Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Today I left Junior at my mum's for about five hours, to bottle train but it was a total failure. Sigh. Why oh why won't my darling not drink from the bottle! How would he survive without milk when I'm back at work! :( Anyway. I decided to make No Bake Cookies. I have loads of Hershey's chocolate that Other Half brought back from his NY trip a couple of months ago. As much as I love chocolate, I was disappointed with the Hershey's pack he bought! Doesn't taste like good chocolate at all. Even the Kisses aren't good. While looking for recipes at random, I came across one which could make use of Reese's peanutbutter cups, the chocolate I dislike among the mix. It looks fast, simple and no baking required! It is the No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies . Ingredients that I use which I shouldn't have adjusted to: 125g butter 1/2 cup milk 2 cups sugar 1 and a half cup Reese's Peanutbutter Cups 3 cups quick oatmeal 1 teaspoon

It's been ages since I last baked! Today I did the cheesecake, only because the cream cheese is expiring today. HAHA. Yes. And I still have one packet left I don't know what to do. I curi a tiny piece while the cake is still cooling cos I was hungry hehe. With baby asking for milk every hour and sleeping for 30 minutes each nap, I needed a fast recipe, and one where I don't have to buy any ingredients, so I modified and made my very first cheesecake without recipe. Ingredients 2 packs cream cheese 1 tin (388g) condensed milk 4 tbsp flour 1 egg 1 tbsp vanilla essence Crust: 125g digestives + 50g butter Crush the digestives and mix with the melted butter. Press them onto the springform pan and bake at 170 degrees C for 8 minutes. Mix condensed milk and cream cheese. Then add in the egg, mix well.  Add flour and vanilla essence. Bake at 160 degrees C for about 45 to 50 minutes. Done! :) Haven't tasted it yet though hahahaha. But I'm sure it'

Today is the first day of maternity leave. Baby still show no signs of moving out yet. I hope tomorrow all goes well! Have some time to kill, and I would love some cookies or cake in my kitchen when I get back from the hospital, so I decided to make the long overdue German Cookies. Ingredients 250g butter 80g icing sugar, sifted (5 heaps tbsp) 250g potato starch 160g flour (I used cake flour) Sift the icing sugar and flour and mix with the butter. Add in the potato starch and mix them altogether. I mixed them using my hand! Heehee Once consistent, roll into small balls with diameter of 1-2cm, and press down using a fork. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius, for 15 minutes. This recipe is pretty popular, and actually I doubled the recipe because I have 250g butter. And that only made 100 pieces only! Even with double the recipe, I don't think it's enough! I can't help but pop them into my mouth! This cookie can definitely be a Hari Raya kuih, but I would have to make

Today I is a bit eager to cook, lunch was pizza and dinner was chicken curry with soy sauce vege stir fry, and I decided to make chocolate lava cake for dessert after clearing up dinner. And with all that work, I now have enormous elephant-like legs. Hahahaha. Chocolate Lava Cake 170g butter 170g chocolate (I used Van Houten baking chocolate) 4 eggs 5 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp flour pinch of vanilla powder pinch of bicarbonate soda Melt the butter and chocolate together using double boil. Mix flour, sugar, vanilla powder and bicarbonate soda together. Add an egg each time and beat till consistent before adding another egg. Add the butter-chocolate mix. Fill the muffin pan till 3/4 full, bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 6 minutes. The first batch I baked at 230 degrees Celsius, for 8 minutes and they turned out to be cake-like, no lava centre! See? No oozy sink-in centre. Bummer. But with each trial and error comes a brilliant find. For I have found! A brownie recipe! HAHA.

I have 3 bananas and sour cream that are about to go bad/expire, so I went to Google sour cream banana cake, and came across this ! So there IS a recipe for sour cream banana cake haha! Made some adjustments, but sadly I should've increased the amount of sugar instead. And bananas too if I have them. Sadly the banana taste wasn't much, but the cake is really moist! Especially after you leave it after a day. Soft, moist and the taste of banana and butter becomes more distinct! Ingredients 180g salted butter (honestly I don't know how much I used but it's sort of more than half a pack of 250g butter) 3/4 cup caster sugar 3 eggs 2 1/4 cups cake flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp bicarbonate soda 250 light sour cream 3 mashed bananas Generous doze of chocolate chips! Mix everything! Then bake using a 10 inch round pan, 180°C for 40 minutes. Recipe called for 60 minutes but since the cake was already done and oh so sweet smelling, I took it out impatiently! Ma

Baked egg tarts (or so I thought) last Saturday. It was a nice, couple time Saturday. Sometimes our weekends can get so packed, there's no couple time. But on the bright side we're living on our own, and that gives us more opportunities for couple time. I love our own little space :) I happened to come across egg tart recipes, and this particular one from Chow Times which didn't need to use a crust. Perfect since I couldn't find instant crusts at the NTUC near my house. All I need is a greased muffin tray and I'm good to go! Adapted the recipe a little bit for some experimentation. My Ingredients 1 cup mix of white and brown sugar 3 1/2 tablespoons margarine, melted 2 eggs 1 cup flour 1 can 388ml condensed milk 2 cups milk 1 tsp vanilla powder Mix the ingredients together to form a smooth mixture, and transfer to the muffin trays. I baked at 200°C for 15 minutes, and then 160°C for 18 minutes. Tarts in the oven!! Look at them rise so high! And yet no

Here's the recipe for the chocolate chip cheesecake I mentioned earlier ! Got this recipe from Fantastic Cheesecake - Kek Keju Hebat by Alex Goh. My auntie gave it to us cos she doesn't have use for it hahahaha. Made some adaptations. For the base I used leftover digestive biscuits instead of the recipe's Oreo base. Like any digestive cheesecake base, crumble the digestive biscuits and mix with melted butter and press on the base of the springform tin. I think I used about 80 to 100g of digestives and 80g of butter. Bake in oven 170 degrees Celsius for 12 minutes and cool. Cheesecake: 500g cream cheese 140g sugar (hehe I ran out of white sugar so I topped up with brown sugar haha!) 20g flour 2 eggs 200g whipping cream semi-sweet chocolate couvertures Topping: 200g sour cream (recipe calls for 400g but I only had 200g with me) 3 tbsp condensed milk (recipe calls for 2 tbsp sugar but I ran out of sugar) generous amount of chocolate chips!!! Mix and cream chees

So it was major fatty food alert for the birthday/Good Friday weekend.Yes I know! Backdated post! It started off with Cream Cheese Brownies, for birthday boy's birthday cake! :) I searched for a fool-proof recipe and I found one at Betty Crocker's website using their instant brownie mix, and made a few adjustments. Filling 8 oz cream cheese, softened (recipe only used 4oz but I thought that's too little!) 1 egg 3 tablespoons sugar 1/4 teaspoon vanilla Brownies 1 box (1 lb 2.4 oz) Betty Crocker® Original Supreme Premium brownie mix Water, vegetable oil and egg called for on brownie mix box Sprinkle-happy semisweet chocolate chipsand white chocolate chips :) Heat oven to 170ºC. In small bowl, beat filling ingredients until smooth. Set aside. Make brownie batter as directed on box. Spread 3/4 of brownie batter in a 9 by 9 inch pan. Spoon filling by tablespoonfuls evenly onto brownie batter. Spoon remaining brownie batter over filling. Cut through mixtur

I tried the mango cheesecake on Wednesday night! Yup late night baking! Started at 9 plus, and crumbling the digestives really took some time! I also didn't read the recipe properly, that it requires 1 and a half hours to bake, and a further 1 hour to cool before refrigerating. I cut short the cooling time to 15 minutes under the fan, and popped it into the fridge cos it was time for bed. Here's the ingredients with some modifications. The original can be found at Diana's Desserts . Crust: 1 1/2 cups digestive crumbs 1/2 cup granulated sugar 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick/3 oz/85g) salted butter, melted Filling: 3 large very ripe mangoes peeled, pitted, coarsely chopped (makes 2 cups) 3 (250g) packages cream cheese, at room temperature 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 3 teaspoons vanilla powder 4 eggs Instructions: For Crust: Preheat oven to 325°F/160°C. Lightly butter a 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Stir cracker crumbs and sugar in med

I have stumbled upon a gem of a dessert recipe website! It's called Diana's Desserts . Came across it when I was looking for mango cheesecake recipe . Have leftover mangoes that could be used for something yummy and sinful! Like cheesecake! Muahahaha!!! So now all I have to find is cream cheese. I do hope I can get it at the grocery shops near my house cos I feel like doing it today. Or else I'd have to stock up whenever I go to a bigger supermarket. In times like these I miss London! It's a baker's heaven there.

Teeheehee I have some free time tomorrow in between our little course in the morning and Other Half's class at night and I'm too excited thinking what I should do! I have lots of things I want to do, but postponed again and again! Like... popiah begedil German biscuits condensed milk cake Okay that should keep me VERY busy. And Other Half would be worried if I did all that cos he doesn't want me to be so tired. Hahaha. Maybe I'll strike off begedil since it's more tedious than popiah. And I'm going to start reading aloud today! :) Maybe I shall start with this book ! I love their collection of atlases. Makes history easy to understand especially for a pictorial person like me. Never been fond of studying history hahahaha. Busy weekend ahead!

Saw this totally awesome cookie , and I wanna try!!! It's a cookie in a cookie. Awesome! Weirdly enough I dreamt of baking yesterday night. I think I must have been wanting so so much to make that cake that I dreamt of making it, and weirdly enough, people were trying to take it away from me! And I hid the cakes in weird places hahaha. Weird dream but better than the night before! Other Half's coming home today! Yay yay yay! I can't wait! ♥♥♥

Some overdue pictures: First dinner of Chilli Tomato Chicken cooked in a mad dash after work ! When time is of essence, orderliness in the kitchen is definitely not priority. Dinner is ready! :) And here's pineapple tart fotos I made on 6 February for Other Half. All gone now! Fresh from the oven yet many pieces have gone missing! -_-" Trying out my very own flower tart mould! The pattern isn't very obvious, sadly. But it's okay cos I love the flower shapes!! My beautiful oven baking the tarts. And this is the biggest tart I've ever made, with a flower tart as a comparison. But all gobbled up just the same.

Had yet another mad dash at the kitchen yesterday afternoon heehee! And the night before I made begedil to be frozen. One of the many things I want to do checked! But I need to do another batch cos this one was given to MIL. Yesterday I didn't go back to office after check-up, went to Chong Pang instead for some bit of marketing, and then to my mum's house to get some stuff which I was lazy to get on my own like ikan bilis and belacan and even glass bottles to store used oil. HAHA. My mum's house, the pantry :) Went home to start on the big project - laksa! Haha. I think I shall not use ikan kembung for laksa anymore. While it is the healthier option, using ikan bilis is WAAAYYY easier. No need to boil the fish, peel the flesh, remove those many many bones, pound the flesh. And I must remember to slice the lemongrass really really thinly. When my mum told me to slice thinly, I thought I could take the short cut and cut anyhow cos I'll be blendering it anyway, but yo

Have been living in our own home for 6 days in a row! And I love it :) Never mind there's no internet yet at our house (the iPhone tethering is quite sufficient for now) nor do we have cable TV, I have loads to do! Haha. Actually we only got to use the TV yesterday after my dad gave us a better connection cable. Haha! Other Half was so bored not having anything to watch for the past few days. TV addict! I on the other hand am still getting used to the washing and (minimal hurhur) cleaning (have not done mopping), and some sort of cooking which can't be called cooking yet, and best of all! New bedtime! Sleeping early and waking up early is a good routine. Yesterday morning I went to Chong Pang market without my mum. Huhu. But in the end I still needed to call her to ask something. Not very independent yet. The butcher recognised me though! Even though I haven't followed my mum to the market for years hehehehe. He thought I was buying meat for my mum. Tried baking usin

Something I should try out, apple pie:   HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA  

Other Half is up in the air. Sent him off at the airport. I pray that all goes well for him there. I know he'll present his paper well! :) I feel like baking cookies again. Haha! Very tempted to try the World Peace Cookies , though my sister said they look like cakes instead of cookies. But I'm sure that cookie monster will gobble them up all the same. Haha. Over the weekend, I think I found the perfect convection cum microwave oven! It is gorgeous and sleek. But on the expensive end: almost $1,000. The built-in oven is cheaper, weirdly. I always thought that such ovens are more expensive. Oh well. See how. In the mean time, I can always drop by my mum's house and use her oven there! Haha! The cookie monster will greatly appreciate.

I baked yesterday! And I think I shall start making this blog into a foodie blog. Hahaha. I had time to kill at my mum's house, and I wanted to give a surprise (which wasn't a surprise anymore since I couldn't buy ingredients discretely -_-") to Other Half cos he's been so tired lately and could do with some cookie-love :) Found this chocolate chip cookie recipe from eatandbehappy . I wanted to try some other cookie recipes but they called for Dutch processed cocoa which I couldn't find at the shops I went and didn't want to go all the way to Sun Lik at Seah Street so I resorted to this simple recipe. First time trying Redman's chocolate chips. Tried the white and the dark chocolate coverture chips and they're awesome! Wayyy better than Hershey's. Doesn't taste like cheap chocolate at all, and it melts after baking! And they're huge too :) Baked two batches, the second batch of cookies were more rounded. Could be because I whipped t

Let's see what I've been up to. NOT cooking because I have mother dearest doing that already. Haha! And besides, my cooking is not up to her standard. I WATCHED TWILIGHT. Not on purpose, though. The many many cable channels didn't have anything interesting this morning. And I was waiting to watch my ultimate fave cartoon. Speaking of which!! I am so disappointed to know that it runs only for 15 minutes!! Cartoons, especially good ones like this, should run for a full 30 minutes! Anyway. Back to Twilight. Not bad lah the movie. It's not like a chick flick or what. I like Edward's parents. Such sweet people. And they are 'vegetarians'. Cool! Self restraint. Even vampires have self restraint. I threw away some old clothes! Mainly because my mum is running out of hangers. Hahahaha. Freed up nine, I think maybe can afford to free up more. But then again, I'll be quickly using them again to put new clothes. Wahahaha. Yesterday on the way home, I decide

Can his exams hurry come and go. Please please please. It's irritating me a lot :( My kek batik turned out weird. I shouldn't have included eggs. Or maybe use less. Wednesday I'm gonna bake banana cake! Whee! :) And. I'm bored. So bored that I'm bored of being bored. Bleah.