Saturday, June 2, 2007

A Tribute to you


As my girls were getting dressed for school this morning, I set out a breakfast of toast, butter and strawberry conserve on the table. Nothing fancy. They are petite little things, my girls, and cannot manage more than a slice of toast or a bowl of Cheerios in the morning. I turn on my Macbook and click on ‘comments’ from my previous post. I have a new comment from Ming the Merciless He writes, “ We need more recipes from you, Carol!” I smile to myself. Ming doesn’t cook a day in his life. I feel a warm fuzzy feeling come through me. This is what blogging has done for me. I have met really beautiful people along the way. I came across Ming’s blog through a comment he left on someone elses’ blog. The pen name ‘Ming the Merciless’ stood out to me because my husband’s name is also ‘Ming’, and he too is known as ‘ Ming the Merciless’. (In his Marketing and Graphic Design Industry.) I never thought that I’d be interested in a blog that wasn’t about food. I have always wanted to visit the US and Ming’s Daily Photo blog has taken me there, well, to New York City, at least.

The girls finish their breakfast and I wash up. I ‘shut down’ my lappie and prepare to send them to school. As the girls chatted along in the car, I pondered on what I had to get done today. There was nothing urgent, I guess, so I decided that I would put up a new post today. I don’t blog as often as I’d like to, because I’m first and foremost a wife and mother, and with that comes the responsibilities which I prioratise. I guess I have come a long way (According to my standards!) since I started blogging and using the computer in December. I managed to set up the Flickr badge with my food photos two days ago without my husband and kids’ help! HOORAY! They are proud of me too. I still have no idea whatsoever about how to highlight blog sites or whatever that I’m referring to on my post so that readers can click on them and be transported to the blog site. BUT I’M SURE SOME REALLY NICE PERSON OUT THERE ON THE BLOGIVERSE WILL CARE TO ENLIGHTEN ME! ( Thanks Tara for educating me! )



I remember feeling very lost when I first started blogging. It was like I was alone in a huge, endless white room with nothing but the echo of my own voice. Then Haalo came by. She was like an ambassador from the Blogospere. I don’t know how she found me, but she was the first blogger to visit and welcome me to food blogging. She made me feel like I was a new member of a club. Haalo’s links took me on an exploration of a bigger food blogging community. I was in awe with Bea, her Food Photography absolutely blew me away. And then there’s JenJen whose blog reflects and embodies her Love of Life. Reading Jenjen’s posts always makes me feel dreamy and warm and for a brief moment, I feel like I’m on a holiday.

We have a long weekend coming up and I can’t wait to spend it with my girls. It would be just the three of us as Ming is going on a hiking trip with his two Business Partners.This will be the third time he’s away from us for a couple of days. Talking about him, he’s just walked in. He looks a billion bucks in his Black shirt and pants and his Grey Versace tie. His grey hair that he refuses to dye makes him look distinguished. He’s had 70% grey in his hair since the age of 20. People who don’t know him well think that he dyed his hair grey deliberately as a fashion statement. The girls and I will miss him but we look forward to when he comes home on Monday because we insisted he took a few days off to be with us to make up for the few days when he’s going to be away.






Recently, I came across Rasa Malaysia, a blog that serves up food that’s close to my heart. I can relate to RM’s heart-warming stories as we share the same culture growing up in Malaysia. And then there’s Melting Wok who ‘speaks’ to me in ‘Singlish’ (a term that refers to the way Singaporean locals speak English) when she comments on my blog, and I play along. More recently, there’s this beautiful french girl, Pom d'api who’s been leaving me sweet comments. Her blog is entirely written in french and I have no idea whatsoever, what it all means. I see pretty pictures of food and so I’ve concluded that we do understand each other. We both speak the language of ‘Yummy’! What I’m trying to say is that blogging has been so much more than an expression of my passion for Food. Thank you so much to all you bloggers out there who have been such an inspiration and encouragement to me. My life has truly been enriched with your friendship and support.

With all that said, I would like to dedicate today’s recipe to you all, it’s the BEST Pineapple Upside-down Cake recipe that I’ve ever tasted. It was given to me by my sister, Jacq who doesn’t cook or bake that often because of her busy and glamourous work schedule, but when she does, it’s always superb! She put this recipe together afer trying a few other recipes that just didn’t ‘hit the spot’! I must apologize for the main photo on this post, the next time I make this cake I will make sure I over-lap the pineapple slices.







Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Temperature: 170 degrees Celsius
Baking time: Approximately 1hr & 15 mins (if the cake starts to brown too much, cover with foil)
Tin size: 10 inch round

The Topping
1 cup finely packed brown sugar
½ cup salted butter
1 820g pineapple slices (retain juice)

The cake
1-½ cups flour
6 tbsps ground almonds
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups caster sugar
1 cup salted butter (room temperature)
4 large eggs
1tspvanilla essence
¾ cup sour cream

What to do…
Combine the brown sugar and butter in a saucepan on medium heat until sugar dissolves. Add pineapple slices and juice into pan and simmer for five minutes. Remove pineapple slices and arrange around the greased tin, over-lapping the pineapple slices. Leave the syrup to simmer on medium heat to reduce for about ten minutes, then turn off heat and pour enough syrup into tin to just cover pineapple slices. Set aside remaining syrup.

Whisk the sifted flour, almond, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

Seperate the yolks from the whites. Beat egg whites until stiff, and then set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until creamy, then add egg yolks one at a time, beating well in between.
Add vanilla, and then dry ingredients, folding and alternating with the sour cream.

Fold in the egg whites, and then pour cake batter over caramel and pineapple in pan.

Bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and pour a little of the remaining syrup onto the cake. Stand for 10 minutes to allow syrup to soak into cake. (OPTIONAL) Alternatively…

Remove cake from oven and cool slightly for ten minutes.

Turn cake onto a serving platter. Serve warm with Double Cream. (Do not refrigerate cake. Keep for up to 3 days. Cake tastes even better on the second day!)

ENJOY!

17 comments:

Rasa Malaysia said...

Wah, that's so nice that you dedicated this lovely creation to us. Can I have two pieces, errr, perhaps 3? Hehe.

Tara said...

Hi Carol,

I am really enjoying your blog! Just thought I would help you out with the linking to other blogs thing, it is pretty easy once you know what to type.

<*a href="http://shouldyoueatthat.blogspot.com/"> Should You Eat That?<*/a>

That is the basic html code, you just need to take out the asterisks (they are there so that it doesn't display as the link right now). The website inside the quotation marks will be where the link takes people and the writing, in this case, Should You Eat That?, would be the displayed words.

For example, when you take the asterisks out of the above code it displays like this:
Should You Eat That?

Hope that helps!!

Tara said...

Forgot to tell you that you need to make sure you are in the 'edit html' tab to type this in, not the 'compose' tab - or it will just show up as written instead of as a link.

Good luck :)

Ming the Merciless said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ming the Merciless said...

Hey, I DO cook!!! I cook ramen noodles. I microwave water for tea. Err....I heat up leftovers in the microwave. I make omelette or fried rice about once every 6 months!!

Actually, I got a mail from ConEdison (the gas company) last month. The letter said something along the line of -- we noticed you have not used your gas in the last couple of months; if this is so, please let us know if you want it shut off; if you ARE using the gas and the meter is not reading it correctly, please let us know so we can send a technician over to look at it.

HA! I guess you aren't the only one claiming I don't cook. :-)

[Note: NEVER EVER microwave an egg!! I learned it the hard way! I have scars to show for it.]

Oh for the love of food! said...

Rasa Malaysia,
If you were here I'd bake you a whole cake!

Tara,
Thanks so much! I'll give it a go ;o)

Ming,
If I think of any other ways to boil water, I will be sure to tell you! HA!HA!

Anonymous said...

WAOUUUUUUUU!!!!
I love this cake with ananas!!! Very georgous

Tara said...

Carol,

Yes it will work for references to cookbooks to, you just find the link for a page about the cookbook (most people use Amazon)... You can link to any webpage and type any words for the link that you would like.
Have fun with it!

Ming the Merciless said...

I forgot to add that your photos are amazing?

Did you take A LOT of them and pick only the good ones OR are you a genius with the camera??

Oh for the love of food! said...

Pom d'api,
Thank you, you are too kind.

Tara,
Thanks again! I will have to try it out with a mock post.

Ming,
I use a very humble Pentax Optio S5i digital camera, and you guessed it,I take lots of pictures and choose the best ones. The photo of the plated cake with the black background was actually a fluke! If i remember correctly, I took that photo with the plate under a pair of halogen downlights whilst the kitchen light in the background was turned off. I actually have my eyes on a Canon Digital Rebel XT . That and some lenses will set be back 2.5 grand. I have to put off this purchase for awhile as I recently got this MacBook. For the meantime I will make the best of myPentax :)

Big Boys Oven said...

Hi Carol, Thanks for dropping by our blog. I am sure you will find more exciting up coming festures. Sid also blogs on chinese/local malaysian food under the name Miss Pinky at www.mylivingwall.com

Your lovely and sexy upside down pineapple cake reminds me of the upside down german apple cake that I first baked while I was living in Scotland 10years ago

Bel said...

Yummy!! Yummy!! Yummy!! Carol - you may well have inspired me to bake! Your cake looks delicious, and your daughters (I assume) so sweet ;o)

Oh for the love of food! said...

Big Boys Oven,
The only other time that I've ever heard of a cake being refered to as sexy was in Marcel Proust's 'In search of lost time' . My Pineapple Upside-Down cake (now given a persona) thanks you for putting her on a pedestal beside the Madeleine!

Belinda,
I look forward to reading a post on your baking adventure!

Ming the Merciless said...

I have lots of coffee table books on cooking like those my Ina Garten, the Barefood Contessa (whom I love). I also have an encyclopedia of foods.

I know! I know! I don't cook.

Anonymous said...

*hands down* :) From one Ming to another, I'm also another Ming haha..here's a story. I used to be a sick epileptic child. Think when I was like 5 years old, my mom brought me to the Kuan Yin temple, and soon after, I was adopted with a 2nd name by the temple, hence the name Ming remains till this day, and everyone in the family calls me by Ming. But, you can call me Shirley hehe :) Thanks for mentioning, the lovely pineapple upside down cake and cheers to a great post !:)

Oh for the love of food! said...

Ming,
Why am I not suprised ? HA!HA!

Melting Wok,
Shirley! (finally!) I'm so happy to be able to put a name to your face. I'm sure we will be great friends. I look forward to getting to know you better!

iml said...

delighted to have stumble upon your blog. I've been looking for the pineapple upside down cake for while. Will try it out.