[Baking Adventures I: White Choco Shortcake]

2011 seems to have brought with it a desire to finally try using my kitchen for something other than cooking 2min noodles… Baking!
After going home and raiding my mum’s cupboards and picking up a few more utensils and of course, ingredients… I set out hoping not to poison my loved ones =)

My tally to date includes Yoyos, Lemon Cupcakes, Shortbread Cookies and ….

White Choco Shortcake (with Pistachio nuts):

A bit of preparations…

Making the dough…

Ready for baking…

In to the oven…

Out and cooling…

Packed…

And ready to go! …

I should reveal here that the recipe did call for the shortcakes to be topped with thick cream and blanched strawberries.

But since the intended receiver is not a great fan of strawberries and I was not about to invest in brandy… they were conveniently left out…

Taste?

Apparently not bad, hehe.

More baking adventures soon!

[Video Messaging]

A friend from the dorm I lived in during my Japan exchange days recently got married in Japan. Someone else from the dorm, also in Japan, had the nice, thoughtful idea of collecting messages from the rest of us dotted around the world.

It was a great idea. But for the fact that I couldn’t think of a worse way for me to say Congratulations than by standing awkwardly in front of my camera for a minute or so stuttering through a half English/half Japanese script. The terrors of my Japanese oral exams came quickly to mind.

So I procrastinated for a good portion of the week or so we were given to prepare the video, desperately brainstorming for a way to minimise the face and talk time.

I finally hit on something a day before deadline and spent a good part of that night scribbling on bits of paper and a good part of the next evening compiling the video.

Here’s what my “work area” looked like at the conclusion of the evening…:

And here’s the end product:

(Edited to remove the 30 odd seconds of my awkward ramble (hence the slight jump to the last slide) – at least he kept a straight face while holding the camera for me…)

It isn’t a very fancy video and far from perfect, but still,it was surprisingly fun to make and a good alternative to my dilemma =)
For those interested, the first part of the clip spells out ‘Congratulations on your wedding’ followed by the messages (translated loosely) Hope you enjoy your new lives together and wishing for your happiness!

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I’ve also just spent 30 minutes figuring out how I can upload videos to my blog!
One language I dont understand and will never hope to understand is computer language =(

One a side note, here’s a sneak peek at my next (intended) post:

Baking adventures!