Birthday celebrations are never one day affairs these days. We started off with the Battleship movie which I totally was against watching previously, but because it's the boy's birthday, I reluctantly agreed.
And I loved it! The plot was kinda normal bang boosh shoot shoot stuff, but there's humour and I especially like the Jap guy who was made co-captain! His ideas are awesome. Oh! And the part where the navy veterans helped out too! Enjoyed the entire two hours haha! Birthday boy gave me that "see I told you it's good" look when the movie ended. Heh. Fine fine I'll join u in such movies again next time haha.
Saturday, I planned for a morning picnic at Botanic Gardens and a visit to the farmers' market for some yummy cupcakes but it rained the entire morning so we had to change plan: lazed around at home for a bit and then off to the market to get ingredients for big feast (birthday boy's request). The rain subsided in the later part of the morning so we went to try and get those cupcakes and lunch before he had to go off for a meeting. But. There was some big traffic jam and we wasted a lot of time there, so we scrapped cupcake and went for lunch instead.
At the Great Grand Daddy of Briyani of course! Hahahaha. My first time there. People said the briyani is awesome, so I was expecting some rempah-rich rice with awesome mutton. While I did get awesome mutton, the rice wasn't rempah-rich, sadly. It was more soaking in oil/fat. But the portion was HUGE and totally worth the money. The chicken tikka was not bad!
Then back home for me to start my feast project!! Birthday boy requested for rendang (gasp!) and me being the bakeaholic, there'll be cake too of course.
Rendang. It's my first time cooking that mountain of a task! And I'll be cooking for in-laws too cos of the zoo trip the next day. So that's TWO kilos of meat right there. My mum came around to send birthday boy's present and helped out too cos Junior crankypants wasn't giving me much space to do anything! He was being so clingy and needy! And she called my brother to send over her big kuali so that I can cook the two kilos. Hahaha. Lifesaver!! Methodwise, it was kinda easy just tedious. I had to toast the ketumbar & jintan first, make chili paste before I can cut the other ingredients (onions, garlic, ginger, lemongrass) and blend all of it together. Then marinate the meat with the blended ingredients then fry. Whole process took me almost five hours!! Omg can pengsan ok. No pictures taken either haha.
While waiting for the meat to cook (only occasional stirring needed) I made cake! Haha. Birthday boy didn't want a fancy cake, just plain ol' butter cake that he really loves. So I made butter cake with ground almond adapted from Little Teochew. The recipe is somewhat similar to my mum's butter cake so I decided to try this out.
Butter Almond Cake
Ingredients (adapted a little by me)
250g salted butter
250g sugar
85g ground almonds
220g flour, sifted
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Yumyum butter cake! Moist, buttery and just delicious. Best eaten the next day!
On the actual day, Junior cooperated with me and woke up his daddy and handed him his birthday card. I wished I could videotape that moment it was sooo sweet! We went to the zoo in the morning, more so for Junior to see animals but he was totally not interested! Maybe cos the animals weren't moving much and didn't catch his attention. He was more interested in seeing waterfalls haha. Maybe I'll post some fotos in a separate post when I get the pictures from the camera.
It was a good weekend celebration, especially with our little family. Happy birthday, sweetheart! Love you so, so much ♥
And I loved it! The plot was kinda normal bang boosh shoot shoot stuff, but there's humour and I especially like the Jap guy who was made co-captain! His ideas are awesome. Oh! And the part where the navy veterans helped out too! Enjoyed the entire two hours haha! Birthday boy gave me that "see I told you it's good" look when the movie ended. Heh. Fine fine I'll join u in such movies again next time haha.
Saturday, I planned for a morning picnic at Botanic Gardens and a visit to the farmers' market for some yummy cupcakes but it rained the entire morning so we had to change plan: lazed around at home for a bit and then off to the market to get ingredients for big feast (birthday boy's request). The rain subsided in the later part of the morning so we went to try and get those cupcakes and lunch before he had to go off for a meeting. But. There was some big traffic jam and we wasted a lot of time there, so we scrapped cupcake and went for lunch instead.
At the Great Grand Daddy of Briyani of course! Hahahaha. My first time there. People said the briyani is awesome, so I was expecting some rempah-rich rice with awesome mutton. While I did get awesome mutton, the rice wasn't rempah-rich, sadly. It was more soaking in oil/fat. But the portion was HUGE and totally worth the money. The chicken tikka was not bad!
Then back home for me to start my feast project!! Birthday boy requested for rendang (gasp!) and me being the bakeaholic, there'll be cake too of course.
Rendang. It's my first time cooking that mountain of a task! And I'll be cooking for in-laws too cos of the zoo trip the next day. So that's TWO kilos of meat right there. My mum came around to send birthday boy's present and helped out too cos Junior crankypants wasn't giving me much space to do anything! He was being so clingy and needy! And she called my brother to send over her big kuali so that I can cook the two kilos. Hahaha. Lifesaver!! Methodwise, it was kinda easy just tedious. I had to toast the ketumbar & jintan first, make chili paste before I can cut the other ingredients (onions, garlic, ginger, lemongrass) and blend all of it together. Then marinate the meat with the blended ingredients then fry. Whole process took me almost five hours!! Omg can pengsan ok. No pictures taken either haha.
While waiting for the meat to cook (only occasional stirring needed) I made cake! Haha. Birthday boy didn't want a fancy cake, just plain ol' butter cake that he really loves. So I made butter cake with ground almond adapted from Little Teochew. The recipe is somewhat similar to my mum's butter cake so I decided to try this out.Butter Almond Cake
Ingredients (adapted a little by me)
250g salted butter
250g sugar
85g ground almonds
220g flour, sifted
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- I did this cake by hand, no mixer. Cream butter with ladle. Add sugar and cream till smooth.
- Add in eggs one at a time, mix with the batter until incorporated. Add vanilla essence.
- Add in flour and baking powder in three portions and mix. Add in ground almond.
- Add milk to the mixture. I added this last because I forgot about it!! No wonder I was puzzled at the thick viscosity of the batter! I spooned some batter into the pan already then I remembered!
- Bake for about an hour at 170 degrees Celsius (I used an 8 inch heart shaped cake pan hence I needed a longer time). Actually I baked at 160 but after 45 minutes the centre wasn't cooked so I upped to 170 but the cake cracked. Should have stuck to 170 from the beginning.
Yumyum butter cake! Moist, buttery and just delicious. Best eaten the next day!
On the actual day, Junior cooperated with me and woke up his daddy and handed him his birthday card. I wished I could videotape that moment it was sooo sweet! We went to the zoo in the morning, more so for Junior to see animals but he was totally not interested! Maybe cos the animals weren't moving much and didn't catch his attention. He was more interested in seeing waterfalls haha. Maybe I'll post some fotos in a separate post when I get the pictures from the camera.
It was a good weekend celebration, especially with our little family. Happy birthday, sweetheart! Love you so, so much ♥
Comments