Carrot Cake

What can i say about carrots?

1. Im not a big fan of carrots..bt not till the stage where i'll start picking out bits of carrots that are on my plate..
2. I can never understand why would ppl munch on raw carrots..thought that's rabbit food..?(no offense to carrot lovers)
3. Hated it when my mom made me drink carrot juice..though it s said to be good for vision..
4. Mashed carrots are meant for babies..

After all that have been said abt carrots..u may wonder why do i even bother baking carrot cake..

1. It was a cake order from my class (last tues)..My class celebrates birthdays for the birthday babies every once in 2 months..
2. I don't eat what i bake,or cook..even though it is said to be nice..not that i don't believe or appreciate the good comments given, i'm satisfied and happy enough when i see ppl enjoying what i bake and cook :) :) :)
   
3. Carrots actually go well in cake..

Usually when u use a fruit or vege as an ingredient in baking, the flavor of the fruit/veg is prominent..u will be able to taste the scent of citrus in lemon cake..orange, durian..etc..bt somehow in the case of carrot cake, u can't actually taste the "carroty-ness" in it..sometimes u may not even realize the presence of the humble carrot :p

If u r a beginner in baking and u wanna try a simple recipe fr stractch (not those premix cake fr the box)..u can try baking a carrot cake..it s really simple and straightforward..all that needs2b done s mixing the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and lastly add in the carrots and other chopped fruits and nuts together..the only hassle s grating the carrots..

After much that has been said, it s time to start the recipe..

CARROT CAKE RECIPE (simplified):
Ingredients

Cake:
Dry Ingredients--
3 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs baking soda
1 Tbs ground cinnamon
Wet Ingredients--
1 1/2 cups sunflower oil
4 eggs
1 Tbs vanilla essence
Other ingredients--
1 1/2 cups walnuts, chopped
1 1/2 cups dessicated coconut
2 cups grated carrot
1 cup canned pineapple, drained and sliced

Frosting:
250g cream cheese, room temperature
85g butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbs lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 C..Grease two 9 inch cake pans..
2. Sift all dry ingredients into a bowl..Add all the wet ingredients, beat well..Fold in the other ingredients..
3. Pour batter into 2 pans..bake in preheated oven for 50 mins or until baked..Cool on a cake rack..
4. Frosting: cream together the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl..Sift in icing sugar and beat until mixture is lump free..Stir in vanilla and lemon juice..
5. Frost after cake is cooled..

This is a great recipe..bt i find the icing a little too watery..will probably make cupcakes the next time round..
Enjoy!!!

Recipe source: adapted from Elise Bauer, Simply Recipes..
photo credits: not my sister. (though she did dish out some helpful tips) ;p *that was typed by rachel k*

vanishing acts

jodi picoult.. i'm sorry emmy, i'm sorry mae.. but somehow i have the impression that she's depressing. haha. the few times i read the synopsis of her books, i couldn't help finding them subtlely melancholic and.. yeah.. depressing!! haha.. have been avoiding picking one up for quite sometime now. but there always has to be a first...

so, today i was at emmy's house and was looking through the collection in her room. and in an effort to rid myself of these impressions which i have of picoult, i asked her to recommend what she thinks would be the best read for me.. and i got this..


Hope i enjoy the read.. and.. oh yeah!.. i'm glad God protected you, and i know He's watching over you everyday..

learn not to doubt

yesterday God taught me a lesson. a lesson that i think will reverberate in my mind for quite a long time indeed. and that's this. that there is nothing too hard for him.

Genesis 18:14 "is there anything too hard for the Lord?"

Jeremiah 32:27 "I am the lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?"

Job 38:4-5 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

this is an honest confession: Up to friday night last week, i was very doubtful indeed about the success of the calvary carnival. i had heard much about a lack of enthusiasm and i had myself experienced much cold reception while trying to recruit people to help out. My greatest folly was when i decided in my mind that i'd just do what i need to do even though it's almost impossible that the carnival would even fly.

I doubted God

But he showed me what only HE can do. regardless of the circumstances in the church... come on.. not even the WEATHER could stop people from flocking to the carnival site at 2 pm in the afternoon. And then i realised that man can plot and plan.. but only God executes the impossible. NO matter how hopeless or pathetic or sad a situation seems, there's nothing that can stop the work of the One who laid the foundations of the earth.

and it's only for this reason that calvary church can turn around and, instead of saying "we DId it"..

HE did it!!

mobil one

It's so amazing how when it seems like life's being tough, and keeping your joy is such a challenging chore, GOD has His creative, super original, unexpected ways of surprising you with little bits of sunshine and stuff to brighten you up and remind you that He's taking care of you. What a priviledge..

On monday night i was with the family at Subang parade, and there was this Mobil one-Mercedes bEnz promo thing going on. tpeeps had organised aFormula one simulator trial for anyone who bought their engine oil and stuff. It was odd cos my dad, who's never ever into this stuff had this sudden rush of gung-honess and decided to sign me up for the competition. cutting a long story short, the fastest time for three laps of the HOCKENHEIMRING set on sunday had been 4 mins 16 secs point something(set by an australian F3 driver apparently) and up to monday night it was 4 mins 15 seconds point something.. and by some crazy miracle i set a 4:13 for the test run and a 4:11 for the final run.

The guys were so convinced that the 4:11 time would be unbeaten for the rest for the KL leg of their promo that they awarded me the hamper on the spot. got an an ovasion from the crowd of people there and in my head i was thinking like.. "Gosh it's just a phreaking game!" haha they wanted to take a photo.. so yeah..



there was.. let me see.

• a watch and compass
• two jackets
• a t-shirt
• a mug
• a water bottle.. the metallic one.. whatever you call it
• a key chain
• a towel
• a mercedes Sl500 model
• and of course the bag..
  

God is Good and i thank Him for little blessings like these...

oh OH!!. and i was told.. that if my time remains the top two in malaysia for the rest of their promotion, i will be given an opportunity to drive a porsche carrera GT in sepang international circuit next year during the Formula 1 race weekend.. how cool is that.. (Johor bahru best time was 4:18) next is penang i think... i've got my fingers crossed... :)

fourth year

just dawned on me that we're in our fourth year... gosh.. haha.. :) :)

you've never failed to make me smile and be there for me every time no one else is. and i couldn't ask for more from ANYONE on this earth.. you're the best.. n i mean it.. the BEST!!.. n i love you.. :)

thanks for the best three years of my life.. :)

and thus entered the roof

ok.. i hereby declare that this blog now has two authors.. *grins* i think it's sufficiently obvious from that sentence who it is.. so yeah.. *drum roll* here are the two peeps... :)

last week i was making some changes to my settings and realised that you can actually have multiple authors to the blog. so i decided to invite ruth to join me.. hehe. anyway. she's already told me that she won't really blog much.. so don't worry guys. my posts aren't gonna be like drowned in floods of FOoD!!.. haha.. basically she just wants to blog about the stuff she cooks.. which i'm sure will get all of you peeps drooling. sadly... my stomach.. is nearly always the final destination of the food.. HAHAHAHAH!!! that was a joke.. :) i'm not that selfish... i share.. :p

went to mid valley today to spend the public holiday.. and here's another photo we took which i like.

home made

i was at ruth's house yesterday.. and she made me this incredible home made noodles... looks a bit like wan tan mee. She actually bought the flour and eggs and water and whatever not and did the mix and stuff all by herself.. then she used this special machine thing to squeeze it into the noodles. Got this special oil, can't remember what it's called. and added the ingredients... and voila.


and while i was busy eating and dancing and singing for joy all at the same time there she was snapping shots of me and my antics. dunno why when i eat the stuff she makes. just gets me feeling so bubbly.. and.. hehe. LOVED!! that's the best part.. there's no holding back when she cooks for me cos it's not like a business or anything.. she just.. yeah.. so cool right!!




and right at the end.. a wonderful glass of anglia SHANDAYYY!!!! :)


so yeah... what a lovely afternoon.. and not forgetting the part where we sat and chatted for quite a long time.. :)