Our first ‘Make a Cake’ Attempt
If you have been reading my blog, you would’ve noticed that I rarely write about food.
And it’s simply because I’m not a ‘food’ person.
I am not adventurous when it comes to food. I don’t snack much. I am not creative when it comes to cooking and mixing ingredients. And, when I see photos of food, I simply am not inspired to ‘try preparing it myself’.
Now. Last month I suddenly felt a little differently though.
I saw a friend’s photo album on Facebook and how she made her own cake for her son’s birthday.
AND I felt … moved.
I remember thinking, ‘Hey, I’d love to try making my own cake too! Like, for Anya’s 6th birthday!’
[We bought a plain cake and decorated it ourselves for Vai’s 3rd birthday last year]
When I shared my little ‘mission’ with Anya the other day, she said, ‘Mommy, you’ve never tried making one before though.’
I replied, ‘Yup, that’s right. And before you learned how to rollerblade, you also haven’t tried rollerblading before, right? After lots of practice, falling and getting back up again, … can you rollerblade a little now?’
She nodded and continued to listen.
I went on and said, ‘There are many things that we all haven’t tried doing. But if we never give it a go, we would never know. It takes a lot of practice to learn about something. Mommy doesn’t know anything about cakes, but Mommy’s ready to learn how to make a simple cake for your birthday because it’s a special day for you and we love you.’
Since we had that conversation, I noticed how Anya looked all excited when I went to look for baking pans and other little tools.
And though she’s not into eating cakes, she asked to be involved in the process of making it with me (read: mixing and all). Which actually is the greatest thing about all this, because to me, the process of trying and learning how to make it together with the kids is much more important and precious than the results.
(Of course if the result is really yummy, everyone is happier too! Hehe)
Anyway.
Her birthday is due in TWO WEEKS time.
And I still need to practice A LOT!
Oh well … I guess we’ll see how it goes.
…
Top Photo:
Here’s the result of our chocolate cake experiment the other day and Vai ate quite a bit of it. We don’t have an oven at home, so it was ‘steamed’ instead.
If you have simple yet yummy ‘steamed cake’ recipes to share, please do share with me yeah! Thanks *smile*
12 Comments »
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Gwen:
Hi Gwen … thanks so much for sharing it.
Ya, coming from a totally non-baking-and-not-much-of-a-cook background, I sometimes wonder if I’m being too ambitious to want to prepare Anya’s bday cake myself, esp. when I’ve never done it before, and I’m supposed to feed like, 25 kids on Sunday and another 25 kids at Anya’s school!
And you know, I plan to learn how make some sort of steamed muffins for the kids and have a smaller bday cake in the middle to share with everyone .. haha.
ah well … we’ll see.
PS: thanks again for encouraging! Ya, Anya’s excited that we’re making our own cake for her bday. Wishing DD a great bday and yummy bday cake too! 😀
Juita:
Makasihhh … ntar gua bagi lagi deh yang ada icing2nya deh … (kalo sampe beneran jadi gua bikin hehe)
Nic:
haha… ‘FROM the PIC’, it looked okay … now I gotta work on the ‘taste’ and icing and stuff 😀
Claire:
Hi Claire!! 🙂 Thanks for that AND thanks for the link too! Will definitely check out more recipes from there.
I covered the lid with cloth, as I was told that it’ll stop moisture from dripping onto the steamed cake itself.
And yep, I plan to try and prepare some icing. NEVER done it before too … haha … it’ll be interesting to see if I manage to get this done or not 😀
Cika:
Thank you bgt ya buat sharing recipenya…
Iya nih, keliatannya bakal bikin brownies kukus utk yg di sekolah Anya senin depan! 🙂
Christie:
Hi hi … thanks for that.
Now I learn that apparently ‘steaming’ it works and it doesn’t make the cake ‘soggy’ at all. Still yet to find out if I can have a cake ready for Anya’s birthday celebration with friends this Sunday and Monday though …
Sometimes I think I may be a little too ‘ambitious’ 🙂
Hi Leonny,
I read this and wanted to drop you a note of encouragement 🙂 You can do it!
Before 2009, I had never baked cakes or biscuits before, preferring to stay with low risk no fail stuff like shepherds pie. But like you, I kinda got it into my head to try making DS’s 1st birthday cake to save some money. With many attempts at different recipes each weekend, we finally got it right.
And once you have done it, you will never look back again. The feeling of accomplishment is tremendous and the expression on your child’s face when he sees the finished product, is priceless.
DD’s third birthday is in less than a week’s time, and we are planning to make her cake together. She is really looking forward to it, and so am I! 🙂 (and now this has been a great reminder to me to better go to NTUC to go get the ingredients!)
Keliatannya enak pisan euyyyy!!!
from the pic, you seem to be a pro baker!!! 😀
Oh well, Leonny, I eat my words (yes, bad pun). This looks great! The texture doesn’t look too runny at all. Icing does tend to make it pretty fatty, but I love icing. Incidentally, I love this website – http://www.tamradaviscookingshow.com/ as she always does food that is really to my tastes, but it is great if you have kids as she has heaps of tips for involving them in the cooking and for making food that doubles as kids and adults food. She is awesome!
Congratulations on the cake!!
C
x
it looks nice to me! some more for 1st attempt.
want to share steam brownies recipe which I love to make and eat 😀
– 400 gr gula halus (tapi gue selalu pake gula pasir)
– 8 butir telur
– 60 gr coklat bubuk (merk hershey is very recommended)
– 200 gr self raising flour
– 1 sdt baking powder
– 1/2 sdt vanilli
– 1/2 sdt garam
– 300 ml minyak sayur
– meses secukupnya
Cara pembuatan :
– Kocok gula dan telur sampai mengembang
– Campur tepung2 jadi 1 (terigu, coklat bubuk, vanilli, baking powder dan garam)
– Masukkan campuran tepung ke adonan yang sudah mengembang sambil terus diaduk
– Terakhir masukkan minyak sayur
– Olesi loyang dengan mentega, supaya tidak lengket
– Siapkan kukusan, sampai air mendidih
– Tuang setengah adonan ke loyang dan dikukus kurang lebih 20 menit (tergantung tebal dan besar kue)
– Selama 20 menit pertama, kukusan jangan dibuka
– Tusuk kue dengan lidi. Lidi yang kering menandakan kue sudah matang
– Taburi kue dengan meses dan sisa adonan, kukus lagi selama 15 menit
Selamat mencoba yaaa
It certainly looks good. I have made just a few cakes (not much of a cook myself, either) but have never tried a steamed cake.