Chocolate Cake and Handprints

Yesterday was Hubby's birthday. His age? Count the plentiful candles on the cake!

To mark the occasion, I had wanted to bake him a chocolate cake. But after scouring through a few online recipes for chocolate fudge cake, I decided I better spend money to buy one instead. I've simply no confidence that after investing in the ingredients and time x effort, I will get the cake PLUS the chocolate fudge icing right. Add to that, while googling for "chocolate fudge cakes", I clicked on many a links which reviewed where I could get the best chocolate fudge cakes in Singapore. We've always been a fan of Awfully Chocolate cakes but it seems that there are better ones out there. What added the icing to the cake was a Sunday Times review on the Top 50 Cakes in Singapore. After reading through all the reviews, I decided to pick Choc-a-bloc as THE birthday cake as it's location is conveniently in Bedok. I've no regrets, for $30, we enjoyed a perfectly baked, moist and deliciously chocolatey dessert.


For 老夫老妻 couples like us, getting a gift for each other is not easy. After you've bought a guy every practical stuff you could think of from top to bottom, you really kill brain cells thinking of creative and meaningful presents every year. Then I got this idea from Wong Li-lin's Perceptive Play! book of making a handprinted pair of pillowcase for Hubby. I'll immortalise my children's hand and foot prints on each pillowcase. This way I get the children involved and it would be both a meaningful and practical gift.


KK is all for the idea and very much in the game of keeping this project a surprise from Papa. It took us some time but we finally found some fabric paint from Spotlight at Plaza Singapura and bought 2 white pillowcases there as well.


Next is the challenging part - getting the ink to the cloth AND keeping the project a secret. However I didn't expect the biggest challenge to come from XX. For some strange reason, XX refused to touch the green gooey paint in the plastic dish. (Like I said, he's getting more discerning.) I had to grab his hand to dip in the paint and plant it on the pillowcase. I did the same for his feet but for the other hand, XX clenched his fist tight and refused to open his fingers. He was so resistant to the idea that whenever he saw the green dish being brought near to him, he'll turn around and flee as fast as he could. So XX when you grow up next time and ask me why your pillowcase artwork only has 1 hand and 2 feet, this is the story.