One of the reasons for investing in an oven for my own home was because we can save some money on the birthdays of family members. Alas, the failed banana cake for my mom's bird day was a dampener and it took a while for me to pick up the pieces of broken confidence.
Over eight months had passed since then and i have built up enough confidence to bake a carrot cake requested by my younger sister for her birthday! And from the look above, i thought it has passed the visual test. p.s. rainbow ball sprinkles were added as the kids love them!
Shall talk about the taste test later as the main star today should be Louise who finally turned 35 years old; the age that all single Singaporeans would be waiting for, as the ruling dictates you could only purchase a government flat as a single upon reaching 35.
Photograph of the ladies in our immediate family; the combined age for the four of them (three generations by the way) would have passed 100.
Now with Jerald, our little boy who is already nine years old; time really flew and i still remember when he was still a never-stopping drooling toddler.
The good thing about growing older (especially for Jerald) is that he has many hand-me-downs! Since he is the eldest grandson from both sets of families, the two persons handing down the clothing to him are my sister (who is about his weight) and i (when i was younger and much lighter)!
Both kids giving Louise a sloppy wet kiss! I had to photoshop in a "motion blur" filter on my sister as too much wrinkles were showing! Wahaha, hope she doesn't read this paragraph as she has the power to take down the photograph if she doesn't like it.
Jovyn - my younger sister's darling and when many people actually mistook Jovyn to be Louise's daughter. Anyway, they have a close relationship and Joyce's role as the real mom would be thrown out of the window whenever Louise is around.
Blowing out the candle together after a short birthday song singing comprising of just two languages; English and Chinese. Compare that to a year or two ago when the kids would include Malay and even a Christian version!
Cake cutting time; excited for me as i would love to hear some reviews from my family members! If the response is good, i can do the same cake again!
The way she grasped on tightly to the santoku knife while having that sinister smile was disturbing. Shortly after i took this picture, she accidentally cut the skin in between my fingers; just a small cut with minimal blood.
Time for the verdict!
This is definitely a recipe keeper as the carrot cake was extremely moist and aside from the occasional crunchiness from the chopped up walnuts, you could bite into pieces of mashed pineapples and strings of carrots enveloped with a batter that contained cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spices and orange zest! Much thanks to the Lau sisters for sharing the delicious recipe!
And happy birthday, Louise!