Red Velvet Cheesecake for Sister's Birthday

15 Jul 11

I've been baking for a while now. I think my cakes are fairly nice to eat but I do not think that they are pretty. They are not pretty enough as celebration cake, maybe for tea time. I do not like to mess around too much with cakes as I like them fresh and clean, as hygienic as possible.

One of my famous cake is Red Velvet Cheesecake. I've baked it several times now. Recently, I realised I've not baked this cake for my family. Oh no, my family has not tasted this famous cake of mine!

My youngest sister's birthday is in mid Jul 11 and as her birthday this year was on Friday, I planned to bake this cake for her birthday and we could celebrate her birthday after our family dinner at parents house. Which means, I needed to bake the cheesecake on Thursday which is a working day.

I baked the cake after dinner. Red Velvet is a tedious cake to make. Making one Red Velvet can make 4 butter cakes. First, I had to bake the sponge, then the whipping cream, then the cream cheese and lastly, assembling the cake. I finished making the cake at almost midnight. 

Kids putting up candles for sister ... so many of them.

 Sister and her family. Nice photo, taken from not so nice camera phone.

Glad to see Sister so happy in this photo. She commented this is the first time that she did not have to make cake for our family celebration.

My family liked the Red Velvet cheesecake. Hubby told them the story of how I sold my very first Red Velvet cheesecake.

Mini Cake Loaf

7 Jul 11

Yesterday after dinner, I asked Hubby to take me to Desa Parkcity for a walk. I wanted to visit the newly refitted store Aino Kitchen at the Waterfront, Desa Parkcity.

I saw this cake tray that has 8 smaller holes to bake small cakes and thought it was cute. Auntie YC said the cake tray is a good idea as I can serve individual cake without having to cut cake into slices. The tray costs RM19.90.

I bought it as I intended to bake banana butter cake the following day. Mom complained that I did not give her any share of the banana butter cake that I baked last week.

Today after dinner, I baked banana butter cake and I used the newly bought tray. Hubby smelled the nice aroma of the banana cake and said he’s hungry. I took out one of the cake from the tray and the cake can come out from the tray so easily.

I put a mini banana cake in a box and tie it with purple satin ribbon into a bow. It looks so cute too and I like the tray! I should get another one so that I can have 16 cute little cakes for tea party.

Jaden and his 3 visits to clinic and hospital in a week ... Otitis and Tonsillitis

18 Jul 11

I am so heart ache. Jaden has been unwell for a week now and he has visited GP twice and hospital once in this one week and taken so much medicine.

Last Monday (11 Jul) night, Jaden complained ear pain and he couldn’t sleep well the whole night. He has the same complained in Oct 2010.

The following day, Hubby took him to see a GP near our house. According to doctor, he had Otitis (ear infection) on his right ear and prescribed antibiotic, flu and pain killer medicine for Jaden.

On Sat, I saw green discharge on both sides of Jaden eyes. Jaden started to have red eye on his left eye. Then, the right eye turned red too.

 

We brought Jaden to see the same GP. According to the GP, the infection had spread to both sides of his ears and he had eyes infection too. Jaden had tonsillitis (an inflammation of the tonsils) and both his nose are blocked, with flu and phlegm. The doctor prescribed him with a stronger antibiotic, cough and eye gel for the red eyes.

At night, Jaden didn’t have a good night sleep. I did not too. He had high fever and I kept sponging and monitor his fever temperature the whole night.

On Sunday, I was trying to catch some sleep in the afternoon but could not as I am not use to afternoon nap.

At night, the same episode recurs. Jaden had high fever of 38.7 Celsius. He couldn’t breathe properly due to blocked nose and didn’t have a good night sleep again. I was extremely tired by then, feeling sleepy and with backache.

I knew I had to bring him to see our favourite pediatrician at SDMC. I took an emergency leave from my boss today and took Jaden to see Dr Lee. Dr Lee is a very thorough and detail doctor. He listened to me and writes down on Jaden’s medical record. He checked Jaden’s eye, nose, ear, and throat and also listen to his breathing sounds. He prescribed more medicine for Jaden ... Garamycin eye drop, Cedax antibiotics, Parmol fever, Bucanil phlegm and Dhasolone syrup to clear respiratory and cough. He advised me not to give fever medicine to Jaden if his body temperature is below 38 Celsius though the temperature is higher than the normal temperature of 36.5 to 37.0 Celsius as their body is fighting inside.

Dr Lee said there’s no major health issue with Jaden but infections that has spread from ears to nose, throat and upper respiratory tract that cause fever, flu, cough and no appetite to food. Jaden’s red eyes are due to itchiness and rubbing of eyes which will take approximately 2 weeks to clear.

The consultation and medicine bill came to a total of RM211.65 and I need to bring Jaden back to see him on this coming Friday to ensure the infections are properly cured and clear.

Jaden is so weak now. He has not been sleeping and eating well and yet he has taken lots of medicine. The Angry Bird toy is his friend now.

He will check his own body temperature and will read the temperature to me. He will ask me to sponge him or spray water to him and say "I like it".

I am going to catch some sleep now, need it BADLY. Hope Jaden and I can have a good night sleep tonight. Need to get back to work tomorrow.

Good Old Fashioned Pancakes

16 Jul 11

A few days ago, Jared said to me "Mommy, we have not eaten Pancakes for a long time".

We used to buy those pre-mix pancakes ingredients, follow the steps, add this and that and those pancake were done.

A few years ago, Hubby logged in to his favourite baking website, All Recipes and printed a pancake recipe for me. In fact, the recipe print-out that I am using was printed and dated Dec 07. We tried it and wow ... the pancake is much tastier than those from the pre-mix pack.

When Nina was with us, we used to place our order with her the night before. When we woke up, she would start mixing the ingredients, fry and serve those pancakes fresh and warm for us. It is so easy to make.  

This morning, we had pancakes for breakfast. I served it with butter, pancake syrup, St Dalfour berries jam and whipping cream. I added banana to my piece of pancake. Jared likes his pancake with just pancake syrup and I persuaded him to try with some butter too.

 

Good Old Fashioned Pancakes ingredients from Allrecipes.com:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk - I used full cream milk. Full cream milk is preferred for baking.
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted - I used my favourite Anchor unsalted butter

Directions :

1.In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.

2.Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

 

That's it. So simple that it only take 5 minutes for preparation and another 15 mins to cook.

Flat Feet and Family Podiatry Centre

29 Jun 11

After Jaden's feet x-ray at Sime Darby Specialist Centre at Taman Megah, a few days later, we brought Jaden back to the Family Podiatry Centre with the x-ray report. This time round, we went to the centre at KL Soho, Solaris Mount Kiara. Dr Mark would be taking a month off in Jul 11 to go back to his home town in South Africa.

Dr Mark evaluated Jaden’s feet x-ray and explained it to us. Jaden's talus bones were at 40 degree as compared to the usual 20 degree. I asked Dr Mark why is it that flat feet are so common? Why most of the people do not do anything about it? Why so many people said children will out-grow it? Dr Mark told us the consequences of flat feet i.e. can’t walk for long, experience leg pain, bad posture, etc.

Dr Mark recommended Jaden to wear special shoes to support his feet. However, there were no such shoes of small size for him. They will make an insole for him instead.

After the consultation, we went to another room and saw the above. They used plaster of paris, which is a quick-setting gypsum plaster consisting of a fine, white powder,  calcium sulfate, which hardens when moistened and allowed to dry.

We paid RM650 for this visit which is inclusive of casting fee and deposit for the custom molded orthotics for Jaden. It will take approximately 4-6 weeks for the insole to be ready. By which, Dr Mark will be back.

Our appointment for the day was at 4.15pm. There were quite a number of patients in the centre to catch Dr Mark before he goes on long holiday. By the time we got to see Dr Mark was about 5.15pm. The consultation and preparing the mould casting was less than 30 minutes. I had to wait quite a while for them to print the bill for us to pay. By the time I left Solaris Mt Kiara, it was almost 6 o’clock.

This will be Jaden’s most expensive pair of shoes. We hope it will help Jaden and give him confidence when he runs and let him enjoy his childhood.