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October 10 How to make a cake fit for a monkey...Well well well...
This is the 2nd blog I am due to write in order to tick more things off my list and therefore have a C- (satisfactory)
holiday period. Last thing you all knew, I had crossed off 7/15 of the items I had made on my list, therefore only getting
46.6% which is only a D+ (below satisfactory) and so here I am, on the last nite of my holidays putting in some hard effort and if the nite goes well, I can cross off a few more things... just you wait and see hehehe...
Aaaaaanyways... some people were wondering about how a seemingly childish and useless boy, such as myself could possibly make something like a chocolate cake. Wellll, I guess if u never asked me if I can make a cake or not, you would never know. But, I can... and I did. And, I plan on making another cake tonite. Hmmmmmm... Well, actually, I am making another cake for my work mates, and also to test my recipe again. It is not perfect and actually sits inside my head more than anything else. If I can write it down and make it a GOOOD recipe, the students at my work can use it in their lessons and enjoy making something funky and new.
So... this is it, the recipe of how to make a Chocolate cake suitable for a monkey.
First you will need...
* 250 grams of Butter (preferably New Zealand butter because everything from NZ is the best hahaha)
* 1 and a 1/2 cups of sugar. * 1 and a half Tablespoons of Cocoa (you can find this at city mart supermarket) * 3 eggs * 1 and a 1/2 cups of self raising flour (not normal flour - unless you add 2 Teaspooons of baking powder) * 1 cup of milk. And for the icing on the top...
* 1 cup of Icing sugar (again, hard to find - get it from city mart, 18rmb)
* 1 Tablespoon of cocoa * About a Tablespoon of melted butter (mixed with about the same portion of water). Got it? Have you been shopping and picked out allll those ingredients yet? I suppose you also shouldn't forget a microwave proof bowl that is a good size and shape for making a cake. Dont start cooking unless you have EVERY ingredient, or you are bound to mess it up and thats not cool hahaha. I don't want ANYONE complaining to me that their cake didn't work ok? The rules of making this cake are like this. Rule 1 - If you make this cake correctly, you will have a delicious chocolate cake and you owe me 100 rmb hahaha.
Rule 2 - If your cake turns out shitty, its your own fault because YOU did something wrong. And you still owe me 100 rmb  Aaaaaanyways... this is how to MAKE the cake...
Melt the butter in a large pot or bowl and when all the butter is melted into a liquid, add all the sugar to the butter and
stir it all together. When the butter and sugar are all mixed together, add the cocoa powder. Remember, this is cocoa powder, NOT drinking cocoa or chocolate powder or something similar. Hard to find in Shanghai, go to City mart if you can't find it anywhere else. Mine cost 37 rmb to buy, so if you find it cheaper, let me know. OK, so once you have stirred the cocoa into the mix, add the flour and give that a good stir until everything is the same consistancy. It should be kinda gluey and sticky at this stage, but should also taste really good when you eat it hahaha. Actually, this cake is pretty tasty at every stage of making it hahaha. Add the eggs and mix them in very well, you don't wanna cake that has big chunks of egg all thru it right? That would be horrible, so take a little care. After the eggs are mixed in nicely, put in about HALF a cup of milk... stir that in until its all the same thickness. Add the rest of the milk, stir it up and then your mixture is pretty much done... NICE!!
You then must cook it, and this is where it could get tricky hehehe. First you must have a microwave proof plastic bowl, and you gotta grease it so the cake doesn't stick to it when its cooked. Take some butter and rub it around EVERY inch of the inside of that bowl, so that anything that touches the bowl, also touches butter and therefore won't stick to the bowl. Pour your mixture into the prepared bowl, but remember that this cake will rise when it is cooked and it will maybe double in volume. So don't use a small bowl, or your cake will overflow the bowl and make a mess of your microwave haha. Trust me this sux ass, I know cause I found out the hard way.
 Anyway, once you have the mixture in the bowl, you gotta cook it. Place to bowl full of mixture ON TOP of another small bowl, to raise the height of it by about 5cm (like I have shown in the picture). I guess this is so the cake gets cooked evenly from all around the microwave. If you leave it on the bottom of the microwave, it might not cook very well. I am not sure about this, I just make this cake how my dear Mum taught me how to make it, so if you wanna try it without the 2nd bowl to raise it - try it and let me know if it works or not hahaha. So, once you have the cake in the microwave, cook it on MED-HIGH for about 9 minutes, take it out when its done and shake it a little bit so you can see if it is sticking to the edges of the bowl or not. Put it back in the microwave and then cook it AGAIN on HIGH for 5 minutes. After that is done, take it out of the microwave and let it sit for about 5 minutes. It will be freakin' hot, so don't burn yourself. After giving it a little time to cool, place a large plate on top of the bowl holding the cake, and then flip the plate and bowl at the same time so the cake falls onto the plate. Remove the bowl and then put the cake into the fridge to cool.
After about an hour or 2 (or 10 - whatever) take the cake out of the fridge and get to making your icing. Put the icing sugar and cocoa in a small bowl and add about half the mixture of melted butter and water to the icing. Combine all ingredients until smooth and chocolatey looking. You might need more butter and water to give it a good texture, but if you can mix it all together to look the same consistency then you are doing a good job. Don't make the mixture too thick, or too thin - its kinda easy to tell when its done. Anyhoo, when you have this icing mix done, spread it on your cake using the back side of a knife. Make it fun, play with the icing and eat whatever is left over hahaha. If you wanna keep it simple, then you are already done... if you wanna make it fun and crazy, add anything else you wanna add to it now. I have added M&Ms to mine, its all I had at the time, but I guess you can add anything you think would go well with a chocolate cake.
Well, that is it... you are done. How did ya like my cake? Not bad huh?
 I know about ALLLL of the people who read my blog are gonna say, "holy crap - how did HE learn how to make a cake" hahaha... well, I guess you can thank my Mum for that. I am not claiming to be some great cook or something, but at least I am not USELESS in the kitchen like many guys. I am happy with my cooking skills for now, but always happy to learn how to make something new (and sweet hahaha).Anyway... yeah. I guess that is the end of this blog...
Well, not really... hahaha...
BLOG PART 2
So anyway... some of you may have read my loooong and boring blog about the LIST I had made during the holiays about things I should do. I just wanna do an update. The time is now 8:02am on tuesday morning, I am due to start work at 9:30 today (for some stupid training thing) and so I am now in the final minutes of my holiday time. I can update a few things on my list (which was rated at 7/15 D+ at the end of the last blog) now, read on...
* WRITE 2 (note - 2 is underlined) BLOGS. Well, I guess this one is done now. Nice. I am very lazy with blog writing, simply because I know myself and I know that once I start writing some crap, it tends to go on and on and on and on... it often takes me a few hours just to write one blog, so I dont make much time for that. Anyways... point is, this blog is now done so I can cross this item off my list. This takes me up to 8/15 now... NICE! More than 50%! That means I now had a C- holiday period. Good enough for me hahaha, 50% is a pass. * TAKE SOME PICS
I have taken lots of pics these holidays, but none are suuuper interesting and maybe none that I will print and put on my wall, but... I have taken some. And that is good enough for me hehehe. I would take some pics of my new clothes I bought this past week, but now I can't be bothered and I haven't shaved for a week, so I look like a homeless old man hahaha. I will take some more pics later maybe, see what happens. Anyway... for now, I have taken some pics to go along with these stories. I think that counts for something.
 That bumps my score up to 9/15!* FIX TOOTH
This one is only half done now, but its a start and its good enough for me. At least I don't have a huge gaping hole in my mouth anymore, but I gotta go back to the dentist tomorrow and get it finished. Might I just add that I am not scared of anything really and I feel I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but when the dentist started the brrrrrrrrrr, whizzzzzzzzz, and grrrrrrrrrrrr of her tools inside my mouth, I had to cringe and squeeze the hand rest as hard as I could. She told me to not move one time, and I was doing my best, but serious... Fuck doin' that again hahaha. I say, look after your teeth people. If you wanna eat sweet food alot like me (for example - my chocolate cake) please take care and brush your teeth.
 Anyway... I am ticking this one off, even tho its not finished yet. It will be done soon, and thats good enough for me. 10/15!! * PAINT PIC
I did this at midnight last night haha. I refused to sleep until it was done, even though I was suuuuper sleepy and knew I had to wake up early for work today. But, I am proud of my pic hehehe... its so funky and cute. I will include a pic below I guess, but you should know that this is of course, not my own picture. It is copied from a pic from the internet, but I still had to draw it freehand and then paint that. If you don't know this dog, this is Scooby Doo - Who my dog is named after. My darling dog is called scooby, and he sometimes acts like Scooby Doo hahaha... Anyway.. I will hang this pic somewhere around my house when I am finished with it. 11/15!!! :D NIIIIICE! That means I have gone from 7/15 (D+) right up to 11/15 (B+) and I am pretty happy about that. I still have time to print off some photos and I am considering doing that on the way to work just so I can claim that I had an A- holiday
hahaha.... but for now, I am happy that I have ticked off 11 of 15 items on a list I made on the first day of the holidays.
It is not a thing that I do very often, I am not an organised and list making kinda person... but... I feel this list has
helped me get out and do things rather than just sit around and do nothing all day. If you are bored some time... make a list and see where it takes you. Add something crazy and different, see if you can inspire yourself to do something interesting that you have never done before. Thats all - just live life, love life and wear a smile everyday.
OK, NOW this blog is finished but I guess I am gonna run out of time before I can post this, AND all the pictures I wanna take before I go to work... I will see what I can do, but I might have to add some pictures later when I get home. I am gonna go out with my work mate later this afternoon, and that might lead to a party haha. I guess it would be tooo late to cross that off my list now, but I am still happy to do it hehehe.
 Anyway, thanks again for reading a long and boring blog about me and my life... get back to work and send me photos and samples (and 100rmb) of the cakes you make, I am interested to see how you all go. If you need lessons, the price changes hahahaha...
SEEEEE YAAAAA!!!!
xoxo your favourite monkey, G TrackbacksThe trackback URL for this entry is: http://jamalnz.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F73AEE2F9AFB4ABB!419.trak Weblogs that reference this entry
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