Usually when people ask me about how my life has been, I'd always joke and say "same shit, different day". Not forgetting that I should probably add on and say "same joy, different day" too =) Well life's been good, nothing I couldn't handle, nothing really upsets me so immensely that I could not get back on my feet again.
So yesterday we went out to celebrate Ken's birthday and god knows why I said I wanted to bake a cake for his birthday. Man, I sure liked to talk big, considering the fact that I've never baked before haha. Thank goodness I still had some time after the submission of my assignment last week to do some study on the various vanilla cake recipes around the web, and down-listed a few of them and seek the advice of my neighbor which apparently is a seasoned bakery chef. Even checked on the recipe of whipped cream.
So here it is. Vanilla cake.
1 & 3/4 cups of self raising flour
1 & 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 tsp of salt
Since I couldn't find cake flour, so I had to sieve the self-raising flour four times to make it really powdery (credit go to a certain awesome green jumper cook from kiwi land by the name of Maurice). Sieved all purpose flour one time and mix well and set aside.
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
I had to wait for the butter to become a tad soft and melt a little due to the warm room temperature ( in which case the room temp is well below 15C because its cold here! ). I used a wooden spatula and pressed and mixed REALLY long, made sure all the sugar is integrated into the butter.
4 eggs at room temperature.
Add one at a time, beating after every addition. Yes, I beat pretty long ( also forgetting not to overbeat it ) after adding in every egg.
4 tsp vanilla extract
Just add it in. After which I used an electric mixer to blend it well before I put in the dry ingredients I set aside just now, alongside with a cup of undiluted evaporated milk. I think this is the important part because in addition to beating well after every addition of ingredients, its crucial to start and end with the dry ingredients. So just go by this
1/3 of the dry ingredients, to
1/2 cup of undiluted evaporated milk, to
1/3 of the dry ingredients, to
last 1/2 cup of the undiluted evaporated milk, to
last 1/3 of the dry ingredient
Beat well after every addition! Patience and love is the key to a successful cake! Mine looked like this before I greased the pan and put it into the oven.
Looked pretty awesome right! What a sigh of relief when I see the final texture of the dough to be like that. Then, grease the pan and put the mixture in. Oh, remember to preheat oven to...I couldn't remember what temperature but I just knew that I had to set the cake in 325F (or 160C ish ), and the oven were already well in 160C for a long time because someone else was baking. Wait for a GOOD long time, actually depending on your baking tray. Mine was really fat and tall so it took me easily a good one hour. Use a toothpick, or in my case a spaghetti (yes I did not have anything long and hard like a satay stick to test) to poke the cake. Cake's ready when the stick comes out dry. Let it cool for 10 minutes at least before taking it out.
I was actually rushing out for dinner with the rest of the people for the birthday boy, I had to take a later bus on my own because the cake wasn't ready! 15 minutes before my bus I took one last poke into the cake, and I remembered a lot of my hall mates were in the kitchen as well watching me, and boy, did my heart pound like a hammer when I pull the stick out (because I was going to be SO late for dinner), and when the last end of the stick came out of the cake and it appeared to be dry, everyone in the kitchen actually cheered "YES!". At least I think they were cheering for me haha. I took the baking tray, left it in my room and leave straight away for the bus. Poor cake didnt get any attention whatsoever from me.
I was really glad the cake was baked thoroughly! My first try, real luck I have here. Not boasting but it tasted really good haha, I couldn't stop eating it myself. Oh and there is the recipe for the whipped frosting on the cake.
3 egg whites
3/4 cup of sugar
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup of water
I set the glass bowl with all the above mentioned ingredients on a medium heated simmering water ( remember not to overheat it, or else you'll end up with sweet scramble eggs ). Just keep stirring until all the sugar has melted. Then comes the amazing part, this seemingly measly amount of ingredient, after medium speed beating with electric mixer, actually turns out like this.
Add in vanilla extract towards the end. Do not overbeat the whipped frosting, and beat it until stiff peak. Stick peak is the point where the whipped frosting is so viscous until it becomes a non-newtonian fluid and defies gravity. That is in engineering term haha. Well actually, stiff peak is the point where you set a knife in the cream, and topple it upside down (completely) and nothing moves, at least that's what my nice friend did to me in the kitchen. Note: the knife wasn't required really, I just want to boast how awesome my cream is.
Oh and after dinner JiaYean and I went back early, got the keys to our friend's house and decorate the cake (remember I said I left for the bus right after I took the cake out of the oven? ). We had to surprise our friend so to quote JY, she said "time is of the essence"! Here is how it went.
Glad everyone liked it, at least I know someone was hogging the top crust and finished majority of it, birthday boy took 3 slices of it, and only a slice of it is what's left of the entire cake towards the end of the feast. After which we played a game of Taboo which was really fun, more like the company was the best. Had tons of laughter which I believed was genuine from each and every person in the room. Had the best recognition and appreciation expressed from the birthday boy, which was both silly and heart warming at the same time haha.
I had a good time, and the responses I've got were REALLY worth all the effort, I did not feel a SLIGHTEST bit of drag. Thanks, to you, and to everyone else =)
