Annual Ritual

My family usually bakes our Chinese New Year cakes, and this year is no different.  My mom's chocolate walnut cake is very well-liked, and we make it for our friends, relatives and neighbors every year.  In fact, even gave the recipe out to TPS' mom who wanted it after tasting the one I massacred about 2 weeks back.

Unlike that one though, today's cakes (There were four of them) came out fabulous!  Each one was not burnt, and the mixture was well-distributed throughout the entire cake.  Only one cake kind of cracked at the top, but still looked damn yummy.

It's fun baking this cake.  A lot of work, beating the egg white (separately) until it becomes a white foamy, fluffy mixture (texture is like the soap at those foam parties!).  Then the tasting of the raw ingredients (chocolate rice and walnuts taste damn good in cake batter mix!  The use of the satay stick to check if the cake is ready or not... et... and the smell...

Nothing, NOTHING beats the smell of freshly baked cakes.  And the chance to eat it immediately once it comes out of the oven: SHEER HEAVEN.  When the cake is still hot, and taking a bite into the moist, warm chocolate and walnuts, all the while inhaling the thick, intoxicating, chocolate-y scent.  All my diet plans just get blown away...

There are walnut cakes, and there are walnut cakes.  Heck, even Bengawan Solo distributes the walnut cakes as a standard gift for the baby's full month.  But it simply can't compare with home fare.  Coz each cake is really baked with loving care.  TLC IS one of the ingredients; machines just can't produce the same attention to detail, nor generate the same giddy anticipation as one waiting for the cake to come out of the oven!

That's why CNY is great!  Traditions, rituals, and the excuse to eat and eat and eat!

Happy Chinese New Year!