Orange Pound Cake

 A definite treat for a citrus lover!

Ingredients for cake:
– 13 Tbsp. (about 185 gm) unsalted butter, softened to room temp + more for greasing the pan
– 3 Tbsp. milk
– 3 eggs
– 1 tsp. vanilla extract
– 1 1/2 cups cake flour
– 3/4 cup sugar
– 3/4 tsp. baking powder
– 2 Tbsp. grated orange zest (1 large orange should be enough)

Ingredients for glaze:
– 1/3 cup orange juice
– 1/3 cup sugar
– 2 Tbls. triple sec, or other orange liqueur (since I don’t use alcohols, I replaced it with 2 tsp orange zest)

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Generously butter a 1-lb. (which is standard) glass loaf pan and set it aside.
3. Zest the orange
4. Whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla together. Set aside.
5. Stir the flour, sugar, and baking powder together to combine.
6. Toss in the orange zest and incorporate it in. (I used my hands to rub it in.. You can use your stand mixer, if you wish.)
7. Toss in butter, tablespoon by tablespoon until it’s completely incorporated. It will resemble little crumbs. (I did this by hand too..)
8. Slowly pour in the egg mixture and mix until just combined. (I used a fork to gently stir it in..)
9. Pour the batter out into your prepared pan and bake at 180 C for 55 – 60 minutes. Or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
10. When the cake is done, cool it in the pan for a few minutes. While it’s cooling, make the glaze.
11. Put the sugar, orange juice, and orange liqueur/orange zest in a heavy-bottomed pot and whisk over medium/high heat until the sugar dissolves.
12.Bring the mixture up to a boil, whisking often.
13. Boil the mixture until it’s reduced by about half. It should be thick and syrupy.
14. Poke holes in the cake with a skewer and pour the glaze over the warm cake and brushed it evenly over the cake.

Cool the cake to room temperature before slicing!

For a more detailed recipe, check source here:http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2010/02/22/orange-pound-cake/

Homemade Bounty Bars

If you’re one of those who just loves the yummy moist coconut combined with the chocolate,

then this is one recipe you just mustn’t lose…

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Ingredients:

–> 3 cups dessicated coconut

–> 200g sweetened condensed milk

–> 1/2-3/4 cup icing sugar

–> 1 tsp. vanilla essence

–> 350g dark chocolate, melted

Direction:

1. Combine the coconut and condensed milk in a large bowl.

2. Add enough icing sugar to make a stiff mixture.

3. Add the vanilla and stir until well combined.

4. Press with a fork into a greased and lined 20x20cm tin and refrigerate overnight until hardened.

5. Cut into 24 bars, coat in melted chocolate and serve when set.

The only difference I made to the way I made it was to the last step of the recipe.. Instead of the cutting and coating, I just melted the chocolate, added 1 tablespoon of vegetable shortening and poured it over the top of the coconut mixture in the tin.. Then I cut it up after it set and sprinkled the coconut crumbs over the top as the decorative finish and voila, these yummy babies were ready! Bounty Slices, I called them…

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Recipe originally found here: http://lickthatspoon.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/homemade-bounty-bars.html

(This website is absolutely heavenly! I’m going to have some fun for a long time with all those yummy recipes… :D)

Stranger…

I tried a hand at rhyming, but I don’t think it worked out too well.. Oh wells.. 😀

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In the darkness of the night that surrounds,
unknown to the sleeping world around,
I lay awake shedding tears of sadness,
my pillow soaking up the wetness…

Unable to utter even a word,
only I know what I mourn,
and if I did try to explain,
no one can comprehend the pain…

All that’s been said and done,
has been misunderstood for what its not,
for I’m a stranger in a strange world,
and each one faces a pain of their own…

Black Cherry Sorbet (Healthy Dessert)

For all those healthy people out there who cares about what they put into their systems, unlike me! 😀

Ingredients:

• 1 cup black cherries
• 1 large banana
• water (optional)

Directions:

• Puree black cherries.
• Add bananas and blend till smooth. You may have to add a splash of water to get the blades moving.
• Freeze.

Note:

 – You can do this with any kind of fruit…Blueberries, blackberries, kiwi, apple, whatever.. It’s your choice.. I just had black cherries at home…

 – The bananas helps to give the right consistency and to give it the sweetness it needs..

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Enjoy.. 🙂

Please, hear what I’m not saying…

– Source Unknown –

Don’t be fooled by me. Don’t be fooled by the mask I wear. For I wear a mask, I wear a thousand masks, masks that I’m afraid to take off and, none of them is me. Pretending is an art that is second nature with me, but don’t be fooled.

I give the impression that I’m secure, that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well as without; that confidense is my name and coolness is my game; that the waters are calm and that I’m in command and I need no one. But don’t believe it; please don’t.

I idly chatter with you in the suave tones of surface talks, I tell you everything that’s really nothing, nothing of what’s crying within me. So when I’m going through my routine, don’t be fooled by what I’m saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I’m not saying; what I’d like to be able to say; what, for survival, I need to say but I can’t say. I dislike the hiding. I dislike the superficial phony games I’m playing.

I’d really like to be genuine, spontaneous, and me; but you have to help me. You have to help me by holding out your hand, even when that’s the last thing I seem to want or need. Each time you are kind and gentle and encouraging, each time you try to understand because you really care, my heart begins to grow wings. Very small wings. Very feeble wings. But wings. With your sensitivity and sympathy and your power of understanding,I can make it. You can breathe like into me. It will not be easy for you. A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls. But love is stronger than strong walls, and therein lies my hope. Please try to beat down those walls with firms hands, but with gentle hands. for a child is very sensitive, and I am a child.

Who am I, you may wonder. For I am every man, every woman, every child…. Every human you meet…

– Source Unknown –

Lone Bright Star

You see a star shine true and bright,
while all the other are covered by clouds.
You deem the clouds are not to go,
and dote on the lone bright star.
Little do you know that clouds will clear,
revealing the beauty it hides from you.
Soon the sky will dazzle and shine,
But for now its just the lone bright star.

(I came across this poem I wrote more than a year ago… 28/05/2010, precisely… I have no idea if I was writing about someone specifically or if I was just looking out the window when I wrote this.. But yea, I wrote it… lol… )

Please Listen…

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving me advice, you have not done what I asked…

When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings…

When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problems, you have failed me, strange as that may seem…

Listen! All I ask is that you listen… Don’t talk or do… Just hear me….

Silence is golden…

In the current world where everyone is so busy trying to be heard, silence is definitely golden.

Sometimes silence works better for us too. We just can’t dig our graves with silence.

But when I think about the way I am with dealing with the world; where I put up the perfect facade to fit the different situations, hiding the way I really feel… I start to wonder whether what we’re hearing is really the truth or is that also just another lie?

But I guess even that is best left as it is, b’cos I just don’t want to dig yet another grave for myself…

Maybe if that fish had learnt to keep it’s mouth shut, it wouldn’t be facing it’s doom…

Tiramisu

When you’re planing to make Tiramisu, you’re going to want to think of an assembly line… Prepare everything you need for the assembly before you start to put it together..
1. The ladyfingers/sponge fingers (I used store bought sponge cake..)
2. The coffee mixture..
3. The cocoa powder..
4. The cream mixture..

This is the recipe that I’ve concocted after researching so much to find one that will be easy for me to make with ingredients that are easy for me to find.. And it came out perfectly.. 🙂

Ingredients:

• 250 gm Cream Cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

• 1 cup warm water
• 7 tbsp instant coffee powder
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

• sponge cake (store bought or homemade.. which ever works for you…)
• cocoa powder, for dusting..

Directions:
1. Spoon cocoa powder into a sugar shaker. (If you’re comfortable with using a small sieve, you can just keep the cocoa and the sieve ready..)

2. In a small bowl, dissolve instant coffee in the warm water. Add cocoa powder, stir and chill in the fridge while preparing the other stuff.

3. Beat softened cream cheese and sugar on medium to high speed until smooth and creamy. Add milk and vanilla. Beat again until fluffy. Transfer to large mixing bowl and set aside.

4. Separately, whip heavy whipping cream on high speed until stiff. Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture with spatula and combine well.

5. Set up your assembly line:
– Ladyfingers/Sponge cake
– Coffee mixture
– Cream mixture
– Cocoa
– The dish that you’re assembling the Tiramisu in..

6. One at a time, quickly dip the sponge into the coffee mixture and line the entire bottom of the dish with the sponge.

7. Spread evenly about half the cream mixture (Use your own judgement.. You don’t want a layer of cream that’s much too thick for your liking…) over the sponge using a spatula.

8. Sprinkle or dust with about 1/8 cup cocoa or until an even layer of cocoa has been sprinkled over the cream mixture.

9. Repeat the same steps for the second layer; with sponge dipped in the coffee mixture followed by a layer of cream mixture followed by the final layer of cocoa dusting.

10. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 6 hours or overnight.

Use a sharp, thin knife to cut into pieces. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂

Part 3: Questions Unanswered

If you haven’t read the first two parts yet, please do. You can find it here:

Part 1: https://kittyscribbles.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/part-1-hypnotic-angel/

Part 2: https://kittyscribbles.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/part-2-churning-dreams/

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As my consciousness slowly ebbed into my being, my thoughts started to flow through my mind… What happened? Why did it happen? It doesn’t make sense! Nothing does! And my body? Why is it so still? Not even a twitch of a muscle, not even a shiver of fear and most definitely not even a forced movement! Was my body pinned down? Or was it just not responding? I wanted to move! I wanted to know!

The memories of the pain went through my mind… My angel! Where is my angel? Why did my angel let this unbearable pain wash through me? Why did I even feel the pain when my angel left? Did my angel feel any of the pain I felt? Is that why the angel left? Did he really leave? Or was he just invisible to my eyes, skirting around the horizon? So many questions, but none neither uttered aloud, nor answered…

And as I waited for the paralysis to lift off my body, my thoughts were clearing and my hearing sharpening… I heard the most beautiful sound in the whole world! The voice of my angel! My angel was here! To protect, to comfort, to love…. I could feel my hopes rising… rising, rising and staying there…. like a majestic eagle soaring through the brilliant blue sky, and settling on a high perch…

My angel was humming… a very beautiful tune… the word beautiful doesn’t even do justice to the music! It was plain heavenly! Soothing my nerves, my excitement… making me smile…

Smile? I smiled? I can smile?! My temporary paralysis was over! I can move now! Opening my eyes quickly, I scanned my surroundings…. Where is he? Where is my angel? I couldn’t wait to see my angel’s beautiful face! My hope, my reason for life… Amazing how my angel had become all that un such a short time.. But everything seemed reasonable.. at least to my eyes… Is this what everyone talks about? Is this love? Or is this plain dependency? My angel… he will answer my questions… but where is he?