Cake and Sweets

Over the weekend, my mom baked a butter cake for the Qing Ming festival instead of the normal steamed sponge cake that she usually make every year... It's been really really long time she hasn't bake a cake... probably the last time was when I was about 10 years old? She baked a cake with the face of a dolly for my birthday?

So, I asked her, "how come you don't need recipe book for baking the butter cake?"
yea, my mom has this old and thick recipe book, all the collections of the good recipes that she collected throughout the years...Anyway, the question that I asked shows that I really don't know about bakery... Butter cake is the most basic cake to make... and after all, the recipe is so simple that anybody also can remember...

To bake a 1 pound of butter cake, all u need is
1 pound of butter (454 grams) which is equivalent to 2 pieces of the butter
1 pound of sugar
1 pound of self-raising flour
10 eggs
That's all!

You mix the butter and sugar until all are melted...
then slowly add 1 egg at a time to the batter and plus the flour...
then just put into the oven to bake.. about 180 degrees Celcius...
So simple! and smells damn nice too!

But did you know that this rich butter cake is so sinful? Imagine you having one piece of this cake, containing so much sugar....If you had this cake in icing, OMG! even more sugar consumption...I'm so thankful that my mom doesn't bake cake that often, if not, my body size would be twice the size of what I'm having right now... haha

How well do you know me?

Recently, I created a “How well do you know me?” quiz in facebook and let friends try it. And the result? Think I was unpredictable. Haha…Nobody scored well including my sis. And actually the quiz was a tough and tricky one too!
So here goes friends, the explanations for the answers to the quiz.

1. What is my favourite colour?

• White
• Black
• Brown
• Blue
• Green

Answer: Green. I like all kinds of green.

2. Which colour do I dislike the most?

• Pink
• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Purple

Answer: Red. Probably I should be more specific here. Chilli Red. I hate bright reds, including Chinese New Year those kinds of reds. Most ppl answered pink. Yea. My love and hate of pink change very often. And at this moment, I love pink wor…Haha

3. Which of the following bands sang my favorite song?

• The Wallflowers
• Matchbox Twenty
• Goo Goo Dolls
• The Script
• Savage Garden

Answer: The Wallflowers. They sang “One Headlight” which I have been very loyal to this song for almost 13 years. The rest of the bands sang songs that I like, but wasn’t the favorite.

4. What was the first English nickname given by friend?

• Kimmy
• Kimberly
• Kim Kim
• Jimmy
• Emily

Answer: Jimmy. This nickname was given during primary school. When I first introduced myself to friends in a school camp, I speak my Chinese name too fast until they heard “Jimmy Hua” instead of “Jin Ming Hua”. The “ng” sound was silent. During the entire camp period, I was called Jimmy. And for the rest of options, I was also given those nicknames as well, but was during my secondary school.

5. Favorite candy/sweet?

• Butterscotch
• Toffee
• Choc Éclair
• Mint
• Lollipop

Answer: Choc Éclair. I prefer Choc Éclair ‘coz it has the caramel and chocolate in the middle. The second close answer was toffee. But toffee is too sweet for me sometimes.

6. What would I be willing to eat for 10,000 dollars?

• Cockroach
• Worm
• Lizard
• Grasshopper
• Cricket

Answer: Lizard. Haha… Surprising? To tell u the truth, I have tasted lizard when I was very young. I picked up a dead lizard and chewed it. I couldn’t remember the taste of it. So I guess I would have been able to eat it again. Anyway, lizard is a type of meat only. Still edible. The other options are definite no for me. Yes, I’m those adventurous type, I would go bungee jump and sky dive, but eating bugs? Never. I think of the bugs taste are bitter and imagine eating it, the slimy juice oozes out. Yuck.

7. My favourite sport to watch is?

• Formula One racing
• Tennis
• Badminton
• Football
• Basketball

Answer: Tennis. I love to watch grand slam tournament on tv. Last time, I love to watch F1, but ever since Schuey left, the race was not exciting anymore.

8. If I had to eat the same kind of food for a month, what type would it be?

• Pizza
• Bread
• Rice
• Noodle
• Porridge

Answer: Noodle. People who choose pizza know that this is my favourite food among the 5 choices. (good for you! ) But, if I were to have this food over and over again for the whole month, I will definitely hate it for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t want to risk turning my favourite food to the food I hate the most, would I? People who choose rice totally doesn’t know me at all. I don’t like to eat rice at all. As for bread and porridge, I’m ok ok with it only. The reason I chose noodle is because this is the only thing I won’t hate if I were to eat over and over again. And who says you cannot change the flavor of the noodle? Can be fishball noodle, fish noodle, wan tan mee, hokkien mee, char kuey teow, laksa…. Wahahaha…

欠贬问题

在网上的radio听到这道超级超级欠贬问答题，跟你们分享一下：
有一个混血儿的小孩，爸爸是西方人，妈妈是东方人。为什么这小孩从来都不对他的妈妈说byebye?
hehe.. 超级欠贬，听了答案都会晕过去！：p

translation for non-chinese readers:
heard this crappy question with crappy answers， the question goes like this:
there's an Eurasian kid, his father is a westerner, while his mother is an easterner. why does this child never say byebye to his mother?
hint: the answer comes from a chinese 4-letter word.

Answer: 东方不bye(败）haha

Warm Vs Cool

My sis went for a grooming class sponsored by her company. After the class, she gave me a few tips on color matching.

Did you know that our skin tone are either compatible with warm colors or cool colors?

So, what are warm colors and what are cool colors?

Warm colors can be orange, yellow, peach, brown, yellowish green etc.

while

Cool colors can be blue, blue-ish green, purple, pink, blue-based red etc.

Here's a picture to illustrate more of warm and cool colors.

White, black and gray colors are neutral colors.

So, if you are a cool color person, cool colors complement you well. If you are a warm color person, warm colors complement you well. However, if you are a cool color person but matched with warm colors, you don't stand out with those colors. Same goes with warm color person with cool colors. Unless you are neutral person, which means any colors will complement you well.

How do we know which color group we belong to? Here is a link to know which group you are. http://www.womenshealthcaretopics.com/bn_makeup_Are_You_Warm_Cool_or_Neutral.htm

Or you can base on your senses to judge whether pink or orange color suits your skin tone. If pink suits you more, then you belong to cool color group. If orange color suits you more, you belong to warm color group.

When you match clothes, do not match both clothes with warm. Must be one warm and the other cool to complement each other or you can choose to match with neutral colors. If both are warm colors, then you are too warm in color, which is abit over-doing it.

All this while, I've thought myself as cool color group, which is wrong!!! I'm more suitable of warm colors. No wonder I wear silver accessories, it wasn't flattering at all. Now all my wardrobes have a number of cool colors clothes, which doesn't complement with me lah... No wonder my attire wasn't flattering at all lah...

Esplanade

this morning heard this over the radio.
the question that the deejay gave was this:
the infamous building in Singapore, Esplanade on the bay was designed based on what structure?
well, many locals would say that it was based on durian. coz it really looked like a durian shell opened into half. and they called the Esplanade as "the Durian"!
but no, the answer was incorrect.
some also answered that it was based on fly's eye. also looked like one. but nope. not the right answer.
the correct answer was MICROPHONE!
haha.. i couldn't guess it either.
but the design based on microphone sounds more appropriate for the concert hall. after all, it was an art and music place. and it really does look like a microphone structure, except without the stand or the handle.
and i have searched over the internet and there was a pdf file talking about the structure and the design of the building.
the spikes of the building was based on the geometry of the siever. cool. architects had this idea of geometry as well.
and the material that they used had some energy efficient material. bla bla bla... and they have applied some civil engineering technical stuff to support the building. bla bla bla.
well couldn't read all coz it's quite long.
the points is, amazingly not everybody know what the structure was based on. many really thought it was based on durian, since durian is the king of fruits. when i first saw the building, my senior introduced to me as "the durian" also. so, can't blame the locals for not knowing it. :p