Julia Selinda's Diary ♥

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 ♥

Have a lot of ice cream stock at home and fed up of eating it *i mean i'm sure, it'll be hard to be bored with ice cream!* just like that? Here's another way to eat your lovely ice cream ♥

Ingredients :
1 quart (950 ml) ice cream
2 1/2 cups (120 grams) corn flakes
3/4 cup (70 grams) shredded coconut
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 eggs
1 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) vegetable oil
8 tsp honey

Method :
1. Using the scoop or two spoons, make 8 1/2-cup scoops ice cream.
2. Drop the scoops of ice cream onto a tray lined with waxed paper, freeze for about 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, in a plastic bag crush the corn flakes, then add the coconut and cinnamon, combine nicely.
4. Place the coating ingredients in a shallow bowl.
5. In a plate, whisk the eggs with milk for about 1 minute.
6. Remove the ice cream scoops from the freezer and roll them first in the dry coating.
7. Then roll in the egg mixture, and finally roll in the dry coating mixture again.
8. Place on a tray or plate lined with waxed paper and return to the freezer for at least 3 hours.
9. In a small saucepan, heat the oil until medium-hot (about 360 °F – 200 °C).
10. Removing the ice cream scoops from the freezer one at a time, drop them into the hot oil and fry for 20-25 seconds, turning them halfway through.
11. Then remove the scoops from the oil and place them on paper towels to absorb the grease.
12. Drizzle each scoop with one teaspoon honey and serve immediately.

It's wonderfully delicious! I love the combination of coconut and cinnamon, who knows it will be perfectly match with chocolate ice cream? And please, don't forget to add honey as it give a magical taste to it ♥

With love,
Julia ♥

Living in another country is a good way to know more about them, in my case, food. I spend quite a time in Malaysia for my study and I started to know more delicious things for my tongue to taste. *gaining weight is worth it, i think* What I eternally love is coconut tart and portuguese tart. Once you take a single bite, both are so adorably magical, believe me.

Because I have some ready-to-use puff pastry in my freezer, I decided to use it and it's really good! Oh, who doesn't love it?

With love,
Julia ♥

I love making swirls, I use A LOT and I love it ♥

I messed the inside part a bit, especially the 'O' letter. Just act like you didn't see, please...

That's my quick post for today! See you next time ♥

Hi people!

Another post, at last! I've finished my exam and came back to my hometown for holiday last Sunday. ;)

Today is my dad and little brother's birthday. Yes, both of them share the same birthday and I always think it's cute. ♥

We have an early celebration for them last Sunday and Mom bought a pretty rainbow cake. I love it so much and I know I'll love it more if it was made by me!


We bought a school bag for my brother and for Dad, I did something fun : paper quilling! This is my first quilling and I had so much fun!

I didn't use that ready-to-use quilling paper and I bought 130 gsm color paper instead. I cut it to 4mm width paper strips and it's just perfect. After all the gathering ideas from my sisters, measuring, cutting, and writing some words, I put the outline. I had a little hard time shaping the paper, maybe a heavier paper will make life easier. But I love 130 gsm paper for the design inside.

Done a letter here. I tell you, use white glue, my friend. It will be invisible after it dries although you've poured a bunch of glue on it.

Okay.

Just kidding.

I've never poured the glue so I have no idea whether it will be invisible or not. But I used quite a lot of glue and nobody can see it, I assure you. ;)

I didn't buy special tools for this. I just roll it without paper piercing tool. To roll the paper easier, I soften the tip of the paper by sliding my thumb and index finger on it several times. And to help me to put the paper in place on the base, I used any tweezer available at home.

Eyebrow tweezer, for instance.

What a multi-function thing, isn't it?

I mean, maybe you will need those cool tools one day, but for this simple project, I prefer this method. :D

Paper quilling requires time and patient. So find your free time, brew a cup of tea *for me, snack is crucial*, turn on the music, and have a lovely time with the papers!

Done! ♥

Hope he likes it.

Happy birthday, Dad and lil' bro! ♥