Butter Cake

This is one of the easiest recipes ever. Also, one of mom’s favourite to bake on a Sunday afternoon.

You will need:

4 eggs
150g sugar
200g butter
120g almond powder
100g self raising flour
Lemon juice (optional)
A pinch of salt

  1. Mix butter (melted) and sugar together.
  2. Add egg yokes, salt and lemon juice.
  3. Beat egg whites til fluffy and add to mixture.
  4. Lastly, add self raising flour and almond powder.


Put in some elbow grease and stir well. Mixture should be thick and creamy-like, but it doesn’t have to be smooth as the almond powder will give it a slight grainy texture.


Bake at about 180 – 200ºC (depending on your oven).


Best served with a good ol’ cuppa tea. Enjoy your Sunday afternoon delight!



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30
Nov
2008

Spa Treat

The only thing I like about my own birthday is the excuse to treat myself. :)

In previous years, I would get a new piercing on my birthday. Ears, tragus, nose, belly button… and when I don’t feel like piercing anywhere else, I moved on to tattoos. Well, my tattoo wasn’t impulsive, in fact it was planned for more than a year, from which part of my body to its design etc.

This time around, I decided to treat myself to a spa, especially since I have not been to one before in my entire life (OK, very shy to admit this). Endota spa came up as one of the top search result after simply googling “spa retreats in melbourne”. Its website seemed impressive, price reasonable and its chain of branches across Melbourne can only mean they are definitely not dodgy or one of those massage places which gives you massage service with possible ‘happy endings’ if you get what I mean.

There were having a promotion for the month of November in conjuntion with their Chadstone branch’s grand opening. Book a one hour session and get a free microZone treatment (worth $40) for free. I’m not a massage kinda person so I went with their scrub & glow – an hour of scrubbing to make your body err.. glow (duh)! For my microZone treatment, the lady recommended the AGE smart™ flash exfoliation treatment (IS THIS A SIGN TO TELL ME I AM AGING??).

Overall the experience was not too bad. It wasn’t excellent as the ladies there could have been friendlier, and the body scrub could have extended to the front of my body. At least I got to soak in a bath (which was wayy to hot and I had to add cold water by myself!!) for a bit, which is always a bonus since Melbourne’s going into Stage 4 water restriction now. I didn’t like the microZone treatment as it made my skin feel so dry after, I think its the Dermalogica products. I know Dermalogica is one brand beauticians love and always recommend but I don’t think my skin agree with it as I’ve used it before but never to good results. I think I’ll stick to my trusty Origins.



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29
Nov
2008

Sichuan Hotpot Night

Hotpot is always special. There’s something about the combination of hot fumes, oily spicy soup, cold weather, good company, meat, and garlic seaseme oil sauce. I’ll let the pictures do the ‘talking’ eh…

I am super Asian when it comes to food, which literally means I am quite adventurous with food. In fact, one of my things to do before I die is to eat fried insects, which I couldn’t find when I spent 6 weeks in Shanghai! How can they not have fried insects in China!? I have a feeling I wasn’t looking in the right places. Next time, for sure!


Oh-my-god-we-ate-too-much-but-very-happy-and-satisfied-gluttonous-people :)

Doo San recommended a movie – Quarantine. I’ve seen the preview but never gave much thought to it. Since it’s a night out, why not. I like gross scary movies anyways. The movie poster pretty much says everything about it, which is cool cause complicated plots would not go well with overfed people who are slowly going into a food coma. And, we challenged ourselves to BUBBLE TEA (with very good pearls) during the movie. I thought my stomach was gonna explode if I laughed too hard. Luckily it was a scary movie so not much laughing except the occasional “oh my god that guy is so stupid hahaha”.

I’m gonna miss nights out like these with my favourite (and only) Korean friend Mr. Doo San and Sub Rosa when I’m in America.



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27
Nov
2008

Doing the Karen Cheng

Today I did the Karen Cheng. It is definitely not my first time doing the Karen Cheng, but the first I’ve ever posted. Karen’s blog is one of my favourites to read and I follow it religiously. I don’t think I read the newspaper as often as I read her blog. Haha. She is currently expecting her third baby! I am so happy for her, I hope it’ll be a girl since she has two handsome boys already. :)

I went to work in my new Sportsgirl top, a birthday present from Madcow Jingwen. Basic Cotton On sleveless tee underneath, vintage belt from MuffStitShop, and 3/4 black pants. I have boring shoes, no need to mention them eh.

We’ll be in December next week! Holy Cow, where did the year go? My neighbour already have their Christmas lights up. I can’t wait for my winter (instead of summer) Christmases, only one more month to go!



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26
Nov
2008

Birthday Surprises

Sometimes I feel too old to be celebrating birthdays, blowing out the candles, making wishes, receiving presents… the big hoo-haa. To me, birthdays aren’t that special, I have it every year. I think it’s safer to say I myself don’t like celebrating birthdays, I actually quite enjoy celebrating friends’ birthdays, especially the presents and getting them drunk parts. For myself, I don’t see anything to celebrate about, other than old age.

This year was different. Well, like every year, I try to avoid the fact that it’s my birthday. I accept wishes gracefully but always with a bit of a wince. You see, everytime someone wishes me those “Happy Birthday!” things I get reminded of how old I’m turning. 23 is not a nice number. I don’t make a big fuss about my birthday. I know people who have birthday week, where you guessed it, they celebrate their birthdays ALL WEEK. I didn’t mind working on my birthday, hey someone’s gotta pay the bills. After work was back to home, no big boozy night out since tomorrow’s another day of work. So after dinner, I decided to clean my bathroom – it was finally time to throw out those old make up and unused sample lotions and creams.

Cleaning is therapeutic. It makes one feel good that they’ve thrown away the old, de-clutter and made way for the new. Even though its only creams and lotions, it works on a higher level in life too okay. After cleaning the bathroom, I’m sitting in front of my computer in my daggy pajamas, coke-bottle glasses and pimple cream on my face (pimple cream sample found while de-cluttering the bathroom)… when Brandy started going nuts which only means someone’s at the door. I took two steps out of my room and I see JingWen’s FACE coming towards me. More people walked upstairs and I saw a cake box at the corner of my eyes.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! SURPRISE!

This time I didn’t wince. Mainly cause I was still in shock. It was a really nice surprise and I really appreciated the effort guys! Especially Madcow Jingwen who organised everything. :)

The Strawberry cake was fantastic!
Thank god they only put 3 candles instead of the 23.

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING GUYS! YOU MADE MY BIRTHDAY SPECIAL!
(I wasn’t joking about the daggy pajamas)

23 is not a nice number, but with friends like these, I think I can get used to the ideas of birthdays and its accompanying numbers, which unfortunately increases yearly.

P.S. The pimple cream worked wonders. It was Origins’ Peace of Mind On the Spot Relief, in case you’re interested.



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25
Nov
2008

Honey Joys

Was introduced to these pretty AND yummy babies by Madcow Jingwen during one of my potluck parties. Didn’t realise that the recipe is from the side of Kellogg’s Cornflakes box! And it is so easy to make! So off me went to Coles for the ingredients…


Ingredients:
(makes about 20)

90g Margarine or Butter
1/3 Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Honey
4 Cups Kellogg’s Cornflakes
Mini Paper Patty Pans


Preheat oven to 150ºC.

Melt butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan until frothy.


Add Kellogg’s Cornflakes & mix well.


Spoon into paper patty cases.


Bake in a slow oven (150ºC) for 10 minutes.

.

.

.

.

.

TA-DAH!


Allow to cool before serving.


ENJOY YOUR HONEY JOYS!
(Oh god, that rhymed)



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23
Nov
2008

Cleaning and Packing

I know I’m supposed to be posting a weekly update on my cross-stitching project. I think that has to be changed to a monthly update now. Hahaha…

Been busy with other stuff, hardly had time to cross-stitch. Work during the week, and packing during the weekends. Excuse the lack of updates while I pack my life into boxes aite?



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22
Nov
2008
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