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The story started a couple of months ago, when we decided to change the way we conduct our cell-group meetings.
Our gatherings used to be just a half-hour session of singing praises followed by a one-hour (or less) session of bible study, for which we seldom managed to get any non-believers to attend.
Then we decided to do it in a more "out-reaching" way. And we targeted this small fishing village that we presently lived in, in which the children grow up perilously exposed to constant influences from gambling adults, gangsters, and drug addicts. We decided to bring a more positive influence into the lives of these young ones by turning our cell-group gathering into a combination of Sunday School and Young Adults fellowship, where fun, food and faith are served in a short one-and-a-half-hours session. :-)
***
The gatherings are held every first and third Fridays of the month (used to be second and fourth), and a typical gathering would go as depicted below:
Primary-school-aged children will have their gathering in the living room (we don't have sofas and TV and the other usual nonsense in the living room, therefore it is a perfect place for the fifty or so children who usually attend to run around and do what children do), in which they sing praises, listen to some Bible stories, play some simple games, and have refreshment (some snacks and drinks).
At the meantime, in the kitchen, the adults and young adults (secondary school and older) get to see a cooking demonstration, and while the food is cooking, a very short session of Bible study wil be conducted, and when the food is cooked, everyone will get to taste it. :-)
In the particular occasion depicted below, sister Lay Hooi was demonstrating how to make "bao zi" (包子), or Chinese buns (with fillings).
Two types of filling were available that evening: stir-fried pork and sweet red bean paste (红豆沙).
The dough was made by the master (Lay Hooi, center, white polo shirt), but every spectator got to get his/her hands dirty by making a bun.
While the adults were having fun making buns (no pun intended), the children were having their refreshments, which, on this particular occasion, was quite lavish...
... someone even brought durians! The durians were from bro. Chuan's durian orchard.
Seen below are all the weird-shaped buns churned out by our secret sweat shop of under-aged young adults. :-D (I wondered if all of them remembered to properly wash their hands...)
Chinese buns are steamed, not baked.
Seen below is Thomas holding the steamed buns. (You understand that I must emphasize here the word "steamed"). Thomas is our aspiring master-baker (his day job is project manager at a major MNC in Bayan Lepas), and you may visit his baking blog here. More story on him later. :-)
And everyone enjoyed tremendously the buns they made with their own don't-know-whether-properly-washed-or-not hands.
Now, the further story about Thomas, and how it got me baking...
After the event depicted in the pictures above, we suggested that Thomas demonstrate making muffin during the next gathering, and he agreed, so we duly spread the word that a muffin-making demonstration would be held the next time we meet.
The following gathering, Thomas was rather late in coming, and when he appeared, he held in his hands a butter cake, which he had made at home. He said it was not practical to bring the huge oven over to my place (I only had a smallish toaster oven), so he baked the cake at home.
OK. No muffin. :-/ But the cake was very nice, so all was forgiven. :-)
After that incident, Thomas proposed that we all chip in to buy an oven to be put at my place for the sake of the gatherings, and everyone agreed, so a brand new oven took its place in our kitchen the following week.
Then came the next gathering, and we had again spread word that Thomas was finally going to demonstrate muffin-making, for real. :-D
But before the gathering, as a contingency plan, we - my wife and I - bought two boxes of pre-mixed muffin powder, just in case Thomas changed his mind in the last minute again. (Sorry, Thomas, for not having faith in you, he-he).
To his credit, Thomas showed up early this time with all the baking thingy: mixer, bowls, spatula, baking pan, flour, butter (REAL butter), orange juice, poppy seeds, sugar... wait, did I say, "baking pan"? What about muffin cups?
So, it turned out he did have a minor change of mind after all: he decided to bake an orange and poppy seed cake instead of muffins (actually, come to think of it, he was being practical: with muffins, you can at most make two dozens at a time, which would not be enough to go around; but with a huge piece of cake, you can cut it anyway you like and get even a hundred small pieces out of it, which is more practical for a group gathering for which you cannot predict the number of attendees).
And his orange and poppy seed cake turned out to be "heavenly" (which is an honest description; I had never tasted a cake so soft and fluffy and light and all together delicious).
***
But what should we do with the two boxes of pre-mixed muffin powder we bought? Well, if life throws you a couple of boxes of muffin powder, you make muffins. :-)
Our first attempt at muffin making! And it overflowed. :-( ... not to mentioned over-baked.
In the picture below, I had trimmed away the charred tops using a pair of kitchen scissors.
Incidentally, it was also orange and poppy seed flavor. :-) And of course it could not compare in taste and texture with the orange and poppy seed cake that Thomas made, but, they were edible, nonetheless.
***
We haven't opened the second box of pre-mixed muffin powder yet, because I had decided to look around for REAL muffin recipes and try my hands at making them from scratch instead of relying on pre-mixed powder (which contains who-knows-what chemicals and additives). And in the process of looking for muffin recipes, I came across this recipe for "Simple English Muffin", and my "destiny" was forever changed...
Find out what this means in the next post. :-)
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