Get your fix right here

So there was a tub of cream in the fridge.

My mum had mistakenly bought it, although she'd wanted to get sour cream for this strawberry dessert she was making.

What to do with that cream then?

I looked in one of those slim little recipe books and came across a recipe that called for 3/4 cup of cream. Perfect. And better still, it was for a chocolate cake.

It was one of those food processor type recipes but I was a bit lazy to dig in the cupboard, find the mixer, take it out of its box, wipe it down, hook it up, plug it in. So I just did it by hand. You can use any method you prefer. Doing it by hand though gives you some arm exercise. Plus it's very therapeutic to cream butter and mix more stuff in. That way I feel like I'm actually making a cake - sometimes when using a mixer I feel like I'm just opening a premixed box and mixing that together.

Here's the recipe:
Basic Chocolate Cake (from FamilyCircle's Fabulous Fast Cakes)
125g unsalted butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup cream

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Brush a deep 20cm round cake tin with melted butter, line base with paper. Grease the paper.
2. Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar in small mixing bowl until light and creamy. Add egg and vanilla essence; beat for 1 min on medium speed or until well combined.
3. Add sifted dry ingredients and cream to bowl. Beat 1 min or until just combined. And beat another two minutes on high until smooth.
4. Spoon mixture into prepared tin; smooth surface. Bake for 55 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when inserted in centre of cake.


Not much to look at though it tastes pretty good (if I may say so myself)

Ran out of icing sugar and cocoa powder so couldn't finish it with frosting. It would've made the cake look better though.

The cake has an interesting texture - quite moist inside but the crust is a little crumbly. I had added slightly less sugar than the recipe called for and also broke up some bittersweet chocolate chunks into the mixture. But that also resulted in the cake being less sweet and more bittersweet. Might not please those with a very sweet tooth. Although it would go pretty well warmed up and topped with a scoop of good vanilla ice-cream.

So that's my Tuesday morning in the kitchen session for you.

For lunch, we hit Seah Street Deli, where I had the Seah Street burger, minus the onions, but with additional toppings of bacon and cheese. That hit the spot. The patty was just right - nice and juicy. And I must say, it's been a while since I've had a burger. So this definitely filled the burger pangs. Although after that and a coffee, I couldn't eat much at dinner, and that was after walking around most of Marina Square.
And then I catch V For Vendetta and despite the presence of Natalie Portman, a rather engrossing show that is relevant to this day and age. Go see!