Basic Vanilla Custard Pudding + another two flavours to cheer me up.

Sometimes in life there are some people who makes your life miserable no matter who they are. Also in our life, we'll be disappointed at things that we'd never expect.
That's the bitterness of life...we must taste it at least once, you can't just walking around without even knowing what kind of flavour bitter is.

Bitterness makes us a better person. Bitterness can teach us about what to do next, it's like planning a war strategy after all. The war with the bitterness itselfs.
I've swallowed bitterness more than i could take, sometimes i failed (and cried a lot and got angry), sometimes i succeed and move to another step, get on with life. All of these lessons makes me grateful, i thank God that i survived, and realized that i actually have an amazing life.

Yeah but sometimes it's okay to punch people who underestimate you in da face hahahahahahaha, no i'm just kidding, i can't even punch someone in the face when i get mad.
So.....finish with my wise words, i'm not really good at it right?
Two days ago i made the most amazing thing in the world to cheer me up from disappointment. I loveeee Vanilla (actually it's like third my most fav.ingredients) and poor me i can't use Vanilla extract in most of my baking activities (alcohol reason). Then i found an instagram account that i told you on my birthday cake post. They sell vanilla bean, real vanilla bean and i loooove it. I used two of the vanilla bean already, and thank God never at once they disappoint me.

I made a vanilla custard pudding, used it as the basic and add some flavours to it, i made two additional flavs. Chocolate and Matcha (so nowadays hehehehehe)!

Let's get started then, remember to write it on your paper and then you must go to your kitchen, get the ingredients (buy it first if you don't have any) and make the recipe with your heart!

Basic Vanilla Custard Pudding : (makes about 4 small bowls)
2 cup of Milk
1/2 cup of sugar plus 2 tablespoon (if you like more sweet)
3 Tbs of Cornstarch
a pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
1 vanilla pod, scrape the beans, you can use 1 Tbs of Vanilla extract/essence if you don't have any.
a knob of unsalted butter.

Directions :

1. In a sauce pan, whisk together sugar, salt, cornstarch to make sure there are no lumps.
2. Add the egg yolk and whisk again until combine.
3. Then turn on the heat, medium heat and gradually add the milk and the vanilla bean, whisk constantly (DO NOT STOP!) until the mixture thickens and is bubbling. It's circa 8-10 minutes.
4. Remove pan from heat and pour mixture through sieve into bowl. Stir in butter  (if you use vanilla extract/essence, add it at this stage with the butter, because if you add it while heating it, the vanilla flavour will disappear) until combined.
5. Press plastic wrap directly against surface of pudding to prevent skin from forming and refrigerate 3 hours (up to 3 days).
6. If you want to serve it, make sure you stir it a lil bit and gently with spatula.

If you prefer like warm custard, you can eat it right away, and also if you like it creamier (like i do), you can just regrigerate it for an hour.

So Allysa, how'd you add the flavour to the Basic vanilla custard?

WELL IT'S EASY. I have 2 additional flavours here, Chocolate and Matcha.

If you want to add flavour to your basic custard, right after the butter has melted....take at least a small bowl of the mixture and then add the flavours.

For the chocolate i used 2 tablespoon of Cocoa Powder, shifted and then add to the small bowl, stir until fully combine with spatula.

I added toasted almond dusted some cocoa powder on top.

For the Matcha, i used pure green tea powder that i bought online. I added half tablespoon, shifted, and then add it to the mixture in another small bowl, stir until fully combine with spatula. For the matcha, you can add a drop of green food coloring!

But if you wanted to make a specific flavour, like chocolate without the basic vanilla custard, of course you can!

You just add the flavour directly with the other dry ingredient, for example Chocolate flav. Add the cocoa powder with the cornstarch, sugar, salt.

SO EASY RIGHT?

I bet you can make these sweetness dessert to fight against the bitterness of your life ;)

Sometimes we need an extra weapon to fight right?And guarantee, Custard Pudding is the extra weapon >.<

All pictures taken by Me

LOVE

and Sweet

ALLYSA

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Skillet

Geeeeeeeeeeeez, mid test is coming, i repeat mid test is coming, prepare yourself or die!!!
I'm sorry, i'm so nervous about my (hopefully) last mid test ever. I must survive, i need to get a good score, i need to graduate and get a job as a food writer (AMEEEEN!!!).

So, to reduce my anxiety, i decided to make a very delicious cookie skillet. Made it from my leftover baking ingredients....Seriously easy and delicious and nooooooow i'm drowning in drools.

INGREDIENTS :
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup Palm Sugar (because i can't find brown sugar, but you can use brown sugar with the same ratio)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence / extract
1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate ganache
5 Tbs of Peanut butter
For this recipe i added 1/4 cup of cream cheese, it balances the sweetness, but you can leave it if you want.

DIRECTIONS :

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugars with a wooden spoon. Stir in egg,vanilla, peanut butter, ganache, and cream cheese, mix it well. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Transfer to a 10-inch cast-iron skillet; smooth top.
• Bake until cookie is golden brown and just set in the center, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes.

Serve it while warm. You can add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the top (add some caramel sauce) or dunk it into a cold milk. YES DELICIOUS, SO DELICIOUS YOU'RE GOIN' TO DIE. (Just kidding!)

Hhhhhaaah, now i must study..wish me luck folks!!

Love

Allysa

Pocky Cake Recipe and The Day I Turned Into a 21 Years Old Person

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! Well technically my birthday was a few days ago, 28th march, i shared birthday with Lady Gaga, isn't it awesome?
I love my birthday, because it's the time when my family and friends, all of suddens, texting me, calling me, even giving me surprises! I looove surprises, well who doesn't?

My 21st Birthday wasn't as awesome as my 16-17-18-19 birthdays, still i love it because i realized that imma grown ass person. One more step to be at the gate of real life. Maturity and stuff, although i don't like that fact, but i have to face it because i can't run forever.
The day i turned into 21, i started to think about few things like what am i gonna do with my life?Do i wanna get married?Do i wanna have kids?Will i graduate with a good GPA?Can i survive another years?
I'm telling you these stuff are so confusing!!!Plus it's getting hard when you realized that the clock is ticking...now you don't wanna talk about it, but the next day you wake up in another birthday. Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, getting old sucks!!

20 was perhaps the last age of me doing stupid things (i can't promise you that) so i celebrated it and made myself a birthday cake. Maybe the cutiest birthday cake i've ever had.
It's Pocky Cake everyone~ It's so hipster but i love it hahaha.
Basically it's only a vanilla cake, cream cheese frosting, slices of fresh strawberries, and Pockys.
Well if you have no idea what pocky is, let me explain it to you. Pocky is a snack from Japan, sort of biscuit sticks, dipped in flavored chocolate. It comes out in many different flavours, You'll like it, trust me!

So pretty right?

Vanilla Cake's ingredients :

• ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ⅓ cup sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 vanilla pod*
• 2 ½ cup all purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk*, room temperature

Cream Cheese Frosting's and Strawberries ingredients :

• 450 gr of Cream Cheese, room temperature (i used Milkana)
• 1 cup of Icing Sugar*
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla
• 2 tbs of Milk
• 5 tbs of Unsalted Butter, room temperature
• 1 cups of strawberries
• 1/4 cup of strawberry jam
• 2 tbs of lemon juice

and you need 5 pckgs of Strawberry Pocky.

Directions :
Cake

1. For the cake preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper and then flour the sides of the pans, tapping out any excess.

2. Beat the butter for a minute until it soft and gradually add the sugar, beat until fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then open the vanilla pod, scrap the beans and add it to the batter.

3. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add this alternately with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour and mixing well after each addition. Divide the batter evenly between the 2 pans.

4. Bake the cakes for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cakes for 20 minutes in their pans, then carefully turn out to cool completely on a rack.

Frosting

1. In a large bowl beat the cream cheese til soft, then add the icing sugar, beat well til blended.

2. After the consistency is fluffy enough, add the soften butter, vanilla essence and milk. Beat well.

3. Refrigerate the frosting before you use it, at least for an hour.

4. Meanwhile, slice your strawberries (depends on your fav, kind of slices) and put it in a bowl.

5. Heat the strawberry jam with the lemon juice for a minute then cool it off.

6. Add the strawberry jam mixture into the bowl of strawberries, mix it well.

Now you frost the cake with the cream cheese frosting. It doesn't have to be fancy because the Pockys will cover it anyway ;p

How do you stick the pockys to the cake?Easy peesy, just stick it one by one, close to each other. Takes time but it's worth the fight ;)

Notes :

*If you can't find vanilla pod or too lazy to scrap it, just use 2 tsp of vanilla essence/extract.

*You can make your own buttermilk. Yes you do know that. 1 tablespoon of lemon juice/vinegar+1 cup of milk, stir and leave it for 5 minutes, there you have your own buttermilk.

*i only used 1 cup of icing sugar because i don't like my frosting too sweet, i want it taste like cheese cake. But if you guys not sure about that, you can use 2 cups or more...just do whatever your heart wants ;)

Oh and by the way i buy the vanilla pod from a shop in Instagram called Good Food Grocery, check their instagram, they sell a lot of cool stuff >.<

L.O.V.E

the 21 ALLYSA