Upside-down Peach Heart Cakelettes

This morning while I was taking a shower, my earring fell out of my ear and before I could pick it up, it rolled into the hole leaving me gaping. My immediate reaction (after I've realised what had happened) was that I felt like crying. It was just so hopeless. I have just witnessed my favourite earring, a golden star earring which I got when I got my ears pierced 15 years ago, roll... into a hole and get lost forever. Who knows where the pipe leads to? Sewage. Along with ALL the other junk that goes down that way. It's lost. LOST. 

After getting dressed and saving the other half of the earring, I just kept saying to myself. Look, this is a lesson for you to learn to let go. Yeah it has sentimental significance, but come on, it's only an earring. My only gold earring you mean. It's not life and death. You've still got the other half of the pair. What use is one earring, like I'm going to wear just one side of it. This is a chance for you to learn to let.... go.... Let go of attachments to material, let go of attachments to the value, your perceived value of it. Things come and go, it's life, get over it. 

Eventually after having breakfast and complaining to mum about me losing my earring (and of course me getting told off for not being careful, and why was I wearring earrings while I'm showering anyway?), I thought I started to accept the fact that that's what's happened, and this was karma's way of punishing me for whatever bad things I have done. Of course I felt a tiny bit better after breakfast, come one, sustainance fuels. But later on I decided, who was I fooling, I was sad that I lost my earring. So I complained to my brother. 

Or course, big brother being the ever caring and ever busy-body person he is, at first yelled (well, exclaimed) that why was I wearing my earrings while I'm showering?! Then he physically got up from his breakfast and ran to peer down the hole which the pipe from the bathtub leads to. Yeah, water, grass, black bits. But he suggested that I went to flush down some water down the hole incase it's still stuck somewhere in the pipe, and he held a net under the other end of the pipe and try catching the earring if it was still there. Without holding much hope, I did as I was told. And yeah, told you, no earring, it's probably lost to the abyss. So, giving up, I went back to my computer, deciding to crack on with my studies.

But big brother didn't want to give up. He scrounged for his torch, then went to shine it down the hole in the bathtub. Lo and behold, there! I can see it! Golden and it's tangled within hair. Ugh, gross, but WHAT?! It's still there?! So there a sparkle of hope was ignited, we began our mission of extracting my little wee golden earring out from the pipe. Thank god for once that there's hair down the pipe... After ages of manipulation, borrowing of neighbour's suck pump thing (don't know what you call it, but it's the thing that de-clogs pipes through suction), yelling from one end 'has it come out yet?', 'nope, all there is is water, and some scungy stuff', loads of effort of flushing water down the hole with force, periods of 'maybe we should just leave the net here and wait for it to eventually come out some day... ... it finally, finally, came! Oh wow, gold has fallen into the net! Stopppp flushing water down!! I see it I see it! 

I was actually super surprised that I retrieved my earring. What an evolution of emotions throughout that hour. And I thought, this incident taught me something really important. It's really simple. NEVER give up. If it's something worth fighting for, something worth the effort for, something that means so much, keep trying. Try and try and try until you have exhausted all means, and only then if it doesn't work, accept the fact that you have to let go. It applies to all sorts of things really. Relationships, work, a small task, a massive project. If you try hard enough, you'll begin to see that sparkle of light, of hope, which will really guide you through. If you don't try at all, hope is forever diminished. 

Now this recipe. Sometimes we just need to go out and buy a silicon heart-shaped mould. It makes our food look so much more exciting. Baking is so much about giving and sharing. I'm sure most bakers would agree that baking is a way to show that you love and care for somebody. Now with a heart-shaped mould, it really more strongly emphasises this love we're giving. It makes the food look pretty (and yay more exciting food photography too!). And if you're giving it to someone special, a little more effort goes a long way. Get your hands on some pretty boxes and vibrant craft paper and dress up the little gifts! Whoever you're giving it too will be impressed.

The cake itself is an olive oil sponge, incredibly moist, soft and flavourful.

Upside-down Peach Heart Cakelettes

Makes about 18 individual cakelettes, depending on the size of your tins

1 Peach

30g butter, melted

Raw sugar

Olive oil Sponge cake

150g wholewheat flour

1/4 tsp salt

5 eggs, separated

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 cup blended raw sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup dessert wine or fruit juice

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Slice the peach up into segments. Into the mould, spoon about 1/2 tbsp butter and sprinkle in about 1/4 tsp sugar. Lay three segments of peaches on the bottom of the mould. Set aside for later use.

2. To prepare the cake, preheat your oven to 180C. 

3. Sift together flour and salt, then set aside.

4. Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add in the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add half the sugar and beat until stiff. Set aside.

5. Beat the egg yolks, remaining half of the sugar and vanilla until pale and thick. Beat in the wine/juice and oil, pouring in a steady stream until they are well incorporated.

6. Gently fold in the flour mixture. Then fold in the egg whites in thirds. 

7. Pour the cake mixture in the moulds and bake for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 160C and bake for another 10-15 minutes until golden. Turn off the oven and cover the cakes with an oiled baking paper and leave the cakes in the oven to cool slowly for 15 minutes. This gradual cooling prevents the cakes from collapsing. Remove from oven and allow cakes to cool in their moulds for 10 minutes before turning them out, running your knife around the edges of the mould to free them first. 

8. Cool slightly and serve, or cool completely and package nicely to be given away. 

Food for thought: Education can save our world

I recently watched several very insightful and educational videos on interviews and talks with a Buddhist master, Master Jing Kong 净空法师. One particular topic is the importance and power of education. Having extensively studied Chinese history, as well as the history of other religions, the Master concluded that the tumultuous state of our world today is the result of lack of education, or rather, correct education. 

Historically, religious practices, Confucius way of life are guidelines teaching people how to be ideal humans. In one of the important texts that people have to recite and learn, 三字经, the first line goes something like this 'the true nature of all human is of love and kindness' (人之初，性本善). That is the basis of education, and the basis of education is to nurture this true nature of human being. In later lines of that text, it goes on to say that human 'nature' changes depending on their environment, therefore it is of utmost importance that humans are educated. Educated in this sense does not mean academic education, but rather, human education. 

What I found really interesting but made so much sense, was that traditional Chinese education always begins with teaching people the way of life. It is all about respecting our parents, teachers, elderly, our peers and even the environment. From young age, children are taught these morals. How? The only and most effective way was through the parents and teachers themselves setting examples. For instance, parents will respect grandparents - even those that are deceased, through paying respect by kneeling, bowing, praying in front of their ancestors' memorial signs. If parents themselves pay respect to their elders, naturally the children will follow suit. Furthermore, the parents will also pay respect to the teachers, bowing and thanking them for their service. If parents show respect to the teachers, naturally the children will also respect the teachers. And if parents put so much faith in the teachers, naturally the teachers will do their best in educating the children. 

Another very interesting and logical thing is that only when the students have proven themselves as moral humans are they allowed to proceed to study other subjects. 

In Western countries of course, religion plays a big role in educating people. Again, religion acts as a guideline to life.

Nowadays, education has turned upside down and religion are increasingly being shunned.  Parents often have to listen to their children. Some parents are even abused by their children! Parents have lost faith in teachers, and teachers have lost sense of their jobs. Traditionally, parents would thank the teachers for punishing their children as they are educating them. But nowadays teachers are not allowed to punish the students. And what is education about these days? Right from primary through to the highest level of tertiary education, isn't it about pushing your competitiveness, teaching you what the best way to make money is? Isn't it about cramming you with as much 'knowledge' as possible - language, maths, science, history, art, etc. just so one day you can find a job? Isn't it mostly about how to stand out as an individual, rather than how to work with others as a whole to make society a better place? And what more, the media plays such an enormous role in influencing people. Celebrities that are supposed to be role models are themselves confused. And what do we learn from the media? Movies and games teach us how to kill, celebrities teach us about divorce, the media teaches us about materialism. The media promotes that sort of fake ideal life so much. Everyone wants to be rich and live a luxurious life. Because of that, look at society today - divorce rates, suicide rates, killing rates are at an all time high. People have lost that sense of humanity and morality.

If you take a look at the people around you, as I certainly have, most people are just going through life blindly. A lot of my friends that have graduated felt lost. What are they supposed to do now that they've finished studying? Find a job. Why? To pay back their student loans. What job do they want? Any. Whatever they can get their hands on. Are they happy? Well, yes, because they have a job and they get paid. Are they truly happy? Not sure. Are they doing something meaningful to society? If you think about economics, maybe, if you think about morals and nurturing humanity, hmm... only a rare few are. People today have lost that sense of purpose in life. Their only concerns in life are to find a job and find a good boyfriend/girlfriend. 

Something else that really said a lot about our ancestors, the ancient Chinese people is their extremely far-sightedness. Today, the farthest most of us think about is probably the next few years. Even me, what I always thought about was what I should study and how I should plan for my career. Now I know that is pretty selfish. Ancient Chinese people think about the next generations. They think about how their actions will impact generations to come. One example is 诸葛亮, Zhu Ge Liang, a genius scholar who invented many weapons and tools for the war. However, just before he died, he destroyed all of them. Why? It is because he knew that if those inventions fell into the wrong hands, that would mean disaster. He was considerate of his future generations. Do people think about that today? Not really. There are new advancements in the technology of weaponry everyday. Have the inventors any idea what it would cost the world? No. Because if they did, they wouldn't have invented them in the first place. And in fact that is severely irresponsible. 

So, how crucial is education to human society? How important are parents to their children? How essential it is to nurture humanity and morality right from a young age? And if you go back to that saying 'the true nature of all humans is of love and kindness', then even the most evil human being is loving deep down inside. It was just the lack of education to nurture their true nature that resulted in their mistakes. So, education can truly save the world. Education is the only thing that can save the world. And we all can definitely play a part in healing our extremely bruised and battered world, starting from nurturing our own humanity and morality, then extending it to others. - For the sake of our children, and their children, and the many generations to come.

For anyone that is interested in watching the talk (though it is only in Mandarin >.<):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doTVOPLkF44 
This video is the first of a series. 
阿弥陀佛。真的感恩净空大法师与大众分享他的智慧。