Birthday Cakes, or not.

by Rebecca

We didn't get around to baking a cake. I mean to be honest, I haven't figured out how to use the oven. Seriously, the landlord brought me the Instruction Manual, because when I asked her to show me she couldn't even figure it out either.

  • 1st - Gas line on? At least I understand that from being on boats. Check.
  • 2nd - Electricity on? Took a while but found it in the lower cupboard. Turned it on. Check.
  • 3nd - Big button? Well this seems to turn the screen on. Check.
  • 4th - Not sure what all these setting mean...Oh well pick one. Check.
  • 5th - Hit Start,..

And a few seconds later it turns off. I think you have to set how long you want it to cook, and then it auto shuts off when it times out. But the timer is in seconds, so start spinning that timer. How many seconds are in your favorite recipe?

Pretty sure, people just don't use an oven in Singapore. A number of condos we looked at did not have an oven, but I thought I "needed" one. So...Ms.E got birthday pancakes. Actually they were more like crepes despite the box describing them as "Fluffy Golden Pancakes". I tried adding more mix to thicken it up and it did not help. Also my large frying pan did not like pancakes and a gas stove. So I made them one by one with my tiny frying pan. Candles and the birthday song are the important part, right?

I ate Buckwheat Pancakes from a mix. They tasted different being buckwheat, but they were actually pancakes.

We took a quick look at store bought cakes. A Baskin Robins Ice Cream cake is $126, for what you'd consider a normal size ice cream cake. It might be a 12 inch. You can get 6 inch ice cream cakes for $60. I saw a lot of $60 regular (non-ice cream) cake around too. I saw a small cake for $30 in the mall, and I should have just grabbed it immediately for the "friend" party. Now we have a party tomorrow and no cake yet.

With our allergies, Ms.E is the only one who can actually eat a cake. We had a tiny Pandan cake for Ms.I's birthday. Pandan cakes are made with coconut milk, but Ms.E didn't want a "green" cake. The pandan leaves make the cake an awesome bright green.

I may be trying harder to bake a cake today. To be honest "pancakes" wasn't a very cheap option, because I grabbed a mix and the added fresh fruit as the topping. Ms.E wanted strawberries on top and those on their own were $10.