Tepee

Thank you so much, Pamela, from the bottom of my passionate heart! Your account is invaluable for Deprives like me! Edited to add: Waiting for pics now....whistling....

What do you call someone (me) who likes yu sang without the yu? After partaking the ones with raw fish and ended up with food poisoning a couple of times, I prefer to take the jellyfish sang.

I'm a bit late...but here's my 2 sen on RLB Chiffon cakes. I've tried them all...and have this to say. Although her chiffon cakes turn out very moist, yet fluffy, I feel 1 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar asked in her recipes are too much; left me with a very unpleasant taste on my tongue. I'm afraid I'm very sensitive to cream of tartar and soda bicarbonate. Subsequently, I reduced it to 1/2 tsp and the texture of the cake did not seem to hurt, still good, but easier on the tongue.

Thanks, Wendy, for the recipe. Andie, around 2 years ago (I think) I saw Emeril do a chocolate ball (in the net) using the balloon method too. Cool! Ummm, what's BBs?

To make a nice good thick syrup, I boil together 3 sugars----> palm sugar, white sugar and brown sugar. I find that using palm sugar alone is not sweet enough. Personal preference, though.

I'd be happy to get some for you if you like. Just PM me.

Oh, thank you, thank you, Wendy, Keith and LA for your tips. Icing cage...here I come!

I've always wanted to try doing an icing cage to put over a cake. I thought it looked easy enough from Colette Peter's instructions. So I did as per the instructions. I used a metal bowl, thinly smeared it with shortening, and piped freehand with royal icing and tip #5. The icing consistency I used was very stiff - boy, did my hand hurt! - it felt hard after only 5 minutes. So I left it overnight as instructed. But when I tried to take it off the next day...very gingerly in fact it broke...or rather, shattered, unsalvageable. Is there a foolproof way of doing this? Please help. I'd love to do this again...great potential in the "impression" department.

We're lucky that we can easily get grated coconut here. To get coconut milk, put the grated coconut into a muslin bag. You'll get the thick milk from the first squeeze. Don't throw away the squeezed grated coconut. Soak this in a cup or 2 of water. Then repeat the muslin bag process to get the thin milk. HTH!

Right you are, Peter! I was beginning to plan for a real grand cake, decorated with royal icing or spackle. Yes, I would have given them the whole works. Good thing I've my head screwed on properly and didn't bow down to their kind of pricing.). Anyway, the event lady was pretty nice and said she'll snap some pics for me if the cake happens. Kew, I don't think hotel bakeries would be willing to charge this low even if this provides them with some publicity. It's the regular ones which can churn out 3-tier wedding cakes for RM150. Sadly, the majority of Malaysians know only of these kind of cakes which has zero creativity and tastes as much. Andiesenji: That must have been some cake! Thanks for sharing. Oh, I do use foamcore for cakes which are irregularly-shaped. Very useful stuff.

Thanks, Jackal and Wendy, for your insightful inputs. Guess what? They just got back to me and said they actually found a bakery willing to do a slightly smaller version for US$380!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excuse me, I'm at a loss for words.

OK, I'm going to reject the job offer, on account of: 1) I don't think they'll be willing to pay the RM9,500 (US$2,500) I would quote for the job; and 2) I can't imagine the massive mess my family is going to have to put up with in my kitchen, since I don't have a separate room at the moment. But............. This would be a good time to use this as a hypothetical girl-jump-out-of-cake cake. So, I would still love to hear thoughts from all. Thanks.

I just got this letter in my mail. I'm so excited!! This seems like a chance of a lifetime; this must be the only company in Malaysia doing this! OK, so their quotation is way off. But assuming that they'll adjust to my price, I do know I'll need puhlenty of help in terms of conceptualizing the whole thing being such a newby. I can't imagine having real cake around the box. Getting into a dummy cake would be difficult enough but a real cake? Is it feasible? I'll suggest to them a dummy cake, but how would the cake box person step inside the box? Lots and lots of questions in my head right now. I'd sure appreciate help for this. TIA!!!

Note: Did we care that in those days the hawkers handled the change and food with the same hands?

Sure, I've made Milo agar-agar before. Children love them. No specific recipe; just winged it with milk and milo. However, there'll be some residual speckled Milo at the bottom. Hmmm, Milo cakes and ice-cream? That's a thought.

All this Milo van talk is making me yearn for the secret recipe behind it...so, I've written to them...let's see if they will reveal all. Anyway, check out the Milo site and story. Very interesting read...bits about the Milo van and some Milo recipes.

My brother-in-law went to Australia as a mature architecture student (at a ripe age of 34). When he came back for hols after a year, he got 2 big tins of Milo to bring back to Melbourne with him. He says it tastes different (not as tasty) there.

Oh, Maukitten, I love pulut tai-tai too! I ordered a whole tray of it from Aroma Nyonya (whose factory is very close to our house) for one of my kids birthday do, and had a few guests thanking me over and over again for it. They're quite nice and will provide extra kaya upon request. Incidentally, their angkoos (red and pandan green) are very good too, and comes in 2 sizes. We must have come from the same school...or era...coz I love the stuff we made from our domestic science classes too, LOL!

We're positively deluged with durians this season. I've had relatives giving me almost everyday. So I had to do something...here's a durian cake modified from Ludja's banana layer cake (in the banana cake thread). I hope I didn't do anything sacrilegious or something! Used one cup of durian for the cake and another 1 1/2 cups of durian cooked into a custard (with egg yolks) then mixed with whipped cream for the frosting/filling. Love me or hate me!

Thank you, ladies!

My favorite is Malaysian Nyonya joongs. I guess it's because I've got a sweet tooth, but also I love the aroma of the spices. I can make them but with 3 young children, I'd need a lot of determination. Making joongs are more fun and less laborious if made communal style, together with the chatter and all. Here's 2 Nyonya joong recipes...#1 and #2. Enjoy!

Ditto!

Hmm, methinks it's time to appoint a Forum Host. I've got a couple of candidates in mind....

KarenS' recipe is too large for a homebaker like me. Is it OK to reduce the ingredients proportionately to make 2 9" rounds? Oh, by the way, ditto, Wendy.

If you like 101 durians (thick reddish flesh and small seeds), you can get 3 for RM10 at the Bandar Sunway/Puchong toll, so says my brother who ate some last week and said it was the best he had ever tasted. Highly recommended...need I say more??