For The Love Of Baking

Bake. For the love of baking.

Cobwebs everywhere here.

I don’t want this place to be haunted, so I might as well just post anything. Well, not “any” -thing. Actually this is one of my favorite.. err, cake? I’m not sure this is really a cake, actually.

Before digging into recipe and all exaggeration I naturally do on food, let me tell you how my baking life is going on lately. I still bake, but sadly after baking I usually lost appetite to take photos. Yep, the down-side of passion-turns-into-a-job hits me with no mercy. I take photos for books and do it for demonstration while teaching. I have no time and energy to do personal photo session anymore. Not with the same enthusiasm I had in my early days.

I always have so many things to share, though. Not only baking stories, but also everything from taking photos within budget to my favorite tea with honey every afternoon. Remember when I still posted about my afternoon tea, or my sweet mango for breaking my fasting? How I miss my old me. For some reason, I envy her.

But hey, I won’t let anything get in the way. You know what I’m gonna do? I’ll just cheat. Ya-ha, a white-cheat. I’ll just take one photo at a time of my favorite recipes from the book I was working on, and write a story about it. I did try the recipes anyway and I was the one who took photos for the book, so it is practically no different than doing my personal baking and photo session. Hah. Problem solved. Now all I have to do is find the time to actually do that, not only plan to do that. *sigh*

Now let’s get into business. This caramel cake is way too special to not being mentioned as one of the most unique Indonesian culinary treasures. Because I can’t see anywhere else in the world a cake with this texture, taste and weird baking method except in Indonesia. We’ve been inherited it from our ancestors and it is one of the most favorites in every kids’ mind that they carried along for a life time.

When editing the content of the book, I was having trouble categorizing this cake. I mean, the texture is way far from cake we’ve known. The batter is so runny you won’t believe it would ever turn out to be a wonderful soft yet chewy cake. While the method is not rocket science, cooking abundant sugar into a pool of deep amber-copper caramel first is not something you found everyday in a cake recipe. Maybe never. With total ignorance I labeled the category: Cake That Is Not Cake. Seriously. *yea, my work is my playground*

*If you’re curious enough, yes, there is another cake fell into that category. Lapis Beras or Rice Layered Cake. That makes two of them. Oh, how weird.*

One obvious thing about Indonesian food is they are often not pretty to the eyes. I mean, how can you make pretty of Opor Ayam? I’m talking about the Sumatra version, the one that is pale brown sometimes turn into grey thing. How can you convey the deliciousness, the extremely creamy gravy that caresses your taste bud and your tummy through a photo? You take hundreds of them, what you have are hundreds of grey ugly mound. How about that blacked out Rawon? Or the mushy Mento and Jongkong? The shabby Krasikan? Oh, my. This Caramel Cake is no different. The color is dark shiny copper. Beautiful, but a challenge to take.

The taste and texture. You won’t find anywhere in the surface of this earth a cake that taste and feel like this. The caramel turns into a bed of a sponges full or vertical holes, like an anthill. There comes the name. Springy to the touch, feels really nice in your mouth, and taste oh so good. Like slurping a bowl of caramel candy soup, that’s what it is. Even Jamie Oliver will scream, “Ow-bloody-wow!”

Until now I can’t remember at what point exactly I was starting to care about my country and its legacy. I didn’t really care before if one food is Indonesian or not, and if it is, I didn’t feel anything except appreciation and gratitude for the food in general. Not a hint of pride, let alone feeling the obligation to bear the flag of a country with amazingly rich culinary treasure.

So here it is, my fellow humans. A simple Indonesian nibble. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face, from making it to eating it. It’s a promise and you know I keep mine.

(more…)

 
This is an old post from my personal blog. Lame attempt to fill in the gap of not blogging *sigh*.
 
“Pepper… is hot and scorches, just like the sun.
Salt… is used as needed to spice up one’s life.
Cinnamon… is bitter and sweet, just like a woman.”
 
Oh, what a wonderful movie!
 
I blessed the day I found this Greek movie. Not only for my sole purpose of paying the most respect to the profession of gastronome, but in this case, it goes a long way to respecting life, dedication, art, culture, passion, love, faith, fun, sadness, pain, happiness, enjoyment of all things human beings are blessed with. Spices are all we need. Just a touch of them.
 
Very very artistic pictures, beautiful music, witty screenwriting, tingling lines. Just the perfect blend.
 
“Don’t look back, Saime. At the platform we looked back, the image remains as a promise..”
Me, sobbing painfully. Absorbing all the experience to the point where the blow of tears was inevitably destined to be. Don’t look back. The image remains as a promise.
 

———-
Funny that I happened to be a great fan of Greek cuisine. Oh, how I miss Kafe Acropolis I used to visit often at Mal Ambasador!
 
Take me to a Greek resto, I will forever be your slave.
 
By the by, if you chew nothing else other than English speaking movie, you’ll probably throw up on this. For me, it’s simply a refreshment from the Hollywood junk.

Surabaya, Surabaya, oh Surabaya
Kota kenangan, kota kenangan
tak ‘kan terlupa..

Man, I dunno where to start.

I don’t want to bore anyone with excuses of not blogging for sometime. I think I got big enough blue blob for so many things. Shutter blues. That is the blue for taking photos. Writing blue. And that came in one package with blogging blue. I still twit, though.

Let me just shake this blue a little bit by remembering my great times in Surabaya. That might work, huh?

We went to Surabaya in May and November last year, and once again beginning this March. Boy, did it get better each time. The second time was better than the first time. The third time was better than the second time. And that, made it the best.

Everyday after class we hung out at a place called Zangrandi. A legendary ice cream corner similar to Ragusa of Jakarta. Nothing special about the ice cream, I actually didn’t really have a clear reason as to why we really enjoyed spending the rest of our afternoons here almost everyday. It was located right by a big street so the ambiance was rather noisy and Surabaya was always fiercely hot, even in the afternoon. Only few of the ice cream variants were good enough to make someone crave. And the snacks were so-so, except for one single delight: Kroket Saus Taoco. Translated as Croquette with Fermented Soybean Sauce. Although the croquette was good, I still think it didn’t sufficiently make up for other downsides. But why oh why, everytime we plunged ourselves into the pretty red low chairs there, I feel like the day was then bearable. The fatigue disappeared, the afternoon was full with laughter, happiness, comfort. As hyperbolic as it is, the fact that we kept coming back there was something real and strange at the same time. I think it’s because of the chair. It’s the chair, wasn’t it? Maybe it’s the chair.

(more…)

 
Definitely Nora Ephron’s best work! Better than Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, even When Harry Met Sally!
 
It’s about Julie, a government worker desperately looking for something more in her life. She then found it. She became.. guess what: a food blogger!
 
It’s also about Julia Child’s life in Paris, how she endeavored to conquer male dominated culinary training in Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, her passion in perfecting every recipe, pouring everything into writing and finally getting it published.
 
Julie followed her book avidly, one recipe at a time. Her goal was to finish all 524 recipes in 365 days. And she blogged everything down.
 
It’s about me. It’s about you.
It’s about us, foodbloggers all over the world.
So go see it. You’ll thank me later.