Too-Soggy Carrot Cupcakes

My blogging frequency has definitely decreased! I haven't even done the recipe for the mango cheesecake, but anyway you can refer to this one, cos I adapted a little but I realised later that this recipe needs no alteration. Haha.

I decided to make carrot cupcakes yesterday to use up 2 leftover carrots and some raisins. Turns out I have way too much carrots compared to the batter and I ended up with soggy cupcakes.

See? Carrots more than batter! Haha

Here's the recipe from food.com, but adjusted for 6 muffins instead.

2/3 cups flour
2/3 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 carrots (it says medium carrots, maybe mine's large)
1/2 cup raisins
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 tsp vanilla essence
handful of white chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl. Mix the oil and egg in a separate container, then mix into the flour mixture just until combined. Add in the grated carrot, raisins and chocolate chips. Baked for 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius since they are 6 huge muffins.

Slightly deflated but smells yummy!

I had them with ice cream (muffins + ice cream don't go well together), but when I ate them today out of the fridge, was much better. I don't know why there's a lot of oil though. Carrots have oil is it? Hmm. Not satisfied though, the hunt for the perfect carrot cupcake recipe is still on!

In other news, I've finally, FINALLY stocked up on ground cinnamon yay! Phoon Huat sells them in large packs now and I can't imagine using them that much. Got a small bottle from Giant, now apple and carrot cupcakes will be yummier!

Mango Overload: Mango Sago

Hello hello! It's been weeks since I last updated. Been busy with lotsa stuff, even went out of the country for a work trip. I'm nursing the little one even as I type this entry.

It's the Mother's Day weekend and the best part of it is the sales! I'm eyeing Crocs 20% off all women's shoes hmm. I bought a pair of Crocs flats few days ago sadly the 20% promo hadn't begun. Boo. But I feel like getting another pair heehee. We'll see how tomorrow.

Anyway! Since it's mango season, I thought of making mango desserts for my mum and MIL. Have just completed one, which is mango sago for my MIL. Yesterday after work, we went to Chong Pang to get mangoes and they were going for 50 cents each! So I bought 20. HAHA.

6 for MIL, the rest for mango sago and mango cheesecake. 

I think I put in a little too much vanilla essence into the dessert oh wells. But I'm sure once it is cooled it'll taste yummy! 

Here's what I used:

5 medium sized mangoes

250ml mango juice

400ml (1 can) evaporated milk

1 tbsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp sugar

A glug of Mazaa orange juice which I added to dilute, probably 100ml

125-150g sago pearls

It's easy peasy! Cut the mangoes, blend mangoes, milk, mango juice, vanilla and sugar all in one. Boil the sago, and add into the mango smoothie! 

I used another mango cut in cubes for added texture after blending.

Hope MIL likes it!

Rendang Fever

Meant to talk about rendang last week cos we made beef rendang the weekend before, and since I made rendang again (by request of Husband) yesterday, the recipe is still fresh in my head so here I am typing on the bus to class. So pardon me for the lack of bullet points etc.

Class. Haha. I skipped last week's class cos I was at my mum's hurhur, this week need to go cos next week is the last lesson already, and I can't go for that either because I'll be in Jakarta for a work trip. Busy huh.

Anyway back to the rendang!

This is my mum's recipe and it doesn't use kerisik, and that should be the shredded coconut thingy? Haha. Anyway this got the approval of dear Husband so I'm happy!

Ingredients
1kg beef/chicken
4 onions
8 cloves garlic
2 inches ginger
4 sticks of lemongrass
4 tbsp ketumbar powder
2 tbsp jintan halus powder
5 tbsp cili kisar
200ml coconut cream
About 10-15 lime leaves
5 tbsp sugar +/-
Salt to taste

Slice lemongrass very thinly, leaving about 2-3 inches of stub for frying.
Blend the sliced lemongrass, onions, garlic, ginger together.
Fry the lemongrass in oil, then the blended paste.
Once that is fried, maybe 10-15 minutes, add cili kisar and fry till crispy (literally translated hahaha).
Add ketumbar and jintan powder and fry for a few minutes.
Add coconut cream to the mixture, then add your meat and fry for a whole before adding water.
Let the broth boil and cook the meat. Once meat is cooked, open the lid to dry off the excess water until desired thickness.

I'll leave you with a photo of the rendang I made ystd. I think I prefer bees rendang to chicken.

Bus Adventures

Took the bus with Husband to Junction 8 for lunch! I forgot that he sent the car to the workshop, so I happily went to the basement. Haha.

It's very very rare to get Husband to take the bus. Very exciting I should say :)When car rides are too frequent, taking public transport is an adventure! We should do this more often! Walking before and after lunch, and taking the public transport too.

Weekend zoomed by because both days were working days sadly, but I brought Junior along so it wouldn't be that bad. Junior was very well behaved. His appetite was good too! He will eat the porridge I brought from home, AND eat again when it's our turn to eat! Thank goodness I brought a lot of his clothes cos most of his tops were smeared with watermelon juice.

Am looking forward to this weekend where finally we don't have any commitments and we can have pure family time. And it'll be Junior's first playgym lesson after signing him up a week ago. Exciting!

No baking last weekend cos there was no time at all, and when I get home today I have 2 full baskets of laundry waiting for me after class. I can say goodbye to sleeping early tonight. Sobsob. This is what happens when you don't clear your laundry basket before leaving for a trip. Haha.