My sister sent me this recipe for a no-fail chocolate cake that can be done in a microwave. Perfect quick fix for when you're craving cake at whatever time of day. I made this twice. Once where I followed the original recipe (with the oil) and the second time where I substituted the oil with melted butter and a pinch of salt. Oh, the original recipe had everything dumped into the coffee cup to mix. I decided to split the ingredients and mix them separately - less messy, and I could also ensure everything gets incorporated properly.

And yes, there is a difference in taste! The second with the butter, tastes richer. However make sure you use good cocoa. I'm fond of Van Houten whose cocoa is richer and more 'chocolatey' then Hershey.

Finally, this cake is best eaten warm, with ice cream or cream. When it sits for awhile, it gets a little harder, liked most things cooked in microwave.

5-minute Chocolate Cake

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil (I substituted with 3 tbsps melted butter and added a pinch of salt))
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

1. Add dry ingredients in a bowl, and mix well. In a separate bowl, crack one egg and beat thoroughly.
2. Pour in the milk and oil (or the butter) and mix well. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and mix.
3. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Pour chocolate cake batter into mug.
4. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. (I'll cut down the time to 2 mins 45 secs.)
5. The cake will rise over the top of the mug and drip down the sides, but don't be alarmed!
6. Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate. it won't be the prettiest cake in the world, but it sure is tasty.

Labels: Food, Projects

Thanks to a YouTube video from mattsiphone, I was able to tweak some of the steps to make it work on a Mac. This works for all songs NOT purchased through iTunes ie. ripped from CDs and downloaded from other sources.

1. Open iTunes. Go to Preferences and click on Advanced Importing. See Import Using? Click to select AAC Encoder, then click OK.

2. Select the song you want to make a ringtone. Now you can choose to make the entire song a ringtone, or select a part of it. Get Info on the song and click on Options. Use the Start Time and Stop Time to select the part of the song you want as a ringtone. I suggest that you listen to the song first and note the start and stop times, before entering it here. This will also create a much smaller file (between 200 to 300K). Click OK when done.

3. With the song still highlighted, go to Advanced in the menu above screen and select Convert Selection to AAC. If you didn't do Step 1, you'll see Convert Selection to XXX (XXX being whatever mode you have left selected for song conversion). A copy of the song will be made as it converts.

4. When done, go to your iTunes Folder in your hard drive and find the folder of that song. Use Finder, it's faster. The song will be a .m4a file. Drag it to your desktop. IMPORTANT: Highlight the extension and change it to .m4r (this is the extension for iPhone ringtones). A window will pop up asking if you want to use.m4r or remain as .m4a. Click Use .m4r.

5. Almost there... I suggest you create a folder iPhone Ringtones and put that in the same folder as your iTune songs. Now when you connect your iPhone to your Mac, go to Ringtones tab in iTunes, and select the iPhone Ringtones folder and click on Synch. Voila! Now you have the chosen song in your iPhone as a ringtone.

Enjoy!

Labels: Geek Stuff, Projects

This is the cover of my first magazine - lol or Living Out Loud. This 20-page issue is currently only available at Lasalle - College of the Arts. The next issue due out at the end of June, on the SIM campus.

You can read an interview I did of a Singapore illustrator here. Thanks OIC!

Labels: Projects, Work

I've been quiet online this past week cause of work - pitches, all due Friday morning. They were all done in time, leaving a rather free afternoon and time for long lunch. Nice!

Over last summer, I picked up crochet again, thanks to D. And my project this week was to tackle the beanie. Easy-peasy, right? Ack! Creating the stitches are one thing. UNDERSTANDING the shorthand instructions is quite another. But crochet them I did although my first one, the brown/black beanie took me a couple of days. Then the gray/white one was completed in a 4-hour stretch. Both were in an acrylic/wool combo. I'd like to try one with cotton yarn. But for now, I'm quite happy with them, just to get the crown right - it should be a smooth curve, more rounded.

But what do you think?

Labels: Projects