Julia Selinda's Diary ♥

My favorite website recently is Koleksi Resep Keluarga Nugraha. Her recipes are straight to the point, easy to follow, and the pictures are lovely! I think she's no longer update her website, I wish she will post recipes again someday...

I decided to bake this bun because Ms Nugraha stated that the milk filling will melt in your mouth! Ohh, how can I wait any longer to try? Me and my family loves these buns sooo much! I should say this bun is the softest bread that I ever made, it is so soft even on the second day, anddd the filling DOES melt in your mouth! My mom keep asking me to bake it again, definitely a keeper! ♥

With love,

Julia ♥

Hello sweethearts! ♥

Several days ago is my dad and little brother's birthday. 

Okay. He's not little anymore.

He is 13 years old this year, but still he is my sweet little brother. They are the only guys in the house and share the same birthday, isn't it sweet? I always think so! ♥

So for the very first time, I baked a birthday cake! Yay!

For both layer, I baked carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I forgot to take picture of the inside part due to the nervousness while making this. Hahaha. 

For the white fondant, I use marshmallow fondant recipe that I found online and the black fondant is store-bought. Marshmallow fondant is actually too sweet for me (although I am a sweet tooth person) and the store-bought fondant tastes quite nice! I think next time I will just buy ready-to-use fondant.

I put a few drops of food coloring to the white fondant for the roses. To make the roses, I just cut it into a rectangle and roll it. So easy and cute ! xD

I am sooooo happy that they all like it although it was a bit too sweet! Hope that I can make another birthday cake, it's a super exciting thing! ♥

With love,

Julia ♥

Hello my lovely cookies! ♥

After a long hiatus, I open my blog again! *yayy* Yes, I just open it after this all months. I have been focusing on my assignments and exam, and of course crocheting and all. I found another addicted hobby, cross-stitching! I have so much fun with it and now I can feel that my hands are so itchy to do it again! xD

And guess what, it is another holiday again~! I am having semester break now and trying to enjoy each day as much as possible! Another posts is coming ;)

By the way, I will continue the 5th semester next month. Yup, 2 more semesters to go! I have to try my best to finish this and start to think about my future career, confusing matter indeed, because I have lots of things in mind to do! xD

I write the recipe in Indonesian, so if you're looking for the recipe in English, click here to check the original recipe by Joy of Baking. ;) So here's the recipe for today~

Bahan Dulce de Leche : 

1       liter      susu
150  gram    gula pasir
2       sdm     light corn syrup
1/2   sdt       baking soda
1/8   sdt       garam

1       sdt       vanilla extract

Bahan Shortbread Cookies : 

260  gram   tepung serbaguna (segitiga biru)
1/4   sdt       garam

226  gram   mentega tawar, suhu ruang

60    gram   gula halus / bubuk
1       sdt       vanilla extract

Cara :

Dulce de Leche

1. Tuangkan susu, gula, corn syrup, baking soda, dan garam ke dalam panci 8 liter. Panaskan dengan api sedang hingga mendidih. Perhatikan dengan baik, apabila susu mulai berbusa dan naik, segera aduk dengan spatula tahan panas atau sendok kayu dan kecilkan sedikit api.

2. Terus masak campuran susu tersebut, aduk bagian dasar dan pinggiran panci sampai campuran susu menjadi sangat kental, lengket, dan berwarna karamel (sekitar 40-60 menit). Campuran harus terus diaduk agar campuran susu tidak hangus.

3. Setelah 40-60 menit, Dulce de Leche telah berkurang hingga 300 ml. Angkat dari api dan saring. Masukkan vanilla extract dan aduk. Biarkan dingin sebelum ditutup dan disimpan. Dulce de Leche dapat disimpan di lemari es selama 1 bulan.

Shortbreads
1. Kocok mentega dengan mixer hingga lembut dan putih.
2. Masukkan gula dan kocok hingga rata.
3. Masukkan vanilla extract, aduk.
4. Masukkan tepung dan garam dan campur hingga rata.
5. Bentuk adonan hingga menyerupai piringan, bungkus dengan plastic wrap, dan masukkan ke lemari es paling sedikit 1 jam atau hingga mengeras.
6. Di atas permukaan yang telah ditaburi tepung, giling adonan hingga ketebalan 6cm. Potong dengan cookie cutter bentuk lingkaran berdiameter 5cm (bentuk lain juga boleh, di sini saya menggunakan bentuk hati).
7. Susun di atas loyang dan masukkan  lemari es selama 15menit.
8. Panggang selama 7-10menit dengan suhu 177 derajat C, atau sampai pinggiran cookies kecokelatan.
9. Cookies dapat disimpan selama 1minggu di wadah kedap udara.

Alfajores
1. Oleskan 1 sdt Dulce de Leche di atas permukaan cookie dan tutup dengan cookie lainnya.
2. Taburkan gula halus di atasnya. Dapat disimpan beberapa hari di dalam lemari es.

Untuk 24 Alfajores cookies.
Adapted from JoyofBaking.com

Pretty simple and delicious! The sweetness is just nice and even my non-sweettooth family members love it! Enjoy :D

With love,

Julia ♥

I made chocolate cornflakes for my friends and colleagues from the hotel I'm working, and enjoy it so much! They were like 'Wow, how you make this?', but oh it's a super simple things to do, people. Just mix together melted chocolate and cornflakes, and TA-RAA~~~~ You have these! xD

For the exact measurement and directions, click here.

I was so excited while making this and forgot to take pictures! So I just took some after I finished everything and take this picture below from my friend. Thanks for the picture, Felicia! ♥

I realized that some people tend to hate Valentine's Day simply because they don't have partner, like boyfriend or girlfriend, etc. But why? You can still share love and make people smile, isn't it the greatest thing ever? And yes, frankly I say, I am single and love my Valentine's Day so much! ♥

Hope you enjoy yours too ♥

With love,

Julia ♥

My new favorite singer : Yao Si Ting ♥

She has a very sweet voice and sings sweet songs too! :D

And 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' one of her song in her 'Endless Love IV' album. 

 

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for their 1933 musical Roberta. It was sung in the original show by Tamara Drasin. It was performed by Irene Dunne for the 1935 film adaptation. It has been covered by numerous artists, beginning with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra with Bob Lawrence on vocal, which went to the top of the charts in 1934, and including Nat "King" Cole, who first covered it in 1946. In 1956, Vic Damone covered this song with a very dramatic and different rendition, which became one of his most famous songs. Possibly the most famous version was recorded in 1958 by the doo wop group The Platters, which became a number one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 — it reached number three on the R&B charts in 1959 — and on the UK charts, where it spent five weeks at the top in February and March of that same year. (Source: wikipedia.org)

They asked me how I knew
My true love was true
Oh, I of course replied
Something here inside cannot be denied

They said someday you'll find
All who love are blind
Oh, when your heart's on fire
You must realize
Smoke gets in your eyes

So I chaffed them and I gaily laughed
To think they could doubt my love
Yet today my love has flown away
I am without my love

Now laughing friends deride
Tears I can not hide
Oh, so I smile and say
When a lovely flame dies
Smoke gets in your eyes
Smoke gets in your eyes

Describing how a woman betrayed by her love though she has loved fully, and how she's trying to be strong and smile despite her tears. Somehow I feel that this song can describe my situation a little bit right now. Oh, so remember people, when your heart's on fire, you must realize, smoke gets in your eyes. ;)

 With love,

Julia ♥

Please do agree with me that chocolate is the best created edible thing in the world! I am oh-so-in-love with this little thing, every dessert with chocolate is just adorably perfect. ♥ So yes, ever since I tried Chocolate Lava Cake in some restaurants and experienced the heaven sensation, of course I won't miss a chance and I decided to bake one. And you should too. ;)

Overall, it is pretty easy to do, you just simply mix everything together. The crucial things here are the baking duration and temperature. Each oven will need different baking time, I even have to bake it several times to get the right texture.

This one is the first batch :


 The surface texture is just perfect, but the inside part is not 'melt' enough.

So I baked another batch for 12 minutes:


You can see the melting chocolate on the surface, but the inside is just perfect!

Actually both are extremely delicious, but I'll just stick to the second one to get more melting chocolate. xD

And here's the recipe. :D

Ingredients
- 100g dark chocolate, cut to small cubes
- 100g unsalted butter, cut to small cube
- 2 eggs
- 50g caster sugar
- 20g self-raising flour

Additional tools needed
- spatula
- electric whisk
- oven safe ramekins (6-8 oz)

Directions
1. Melt dark chocolate and butter using either the microwave or a hot water bath.
2. In a large bowl, use an electric whisk to beat the eggs and sugar till the mixture turns pale and frothy. This will take a few minutes.
3. Pour melted chocolate/butter you prepared in step 1, into the egg mixture prepared in step 2. Stir in the flour. Use a spatula to mix everything evenly.
4. Grease your ramekins with some melted butter (so that the cake will come off cleanly when it is baked). Fill the ramekin almost 3/4 full with the chocolate mixture and bake in a preheated oven of 180C (356F) for about 12 minutes (the recipe calls for 10-11 minutes). The cake is deliberately slightly undercooked so as to achieve its ideal consistency which is runny in the middle (hence the name fondant/molten/chocolate lava) but if you over-bake it, you will get a super moist chocolate cake which is yummy too.
5. When it is baked, remove ramekin from oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes. Use a spoon to gently loosen the edges. Carefully invert the cake onto serving plate.
6. Serving suggestion: Use a sieve to dust icing sugar over the cake. Serve a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some berries at the side.

Adapted from nookbook.com

Happy experimenting! :D

After months of internet connection problem in my apartment, last week they finally fix it! Then you ask me why I update my beloved blog again only after a week? I'll honestly answer, I was very busy with these 4 deadly things :

Warning : I swear this is an absolutely boring story, so I suggest you to skip this and proceed to the link below for the recipe. Thank you.

As I've finished my 3rd semester, I am required to take an internship in a hotel for 3 months. At first, I thought that it will be a very tiring and stressing thing to do, and it is actually TRUE! I leave home early in the morning and reach home late, then eat and sleep and do the same thing over and over again everyday. But now I'm wondering why I feel sad that I've finished 1 month there. Now I want it a bit longer, to laugh and share story with the staffs, smile to the people that I never even know before, do new things and challenged. I think I kind of enjoy all the works that I have to do now... But , oh, how I love off day!

For the rest of my little free time, I'll surely checking the fabulous Pinterest! I can even spend hours, my whole day for it. That site is just so addictive and can sweep away all my burden *i'm serious!*. Just look at those tiny little pictures and please do agree with me!

Talking about sweeping my burden, the smell of cinnamon can also gives joy to me. ♥ That is the reason why I love cinnamon roll soooo much, especially those in Cinnabon. I can't resist the amazing smell of the brown sugar and cinnamon calling for me to buy them... I'm a loser for such things...

I never know that cinnamon roll is a pretty easy yummy thing to do! And lesson learned : 'You will get a funny cinnamon roll shape if you force yourself to bake one full recipe in a tiny little oven'. Luckily, I still managed to save this little one here~ xD

My family loves this as much as I am and I'll definitely bake another batch again! ♥

Recipe from joshuakennon.com. He doesn't have the step-by-step pictures *like I usually prefer*, but he explains it very clearly so it's worth trying! Enjoy ♥

With love,

Julia ♥