Project Bleeding Heart started off innocently enough – my girlfriend found a heart shaped sugar piece on top of a cookie during Hari Raya and (forcibly) inserted it into my mouth, saying that she has metaphorically given her heart to me. Thus, I was coerced to reciprocate in kind and she insisted on me personally making an edible heart for her during our second monthsary.
I guess she didn’t know how far I would go. Be careful what you wish for…you just might get it. 😉
You will need:
Field Song Egg Pudding Powder
Arnott’s Tim Tam Love Potions – Chocolate Mud
“It’s love at first bite”
Arnott’s Tim Tam Crush – Mocha Hazelnut
“It’s one Crush that’s sure to end in love…”
Nestle Reduced Fat Cream
Nestle Milo Grab N Go can
Win Vokda Ice Purple XS
Heart shaped molds
Optional:
Razor blade
A few drops of blood from your veins
The first challenge was getting the heart shaped mold. It was much more difficult than I thought. Heart shaped molds should be everywhere, right? It’s just about the most common design! I thought it would be everywhere. Unfortunately, actually finding a heart shaped mold took us to three (3) different places, to no avail. We found molds in the shape of stars, triangles, circles, and even weird oblique designs…but no hearts.
The closest we got was this HUGE heart shaped non-stick baking pan…a bit of an overkill for this project. Plus, I don’t think I would be able to bleed enough to fill the pan. I would probably pass out from blood loss or something before the colossal pan filled up.
We finally managed to get two (admittedly) cheesy Barbie knockoffs molds from a Chinese specialty import outlet (the retail industry prefers the technical term “Cina Mari shop”). It’s made of melamine infused plastic and has a Barbie look-alike imprint, but it was heart shaped and for all intents and purposes, it was sufficient for the single-use, disposable nature of the project.
The Arnott’s Tim Tams were procured in New Zealand. My sister just came back and brought back a box of the stuff. I went for the two romance-themed special edition Tim Tams for the project. Tim Tam Love Potions and Tim Tam Crush (as in infatuation, not demolish) are limited edition Tim Tams that I decided to use as a garnish for the pudding.
The directions for making the egg pudding were pretty straightforward – the contents of the packet is to be mixed into 500 ml of boiling water and stirred for an unspecified time. I just poured in a little more than a small 500 ml mineral water bottle (to compensate for evaporation) into a saucepan and added in the pudding mixture when it started boiling. The mixture was stirred for about a minute or so before I turned off the heat.
Next, comes the interesting part. I took a razor blade and made a small incision on my left hand at a particularly juicy vein and allowed the blood to drip into the Nestle Reduced Fat Cream – the topping for the pudding. This is of course, rather unorthodox (not to mention unsanitary for consumers who are not already exchanging bodily fluids with you ;)) so it’s a highly optional step.
I also took the liberty of scooping up more blood from the gash and managed to harvest about half a tablespoon of the red stuff in total.
The blood is mixed into the cream by folding it with a spoon before adding a bit of Milo Grab N Go (a RTD – Ready To Drink malt concoction) for flavoring. The cream will acquire a tinge of pink before turning a chocolate hue. The cream topping is set aside…
…while the pudding mixture is poured into the heart shaped molds and left at room temperature for 15 minutes. Field Song Egg Pudding Powder sets extremely rapidly. It started solidifying after just a minute in the mold. It still requires refrigeration though, so we transferred it to the fridge and left it in there for 30 minutes.
The egg pudding turned out to be a perfect heart shape! =D It came out easily from the mold due to the high density of the pudding. It just plopped down when the mold was upended. I added several dollops of the patented Bleeding Heart Topping (TM) on top and garnished it with Arnott’s Tim Tams.
This is Project Bleeding Heart – made with blood, sweat and (manly) tears. 😉
