Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Wanted to make chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting for SIL's birthday but the Husband wanted red velvet with nutella like Fluff Bakery's. I have never made cupcakes like Fluff's especially the frosting because I have not mastered frosting and I had disasters with whipped cream. So for this round to make the cream cheese frosting lighter, I added mascarpone. But still not as light as fluff's and I hate to admit but I guess they use whipped cream. Le sigh. Next time maybe.  This red velvet cake uses oil instead of butter, and with so much fluid no wonder it's moist. The batter was so runny too! Made me worry that I didn't measure enough flour haha. The recipe is so easy I wrote the following without referring to the original recipe! Red Velvet Cupcakes by divascancook 3/4 cup canola oil 1 cup buttermilk  1/2 cup hot water 2 eggs 2 cups sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 2 tbsp cocoa powder 1 tsp or mo

Hello!! I know I've been missing for some time, I have lots to blog about, from the new baby to recipes tried to adjusting to being a mother of two... but I shall skip all those for now. Haha. Yesterday I tried making date cake. I don't like eating dates on its own, I do eat them when they are squashed and all watered down in overnight oats. Since I saw FFL and smittenkitchen try out date cakes and smittenkitchen loved it despite not loving dates, I thought I'd give it a try. Date Cake from taste.com.au  (I always trust AU and UK websites for desserts!) 250g dates, pitted and chopped (I just tore them using hands) 1 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 cups boiling water 125g butter, softened 3/4 cups brown sugar 2 eggs 2 cups self raising flour (I used normal flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder) Chopped walnuts, slivered almonds Soak the dates in the boiling water for forever. Hahaha no la they recommend 20 minutes but I took a couple of hours because I was busy handling

Did loads over the weekend! Friday was check up day (weekly now! haha!) so it was long weekend for me haha. I managed to find butterscotch chips at Cold Storage Novena on the way back home from the hospital so I grabbed one packet! And just to prove that Cold Storage does carry the brand, I went to check at Northpoint as well and yay! Found them again! Fetched my baby boy from my mum's and went home to make nasi goreng kampung which was a tad salty but the Husband said finally it has taste -_- Haha. Nasi Goreng Kampung recipe to be updated soon! I couldn't get my hands away from the kitchen hence I made butterscotch oatmeal cookies as per the recipe on the packet. Started at like 6 and ended at 8. Yes. That crazy. While the cookies taste oh-so-yummy, I had problems getting them off the trays as they tend to stick. Sigh. Very frustrating. Doesn't help that the cookies are brittle and thin. I'm kinda thinking of making another batch without using oatmeal, an

Yes I'm in cookie mode! Made pineapple tarts on Tuesday and cornflake cookies yesterday! I enlisted the help of my darling baby boy since he wasn't sleepy yet. Junior was glad to help! Junior trying his best to drop the dough, most of the time failing haha. But I let him continue still and rearranged them later. I love my mum's cornflake cookie recipe so I tried to get it from her. Sadly the recipe isn't complete as there's no measurement for flour. In her words, as long as can drop off the spoon can oredi. Like how vague is that!! T_T So I searched for other recipes trying to see if I can sorta estimate, and yesterday I used only 3 cups flour. Less flour is better than too much flour, but the cookies were quite sweet. Maybe 4 cups could be okay too? Anyway. Here's the recipe! Cornflake Cherry Cookies 250g salted butter, softened 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 3 cups flour 1 small box of Kellogg's cornflakes, 275g diced cherries diced almonds

No mood to work. 22 more days to EDD and 10 more working days less weekends and MCs! Haha. And this weather is perfect to sleep in. Yesterday I was at home so I made pineapple tarts! The lengths I go to to get Golden Churn butter in the tin, omg! I could have given birth seriously. I searched aisles and aisles at 2 NTUCs, 2 baking shops, whole of Chong Pang and finally found one last tin, slightly old cos the due date is October this year, and super pricey at $9.90! But I bought it cos there's no way I'm searching anymore. Apparently Phoon Huat doesn't carry Golden Churn brand, and NTUC and Giant are supposed to have them but maybe too many makcik2 and kakak2 buy oredi. Le sigh. I went Giant at Sembawang thinking there'd be stock there since it's big but I asked 2 staff and they don't know where it is either. Great. So I resorted to buying the block butter at the refrigerated section. I made 1 batch only since I only had 1 tin of butter, but at the ra

Today is Junior's 3rd birthday. We had a small celebration, just the 3 of us at home on Saturday morning because Husband has to shuttle to and fro the hospital for the past few weeks and the coming few weeks too I suppose. It has been a very trying time for him and his family, may Allah ease their hearts, give them strength and patience. Junior was very excited to make his own birthday cake ever since I showed him that I plan to make a digger cake for his birthday. Just normal chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting and topping it with his diggers and cake crumbs to look like a construction site. Whoever came up with this idea is brilliant! I don't have to frost properly, and he gets to play with the cake first before we cut it. I meant to go to NTUC during lunch on Friday, but lunch plans changed, and we didn't manage to go to the supermarket that night hence I had no eggs for cake. No eggs! Luckily there's such thing as dairy free, egg free and butter free cake

Today is a much better day than yesterday. Good start to my morning! I woke up at 4am and got my washing machine going, slept back and woke up at 5 to start the dryer. I love it when laundry gets done! Then I ironed a couple of shirts, baked banana muffins cos I have ripe bananas rotting in the fridge, and then off to work with the muffins! In office, a stack of chappati with keema and vegetable curries awaited me YUMYUM :) My dearest colleague made them for me (I requested for her homemade chappati and keema), she loves cooking for pregnant women. Totally love her soft chappati and her curries! With such spices, I don't mind being vegetarian haha. My banana muffins today aren't sweet, luckily I added some leftover chocolates in for a bit of sweet chocolatey taste and topped off with sliced almonds. Banana Muffins (they don't qualify as my type of banana cake) 250g plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder 2 eggs 125ml oi

Back from the long weekend and dreading it. Haha. I've never believed in the concept of going for a break and coming back refreshed. Going for a break, yes, but who would want to come back from a break! Anyway. Lots happened! Like Junior's cookie session, and my 7th month check up (yes time flies!), another round of abdominal pains that got me so worried and got me thinking of death too later that night. But happy things first. Cookies! Wanted to make no chill sugar cookies but it didn't turn out well. I followed the recipe yet the batter was too soft so I added more flour and sugar (but more flour than sugar and the ratio got weird), and while it was good to make shapes for Junior, the taste was horribly bitter. So I threw them out. Good that I only used half a pack of butter, and saved the other half for chocolate chip cookies. Next time I shall just use my pineapple tart cookie recipe lah. Junior couldn't wait to press the cookie dough! Yes

Good morning! We had a good weekend, but it was really really hot to the point where I ironed clothes in aircon and with the fan on haha. Also! It's the start of my 3rd trimester yay! And what a way to start 3rd trimester than a dream about giving birth. Such a tiring dream -_- Saturday morning I cooked an early lunch for Husband's korma ayam brunch (yup repeat telecast), and later I made apple raisin muffins which he approves!! Seldom does he approve fruit related bakes so this is an achievement! He did ask though if eating that qualifies eating fruit. I would like to think so too ahhahaha. I've made apple cupcakes using this moist apple cake recipe ! I've used this before, in an earlier post . Totally love it. I added raisins as well for a sweeter bite. Would have been nice to have walnuts too. Moist Apple Mini Cakes 4 apples, peeled cored & diced 3/4 tbsp cinnamon 3/4 tbsp sugar (supposed to be 3 but I followed wrongly but still turned out fine wit

Love the long weekend! Junior and I made some old fashioned chocolate cake by Nigella and I cooked chicken curry on Friday. Because the other 2 days we were out with extended family. Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake 116g butter, softened 133g self raising flour 133g sugar 1/2 tsp baking powder 30g cocoa (valrhona, not dutch processed) 100g light sour cream 2 eggs The recipe blitzed everything in a blender, but I did the old fashioned way of creaming the butter and sugar together, then adding in eggs one by one and then the sifted cocoa + flour and light sour cream. Junior helped too of course :) We put them into cupcakes, and got me exactly 12 normal sized ones. I have not taken any photo of the finished product, but it is soft and fluffy, and I love how the domes turned out! Totally love this recipe :) Chocolatey but not too much, perfect for chocolate base cakes! I cheated on the frosting, bought the Philadelphia ready made chocolate frosting because I have never h

Took the day off yesterday cos my mum had to take care of her baby boy (HAHA) so I took care of mine :) It was the first time we sent him to school. We went to work cos I had to settle some slides even though I was on leave, and later I fetched him from school. Junior was so bubbly and happy :) Love seeing him so carefree and enjoying life. After I settled work stuff, we took the public transport like he has longed wanted, so it was the bus and train! Junior entertained mama's selfies hahahaha :) We stopped by the Lego shop too to get more parts for his building Lego collection. Waiting for the train to come! And yes I got the reserved seat woohoo! By the time we reached our MRT stop, he was tired so we too a taxi home instead of another bus. He too said he was tired. Aww my poor little boy. Almost fell asleep in the taxi. But once he reached home, he has a sudden release of energy and was off singing and talking again. We did his Lego set, sooo difficult to g

The Husband is on yet again another work trip. I've lost count how many times he's left us for work. This morning Junior woke up and asked where's his abah, and when I told him that abah flew off for work, he was so sad he whimpered a lot. My poor boy :( Weekend we were supposed to cook nasi kabsa but it didn't materialise cos of other plans. Planned to spend the most out of the weekend we had before the husband flew. Just love spending family time together, I couldn't have asked for more. Am so thankful for a loving husband and son :) We had a good time at McDonald's Parkway Parade. Junior was having his dinner of nuggets and fries and there was someone playing music, the breeze was awesome. Junior really enjoyed his meal! Even told me he wanted to take off his Crocs while he enjoyed his meal haha. Junior enjoying the music as he ate. Love to see how kids enjoy life. It's so refreshing :) Managed to squeeze in time for baking with Junior, 1 batc

This morning I woke up earlier to get ready and even have breakfast before sending Junior to my mum's via bus. TWO buses sadly. Same town, but at different ends. Our car is spoilt and Husband followed the tow truck to send it to the workshop. I must say, getting up early and forcing yourself to have breakfast is really good discipline. Junior was still sleeping when I was all ready so I had to wake him up. But since he loves the idea of taking buses (he's been asking for it for countless of times), he got up all fresh and ready to go. After sending him off, time for me to take another two buses to work. All in all the journey took about 1 hr 45 min which is not too bad, I reached work around 8.45am. Fatty me was panting by the time I got to office haha! Spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen yesterday, making pineapple tarts and daging masak merah. Junior helped too! He helped pound the garlic and ginger, then later with rolling of the dough. He loves helping out in the k

It has been a roller coaster of a weekend! We finally went for Junior's hearing test and thankfully he did not need to be sedated cos he sat like a good boy listening via the earpiece. Thank God. Went home, cooked lunch of our version of ayam masak merah. I still can't get the gravy texture same like my mum's. I wonder why. Makes me feel like getting a handheld blender and blend the onions etc. Later that evening, was part 1 of project caterer for SIL's house: making brownies. I decided to add in a little twist and include red velvet swirl brownies too, but because it's a bit more tedious, I only made 2 batches. The normal cocoa brownies I made 4 batches and sprinkled with lots of chopped almonds. I used a cocoa recipe from ovenhaven . Below is the recipe: Cocoa Brownies 1/2 cup butter, melted 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (not dutch processed) 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup flour 1/4 tsp salt Melt the butter, add in sugar and

Saturday boy was I busy in the kitchen! Went to the market earlier and was home by 9.40am and got started cooking! The siblings wanted chicken fajitas so I quickly sliced the chicken meat and marinated (fajitas mix + paprika + black pepper + dried basil) before Junior & I went to the market. Junior made my heart melt: all those times spent baking and cooking with him paid off! He now is officially my little baker! I didn't want to bake anything, but he sorta forced me. How can I refuse when he took out the whisk and ladle and even the sugar! But before that, Junior was busy helping me cook! On the menu for the day: Chicken Fajitas Sindhi Briyani (Shan mix) Potato Soup for Junior Potato soup is really simple. Peel & cut potatoes, boil and add cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and fish/chicken cubes in and cook together. I throw in a teeny bit of salt, and some dried basil. It's even yummy for adults! So on to the biryani! I was kind of eager to cook biryani whe