Trial and error

When I was studying for Exam 5, there were all these things that came into my mind that I thought of doing after exam. However, after exam, I did not really do much except for some reading and relaxing. Luckily, one thing that I managed to do was to bake some cakes. Some of them turned out ok while others might do better with a bit of adjustment. Here are the results from some recipes that I tried out:

1) Pandan Chiffon Cake (click here for recipe)

I baked the pandan cake for one of the Malaysian potluck. Taste wise, it was alright but the cake didn't rise as much as it should. Huey Shann and I thought that it might be due to the fact that I did not use a tube pan.

2) Tiramisu (click here for recipe)

I have been craving for tiramisu and hence I decided to try making tiramisu for the second time. I found a new recipe and thought that I would succeed this time....However, the cake was not as good as I expected. This time, I used too much of coffee and the bottom layer was kind of "flooded" and the cream became too runny. I think the recipe is alright and hopefully I would do better in my 3rd attempt :)

3) Carrot cake (click here for recipe)

Last Wednesday, I tried baking a carrot cake to bring it to our annual department picnic. I added a little more cinnamon then the quantity shown on the recipe and used one instead of two lime for the frosting. I am pretty happy with the taste of the cake.

Now that I started studying, I don't know when would be the next time that I would be in the mood of baking.

What a "Surprise"

I had been thinking hard about what's the best birthday present for Mas...

A watch? No

A purse? Noo

A handbag? Nooo

I wanted to get something that is more...special. Since I had lots of free time, I went online to search for gift ideas but nothing really stood out.

Two days ago, I suddenly had a craving for cheesecake and at that moment, I decided to make tiramisu because both of us enjoy this dessert a lot. Since Mas would be going to Mackinac Island during this weekend, it would be the prefect time for me to make the tiramisu at home and give her a surprise when she comes back.

I googled the recipe and finally decided on one that seemed pretty easy and good. I don't have a lot of experience in baking and since tiramisu doesn't require any baking, I thought it was a safe choice.

The next day, I went off to Krogers to get the ingredients. I found everything except for the most important Mascarpone Cheese. At first, I thought of substituting it with cream cheese (as some of the websites suggested) but didn't wanna spoil the taste. Again, I googled and discovered that I could get the cheese from Whole Foods Market. Without any delay, I went there and found what I was looking for.

Finally, everything was ready and I was excited to make my first tiramisu.

Can't wait to transform all these into a heavenly dessert

The ladyfingers were carefully arranged at the bottom of the pan

Another view of the bottom layer

It was only when I tried to pour a layer of the cheese mixture on top of the ladyfingers that I realized that something was wrong with the mixture. The mixture was too watery!!! One of the ladyfingers was even floating on the mixture (They were supposed to stay at the bottom). I tried to fix the mixture by adding more cheese but it was still too...liquid. I was busy fixing it I didn't take a picture of the mixture. At the end, I decided to just finish up with the layering and hopefully, after refrigerating it, the mixture would harden...

=(

Unfortunately, after 2 hours of refrigerating, the mixture was still watery...and you can see 2nd layer of floating ladyfingers from the picture above.

Honestly, I didn't expect this to turn out to be such a disaster. I am really disappointed. I guess now I need to think of a Plan B for Mas and also I need to decide on what to do with this "tiramisu". Should I stick it into the freezer and try to turn it into ice cream instead?