie’s reason, I can’t help thinking about some “Preachers” who are also using the Bible to gain popularity for themselves (not all preachers, but there are some that I know). They call themselves pastor, reverend, God’s servant, even prophet, but what they actually do is just selling God’s words (from the Bible) to gain popularity, money and power.

Carnegie manages to get the Bible from Eli after shooting him in the stomach. In the scene where Eli is shot, the camera focuses on Eli’s face, his expression is like he can’t believe that he’s been shot! I feel that he might be a bit disappointed because the voice has promised to protect him until the Bible arrives at the safe place, he doesn’t understand why he’s shot now and why is Carnegie allowed to take away the Bible. I was kinda hoping for a scene of miracle, maybe suddenly Eli stands up and not wounded by the shot at all, but apparently that’s not how the story goes……
Eli makes an attempt to stand up, as if he doesn’t believe that he will die before taking the Bible to west, but he falls down to the ground…….
I think it is good that there is no scene of miracle in this movie, because that is what going to happen in real life, if you are shot then you will be wounded.
Sometimes people expect miracles, they think if they follow God faithfully then God will make miracles to keep them safe from harm. But that’s not how this life goes. God can make a miracle when He wants to and when He thinks it’s necessary, but not always, it’s not His obligation. Sometimes God lets us have a hard life because He wants us to learn something from it.
In this point, I think Eli is a winner. The shot has wounded him badly but he manages to stand up and walk again heading west. He doesn’t give up, though no miracle happens, he still believes that he will arrive at his destination. And he finally does.

In the end, Eli and Solara arrive at the “safe place”, but without the Bible which is taken by Carnegie. But having been reading it everyday for 30 years, Eli remembers everything that is written in the bible and dictates it to a curator who collects important things from before the apocalypse. Finally, the Bible can be re-printed and Eli dies because of his wounds.
Imagine reading the Bible everyday for 30 years! No wonder he can memorize everything. What a shame that I have lived for 30 years but have never been able to read the whole bible even for once……

And what a struggle a man has made to preserve the Words of God.
When describing life before apocalypse to Solara, Eli says that people waste things that they now kill each other for. It’s true that now people can have the Bible easily that they take it for granted. In certain places, people can’t get access to the Bible and have to put their lifes on the line just to read a torn page of the Bible.
It also applies for other things such as food, clothes, education, time etc. How often are we wasting the things we have, just because we can have plenty of them?
My boss once said : “If you can have it easily, then you take it for granted.”
That is true indeed!

I give 5 stars for the meaningful messages in this movie ^_^

Good Friday and Easter with No Mixer Cupcakes, Love Juice Pomegranate Cupcakes and Strawberry Cupcakes

Last weekend was a long weekend, we celebrated the death and rise of Jesus Christ. I tried to read the story of Jesus’ crucifixion to Abram but he only sit on my lap for less than 1 minute….hehehe….. I finished reading though, don’t know if he listened to me or not but I believe it wasn’t a waste of time.

Later on, he decided to “read” the book himself……














































































And since Friday was a holiday, I decided to bake again. This time I made something simpler, No-Mixer Cupcake. I forgot where I got the recipe, I think it was from one of NCC members. The original recipe uses buttermilk which I didn’t have (and will never have since it’s not available anywhere), so I replaced it with yoghurt. I was going to use Elle n Vire yoghurt but it was quite pricey so I chose another brand, and how wrong I was…….I’ve never tasted that brand before, so I didn’t know that it tasted weird, it tasted like perfume…..yucksss! And it made my cupcake tasted a bit weird……T_T

I put a lot of grated Dark Cooking Chocolate to cover the taste of the yoghurt and it helped a bit. Actually, the cupcake was quite good, it was moist and quite soft, just because of the yoghurt it tasted weird…..

So, if you’re going to try this cupcake, please use real buttermilk or use a well-known yoghurt brand (or the brand you’ve already know the taste).

No-Mixer Cupcake
3 cups cake flour
1tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp salt
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup sugar
12 tbsp butter , melted
1 ¼ cup buttermilk


Put flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl, whisk together.
Whisk eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl, add sugar slowly, add melted butter gradually.
Add flour mix and buttermilk alternately.
Fill in cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake 160d celcius for 18-22 minutes or until done.


I filled in my cases till almost full because I like my cupcakes domed =)









































On Saturday, I tried to cook Sapo Tahu which failed terribly……T_T……I didn’t know what went wrong, I followed a recipe and it turned out bad, it looked bad and it tasted worse…..Guess I don’t have the talent to cook……
To cheer myself up, I baked another batch of cupcakes. This time is the recipe from http://myfoodtrail.blogspot.com/2009/11/recipe-pom-wonderful-juice-cupcakes.html . this recipe uses pomegranate juice. I used this one.










I still have some strawberry jam in the fridge so I thought it should be great to use it in the cupcake.

The original recipe with the buttercream recipe can be seen in the above link, here’s my version.

LOVE juice (pomegranate) Cupcakes and Strawberry Jam Cupcakes
120g margarine
150g sugar (if your strawberry jam is already sweet, you can reduce the amount of sugar)
2 eggs
210g cake flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of salt
¼ cup pomegranate juice
1 ½ - 2 tbsp Strawberry Jam

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
Beat margarine and sugar till pale and fluffy, add eggs one at a time.
Fold in the flour mix gradually.
Divide the batter into 2 equal parts.
Add in the pomegranate juice in one part of the batter and mix.
Add in the strawberry jam in the other part of batter and mix, taste the batter to determine how much jam you want in the batter.
Fill in the cupcake cases and bake 180d celcius for 20-30 minutes.

You can actually substitute the strawberry jam with any other jam you like. I also put grated Dark Cooking Chocolate in the center of the pomegranate juice cupcakes, and strawberry jam in the center of the strawberry ones.
I didn’t have the time to make the buttercream since Abram had to go to the Easter celebration at church.

What Cake....?

I was browsing google for “soft cake” when I found this blog http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com. He’s got some recipes I’d like to try, his other blog is http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/ which also has some good recipes.

I have baked brownies, butter cake and cookies, so this time I think about baking sponge type cake, I thought about baking a chiffon type but I don’t have the cake pan. And I found this recipe from the above blog that looked delicious and easy. It’s called Japanese Cottonsoft Sponge Cake, you can find the recipe here http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/2007/05/japanese-cottonsoft-sponge-cake.html

This cake should be baked in a 30x25cm baking tray, the same way if we’re going to bake a roll cake, it should be thin because it doesn’t have enough flour to support its weight, so we can’t put a thick batter in a small cake pan, it will sink if we do that. But I don’t have a baking tray so I thought I would just use the regular cake pan I have and bake just a thin layer.

So, I prepared the cake pan, layer it with wax paper and started making the cake. I halved the recipe, just in case I screwed up and the cake failed then it wouldn’t waste too much ingredients.

After I finished the batter, I poured it to the cake pan and when I wanted to put it in the oven I realized that the cake pan didn’t fit in the oven! Duh! Stupid me……I forgot that I only had a small sized electric oven…..T_T
I rushed and grabbed a smaller cake pan and poured the batter in, I didn’t even think about layering it with wax paper. When it was in the oven, I was thinking : how the heck will I going to get the cake out of the pan??? I didn’t layer it with wax paper, it will stuck in the pan!!! OMG…… So I started to think of another way to get the cake out without ruining the shape, then I remembered I just bought a round cookie cutter, hey…..why not cut the cake with it???

The cake came out from the oven like this















Quite nice looking and very thin, I think it was only 1 cm high. I used a cookie cutter to cut the cake.
















And then stacked them in 3 layers.















I got 3 stacks and put strawberry jam on the first layer and grated cheese on the second layer.
















Two of the stacks were for my MIL and hubby, I didn’t put any buttercream for health reason. The third was for me and I decorated it with green buttercream, just for fun.



















This is the picture of the layers




















It tasted good, though I didn’t get the texture of a cake, it was kinda like a pancake. Hahahaha. Well, I would try to make this cake again later, using the correct size of baking tray and wax paper……

Starting Pre-School

Today is Abram's first day in pre-school.. yeaaayyyyyy!

We've chosen Kinderland for Abram because it has music lesson in kindergarten ad the facility is better.

He still looked reluctant to start his school, but there were some improvements, such as using his spoon and plate correctly, playing in a group (well, not exactly playing with other kids but at least he didn't mind being in a group =p)

Still crying in the art class, still looking at the carpet in the story-telling class....oh well....at least he can use the spoon and plate. hehehe.....

This time , mommy still went in the classes with nanny, next time only nanny will accompany Abram.

Imunisasi Lagi

Hari ini abram imun DPT+polio+Hib, dijadi satu semua vaksinnya dalam 1 shot, combo gitu istilahnya....

Berat badannya 11.7kg, tinggi 84cm.

Tadi nanya soal brinjilan di leher kiri Abram, dokter bilang itu kelenjar getah bening, untuk sementara blom ada dugaan2 apa2, krn Abram sehat, berat nya naik terus, ga lemes dan ga sakit2an, tapi harus terus dipantau kalo tambah gede ato berat badan ga naik2 ya baru dilakukan pemeriksaan lebih lanjut apa ada TB kelenjar ato yg lainnya.

Yah baguslah...

Perkembangan belakangan ini Abram tambah nakal, gamau diem, ga bisa lagi duduk di carseat krn bisa melepaskan diri , padahal seatbeltnya uda dipendekin biar dia ga bisa molos, eh ternyata tetep bisa. Tapi dia jg bisa ngancingin seatbeltnya, kalo ngebuka sih belum bisa.
Kalo di ranjang lomcat2an mulu ga mau brenti, kalo ga loncat2an ya dia muter2. Sampe ngos2an pun tetep aja gamau brenti.

Dan yg pasti adatnya tambah 'bagus', kalo ga dikasi apa yg dia mau langsung mewek....

Pre-school

These past 2 days we were looking at 2 preschools for Abram. One is Kinderland in Sunrise Garden, the other is Cambridge in Green Garden.

We did a free trial at Kinderland yesterday, the class started on 8.30 and ended on 10.00. I met my friend whose daughter were also doing the free trial, and another friend who turned out to be the music teacher for the kindergarten, her son will start schooling there next July.

The first thing was playing outside, there were small sand and water pool, several mini cars, a swing and mini slides. After that all the kids went into the dining room to have snacks (each kid bring their own snacks). Then moved to the playing room, there were lots of toys in it, the kids could freely play with all of them, and then the teacher will call the kids two by two into the art room, yesterday the art project was to color a picture of an ant with water color.

From the playroom, the kids carried on to story room. Here, the teacher told a story and taught some songs. I think they were trying to teach words in this session, because they repeated several words over and over again while showing pictures so that kids would know what the thing in the picture was called. After the story telling, the class was dismissed.

Abram was rather reluctant about his lesson, I think he hadn't used to the people and environment. He played by himself, didn't interact with other kids, didn't want to let go of the the toy he was holding. And in the story-telling session, instead of looking at the teacher, he kept looking at the carpet...*sigh*
Well, I guess it would take a few days to get him familiar with the new place, new friends and new teachers.

The classes in Kinderland are divided into few levels. For under 2y.o is the Playgroup Class, then 2-2,5 y.o is the Pre-Nursery 1, 2.5-3y.o is Pre-Nursery 2, 3-4y.o is Nursery, 4y.o is Kindergarten 1 and 5 y.o is Kindergarten 2.

In playgroup, most of the activities are playing. The kids will be taught words, how to use plates, spoons and cups, tidying up their toys, singing, and simple arts like coloring with a cotton bud (or hand in Abram's case). The language used is English. And the kids can still be accompanied by one adult.

In Pre-Nursery 1 they will start to learn how to hold and use a pencil, e.g by connecting dots with lines. They will also learn some simple Mandarin words. And they can no longer be accompanied by adults, this to teach them to be independent.
In Nursery 1 they will learn to write their own names.
In Kindergarten there is a lesson for music, such as playing instruments, singing in a choir etc.

Overall, I think the program is good and they also have good facilities such as keyboards for the music lesson. The curriculum is from Singapore.
For playgroup we don't need to pay enrollment fee, there are only registration fee of IDR 50,000 and they charge IDR 65.000 per one day, so at the beginning of the month we have to decide how many days per week and then calculate the monthly payment. That is quite fair for us, since it's only playgroup so we don't want to pay a large amount of money.

But we'll have to start paying enrollment fee in Pre-nursery 1, the amount is USD500 and it is a one time payment untill the child graduates from Kindergarten 2. I caught a glimpse of the school fee for Pre-nursery 1 and it was USD290 for 2days/week. Besides that, there is a uniform fee and books and tools fee.

Cambridge pre-school doesn't do free trials, but we can look at the classes and see their activities. We went there 2 days ago, the place is twice smaller than Kinderland and it was kinda gloomy for me. They have 2 classes for Playgroup, one is on Mon, Wed, Fri and the other one is on Tue, Thu, the time is 10.15 to 12.00. For each class, they divide the kids into 2 groups so that each group will only have max 10 kids.

I dont know the exact activities in the classes since I could only see for a while. They were starting the class with singing when I was there.

The playgroup level is only for kids up to 2y.o, after that they go to Nursery 1, till they are 3 y.o they continue to Nursery 2. at 4 y.o they are already in Kindergarten 1 and 5 y.o in Kindergarten 2.

They said the kids will be able to write their own names by the end of Nursery 1's semester. And they will also toilet train the kids by teaching them to tell when they need to go to the toilet. In Nursery 1 the kids can no longer accompanied by adults and apparently before they enter Kindergarten they're already not wearing diapers anymore.

They also teach Mandarin starting Nursery 1, but I don't think they teach music.

For playgroup, the registration fee is IDR250,000, they also charge per day for IDR 55,000. The uniform fee is IDR35,000/set and there is also books fee of less than IDR 50,000 per semester.

Enrollment fee is charged when the kid start Nursery 1, it is IDR 3,000,000, one time payment till graduated from Kindergarten 2. There will also be a fee for books, uniforms, tools.

The curriculum is also from singapore so I think more or less it's just the same with Kinderland. But I prefer Kinderland because of the facilities and Music lesson. However, Cambridge can give graduation certificate from the government aside from their own certificate while Kinderland only gives their own graduation certificate. I've asked Kinderland about their certificate and they said their students got accepted in Penabur, St. Lucia and St. Mary. Kinderland's enrollment fee and school fee is also relatively more expensive than Cambridge, but I guess it is due to their better facilities so it's understandable.

We still haven't decided which one to choose, I prefer Kinderland, hubby prefers Cambridge because of the toilet training and the writing lesson in Nursery 1 and also the government graduation certificate. But we need to decide quickly since we want Abram to start to go to school in March.

For those of you who against sending your kids to school at such a young age, please re-consider, because I think it's good for the kids. They learn to socialize (not only with kids their age but also with other grown-ups besides their parents and family), share things, be creative, have discipline etc. And for a working mom like me who can't be at home and teach too many things to my son, it is a good way to maximize his potentials at these golden years (0-5 y.o).

Here's a photo of Abram playing mini car in Kinderland.

Orange Cake

I have lots of recipe videos from Youtube, what I like about them is their simplicity, and I also can see the process of making the cake and how it will look like when it’s done.

So, I’ve decided to try on 2 recipes for Orange Cake from Youtube. I got kinda bored with vanilla cake so I thought I’d give a try on something ‘fruity’ =p

One recipe is from Youtuber ciccioitaliancafe, and the other one is from weddingcakesforyou. The recipe from the ciccioitaliancafe is very easy and simple, you just have to put all the ingredients in your food processor (or blender in my case). While the one from weddingcakesforyou takes a little effort since you have to mix the egg whites till fairly stiff, and you need to put in some ingredients gradually.

I made these 2 recipes in one day, since it didn’t take too much time preparing them. The first I made was the ciccioitaliancafe, I put in the orange (whole orange, with the skin, and everything but the pit), the sugar, the flour and the butter. It was kinda hard to use blender to make this cake, I still needed to use my spatula often to get them all blended well.

After all the ingredients mixed and smooth, they all went to the cake pan and into the oven. It was baked for about 20 minutes.

While waiting for that cake, I started to work on the other cake. It really was taking a lot of effort……^_^ Cutting the orange, extracting the juice, mixing the egg whites till stiff peaks, folding in the dry ingredients….pheeewwwww…….

When I finished with the second cake’s batter, the first one had already finished baking. I got the pan out, put it in the kitchen counter and put in the second cake into the oven. The second took longer to bake, about 30 minutes.

I used a loaf pan for the first cake, then I cut it in 2 and stack them to make layers. Here’s how they look like

















I tasted the cake, and…… I didn't really like it…..hahahaha. The orange flavor is too strong for me, maybe because it uses the whole orange, and it was also kinda bitter. I have thought of only using the rind of the orange but I went against my instinct and followed the recipe…..
The cake was very dense, I don’t know whether it was me who’d done something wrong or was it supposed to be a very dense cake. This cake should be made as cupcakes, but I was lazy and didn’t want the trouble of getting the batter into those small cupcake cases.
I have to admit I’m a bit disappointed on how the cake tasted because this is a really easy and simple recipe and I thought I can use it whenever I want to make a cake for snack, or probably I had too much hope on this cake…..

Now, it’s time to taste the second cake. The youtuber who owns this recipe is a wedding cake vendor, so this is her recipe for wedding cakes, I guessed it should taste quite nice also.
I halved the recipe and bake this one in a round 20cm pan, the cake came out quite nice, I baked it longer than the suggested time since the recipe said to wait till the edge of the cake started to pull off the sides of the pan, but my cake didn’t do that. And after baking it longer, it still didn’t do that…..

Look at it when it came out of the oven

















See…..it didn’t pull off the sides of the pan…

















It cracked a bit, but it looked nice when I inverted and put it on a plate


















I needed some sample of the cake, just to know how the cake tastes like without frosting or filling, so I decided to carve the cake into a heart shape so I can eat the ‘by-product’.















This one tasted better than the first one, but since it only used orange juice, there was only a little hint of orange in it, I think this recipe should add the rind of the orange in it so that the flavor will be stronger. The texture is the same as any butter cake type. It’s quite a good cake, though I can’t say it’s the best.

I decorate these cakes with mandarin oranges and powdered whipcream.





















The whipcream became stiff after only a short time of mixing, but as soon as I put it on the cake it melted. The cake was already cooled so it was kinda weird, I don’t know why it melted so fast, was it because I didn’t mix long enough? But it was already stiff, if I mixed it any longer it would be too stiff to spread on a cake.































So I crumb-coated the cake and quickly put it and the whipcream in the freezer. Apparently, after I put the whipcream in the freezer, it didn’t melt when I apply it to the second cake. So maybe it should be put in the freezer first before used?
For the filling, I used whipcream and small mandarin oranges.
















Well, this is the finished look of the two cakes.
































































































There were some whipcream left so I made cold desserts, whipcream layered with marie biscuit, splashed with coffee, covered with another layer of whipcream, gave another splash of coffee and finished with strawberry jam. YUMMY!!!

Pics of Brokus Keju Tante Lydia

Cakenya bergelombang.....
















Sudah di trim, tapi jadi tipis...


















Selai stroberi



















Tutup buttercream



















Menyembunyikan cacat2 dengan keju


















The finished product




































Sisa nge-trim di bikin kaya sandwich