Having an unwilling model who dropped everything in the middle of the photo shoot (duh, like real!) to go poo poo is soooo .. frustrating!

But nothing beats an unwilling model who keeps fidgeting and shows monkey faces. Hey, I’d love to change my model, after all, i’ve another 2 to pick from but the thing is, this particular model, the mischievous one of all, refused to let me replace him! -_-

Anywaaaay, yesterday was Teacher’s Day.

This year, to show my gratitude for their patience and kindness, i baked some yogurt cakes instead of the usual cupcakes. Why?

Because the teachers are a bunch of health conscious people who would scrap my poor frosting off. *sniffs*

To make up for the less fancy fanfare (compares to the cuppies), i decided to pack the teachers 2 slices of yogurt cakes in 2 flavors using 2 different recipes!

Picture left, I have Matcha Chocolate Yogurt Cake, using Alice Medrich‘s low fat recipe and on the right picture, I have Orange Yogurt Cake with Grand Marnier, using Donna Hay‘s recipe – one that i’d tweaked ;)

Honestly, both are good.

psstt : otherwise, i wouldn’t have baked them again and again and again! *wink*

But somehow, i prefer Donna Hay’s recipe more.

Personally, i find the matcha part in Alice Medrich’s recipe tastes rather flour-y and i dislike the taste of flour, immensely. Perhaps.. it’s my matcha powder. Not strong enough? *shrugs*

However, the same cannot be said for the chocolate part – which has no flour taste at all! Once you swirl the 2 flavors together, i bet you’d just go, wow instead of wrinkling your nose and exclaim, tastes like flour! :P

As for Donna Hay’s recipe… well.. what can i say?

No complains!! I love this recipe to bitssssssssss, but make sure u are not using low fat yogurt ok?

Chocolate Matcha Marble Cake
by Alice Medrich

2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder
1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg white
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup full-fat yogurt
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1.5 teaspoons matcha powder

Have all ingredients at room temp. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the lower third of the oven. Spray 8-10 cup tube pan with cooking spray.

Use a whisk to combine four, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift together. Set aside. In a small bowl combine the espresso powder, cocoa and 1/3 cup of the sugar with 1/4 cup of water. Whisk until smooth. Set aside. In another small bowl, whisk whole egg with egg white. Set aside.

Cut the butter into pieces and place in an electric mixing bowl. Beat for 1 minute to soften. Gradually add remaining 1 cup of sugar and beat at high speed for about 3 minutes. Dribble eggs in slowly, about 1 T at a time, beating constantly for about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in a third of the flour mixture. On medium-high speed, beat in half of the yogurt. On low speed, beat in half of the remaining flour. On high speed, beat in the rest of the yogurt and the vanilla. On low speed, beat in the remaining flour.

Measure out 1 1/2 cups of yogurt batter and mix into the cocoa mixture. Set aside. Add matcha powder to the rest of the yogurt batter in the mixing bowl.

Use a large spoon to fill the bottom of the pan with about three quarters of the green batter placed in dollops. Cover the green batter with dollops of chocolate batter. Top the chocolate batter with small dollops of green batter spaced so that the chocolate batter shows through. Use a table knife to marble the batters together with a circular or zigzag motion; be careful not to blend them too much.

Bake for 45-50 minutes for cake, (20-25 minutes for cupcakes) or until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.

Cool for 10-15 minutes on a rack. Unmold the cake. Cool completely before serving or storing.

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To pack the cakes :

You will need : small paper bags, serviettes or tissues and pegs/stickers/clips.

Wrap both cakes in tissue or serviette.

Place the cake into the a small paper bag, in my case.. a brown bag :)

Fold the paper bag 2-3 times. Then place a cute looking sticker/peg/clip to secure and voila! A pretty looking gift-away for teachers!

ps : of course, it’d be much cuter if your child were to scribble some greetings and notes! ;)

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Of course, apart from teachers.. u can give them to anyone u fancy! Friends.. family… collegues.. well, basically anyone and everyone actually ,because i don’t think anyone would not love to receive this! :D

Lunch!!

Simply spells h.e.a.d.a.c.h.e!

It’s almost noodles for our everyday lunch… so today, i wanted something different.

Unhealthy?

Nevermind!

Refined flour and sugar?

Nevermind!

Processed meat?

Nevermind also!

Call me names if you want to, but i strongly believe childhood = fun fun fun! (and this doesn’t just restrict to games and activities… but food too!)

“Take this if you’re planning to call my mommy names!”

He’s a basketball fanatic.

He runs, he dribbles…..

He jumps, he shoots!

WhhoooOoooppssS~ Missed!!!!!! :(

And down he goes…..

Too upset :(

Micheal Jordan??

Not! :P

Who started crying from all the disapproving looks… (didn’t even scold okay… )

Or poor cake?

Which got uglified..