Chocolate Rainbow Cake

Not long ago is my little boy birthday, normally we would have a little party to go with it, but just before his irthday, he came down with a bad cough and fever, so we give him his usual little party, but instead we have a family "party" with grandmother invited. I suprise him with this cake and he is thrill with it. After all, which little 9 years old boy don't like chocolate and marshmallows?

Ingredients:

(makes one 9" cake)

- 1 1/2 cup (161g) all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (61g) natural cocoa powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 2/3 cups (332g) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) safflower or other neutral vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk (I used low fat milk)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240ml) boiling water



Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degF. Grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 3 inches round cake pan. Dust the pan with flour and set aside. (I lined the bottom with baking paper.)

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add in sugar and mix at low speed until blended. Add in the oil and mix a few seconds until the dry ingredients are crumbly. (You can also used a spatula to mix in the sugar and oil).

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs until blended. Whisk in the milk and vanilla extract until blended. With mixer at low speed, add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl necessary. (I used a manual whisk to do the mixing. The batter will be very thick at this stage).

Add in the boiling water gradually and mix just until blended and smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. (The mixture will become very thin and watery.) Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 55 mins until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 20mins before unmoulding. Let cool completely.


To assemble this 20cm rainbow chocolate cake:

- Place pouring cream (I used one tin of Nestle's pouring cream) and 150g dark chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until melted and smooth. Set aside for 10mins before frosting the cake. (here I used both White chocolate and dark chocolate)

- Slice two large bananas, lengthwise into halves. Squeeze some lemon juice over. (according to the cookbook, but I used Peach slice from the can and without lemon juice instead)

- Slice chocolate cake into 2 layers. Spread one layer with the white chocolate frosting, arrange the sliced bananas (cut side down) on the cake layer to form 2 concentric rings. Cut the bananas as necessary in order to form the two rings.

- Spread the other cake layer with white chocolate frosting, flip over and layer it over the banana (peach)slices.

- Coat the top and sides of the cake surface with the dark chocolate frosting (here I only apply very thin layer). Decorate with colourful cereals or chocolate/lollies and marshmallows as desired.

**Recipe adapted from The Cake Book, by Tish Boyle**

Well... this is all of it, it sound like a lot of work, but it wasn't... it is pretty easy to make, and so delicious... :D Because I didn't apply too much of the dark and white chocolate layer, so it wasn't sickening sweet, but of cos if you like to have thick chocolate, then you can apply a thicker layer then what I did here.

My Seafood Chowder

You know what's good to cook during winter night for dinner? A bowl of Seafood Chowder, one of our favorite dish, I know a lot of my friends take a look at the ingredients they just shake their head and said, wow.. that's too much to do and prepare, but honestly, not really. Especially the end result is going to be so yummmmm. so here it go,

Ingredients:

- 4 oz Crab meat, cooked

- 8 oz Snapper Fillets

- 8 oz Tiger Prawns

- 7 oz Scallops, chopped

- 7 oz Mussels

- 1 medium Onion, minced

- 2 stalks of Celery, chopped

- 1 Tbsp Butter- 1 1/2 tsp Thyme

- 1 big Potatoes, peeled, cooked and diced

- 1 1/4 tsp Celery Salt

- 2 cups double Cream

- 1 1/4 cups Milk

- 1 tsp Salt

- 1/2 tsp Pepper

- Paprika and Parsley

Precook:

- Potatoes and dice

- Mussels

Preparation:

Sauté onion in the butter until transparent. Add the thyme and celery salt, then remove from heat. In another saucepan, pour the double cream over the snapper fillets. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer slowly for 10 minutes or till the fish flakes easily. Remove the snapper, then break into small pieces and remove any bones. Add the onion mixture and the scallops to the snapper poaching liquid. Bring to barely a boil, then simmer for about 1 minute or till the scallops are opaque. Now add the snapper, crab meat, mussels, prawns, potatoes and milk. Heat through, but do not allow to boil. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve chowder in large soup bowls. Sprinkle each bowl with paprika and a small sprig of parsley in the centre. Serve seafood chowder immediately with your favourite soup crackers or bread. Enjoy!

p.s: I find that you can used whatever seafood you like, not necessary to follow the recipe, anything will do. :D As what I have done here too...