How to bake: Orange Chiffon Cake

Happy Chinese New Year, guys!

A couple of weeks ago, my classmates asked me to bake a cake for them since I went home that weekend and the rest of them.. did not lmao. I didn't know if I wanted to bake a cake or cookies. I just wanted to bake whichever was easier to carry around campus. But then when I thought it over, cookies are a hassle to make and they take forever (especially since my oven is small and can only fit 1 tray at a time bleghhhh) to bake. But cakes were also a hassle because /frosting/. Do you see my dilemma do you do you do you understand my dilemma do you do you? Life is so hard.

Anyways, I decided on a chiffon cake because 1) It's so easy to make and 2) I don't need to frost it. Life is easy. lolops

Orange chiffon cake:

6 eggs + 1 egg white
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cup icing sugar (take out 1/4 cup for egg whites)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp grated orange zest
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (I used 3 oranges)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

• Separate the egg whites and yolks in two separate bowls. (total= 6 egg yolks, 7 egg whites)
• Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest in a bowl and mix. 
• Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg yolks, vanilla essence, oil and orange juice. You can choose to mix with an electric mixer or by hand.
• In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup of icing sugar until stiff peaks form.
• With a spatula, gently fold in the egg whites (in 3 additions) into the batter. Its okay if there are white swirls because you don't wanna deflate the batter, so do not overfold.
• Pour the batter in an ungreased tube pan and bake at 170 DegreesC for 45-55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean
• Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven, turn the pan upside down and place it on a bowl or tall flat surface so that it is suspended over the table/counter.
• Let the cake cool completely before removing it from the pan. (1 hour at least)
• Once you've taken the cake out of the pan, lightly dust the cake with icing sugar.
• I used flowers to decorate the cake because I didnt wanna bring the cake to class looking so bare.

Definitely gonna bake more chiffon cakes/sponge cakes in the future. Gotta start somewhere with cakes, right?

Have fun!

Peace out chica

How to Bake: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Salut!

Red Velvet cupcakes have always been my favourite, personally. To bake and also to eat. One thing about red velvet cupcakes that amuse me is if you bake them too long or whisk the batter too much or if you use the wrong icing recipe it just ruins the whole cake in general. Which is why sometimes when I go to cafes and I see red velvet cakes/cupcakes I feel super super reluctant to try them.

Why not make your own! I've improved my recipe over the past year now and I'm pretty happy with it at the moment.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
50g butter
150g castor sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
125g flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
***If you don't have buttermilk, use whole milk and add 1 tsp of vinegar and do this beforehand***
1 tsp red food colouring
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda

• Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder in a separate bowl. Set aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy.
• Add the egg and vanilla essence. Whisk until combined.
• Add the red food colouring into your buttermilk.
• Add the flour into the mixture. Then the milk. Flour. Milk. And end with flour. (nomsayin?)
• add the vinegar and baking soda mixture and whisk. 
• Remember: Don't whisk the mixture too much or else your cupcakes will be dense as heck
• Bake for 15 minutes in a 160 DegreesC preheated oven.

Cream Cheese Frosting

50g butter

1 cup icing sugar

250g cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tsp milk

• Cream the butter and icing sugar until white and fluffy and well combined. Make sure it is pale because butter as we all know it is yellow so you don't want your frosting to be super yellow
• Add slabs of the cream cheese and whisk until there are no cheese lumps.
• Add the vanilla and milk
• DONE

Don't think too much about baking them. If you follow the steps properly you're sure to succeed. Remember with baking there are no  shortcuts.

Bonne chance!

Peace out bamboozle

jingle jangle: Mating Season

Mating Season from neonbubbledreams on 8tracks Radio.

Hello readers of Tasha's Sickly Sweet Sphere. Lately I've been hearing a lot about relationship woes, the might have beens, the what ifs, the if onlys and the it could have happened but... Yeah, it's definitely mating season when the amount of love related conversations pile up on a daily basis. Thus, I decided to create a playlist for all of you who are facing any relationship troubles (hang in there, everything will be all right, if it was meant to be, IT WILL BE) or blessings (LUCKY YOU). Hopefully listening to some of the tracks here will help you overcome any doubts or hesitations.

When it comes to love, I think risks are worth taking instead of the constant pining. Who knows, he/she might just fancy you back. And if they don't, hey, well at least you know now and can move on swiftly. Life is too damn bloody short to play mind games and have constant internal mind battles with yourself.

IF YOU'RE STILL HESITATING, THIS IS A DAMN SIGN THAT YOU SHOULD JUST DO IT.

Just go for it.
Yi Peng.

How to Bake: Oreo Cupcakes

Mahalo!

So I baked some Oreo Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting and sprinkled oreo bits and some Cadbury drizzles. Well that was a mouth full. (ha ha ha ha ha)

There's much to say about the cupcakes but to just bake them and taste them for yourselves.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
(God, tasha)

Oreo Cupcakes
100g butter
100g castor sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
195g flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 cup crushed Oreos

• Cream the butter and sugar and light and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually and then add the vanilla until well mixed
• Sift the flour and the baking powder in a separate bowl then add it to the mixture gradually. 
• Pour the milk in until the batter and whisk until mixture is silky smooth
• Add the oreos in and fold the mixture.
• Bake for 15 minutes in a 170 DegreesC preheated oven

Vanilla Frosting

100g butter

1 1/2 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 (or 2) tbsp milk

• Cream the butter and the (sifted) icing sugar together until the frosting is white and fluffy.
• Add the vanilla and milk 
• Then uh frost!

Cadbury Drizzles: Break up a bar of Cadbury's milk chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Put it in the microwave for 40 seconds but take it out every 10 seconds and stir it so that the chocolate doesn 't burn.

***Don't forget to sprinkles crushed oreos on top of your cupcakes before drizzling the chocolate***

Have fun with it!
peace out queen b

Melody Mayhem: On melancholy hill by Gorillaz

Got the Monday Blues? It's okay. This is the kind of song you just listen to when you're going for a night drive or just laying on your bed and staring at the ceiling (u feel me) kinda feel. Or if you're just having a really bad day or if you wanna feel good about your day. Been listening to this song so much. Ironically it makes me feel the opposite of melancholy. I feel idk at peace and happy.

Have a great day guys. Put all those negative vibes about school/college reopening since the "winter holidays" are over. Instead be merry cause it's a new year! (Ha ha get it lmao)

Peace out. See you peeps

tasha eats: Foodsbury @ Shah Alam

Happy New Year guys!
I had the best New Year's Eve experience so far. All these years I've spent my NYE with my family (which is pretty damn huge) and just watch the fireworks together but I decided this year I wanna celebrate with non other than the infamous Yi Peng (AKA fellow Lump) since she's moving to San Fran this year omfg.

Anyway, I started out my new year by having lunch with ma clique. But I decided not to review the place because it was The Bee and people, I assume, already know how the food is like there. Come on guys don't tell me you've never been to The Bee.

Went to Foodsbury yesterday in Shah Alam since I was already in the area. My friends seem to really love the place. It's pretty cozy. But nothing I haven't seen yknow what I mean? I guess it's still a pretty alright place to go to chill and be away from crowds and stuff like that if you're idk not into that sorta thing.

It's very kid-friendly so if any of you have little kids, feel free to bring them because they have a little corner in the shop just for kids to enjoy their time while their (moms) talk and talk and talk (gossip) and talk.

Beef Carbonara (RM12) as recommended by the chef. It was pretty good. Although it lacked beef, it was seasoned pretty good. I couldn't finish it because the portion was pretty huge, so my friend finished it for me ha ha.

The girls had Roast Chicken (RM 12/per) I think the mashed potatoes was seasoned really well. It wasn't tasteless like most mashed potatoes experiences I've had. IT was pretty good. Quite a bummer on the portion and salad though. But for RM12, I'll take what I can get.

 Root beer float and Coke float (RM4.50 EACH) 

Watermelon and Lychee (juice?) (RM9) This happens to be some weird watermelon and lychee concoction. It's like in between a smoothie and a lassi. idk.

Foodsbury

Wisma Faiz Azrina, 24, Jalan Tengku Ampuan Zabedah A9/4, Shah Alam.

Mon-Fri, noon-11pm; Sat, 10am-6pm

Have a great week fellow inhabitants of the Land Of Ooo!

peace out hot diggity

How to Bake: Gingerbread Men Cookies

Hey guys! Only two days left till Christmas and I decided why not bake something Christmas related. I've been meaning to bake gingerbread cookies for awhile now but I've never really been one to take the leap. But after watching Zoella's video, I decided why the heck not. It's funny, really. I actually hate ginger. I hate them in anything except ginger beer and gingerbread cookies.

Also, as I was prepping to bake these bad boys, I realised I forgot to buy ground ginger. So I used fresh ones instead. I'll elaborate more on this later on.

I sort of ran out of ideas on how to photograph my little army so.. here I am.. showing you guys my house decor........... moving on. Let's get started shall we?

Gingerbread cookies

75g light brown sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp black treacle/molasses

1 tbsp water

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

95g butter

225g flour

white icing/royal icing

• Add the sugar, syrup, treacle and water in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir the ingredients until well mixed.
• Then add the cinnamon powder and ground ginger ***If you don't have ground ginger like me, use fresh ginger. the recipe calls for 1 tsp but I used approximately 1 tbsp of very finely grated ginger***
• Add the bicarbonate soda, stir, and add the butter
• Make sure to keep stirring as you don't want the mixture to burn. Remember, whenever you have sugar and fire involved, always keep on stirring. And make sure the mixture doesn't come up to a boil
• Once your butter has melted, turn off the heat and add the sifted flour. Gradually.
• Roll your hot dough into a ball and cover it up in glad wrap and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes (I cheat)
• After that cut them and bake for 7-10 minutes depending on how thick/big your cookies are. Mine were small so I only needed 7 minutes. 
• Bake at 180 DegreesC

Royal Icing

2 egg whites

2 tsp lemon juice

3 cups icing sugar

• Beat your egg whites and lemon juice until combined. 
• Add the sifted icing sugar
• To get the right consistency, when you lift the batter with a spatula, the ribbon of frosting that falls back into the bowl remains on the surface before completely disappearing. 
• If it disappears immediately, add more icing sugar.
• If its too thick, add a little bit of water.

And you're done! Oh man now I'm gonna have to find something else to blog about you guys are probably tired and bored of recipes. Hm. well. if i event have readers. If I do then comment down below what you guys want me to blog about next week!

Merry Christmas to you guys out there who celebrate.

Hasta La Vista, Baby!

(gross) (no) (ayyy lmaoo bye)