My first banana walnut cake

It's a lazy weekend. Rather than doing nothing, I decided to bake a cake since I have all the basic baking ingredients needed. While scouring through the web for some ideas of what to bake, I decided to bake a banana walnut cake since I have a few over-ripe bananas sitting in the fridge. Also, since I am a novice in cake-baking, banana cake seems like a good choice since it is touted to be one of the simplest cake to make! haha.. Luckily, a friend of mine actually bought a hand mixer and creaming the sugar and butter with mixer definitely help to speed things up!
Recipe has been adapted from here. I have reduced the amount of brown sugar by at least 10% of the recommended amount since I dislike the cake to be too sweet. I didn't have much confident when I stirred all the ingredients in, but I guess this is indeed a no-brainer cake to bake after all ..Here's the outcome of the cake, not perfect but definitely edible! hehe...

Fresh from the oven! Love the aroma!

Cooling down..

Removed from the loaf pan.

Tada...my banana walnut cake!

Note: The slightly burnt area you see were actually that of the skin of the walnuts.
A lesson to learn: I need to embed the walnut into the mixture next time rather than exposing them since the thin walnut skin gets burnt easily. Either that or I will have to remove the flaky skin on the walnut.

As for the taste, still as yummy!!

I will definitely be making this again :)

Frosty Day

Today, I woke up to an -8 degrees temperature outside. When I looked out from my apartment's window, what I could see was only a white landscape..icy, cold and foggy...I initially thought that it was snowing, but apparently that's not the case..it is just freeze or frost or you can call it just ice covering all over the place..The landscape looked surreal, it was really cool to be frank, it's like living in a refrigerator, or perhaps freezer in this case since it is below freezing temperature..check out the pictures!

Remember this picture that I took in my last posting?

This is how it looked like now!!

The frosty landscape at the carpark in front of my company. Yes, even at this temperature, some people still ride a bicycle to work!

Looked like it's snowing, don't you think? But no, it's definitely not snow but purely just ice covering the whole area! :P

Change of Seasons

Wow.. 4 months have passed...
I still remembered on the first day I arrived in this country, my heart was filled with trepidation and anxiety...
However,4 months later, and reflecting back, I'm glad I've made this decision to come. How often do we get the experience of living in a foreign country especially in a country where people don't speak English right? :)

As of now, most of us are able to understand some basic Hungarian language and we have adapted to the Hungarian Culture especially food-wise..we must have gotten used to the saltiness in the food! haha..Walking on the street alone is no longer a concern since we could understand and speak a smattering of Hungarian! yay! :D

From summer to autumn and now winter is coming real soon..time fliesssss...Next, I can't wait for the fluffly snowwww!!

Here's some pictures I've dug out from my vast collection on the season of change!


Summer time: View from my balcony


Autumn : View from my balcony



End of Autumn: We see the freeze everyday and the leaves, grasses and ground are always wrapped in a layer of ice every morning..simply beautiful! Temperature has dipped below freezing too!And it's getting so much foggier...

11.11.11

Since this only happens once a century, here's wishing everyone a
Happy 11.11.11!!
I'm definitely lagging behind my posts!!I need to get back to you soon dear bloggie!

12-9-2011

12th Sept 2011.

A special day.

For one, it's Mid-autumn festival! Mooncakes & Lanterns!
And also,D-Day I shall remember forever *wink*
The very day I ended my singlehood too!
Yep, the day I registered.
My ROM.

I'm officially married now! :)

Time flies.. 2.5 weeks to go!

1.5 months whizzed by too quickly in which I think is a good thing. It just meant that I'm enjoying myself here and settling well.

It's funny to think that before I came here, my mind was shrouded with all the negative thoughts and I gave my worst expectation when I came here.
I expected my life to be such a bore since they aren't that many things to do here as Debrecen is a small city. Also, language barrier may complicate matters as not many people speak English here.

Little did I know that in 1.5 months, I've learnt to actually love this place! I was definitely wrong to think that this place will be a boring place! In this summer time alone, I've attended countless festivals and celebrations! People here are really warm, nice and friendly despite the big cultural and language differences! I've come to love the Hungarian language too! Initially I had complained about how difficult the language was. But with constant practice and many good "teachers" helping, my command of language have improved tremendously! As of now, I actually felt like "home" here. And indeed, I am loving it here :).

Tomorrow, I will be heading back home for 2.5 weeks for my home trip. I rarely mention about this, but the main reason is because, I am getting married!! :) Yes, in 2.5 weeks time!

It's indeed a challenge to do my wedding prep many miles away from home. Thankfully, with the advent of technology, almost everything could be done from the internet!

Hopefully, I will have a safe trip home.

Dang! Now I really miss home, as in my home sweet home in Penang!

Vislat! (Goodbye in Hungarian)


Look how tanned I've become!! :|



Scottish thistle thriving at Hungary!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Bloggie!

Wow..time really flies..it's the 3rd anniversary of my blog!!
Happy to note that it's still active for now! Reminder to myself, I have to keep on writing! :)


Here's a pic of myself on a 3-wheeler inconjuction with my blog's 3rd Birthday!!
Woo hoo!!