Yesterday I went for a haircut. I chatted with Jessie, the lovely lady who blow-dried my hair, about how painful it was to have tattoo around the waist area as hers was exposed between the bottom of her shirt and the top of her pants. She asked me back how it was when I delivered my baby as she’s planning to have baby sometime next year. And so I tried to compare them both.

When I had my tattoo above my ankle long time ago, I went through the extreme pain pierced all the way up to my head from my feet for the longest 10 minutes in my life. By then I thought it was the most excruciating pain I had ever experienced that nothing, even childbirth, could compare with.

Ethan was born three weeks early, so I actually didn’t expect the assumed contraction discomfort that I had had the night before was the laboring symptom. If the tattoo pain was a cougar, this I-would-trade-my-last-10-years-for-not-having-that-pain contraction was definitely a lion. But I still didn’t wake up my husband during that 6-hour anguish until I knew I needed to head to the hospital. Yes, I think I tolerate pain pretty well. It was just after another two hours or so when Ethan came to this world. And I would say, after that “lion pain”, the delivery was totally-out-of-my-expectation painless.

Then Jessie pulled up her shirt and showed me the full image of her tattoo. The tiny leaf that I saw on her waist was actually a little part of the cherry blossom blooming all over her back! I was all “It must’ve killed you!”. Then she said, “Remember? You survived the lion pain! I think it’s just the matter of how much you like it.”

I wouldn’t say just because you like it, the pain is no pain at all. No, it’s part of your determination. I’m glad I’ve experienced those.

Just a little note about this cake. It’s supposed to be a marble cake, but it turned out to be a “Yin Yan” cake. So, Warning: Try to swirl a little rigorous but not too rigorous if you know what I mean.

Ingredients (a loaf):

Directions:

Grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the sour cream and the milk.

Cream butter with sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well mixed. Beat in vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and sour cream/milk mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

Spoon half of the batter into a separate bowl. Add the melted chocolate to another half of the batter and fold in.

With two spoons, place spoonfuls of the two mixtures into the prepared loaf pan alternately. Run a pairing knife through the two batters to achieve a marbled effect.

Bake for about 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.