Baking and Frosting Attempt

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Given Name    : Nuttie Fruittie Soft Pillow

Type          : Soft sponge cake with fruits topping

Award         : 2011's Yummilicious Cake Of The Year 

Developer     : AkiraSabine (A.S)

Attempt       : Numero Uno

Materials    : Ingredients for baking a sponge cake, whipping cream, icing sugar, fruits wedges, chopped nuts, orange zests, unlimited flow of creativity.

Verdict     : The developer thought the cake was below her expectation of the very best cake. However, the bursting flavour from the zests, nuts, whipped cream and fruit juices was SO GOOD!

Future attempts: Drop the idea of beating the whole eggs together even though few eggs did not separate as wished - yolk from the white. YES! The temptation is to not question your skill but the eggs, of course! *wink* When this happens...STOP! DO NOT PROCEED! Make sure all the eggs are fully separated as per requested in the recipe before moving to the next step - beating them separately. The well beaten egg whites play an important role in the resulting light texture of the masterpiece.

Teh Tarik: A Malaysian's Cup of Tea

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One popular drink in Malaysia is the 'Teh Tarik' which is enjoyed by the multiracial community of this nation. 'Teh Tarik' is a Malay term for 'pulled tea'. Malaysians have this culture we call the 'Mamak Culture' whereby we like to catch up with each other over a cup of Teh Tarik at Mamak Stalls. A.S. would not elaborate on what a mamak stall is but do check out the link to Wikipedia's explanation which shall answer all your queries.

Malaysians love their Teh Tarik so much that each time if you happen to be at a Mamak Stall or any other eating places, you'd hear them ordering Teh Tarik. It is basically English tea sweetened with Sweetened Condensed Milk (SCM) and pulled (pouring from a mug into another from a height repeatedly to mix resulting in froth). YES, the SCM is used in Coffee too and this, we call 'Kopi Tarik'.

A Teh-C  is another favourite and instead of using the SCM, it is English tea sweetened with sugar and creamed with Evaporated Milk (Evap). This is A.S's favourite as to her, the Teh Tarik is a little too sweet for her taste. YES, the Evap can be used for coffee as well and Malaysians call it 'Kopi-C'.

Catching up over Teh Tarik...

Picture courtesy of F&N's official webpage. This is an example from the SCM range. It is basically recombined milk which had undergone the evaporation process to suck out excess water content resulting in thick viscous milk with nearly 50% sugar content.

Picture courtesy of F&N's official webpage. This is an example from the Evap range. It is basically recombined milk with additional palmolein/butterfat and insignificant amount of sugar. This product undergoes the sterilization process to extend its shelf life due to the low sugar content.

When A.S. was in The States, the SCM and Evap was not widely used. Everyday, at her host family's home in Seattle, Washington State, it was the 1 lit or 2 lit  fresh milk in plastic bottles for cereal or direct consumption. On top of that, the family always had a pack of the Half & Half for coffee (fresh home ground and brewed ones).

Picture courtesy of Darigold's official webpage. What A.S understands is the name Half and Half means it is 50% skimmed milk (non fat portion of milk) with recombined another 50% of cream. If it had any sugar content, it would be very, very insignificant as it tasted naturally sweet. Since it is only pasteurized(High Temperature,Short Time, in short, HTST removal of bacteria), unlike the SCM or Evap, an unopened pack must not be stored at room temperature. A.S would say it's used the same way as Evap with optional sugar into your beverage but the overall taste is different compared to Evap because of the milk formulation between the 2.

Last but not least, how do you find A.S's explanation???

Foreign Language: German Reading

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Following is a passage in a German blog AkiraSabine(A.S) is a follower of:-

Keins der Kleidungsstücke kostet über 15 Pfund, nur die Taschen sind etwas teuerer. Dafür auch groß, so dass alles reinpasst, vielleicht sogar mein Macbook.

Heute ist einer der typischen Sonntage. Kaum was zu tun, nur lernen steht auf dem Programm. Ich hab nämlich morgen meine Zwischenprüfung für den Studiomusiker-Kurs. Da ich aber eine "Doppel-Müdliche-Prüfung" (mit einer ganz bezaubernden Sängerin) habe, die nicht länger als 20 Minuten läuft, denke ich, dass wir uns da schon gut durchkämpfen werden. Die Antwort liegt im "längeren ausschmücken" der Antworten ;)

Ich gönne mir jetzt trotzdem noch ein schönes heißes Bad und hoffe, dass danach noch mehr Informationen in meinen Kopf passen...

A.S's interpretation without a translation software...

There's no pieces of clothes which costs over 15 pounds, only the handbags are somewhat more expensive. That's because they're big,  so all these all gotten rid off, perhaps even my Macbook.

Today is my typical Sunday. Shopping is to be done, only studying is in the way of the plan. I have namely tomorrow between tests for the studio music course where I'd however have a duet test (with a very beautiful singer). The test which I think no longer last for 20 minutes , and we will battle through it well. The answer lies in 'longer voice holding'. ;)

I'm gonna now go for a nice hot bath and hope that after this I have more idea in my head.

The result of Google Translation...

None of the garments will cost about 15 pounds, but the pockets are slightly more expensive. But also great, so pure that everything fits, maybe even my Macbook.

Today is a typical Sunday. Hardly what to do, just get on the program. I have, tomorrow my Midterm for studio musician course. But since I "double-tireless-examination" (with a very charming singer) did not run longer than 20 minutes, I think we are fighting us there all right. The answer is "embellish longer" in the replies;)

I allowed myself now still a nice hot bath and I hope that after that match even more information in my head ...

*RED fonts: corrections to what A.S interpreted.*

~VERDICT~

A.S gave herself a pat on the shoulder. Not bad after all! She's got the gist of the passage despite some minor errors here and there. Even Google Translation can't be fully trusted as like many other languages, some phrases can't be directly translated word for word. They carry a different meaning when they're put together. 90% accurate. GREAT JOB, AKIRASABINE! Way to GO!