Oven

Oven is not a common kitchen appliance in most Asian kitchens. I didn't discover how much fun it is to use an oven until I moved over to the Netherlands.

The oven at our place has recently come alive because we managed to find time to clean it up and started using it more often. It is a very old model and I have to specially request its user manual from the manufacturer and then translate the manual from Dutch to English using Google translator to understand what it is all about.

I know you'll laugh: but the truth is, it is only by now I discovered that there are many pre-made pastry and frozen food packages available in the supermarket that I can just buy and bake it, and the food can be ready in a very short period of time! I especially like those croissants, they are so delicious to eat with my favourite strawberry jam and butter!

What a life saver discovery especially when the little one is coming! Plus, there are so many food baking recipes available and as long as I can marinate the ingredients before hand, I'll be able to have dinner/lunch ready in a very short time.

PL introduced me to Nigella Lawson, and oh boy, it is the first time I actually studied western cookbook and try those recipes! I never really enjoy pasta or steak as part of my daily meals, but after seeing how easy these recipes are, I am willing to give it a go, and they do turned out well :D

Now, one mission that I've after the whole pregnancy thing is to learn to cook Japanese food... I think that is a good goal to aim for since recently hubby has developed this liking of Japanese dragon sushi roll :P

Butter Cake

By looking at how the cake sinks in the middle, you know that I'm still a novice in baking. This is my 2nd attempt in baking cake.

My first, banana cake, didn't turn out well. I forgot to pre-heat the oven, I open the oven door to check when it was baking, put too high a temperature and plus all the beginner mistakes... my cake turned out overbaked and I have to throw it away. The only thing left is the sweet vanilla aroma in the air that chased away my stir fry smell from my previous night's cooking.

This time I found this butter cake recipe and I'm tempted to try. I patiently mixed the ingredients and leave it baked till the timer rang. It turned out better than I thought, crispy to bite, just a bit too sweet. But I need to find out why it sank in the middle. So I did a search. It turned out that it can be many reasons why a cake sinks in the middle... it can be too much flour, too much moisture, expired baking powder (which is not in my case), eggs too big, too much sugar etc...

Who says baking is easy?