Simplicity is Corn on the Cob

I've mentioned before that my kids love Corn - especially my son. His favourite though is corn on the cob, the kind that you find at restaurants that accompany a steak or chicken chop. Juicy, crunchy and packed with goodness!

I recently bought The Lovely Wife an electric steamer and ever since then we've been steaming corn on the cob for the kids ever so often. While Christmas shopping, I stumbled upon a set of corn skewers that were also shaped like corn on the cob and I bought a set as a gift for The Lovely Wife from my son.

The skewers certainly make eating corn on the cob a lot easier - and also a lot more fun!


Making corn on the cob is really, really easy. I normally cut the corn cobs into smaller pieces rather than whole corn as it is easier to eat smaller cobs and there is less wastage. How to make Corn on the Cob? Simple!

Ingredients
Corn on the Cob - as many as you like!

Method
Remove husks and cut each corn into three. Steam for at least 30 minutes until kernels are tender. Toss in butter and season with a little salt and pepper.

Have you seen such a short or simple recipe? Anywhere??



What could be easier or simpler than that?? It's a great way to eat corn, it's filling and its healthy. So what are you waiting for? When are you going to make Corn on the Cob?

Happy 101

I just received this award from Elle over at Feeding My Enthusiasms. Just like her, I've received a few awards in the course of my blogging that I have neglected to post about. Time sometimes just gets in the way although the intent is always there.

This award asks the recipient to list 10 things that make them happy. Now I found it difficult to list 10 things - not because I am an unhappy person but more because it was difficult to limit it to just 10 things or people! Anyway, this is a list of 10 things that make me happy, and by no means is this list exhaustive!

1. The Lovely Wife
2. My two kids Michael and Sarah
3. Arsenal FC - especially when they win!
4. Good Food and drink. Making good food for The Lovely Wife and kids to enjoy is happiness. Finding out new ways to cook things and making new delicious recipes is even better!
5. Good Friends. Sharing good food and drink with good friends is cause for happiness!Making new friends through blogging is another source of happiness. Getting positive comments and knowing that my posts have somehow made a difference in your life makes me happy too.
6. Good Music. I'm sure many of you have many songs that instantly bring a smile to your face! Khe Sanh from Cold Chisel ALWAYS transports me back to my Uni days and I smile as I remember my mates and I standing huddled in a circle, stomping our feet and singing this song while on a bus from Melbourne to Brisbane! Happy Days!
7. Watching a really good movie
8. Reading a really good book
9. Chilling out at home and sleeping. Yeah, I can be a lazy sod!
10. Realising that you don't need lots of material goods to make you happy is happiness in itself.

I'm supposed to nominate 10 bloggers too but most of the bloggers I want to nominate have already been nominated. So, I'm going to take an unorthodox method and ask that if any of you want to take part in this award, just follow the rules as below:
1. Copy the award image into a post
2. Then list 10 things that make you happy
3. Tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day
4. Put in a link to their blogs
5. Notify the award receivers
6. Award recipients must link back to sender's blog - that's Me!

A Cake for my Mother – Baked Choc Mousse Upside Down Cake

Both my mother and my father are the same age with my father born exactly a week before my mother. While my Dad likes to celebrate events with aplomb, my Mom is more the quiet kind who prefers a minimum of fuss and is more than happy to celebrate her birthday quietly at home with the immediate family.

That was exactly what we did for her 75th Birthday on the 13th on January 2010. The family gathered together at mom and dad’s place for a pot luck dinner. Some food was cooked and some was bought. On the menu was Tandoori Chicken, Satay, Hokkien Mee, Chicken Curry, Sambar, Kai Lan and Rice. My contribution was a cake for Mom.

I wasn’t sure what cake to make for her but I knew it had to have some element of chocolate in it. I also wanted something relatively quick and easy since I would need to make the cake after work. I decided on a slightly modified version of my Baked Chocolate Mousse.



The last time I made this, I neglected to line the tin and so this time I did. This time I also added a teaspoon of baking powder to see if the mixture rose more. I also didn’t use a water bath this time around. I don’t think there was much of a difference either way. One big change that I did was to add almond flakes to the bottom of the pan. I knew that I wanted the bottom of the cake to be the top and I figured it would be a good idea to have almonds embedded all over the top. So I guess this makes it a little bit of an upside down cake!

For decorations, I made a strawberry rosette by placing a whole strawberry in the centre and thin slices around it. I used the leftover sugarpaste letters from my fathers 75th cake to spell out he words Happy Birthday Amma.

We actually used 7 large and 5 small candles for the cake to signify 75 and it blazed up quite nicely!



Everyone enjoyed the cake and most of all, Mom was very happy!

It's kind of hard to imagine that both my parents are 75 years old. That only means that I am getting along in age as well. I'm just glad that I've been able to bake cakes for them to enjoy and in some small way, give them something back for all they have done and continue to do for me and the rest of the family.



Happy Birthday Amma!

75th Birthday Cake for my Father with a few problems

I had the honour of making the cake for my father's 75th Birthday. He turned 75 on the 6th of January and just last night, we had a dinner party for him at my brother's place and I was asked to make the cake for the function. Coming up with ideas for birthday cakes for children is much easier than for adults but the trick is to always link the cake design to the interests of the person.

Finding something to define my father wasn't going to be easy. That's not entirely true - finding somethine that defined my father that could be translated into a cake was the challenge. He's not big into sports and neither is he big into cars or material goods. What does define the man however are his strong values and his family. Now if I could only make a cake that would resemble the family, that would really take the cake (pardon the pun)

I had initially thought of getting a sugarpaste print of a family picture or even of himself and then sticking it on a cake designed to look like a photo frame. However, I learnt that it's not considered good to cut a picture of yourself or the family. So I threw that idea into the bin. Then I hit upon an idea.

Dad not only loves to read but has authoured a few books on the Malaysian economy and even his own autobiography. He still loves to tackle issues of social and national interest and is constantly giving advice to everyone - especially his children and grandhildren. A book! I would make him a cake book. A book that would look like something he had written.



Then came the 'task' of deciding what to call the book. The Lovely Wife suggested A Purpose Driven Life - one of his favourite books - but I didn't want it to be a copy of something he had already written or read.

Many nights were spent pondering with The Lovely Wife about what to title the book. Many nights were also spent agonising about how to decorate the cake. Keep it simple or make it a little elaborate? What size cake would be needed? Vanilla Butter Cake or Chocolate Cake?

I decided on Chocolate Cake as it could also serve as a dessert. I also decided that I would have to make my Chocolate Icing a little thicker to allow for the decorations as my usual icing is a little fudgy and sticky.

For the white pages, I decided on Royal Icing - a new found skill learnt from the Daring Bakers Gingerbread House challenge. True, I had never made Royal Icing before that and I learnt how quick and easy it was!

The cake was starting to form in my mind and I paid a visit to the local Wilton store to see what stuff they had that I could use. The lady at the store tried to sell me the idea of using their open book cake pan but I wanted to make a closed book. I bought some sugarpaste letters to use for his name and things were starting to look good!

I needed to make two large cakes (each 2 kilos) and what I usually do is to make them separately. I was a bit short on time though and I checked my Kenwood Major manual that said the machine was capable of handling 4.5 kilo mixtures. So... I thought I'd just whiz up two batches together and then bake them at the same time.

Not A Good Idea! REPEAT. Not A Good Idea!

Firstly, the butter and eggs didnt emulsify together as well due to the amount of batter. So I emptied the batter into another bowl and used my hand mixer to mix it up but it still didnt aerate enough - not as much as what I am used to anyway.

Next, after I had poured the batter into two tins, I realised that the tin was too big for my drip tray. I have one wire rack and one drip tray in my oven and whenever I bake two cakes at once, I usually use smaller pans. The cake pan wouldnt fit on the bottom drip tray. Being in a rush and not completely thinking straight, I pulled out the drip tray, placed a cooling rack on the bottom of the oven and shoved the cake pan on top of it. Brilliant I thought to myself. Bloody brilliant.

Bloody Stupid more like it! I should have put the cooling rack on the drip tray to form a flat surface and THEN put the cake pan on it. As it turned out, the pan was too close to the bottom of the oven, causing uneven heat distribution and a little burning. I was not happy.

Fortunately, it wasn't too bad and a little trimming here and there salvaged the cake. I still wasnt happy though as the cake didnt rise as much as I am used to. I muttered and cursed under my breath. The Lovely Wife questioned why I had changed my Standard Operating Procedure of making two cakes separately - especially for such an important occasion as this. The only answer I had to that was that I was Bloody Stupid. Yes, say it again. Bloody Stupid!

I was tense. I was irritable. I was grumpy.

Ater the cake cooled, I mixed up a batch of Royal Icing and used it to ice the sides of the cake as pages. I've never used a crumb coat before, but this time I wished I had. When I applied the royal icing on, some crumbs started to stick on to the icing. Grumpy. Tense. Irritable.

Then The Lovely Wife stuck her pretty nose in and quietly commented that she thought I would ice the top of the cake first before the sides and wouldnt that be a better idea. No! Not a better idea. This was how it should be done. This was what I had in my mind. Don't bug me!

Grumpy. Tense. Irritable.

I mixed up another batch of royal icing and spread it on. Then I used my cake comb to make lines in the icing and it was starting to look good. I let the cake rest for a while and then mixed up the chocolate icing - making sure it was nice and thick. I then piped chocolate icing around the cake to resemble to outline of a cover. The cake was starting to take shape and I snapped a picture of the cake with my handphone and sent it to The Lovely Wife who was out at Sarah's kindergarten having a parent teachers meeting. She called to say the cake was looking nice and I started to feel a little better.



She pointed out to me that the middle of the cake wasnt quite that even and I had to agree with her. I contemplated just leaving it be but I decided I'd better fix it up. When she came home later after the meeting, she asked why there was a bit of a raised knob on the middle right of the cake (where the pages are). I mentioned that that was where the two cakes joined and the knob was the royal icing over some filled in cake. There wasn't really anything I could do about it at this point since the icing had already hardened and quite frankly I didnt dare mess with the cake anymore. I told her it was a sign that the book was well used and well read. She didn't buy it...

It was now time to pipe in the rest of the icing and I used my Wilton stencil makers for the words and the borders. For the 75, I used some cookie cutters that the children reminded me I had so that came in really useful. The Lovely Wife decided on the Title as my father has certainly had a full life and there are many lessons to be learnt from him. I decided on the added touch of Volume 75 to signify his age as his lessons are always ongoing...




I have to say I was rather pleased with how the cake looked and the only concern I had was how it was going to taste. Fortunately, the cake tasted fine although it was a little drier than normal. My Mother said I was too critical of myself - there's a reason mothers are mothers!

The Birthday Boy was delighted with the cake and that made it all worthwhile.

Happy 75th Birthday Papa!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Before the christmas spirit dies off, I'd like to share with you one of the favourites in this household - a favourite that is baked all year round that I can't believe I haven't posted about it before!

My son loves Chocolate Chip Muffins. In fact, anytime he is a little peckish, he will look at us pleadingly and ask if her can get a Choc Chip Muffin from the local Coffee Bean. I have to admit that the Coffee Bean Choc Chip Muffin IS really nice and so I had to make my own version.





These muffins are quick, easy and very delicious. It's no wonder that they get eaten up so quickly - maybe gobbled is a better word!

Sometimes, during christmas, I will bake up a batch and give some out to friends and neighbours. Other times, they just get finished up by the kids although we did invite some friends over to share these but only one was able to make it...

This is what I do.

Ingredients

250 g Butter
220 g Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
4 tbsp Milk
1 Tbsp Honey
2 tsp Vanilla
250 g Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
200 g Chocolate Chips

Method
Cream butter and Sugar till light and fluffy
Add beaten eggs a little at a time and continue beating
Fold in Sifted flour and baking powder
Add in Honey, Milk and Vanilla. Mix Well
Fold in Chocolate Chips ensuring it is well mixed
Fill muffin cups ¾ full and bake for about 20 minutes or till done in 190°C oven

I usually make these to rise just enough to fill the cases but since my son likes the 'muffin caps' of the Coffee Bean muffins, I decided to put in a little extra batter and bake a few in a muffin pan to get those lovely, slightly crisp caps.


It's not only the kids that love these muffins as both The Lovely Wife and I can never stop at one either.


The kids couldn't wait to start eating these muffins but they were very good in letting me take my photos first and even agreed to pose with the muffins in front of the christmas tree!

This batch was polished off very, very quickly and the few that were left over were finished off the next morning for breakfast - by the kids!

A New Year... a new blog banner....

Happy New Year everyone. It's hard to believe a decade of the new millenium has already gone by. When I was in the 20th Century, I could hardly imagine how people lived in the 1900's, 1910's, 1920's, 1930's...

I knew that the great depression happened in the 30s, WW2 happened in the 40's, I was born in the 60s and then came the 70's, 80's and 90's. My own kids will be old and grey by the time the year 2060 comes around and I will off course be long gone - or maybe a ripe old 90 something! 2060 will be the '60s to my children and I wonder how much more advanced we will be by then.

Anyway, life goes on and we get older day by day. Live well, live happily and be thankful for all that we have. That is what I have learnt and what I will try and practice this year.

With the coming of the new year, I make a little cosmetic change to my blog with a simpler and brighter banner. There will probably be more changes as time goes on but then again, maybe not. Who knows.

I'm going to try and blog more regularly this year and catch up on all the old photos that haven't been posted yet. Try being the operative word - no promises! I'm not going to start of the year with making promises that I can't keep. Matter of fact, I'm going to keep to that train of thought and just keep trying - day by day, taking one day at a time without making promises. At least not promises that I cant keep!

So blessed New Year Everyone and I raise a glass to you and yours in the hope that nothing but Peace, Love and All things good come your way. Above all, May the Blessings of God fill your lives in every way.