But I have to tell about my sunday before leaving beloved Melaka.
It was just great! I have to say, one of the more successful cake baking days of my life! Yes, of course, it was great because I baked. 2 durian cakes. Successfully. The measurement of successful here is if my father says he likes the cake, which is seldom. Very seldom.
Day started about 10am. I woke up, feeling quite terrible actually. My head was feeling very heavy, the effect of sleeping for only about 4 hours. I had a late night in front of my lappie, playing around with some stuff. I could only say now that it was a good idea in my part to take the bar of butter out from the fridge before I slept.
The desire to not to waste the remainder of the blended durians in the fridge was stronger than the desire to pamper the heavy head. I had a slow start though, taking out the flour and sugar packs, letting them sit on the stove, while I went about like a zombie having my breakfast and then washing up.
It wasn't until nearly 11am that I finally started to start my production house. I bought a bar of 500 gms of butter, so I had to make 2 cakes to finish up the butter. I had hope that would do well enough to make sure the durian was all used up.
I went about mechanically for most of the time, measuring the flour, the sugar and halving the block of butter. Then creaming the sugar and butter, while popping in a little bicarbonate of soda into the flour. Ah, after the 2nd try, this time, it was limited to three quarters of a teaspoon only. Stir them in so that they would mix well with the flour. All the while the creaming continued. The wonders of machine. How would the modern day lives be without them!
3 eggs were beaten, a cup of milk prepared and the tray glistened with some butter, and still the creaming carried on. This time though, the creaming was quite fast. The mixture turned fluffy in a shorter amount of time compared to the 1st and 2nd attempt.
Half an hour later, the mixing started. I added the eggs, and the machine mixed them in. Then slowly the flour was added in, with the milk, just to soften up the batter a little. The machine whizzed hard, doing all the hard work. I stood and watch, orchestrating the little symphony.
Oven heated up, temperature set at 180 degrees C. Machine was still mixing. I was trying to allow the batter to get a nice consistency. Once it was smooth and soft, I stopped the mixer and took out the bowl. I had already planned to mix in the durian by hand this time, just to see what difference would do to the final cake. So in went scoops of durians, about 5 this time. Mixed them in with a butter knife, as well as I could, then pour the whole mixture into the tray. It took me quite a while to get as much out as possible. Not wastage anymore than I can!
Tray into the oven for 35 minutes. Baking for durian cake attempt number 3 was underway.
Whilst the heat from oven was helping the mixture to work its magic, I hurried to get cake number 4 out. I went about the same steps, but with a little necessary tweaking in the measurements. Necessary for I didn't want any leftovers bits of sugar and flour. My Mom won't do anything with them and they would all go to waste if this baker was not in town. And so, I didn't have much confidence for attempt number 4 as precision was already thrown to the wind. What I could ensure was just the steps were followed.
I had hoped, wrongly of course, that by the time cake 3 was ready, I would be ready to bake cake 4. Alas, that was not the case. I underestimated the creaming processing time, and it took slightly longer for cake 4. I took cake 3 out and let it to cool, before scrambling back to continue making cake 4. Once all the mixing was done, I put it to bake, and kept my fingers crossed. Hopefully it won't be that bad. It couldn't be, just a little heavier of a cake, I thought, with the extra flour and sugar.
The cutting of cake 3 was carried out while cake 4 was baking. I was really excited, and anxious. The smell was just lovely and I could hardly wait to test the texture. With extreme care, I took remove the ring of the round tray. Then slowly and gently, the cake was divided into quarters, before a slice was cut out. The texture was so soft and the durian aroma was still there. My father remarked that the texture was like the banana cake my younger brother used to get whenever we went down south. Futher comments from my father was, I should write down the recipe I used to bake this 3rd cake. It was that nice. Mom said it was soft too, too soft for her liking, but it was good work. I was extremely proud of myself.
40 minutes later, a lopsided 4th durian cake was done. The round tray couldn't fit into the oven tray and had slanted a little to the left as the weight of the batter shifted during baking. Well, couldn't do much about it. Cutting the cake was difficult as I had used the conventional tray, where the ring couldn't be removed. With a huff and a puff, I finally managed to get a slice ready for tasting.
As dad was not there to try it there and then, it was my mom who provided the comments. She liked that better than the 3rd, so as light as the 3rd. Again, she had the 4th cake was also good. When my father finally came along to taste it, he commented that the texture was a little rough for his liking and that he still preferred the 3rd cake, although taste wise, number 4 was equally good. And they both agreed that this round of durian cake production was much more successful than the first two attempts. I was elated!
Durian cake production house for year 2011 was a success after 4 attempts! Yayyy!!!
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