simple sponge cake

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 
  
• 1/2 - 2/3 cup white sugar
• 
  
• 2/3 cup self-rising flour
•  or alternate with

2/3 cup all purpose flour & 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 oz milk

1/2 tsp vanilla flavor

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease an 8 or 9 inch round cake pan.
2. Beat the eggs for 4 mins till fluffy.
3. Add sugar to eggs little by little, beat over for 3 mins.
4. Now add vanilla mix in low speed.
5. In a separate bowl sieve flour & baking powder together and fold them in to the beaten mix.
6. Let them combine well for 2 mins, add milk to mix well for 2 mins.
7. Bake for 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pan for 10 mins & turn over a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Frost the cake with your favorite frosting or decorate with icing or just enjoy like a tea cake nice and warm.

Servings

Can serve to 4 or 5.

• 
  

Mixing the cake batter

Butter Cakes and Pound Cakes

These classic cakes have a fine crumb, a tender, moist texture and a rich, buttery taste. Best of all, they're easy to make!

Know Your Ingredients

"Shortened" cakes have just four main ingredients: fat, sugar, eggs, and flour. Some recipes also call for baking powder or baking soda, milk, buttermilk or sour cream, flavoring extracts, and a pinch of salt to heighten the flavors.

These cakes are characterized by their high proportion of fat and sugar to flour, which makes them tender, moist, and dense.

Since there are so few ingredients, to achieve the best results use high-quality butter and pure flavoring extracts, measure carefully, and follow the recipe directions.

Butter or a combination of butter and shortening are usually the fats of choice. Shortening is easier to work with, because it is already partially aerated and remains at the same texture over a wide temperature range, but butter gives incomparable flavor and mouth-feel.

Before You Begin

Make sure that all of your ingredients are at room temperature, particularly the fat, eggs and any liquid you may be using. It's essential that all these items be at room temperature:

• If the butter is too cold, it won't beat evenly; it won't incorporate air and increase in volume.
• When eggs and liquid are cold, the batter will curdle. Instead of a smooth, homogenous batter, it will separate into liquid and fat, and the cake's texture may be denser than you like.
• If any of the ingredients are warm, the fat will melt and you won't be able to whip air into the mixture.

The second thing to do before mixing the batter is to thoroughly sift together all the dry ingredients. Cake flour and cocoa powder are especially fine, and form small lumps that won't get broken up during the mixing process. Unevenly mixed ingredients can create big holes and tunnels through the middle of the cake, alongside lumps of raw flour. Use a sifter or a wire whisk to make sure all lumps are broken up and those ingredients are well-mixed.

Mixing the Ingredients

You don't have to have a stand mixer to make a butter cake or pound cake, but it sure helps. Begin by beating the softened butter at medium speed until fluffy and light in color, about three minutes. Add the sugar and continue to beat for about four minutes longer. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time and beat for several seconds between each addition. If the batter does curdle, just continue whipping it; it should smooth out once it warms up.

After you've beaten in the eggs, you must mix in the remaining ingredients as gently and quickly as possible to avoid deflating the air you've so carefully beaten into the mixture.

• Slow the mixer down to low speed and sprinkle in about 1/3 of the dry ingredients.
• Mix the batter while pouring in about 1/3 of the liquid (this includes milk, buttermilk, sour cream, juice, or coffee).
• Continue in this fashion until all of the ingredients are incorporated into a smooth batter.
• Any garnishes--nuts, fruit, chocolate chips or other additions--should be very gently folded in by hand after the batter is mixed.

The Creaming Method

Bakers use the "creaming method"--beating the fat and sugar together to hold air bubbles--and chemical leaveners like baking powder, rather than beaten eggs (like sponge cakes and angel food cakes) to create their fine texture.

The "creaming method" is the same mixing technique you use for a batch of chocolate chip cookies. For cakes, however, you keep beating air into the mix.

Beat room-temperature butter with granulated sugar (superfine, castor, or "bakers' sugar" is best) until the butter is very fluffy and noticeably lighter in color. Don't worry about over-mixing at this point; it's hard to do when creaming butter and sugar for a cake.

Add room temperature eggs one by one, beating after each addition. Adding all of the eggs or too much cold liquid at once will cause the batter to look curdled. Add any extracts or flavorings after incorporating the eggs.

Once you start adding dry ingredients, be careful not to over-beat the batter. The gentle handling is critical to creating a fine, not tough, texture in a cake. Many recipes alternate adding dry ingredients and any additional liquid; mix well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Stop mixing when each addition is well incorporated.

Baking Cakes

Pour the batter immediately into a prepared baking pan--either greased and floured, or greased and lined with parchment paper--and bake in the preheated oven. As the cake bakes, it will rise high in the middle and turn a dark golden brown on the outside. Depending upon your oven, you may need to rotate the cake pans on their racks to ensure even baking.

Don't wait until the cake has pulled away from the sides of the pan to test for doneness: test it by pressing gently with a fingertip near the center. The cake should slowly spring back. (You can also insert a toothpick or cake tester near the center of the cake; it should come out clean, with no batter sticking to it.) Once you remove the cake from the oven, let it cool on a wire rack. Run a knife around the edges of the cake pan to loosen the cake, and invert the pan onto another rack or plate. Cool completely before slicing or frosting.

cortesy: allrecipes.com

my gallery

                                                     

   


These are some of my favorite models wanna try in a year or so,  fondant  figure piping....

fengshui - the brief notes

First of all the fengshui content briefed here is a consolidated extract from most of the known websites for my personal reference. Fengshui is one of my interested field while others are Reflexology, Aromatherapy, alternative medicines, color therapy & management, stress mgmt, gem stones, cake decoration etc.

Fengshui history:
Fengshui was found & applied in life many a thousands of years ago. It was protected & passed from generations to generations by masters & grandmasters who where considered the guru of fengsshui art & saviors.

What is Fengshui?
Fengshui is a process or an art learnt well & acquired to benefit with the help of "CHI" the universal energy of life.

Basics of fengshui:
The chi is 2 types " YIN & YANG" energies namely female & male with corresponding colors black & white.

YIN-YANG theory: According to yin-yang theory everything in the universe consist of 2 opposing but deeply interconnected forces yin feminine & yang masculine.The interaction of these 2 forces create the essence of life around us.

yin energy is passive energy full of silence, deep darkness, slow & relaxed movements & predominant at night  while sleeping by replenishing the body energies.

yang energy is active characterised by strong vibrant sounds, colors, bright-light, upward moving energy almost through out the day with busy work.

Rule of life: Life's favorable theory "two & opposite" are words that have deep down meaning with life.

Day & Night
Birth (life) & death
black & white
Big & small
Dark & light
Male & female
Sound & silence
Hot & cold
Happy & sad
Rich & poor

They are 2 opposite energies but usually cannot exist without each others presence. When there is an imbalance between these 2 energies in body,mind,soul,house or environment around a person will result in
* health problems
* financial crisis
* lack of peacefulness
* relationship barrier
* diminishing knowledge or wisdom

house:
First & foremost the house should be filled with a balanced yin-yang energy.
bedroom,bathroom,spiritual place are egs of yin silent energy spaces of the house
living room, dining room, kitchen are yang energy spaces of the house.

Fengshui elements:

Elements       colors                                     shape                     directions

Wood      green, brown                       rectangle (long)        east, southeast
Fire      red, strong yellow,orange              triangle                  south
                       dark pink,purple

Earth    light yellow. skin tones,            square                     south west
             light brown, terracotta                                             north east

Metal   white, grey                              round                west, north west

Water  blue, black                              wavy                          north


cycles of five elements;

The presence of all five elements in a living space will help to thrive & feel healthy. With the help of Bagua we can define the spaces fengshui element & feel which element present is dominating, diminishing or balance.
there are 2 cycles of elements;
* productive cycle
* destructive cycle

Productive cycle is a cycle of creation where water nurtures wood creates fire makes earth nourishes metal that helps water.

Destructive cycle; is a cycle of weakness need not always be considered as bad or negative. it will help us when in a living space there is an imbalance it can be counteracted with destructive cycle to weaken the energy.
here water puts off  fire weakens the metal will destroy wood or wont allow the wood to grow or flourish will weaken earth will absorb all the water.

 

How to determine the 5 elements? 

Inorder to determine the elements of chi present in the house, fengshui uses the compass reading & the bagua map as an effective tool.

The compass: the fengshui compass is called "LO-PAN" helps to define the map of a house. On a simpler terms we donot need a professional fengshui comoass, all that trick can be done by an accurate compass or an iphonemight come handy to do the job perfectly.

The Bagua: bagua is a map consisting of 8 areas namely directions. this is the traditional or classical fengshui school form which is the first one to introduce  and almost widely accepted for precision than confusion caused by western school of bagua.

              

Fengshui triangle: fengshui triangle is a new term coined by Rodika tchi to tell the importance of the 3 major spaces of the house namely

* bedroom

* bathroom

* kitchen

major change would occur to the house on the whole when the energy of these 3 spaces are determined and changed necessarily.

Getting started with fengshui:

*all the space in the house should be free of clutter.

*have good quallity of air & light come inside house

*define the baqua of your space

*study the 5 elements of the fengshui theory

*find your fengshui birth element

*find your kua-number

*be mindful of the energy present at home

how to define the bagua:

for a classical or traditional style bagua you need - 

an accurately working compass -  iphone

full round protractor - 360^o

house plan - floor plan

pen & ruler to mark.

method:

first take the compass reading of your house from the main doorway or entrance of the house.

in the plan mark that reading in the door point and also mark the center of the plan.

define the 8 areas with protractor.

distinctly draw the line and write down the 8 areas and center as 9 area.

Missing area and Extensions of bagua space:

A missing area in the bagua is a place of your house or apartment that are mostly missing in the shape of your home bagua. When the house is in an improper shape that is by looking at the plan you can find out  whether it is square, rectangle or anything. in that if the house has any space that is not lined on all sides with the square or rectangle then there is a missing space. it is also the areas of home bagua with incomplete or weak energy. this missing area is called as bagua void or bagua negative or bagua weak areas.

the extention areas of bagua are more abnormal shape of the house that lies in front of the bagua map. might also say the extention as protruding from your home bagua.

basic lactation facts

lactation is an art. This art can be a satisfying experience only when adequate knowledge is obtained and facts are learnt thoroughly with denying the myths.

1. milk is supplied only when the baby starts to drink properly.
2. lactation is always a demand and supply pattern.
3. breasts signals brains to produce more milk.
4. this happens only when the breasts are empty or when the baby drinks fully.
5. each breast have fore milk or front milk & hind milk or back milk.
6. front milk is less in fat & nutrients while the back milk is rich in fat & nutrients.
7. it is best to allow baby to drink both milk from both breasts.
8. initial days of breastfeeding while the first few days its best to make baby latch on properly to both breast
inorder to stimulate milk supply.
9. how much longer & number of times the baby feeds on actually increases milk supply rather decreasing.
10. never shake or panic the breast. to induce milking only use the lactation or nursing action to nipple on need.