2nd Blogoversary and My Maiden Attempt in Chocolate Cake

Unbelievable!!! Today, 18 March 2014, without realizing it, Simply Beautiful and Healthy Living is in her 2nd year. Well, time passed by without my knowledge and honestly speaking, when I first started blogging, I had neither goals nor expectations. I was merely blogging for fun and for my eyes only (syiok sendiri, hehehe). I had no idea or knowledge that as a blogger, I need to do some blogwalking and knock at other bloggers’ doors! I just blog whatever that comes into my mind and expect other bloggers to read what I wrote!! So naive!!! As time goes by, I realised that in order to attract comments to my posts, I need to put comments on other blogs. Since then, I get to know some bloggers who are so kind enough to pay me a visit and left their fingerprints and some even their footprints! Most importantly, I have made some great friends along the way. Initially, I only blogged on healthy living and later I had the courage to blog on food. Gradually, I found myself loving blogosphere more and more.

I am proud to say that I take pride in surviving into my 2nd year of blogging. Over time and along the way, I am lucky to meet and get to know some very good blogger friends who have constantly give me sweet compliments and encouraging words. Without these regular followers and readers, I won’t be here today. A very BIG THANK YOU to all of you who have taken your time to drop by and commented on my postings. You all are my biggest inspiration for better improvement!

Blogging does take up a lot of my time. Besides being a working mum and wife, I still managed to steal some time for blogging. At times, no doubt I feel very tired, however, I am still motivated to blog when seeing my fellow blogger friends tirelessly giving me encouragement and motivation to move on. I am also glad to say that on my blog’s 1st blogoversary, there were 29,982 page viewers. However, today, exactly 2 years, the page viewers of Simply Beautiful and Healthy Living has soared to 171,030! Without your support, I won’t be this far!

Once again, my BIG THANK YOU and gratitude to each and everyone here who takes a little time out of your busy schedule to read and put comments on my posts. It really means the world to me. At the same time, I always love reading all your comments too. Thank you everyone for your generous and tireless support!

Another good news is that, today I'm also glad that I get to share with all of you my very first cake which turned out to be quite successful and delectable too; recipe courtesy of MamaFaMi. How is my STEAMED CHOCOLATE CAKE??? Passed??? hahahha…

I am even more thrilled about this post as the photo shooting turned out to be not too bad lah, hehehe. My photography skill has improved too over the years, hahahaha… (*So vain!) Most importantly, hubby and my two girls gave me their two thumbs up.

This is my first maiden cake post and frankly speaking, I am instantly encouraged by the end result of this awesome and delectable maiden chocolate cake! Ahem…. feeling happy and proud of it…. aiyoh, so egoistic, hehehe…..

*Remember to be patient when waiting for the cake to set. Don't be like Ivy, a bit impatient to cut the cake when it was not completely set yet. Notice the runny chocolate at the bottom of the cake? Hehehe... so, please be patient...:)*

This cake is indeed very simple and easy to make and for those who have countless cakes ended up in the garbage bins (*wink* who else, but yours truly!), this cake will be in no time ended up in your tummy and it’s a sure fail-proof! MamaFaMi, thanks for your recipe!

Ingredients :
(A)
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 cup corn oil
- 1/2 cup condensed milk
(B)
- 3 eggs
(C)
- 1 cup self raising flour

Method :
1) Mix ingredients (A) and cook in double boiler until sugar melt.
2) Let it cool completely.
3) Beat 3 eggs (B) until light and fluffy and add in to the cocoa mixture.
4) Fold in 1 cup self raising flour (C) and mix well.
5) Grease cake tin, pour in the batter and cover with aluminium foil.
6) Steam for 45 minutes.
7) Cool the cake completely at room temperature.

Topping :
- 1 cup chopped chocolate
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup condensed milk

Method :
1) Mix all together and cook in double boiler.
2) Pour on top of the chocolate cake.
3) Chill the cake in the refrigerator until the topping is set.