Made With Love

If you look around, Valentine's day never seems to be complete without seeing red little hearts, strawberries and chocolates... Heh... that doesn't mean I need to have this but just somehow seeing more of such cute things makes one happy. dd hor??

Pretty pretty cakes never fails to attract me to walk over to the bakery cafe/shop counter, pretending that I'm interested to buy the cakes but actually I'm not. I'm just trying to get more ideas on cakes decoration. Hehe... :P

I made this simple strawberry cake on Valentine's Day. My initial attempt was this Japanese strawberry shortcake recipe by Aunty Yochana's. But I overbeaten the egg whites and the cake shrunk and deflated, as what I expected the moment when the egg whites becoming grainy and separated as I was folding it into the cake batter. This seemed to be the first time I overbeaten egg whites; it was exactly what I saw from the books. :(

Luckily I still have enough time to make another vanilla sponge cake (beating of whole eggs method). Sponge cake is always a safer bet. I filled the cake layers with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, and topped with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Indeed a berries-loaded cake! Finished off with a brush of apricot gel over the berries. I also brushed the cake layers with sugar syrup to allow the cake to remain moist and soft Happy2 that dd ate almost half of the whole cake at one go cos' he said it's so nice. :D

I guess baking a cake for him and giving him hand-made cards and cross stitch was not that much of a surprise to him since he knows I like to DIY stuffs and do all kinds of handicraft works. As for him, I was really surprised when he gave me a bouquet of handmade flowers! :D I actually hint hint him to make flowers for me almost a year ago but I thought he would never do that. Never thought he really made for me. so touched... :) He's definitely not a hands-on person so really appreciate your efforts my dear... I knew you spent a lot of time. I love this more than fresh flowers , Thanks oo! :)