Banana Chiffon Cake

I've been wanting to try and make chiffon cake for a long time but I've read every where that it is very challenging to make one and it takes a lot of practice to try and make the perfect one. 

I have some very ripe bananas that I peeled and froze it and a few dozen of eggs in the refrigerator and decided that I want to try and venture into making a chiffon cake but I did not have a chiffon cake pan or Angel food Pan so I told the hubs that I wanted to get another pan for baking and he asked if I could use the many pans I already have at home which I told him NO because I NEED this pan :). I quickly went to Amazon and found some there but I didn't want to wait hence I went to the store last week and bought the first one that I saw. I've not had the opportunity to use it last week after I bought it because I've just been busy with work.

Finally today I had some time after I made dinner and managed to get the courage to try making it.

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients
(make one 16 ~ 18 cm cake)

3 egg yolks
25g caster sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
30ml cooking oil (I used olive oil)
85g banana puree (about 2 medium size bananas)
1/4 teaspoon banana essence (I used vanilla extract)
55g plain flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda

3 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
50g caster sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C or 340 deg F. Sieve together flour and baking soda, set aside. Mash banana, set aside.
2. Separate egg yolks/whites and bring to room temperature.
3. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl until sugar just dissolved. Add in salt, oil, essence and mashed banana. Whisk till combined. Sieve over the flour mixture and fold gently with a spatula until flour is fully incorporated into the batter.
4. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Add in the sugar in 3 separate additions while beating at high speed till stiff peaks form.
5. Add the egg white foam into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
6. Pour batter into a 16cm or 18cm (6 inch or 7 inch) tube pan (do not grease the pan). Spread and smooth the batter evenly with a spatula. Bang the pan gently on a work surface several times to release the air bubbles trapped in the batter.
7. Bake for 25 ~ 30mins or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cool completely before unmould.

I was not too sure about the size of my pan. My pan is about 9.5 inch and I didn't want to make a full recipe so I google and found a recipe from Happy Home Baking that has already been halved. Since she said this recipe is for 6-7inch tube plan I guess I could have made a full recipe or doubled the recipe that I found because mine was pretty flat(Maybe it was suppose to rise higher but I messed it up). Since this is the first time I'm making it and it did not collapse nor looked weird I am more confident in doubling this recipe next time.

The only mistake I made this time was I forgot to add the oil in when I added the mashed bananas salt etc. I added the flour in and noticed that I forgot to add the oil in and quickly added that in before I added the egg white. I am not sure if that did anything to the rising of my cake.

Overall is a yummy cake and I think I might reduce the sugar a little when I add in to mix the egg yolk as I find that my cake was a tad sweet. Hubby and Uncle R liked the cake and this will motivate me to make another one soon. Hopefully it will rise like how its suppose to be. Thanks HHB for this wonderfully and yummy recipe!

Memorial Day 2010 Shopping

Today is Memorial Day and many people get today off hence is a 3 days weekend. 

               Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 31 in 2010). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. soldiers who died while in the military service.^[1]Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the Civil War), it was expanded after World War I to honor dead Americans from all wars. (Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day)

I happened to have Saturday off but had to work on Sunday and so happen my off day falls on Memorial Day hence I have today off too. I was telling hub and everyone else I'm not off because I have the day off since is Memorial Day but because is my day off!

Anyway I got up at 7am as usual (I'm not sure why but lately I've been getting up at the latest 7:30am doesn't matter what time I go to bed) and played with the dogs a little before I got myself up of bed and cleaned up. I suddenly had the urge to buy something for because I've not really gotten anything since my birthday (which I've not blogged about because I forgot and its been 6 months ago!) 

I woke the hubby up at about 8am and told him that I was hungry :p and I wanted to go be at the mall before it got crowded.  I got ready and made him and I some breakfast got the dogs ready and then we ate. After that we cleaned up and got dressed to go to the mall. We reached the mall a little after 10 am and I knew which store I wanted to visit. we walked in Neiman Marcus a little bit but I didn't find anything I wanted and headed to the store.

Memorial Day shopping damage done!The Speedy 30 with Strap in fresh Monogram Idylle. I saw this bag a few months ago and have been thinking on looking at it but figure since I already have the Monogram Canvas Speedy 25 I don't want to get a similar one but hubby really like this one plus I do not have any of the Idylle collection so we decided on this one. I was thinking of getting it in Fusain but hubby and the Sales Associate thinks that this is a nice color. I'm happy :) but a hole in my wallet!:P...

We barely walked around the mall and left early because there was nothing else I actually wanted to look at. I should tell the hub that this is our Anniversary present from him to me since I gave him an ipod on our Anniversary.

Another Horrible Experience

Yesterday (Sunday) when I was at work Aunt L text me and asked if we wanted to go Cheesecake Factory for dinner together and since hubs was on call last weekend I asked him if he wanted to go or if he had to work. He said that we would go so when I got home I showered and got ready to go. We stopped by one of Aunt L's property before going for dinner and since we were close to the Galleria we decided to visit the Galleria Cheesecake Factory Restaurant.

When we got there to our seat we noticed that there was nets (fruit flies) around. We told the server and she just apologized and didn't even ask if we wanted to change our seat. She was slow she didn't give us what we asked for and the worst part was her uniform was dirty. The cloth that she used to carry our plates was dirty and looked like it has not seen bleach for a long time. We quickly finished our food and asked for our bill. YES we didn't even eat our dessert!!my favorite CHEESECAKE!! Anyway before we asked for our bill a floor manager walked passed us and we were getting really irritated with the nets so I called him and told him about the situation. He said " I apologized about the problem and would you like to change our seat ( we were done eating at that time and was already paying)?" we told him no and the next thing he asked was do you need a box for our food! WTF I mean didn't offer a drink or anything!! We could have called the Health Department on him! He never came back with the box or anything! We were not too happy with how he handled the situation while waiting for our box nets were flying everywhere. We were getting so irritated because we had to keep swatting it. We finally killed one with our napkin and decided to go find the same manager and showed it to him! He was talking to me (I don't really know what he was saying because the restaurant was noisy and he was NOT even looking at me.) He didn't even make ANY eye contact with me hence I didn't really grasp what he said but I know that he didn't apologize to me. Anyway he offered us ONE slice of cheesecake to make this better BUT the worst problem was he told me to go get it from the counter (there was a long que) and snuck away again! Did not even get me my piece of cheesecake! I was doing all the talking the whole time and finally Uncle R could not take it and told him to go get the cheesecake for me. We were so upset with the way he handle this situation!We don't expect to visit a fine dining restaurant and get this kind of service!

Anyway I was so upset that I decided to call the General Manager today (The GM was not there yesterday) to tell him what happened. I didn't even mentioned to the floor manager at that time that the floor there was slippery that many customers was slipping including us was slipping around! This morning when I called the restaurant the guy told me that the GM was not here so I told him that I would call corporate but he was nice and told me that he's the AGM that he can help me too since the GM was going to be gone till Wednesday. I was telling him everything just chewing him up and suddenly I notice what he's telling me does not make sense to notice that I called the wrong branch!!I called the Woodlands branch(the one that we always go)! I was so embarrassed and quickly apologize to him several times. He was nice and understood what I told him and told me that it happens all the time!Phew! He gave me the Galleria's number and the GM's name.

I was getting my car washed and vacuumed just now and decided to give the Galleria restaurant a call. The first person that answer the phone asked who I was looking for and put me on hold. 5-8 person did the same thing and just drove me nuts because I was on hold and every time someone answered the phone I had to tell them who I was on hold for and my name etc so the last two ladies that answer the phone I told them who I was and who I am looking for and I told them that I would just call corporate. Finally the last lady I told her I'm not going to go on hold anymore that I will just call their regional manager and asked her for the name and number. She gave me the RM name and number but insisted that I spoke with her. I was thinking no harm done since she was someone in charged too I think she must be the AGM. I told her what happened to my dining experience with her establishment. She told him that fruit flies is pretty popular especially during the hot summer time blah blah blah. Anyway I told her that I don't care if it's hot summer I do not expect a fine dining restaurant like this to have fruit flies flying around and asked her if she's seen fruit flies in other fine establishment. I told her that is her restaurants problem and it has nothing to me and we could have gotten sick because the food flies was flying around our food! Anyway to show her sincerity she was going to send me a gift card (I don't know the denomination) but she told me that  is worth 2-3 entrees and some dessert so I'm going to see how much she's actually sending me. I hope she don't intend to play games with me and though of sending me a $10 gift card because that would be a wrong step on her behalf!

I don't think I would blow up as much if I didn't have to wait to talk to someone for such a long time. Plus if the floor manager would not try and brush me off like I'm a the irritating bug I would not be that pissed. If I get the gift card will try and update!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I know that I'm a little early to wish all the beloved and pretty mother's out there but I wanted to send my wishes out just in case I don't find time to blog this next few days since I'm always swamp with work weekends.

Wishing all the lovely mother's that has sacrify for their kids and family a wonderful mother's day! Hope that everyone can spend time with their mother's to honor them on this day!

I would most probably be working anyway but I asked the hubs what will the kids get me for mother's day. He said that they would not get me anything because they are not working hence no money 0_o

I changed it AGAIN!!!

At the end of January (not quite sure of the dates) I changed the kids food because I read a lot of review that Canidae All Life Stage Formula Chicken, Turkey, Lamb, and Fish Meals Dry Dog Food was a crappy dog food because they changed their recipe and a lot of people was having problems after feeding their dogs. Although I did not have any problems with the boys (We didn't have my baby girl at that time) I decided to change their food. A friend and the people at the store recommended California Natural Lamb Meal and Rice Adult Dry Dog Food to us and we tried them. Stanely's poop was still runny and he was still puking white/yellow foam here and there. When it was time for me to go to the store (I went by myself) to buy their dog food I was telling her about Stanley etc and she recommended Orijen Adult Formula Dry Dog Food to us. Orijen has been working well for us but it is getting pretty expensive to buy this dog food to feed all 3 of them. 

I will not give them dog food that has grain in them anymore because ever since all 3 of them have been on grain free (Stanley especially) I can see a lot of improvement in their bowl movement. A 29lbs bag last us about 1-1.5 months and it cost about $80 per bag I've been trying to find a cheaper grain free food out there. 

The other day I happened to stumbled upon Taste of the Wild High Prairie Grain-Free Dry Dog Food with Roasted Bison and Venison, 30lbs 

It is so much cheaper than Orijen and is also grain free! I was so excited because it is almost time for me to buy their food again. I just bought a bag of food for them about a week or two before my parents came now I am needing to buy them again. I called the pet store and tried to find out more information about this food and she told me that many people are switching their pets to this brand because is gran free and is a cheaper than a lot of grain free food out there. I was hyped and got the hubs to go get a bag so I can start switching them over. Hubby just found time to grab a bag and I think I'll be slowly switching them today or tomorrow. I've read online and have not really seen any negative rating so lets hope that this one will work for them.

I know a lot of people asked me why do I always change their dog food and how come I would spend so much time researching their dog food and my answer is not because I have time but my dogs are important to me and I want the best for them even though is much more expensive than a lot of brand. I decided to keep them and have them in my home I will try my best to give them what they need.