Country Cottage Arts

 The muffins looked very appetising and yummy ,so I thought I'd honour it by putting it up first !


The month of May started off with my daughter's coming of age birthday.  We celebrated her 21st birthday on 1st May  at a Thai restaurant called Bangkok House at Section 19, Petaling Jaya.  It was recommended by one of my sisters-in-law.  The place looked great and the service was good but the food was not up to my mark, although others found it alright.  My daughter had requested  a tiramisu cake  for her birthday and  I wasn't quite sure how to do it as I had not attempted it before.  However, not wanting to disappoint her and being always  willing to try  , I took it upon myself to make one  by following the  recipe  which was written on the back of the tub of mascarpone cheese which I bought.

It turned out to be quite a big tiramisu - a full 9" x 9" x 3" cake tin brimming with mascarpone and cocoa powder and Italian sponge biscuits soaked in coffee and lots of  Bailey's Irish Cream ! I was quite worried by now and to  add to my trepidation, I had doubled the recipe, tweaked the measurements considerably and  had to take the whole cake tin to the restaurant to be kept in the chiller as the cake would only be cut after our lunch there.  I had no idea how it would turn out on a plate and being a very soft cake, I thought it would wooble out .  After a leisurely lunch , it was time for me to go to the restaurant kitchen  and bring out  the cake.  I said a silent prayer  while unmoulding the cake from the cake tin  and hoped nothing would fall  out (hey ! my pride as a baker was on the block ya !) The kitchen staff heaved a sigh of relief when it  finally came out  and having my pride restored by no small measure, I very proudly brought the cake to the table and lit 21 candles for my daughter.  After the customary cake cutting and toasting - it was  pink champagne this  time  - my one picky critic of a brother-in-law who calls a spade a spade, told me that it was one of the freshest and best  tiramisu  he'd had . Not bad for a first attempt, huh !






My daughter is seated on the right with the red suit.







That was 1st May.  By the end of the same week, I had also baked and given away 350 muffins and 5  chocolate cakes   to a youth organisation  which is  involved in social and charity programs for under-priviledged  children.  That was my contribution to their effort.  It was quite a tiring piece of work to bake them throughout the day and night  without any help and during the lowest  moments, I did get a bit discouraged when I saw the mess in my kitchen after a heavy baking session.   But all said and done,    when all the baking and  washing and cleaning work is finally over  and I'm having a moment to myself  at the break of dawn,  listening to  Astro's Golden Oldies with a hot cup of coffee and a freshly baked muffin in my hand , it doesn't  feel  that bad after all.



Life is about trying and hoping everything turns out okay and in the end, it sort of works out that way. If we keep trying................ that is.


( Would you believe it if I said that  washing dishes is one of my ' therapeutic thingamajigs " ?  Yes,   it really really is............ and I'm not making this up - to see all the dirty  dishes cleaned sparkling  white and bright does make me feel like the worst part of the job  is over and done with  and I'm free to do something else - sounds weird but true !)



And finally, this is the Mother's Day cake  that I baked and gave away too  to  the youth organisation for their celebrations -






 Will be back to my painting again, soon




Happy reading and painting ( and baking  !) in the meantime





Lakshmi