Wake Up and Smell the Cake

These days we are blessed to get a whole day to ourselves for the weekend, and the Husband isn't too busy lately. I've been bringing breakfasts to work, sometimes lunches too on gym days, and Sundays are the best days to prepare make ahead meals. I'll usually marinate some chicken, or cook something to reheat in the mornings before going to work, or if I'm REALLY lazy I'll just let it thaw to room temperature before eating hurhurhur. When I first began to bring meals, I'll be wasting lots of ingredients, like salads (I can't finish off that whole head of lettuce eating wraps) or I miscalculated the amount of meat I'll use, or rice or other things that accumulated in the fridge because they're not fresh anymore. These days I try to manage better, and thanks to Google there's so many recipes you can make out of leftovers. Like just now I found that you can make yummy rice pudding out of leftover rice! Okay next project! Yesterday I manag

For Husband's birthday, I didn't want to make a cake like I normally do. Was supposed to surprise him with a roti kirai cake instead, and some yummy beef rendang . Didn't have time to make the happy birthday bunting to poke through the cake though, he woke up earlier than I expected and already took a piece haha. Managed to cook the beef rendang and roti kirai in the wee hours (3.30am!) of the morning, on a working weekday no less! Thank God for my pressure cooker, which did the cooking of the meat (tumis excluded) in half an hour, and if I had done normal stove cooking it would take more than 2 hours. Roti Kirai 1 box of low fat coconut milk (not cream) 450ml water 3/4 tsp salt 2 eggs 2 cups flour Yellow colouring (I used tumeric powder) *recipe edited and 8 August 2017 and it's Husband Approved!*

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

I'm scared of making things all eggs. Some sort of phobia. Like my egg tart disaster . And my never ending fear of whipping egg whites, be in for a cake , or for frosting . Because no matter how many recipes you read, you still need to see and feel what custards, stiff peaks, ribbon stage looks like. Yesterday night, I was just randomly staring at my fridge and I decided to check my egg yolks. There were 10 perfectly round yolks on Friday, but yesterday a couple had already burst. I sorta panicked, what a waste of 10 eggs! Didn't have any odour so I guess they were still edible. Since I have lemons on hand, why not start the lemon curd project! After all both my boys were asleep, boy #1 won't be nagging at why I'm making baking stuff again, boy #2 won't be clinging to me. Perfect. Zested 4 lemons, juiced, and I'm all set! I didn't use any particular recipe, cos at that moment I wanted to get it done asap. The latest recipe I had opened in my iPhone&

Been a long while since I blogged. Made red velvet cupcakes for sister-in-law's birthday yesterday! Decided to try a different recipe, one which doesn't use butter. Reason being I didn't want to wait to thaw the butter hurhur. Anyway below will be a whole lot of buttermilk recipes cos I have a carton of buttermilk. Haha. Went to Universal Studios before that, with my family. There were too many people cos there were 2 family days there, one my dad's and another is a big shipping co. The waiting time is seriously crazy. We gave Transformers a miss. It rained too, in the afternoon. Thank goodness we weren't at at queue for outdoor rides. Anyway not much time to blog so here's the red velvets! It's a really moist cake, I read the reviews and some people found it too oily but I think it's perfect cos I hate dry cakes. I came across this when I was googling for "red velvet cupcakes oil". The tips were good, and turns out it's Paula Deen'

Finally I can sit down. It's not always that I have non-stop meetings but kinda like it when I do.   Managed to bake twice last weekend! Still have yet to use my cream cheese frosting but since it's sitting prettily in my ice cream tub in the freezer, I shan't disturb it yet. Anyway I have more pressing food items to clear such as my looooonnnggg overdue bread and overripe bananas. Hence I made bread pudding on Friday morning and banana chocolate chip muffins on Saturday. Before you freak out at the looonnngg overdue (read: 1 month old) bread, let me share a good tip for small households where bread doesn't run out that fast. I'm more of a cereal person. Whenever I buy bread, I keep it in the fridge. Lasts about a month or even more! It won't go dry, if it does, just heat it for 20 seconds in the microwave and it's soft like it was just baked this morning. And if you didn't manage to finish the rest of the loaf, fret not! Bread pudding always works!

Made these on Friday while Husband went Friday prayers. Well actually I wanted to make Nigella's instant chocolate mousse but lazy me didn't read instructions properly and I mixed ALL ingredients in the pot and happily waited till they melted and mixed and as a result, the mousse didn't set. Bummer. I had all my ingredients ready and my baby sleeping! HAHA. Specially bought marshmallows for this from Phoon Huat, though I think the marshmallows aren't that sweet. Oh wells. Can't be choosy for halal versions ahahhaha. Speaking of which, I love Phoon Huat for their halal logo! Like their vanilla essence is also halal, and these marshmallows too. Awesome! But sadly they're not easily found at NTUC, which means I'll have to stock up only when I go Phoon Huat. I wish there was an outlet near my house. Anyway, after I made the chocolate mousse, I transferred to 5 ramekins and the balance in my mug for me to savour. It was DELICIOUS. So sinful. Would have mad

I AM SOOOO GONNA MAKE THIS !!   Just because it looks good and I have peanut butter to finish. Picture courtesy of Serious Eats . And maybe another batch of peanut butter cupcakes. Haven't found the perfect recipe yet.

Finally finally went to Daiso!! Wanted to go there for ages already! The first thing I came in, went to the cooking section. Found my ramekins! But they're not white. Oh wells. Can't be choosy for $2 ramekins! There were white ones, but super small white ramekins. And pie tarts too! Oooh so tempting! But I don't know when I'll make tarts hurhur. Actually I'm still thinking what I should bake using these ramekins. I remember having one of those "I wish I had ramekins right now" moments but I can't remember when. Maybe when I was making lava cake . Daiso is evil. It's so cheap you just feel like coming back again! Oh and did I mention there's a $2 weighing scale?! Measures up to a kilo but that's quite alright for baking isn't it! I mean, $2!! Dirt cheap lah. Not sure about the accuracy though. Didn't do much cleaning last weekend, very much spent lazing around at home just like what weekends should be like. I love being at ho

Jackfruit with hazelnut chocolate, you say? Yes why not! For nutella is the best frosting in the world for lazy bummers like me! Goes awesomely well with butter cakes. Besides, I hate the buttery feel from buttercream. Have yet to try a frosting I like.

Jackfruit Cupakes - I know they don't look pretty. Made them yesterday morning for my breakfast! Once again it was a case of husband-not-at-home-to-prevent-me-from-baking scenario. Baked, cleaned all before he came back! :D I had leftover jackfruit (nangka not cempedak) and so I thought why not bake it! Was quite surprised that there are some jackfruit cake recipes out there hahaha. So I took this one from foodlovepassion. It was also my first time using my stand mixer! Yay! Ingredients 50ml butter, melted 2 eggs 1 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda 1/4 tsp cream of tartar 2 1/2 tbsp sugar 125ml mix of low fat milk + thick cream (clearing off leftovers) 4 pieces of jackfruit, cut into pieces (because I was lazy to blend) Baked at 170 degrees, 22 minutes. I halved the recipe and got 7 cupcakes. Though maybe could've been 8 if I didn't overfill them hurhur. Out of the oven! Urh unpretty. Hahaha Overspill of batter oops! Lo

No particular occasion, but I made pineapple tarts!! Heehee. I forgot how much salt to put, so I just made a guess and it didn't have a salty taste. Could do with a bit more salt. But better to be unsalty than salty! Yesterday was a mad dash. By the time I could start baking, it was almost 3pm. I quickly mixed the ingredients and cleaned up along the way, and started cutting out the cookie shapes. I didn't have enough pans to make all pineapple tarts at one go, had to reuse my big circular tin. That sorta delayed the process. But I was done by 6.30pm! Was amazed at my speed. And with my eagerness to fill the tarts with loads of pineapple paste, I realised halfway that there wasn't gonna be enough. Haha! Hence the last few pieces had a leveled filling only, no heap. I love my pineapple tarts. I know I know I'm not shy about it. Haha! But most importantly, Husband loves it :)

On half day = baking opportunity! :) I've already planned to make bread pudding with the leftover French loaf. While Husband went out to get breakfast, I quickly whipped up bread pudding and by the time Husband got home, pudding was already in the oven, all utensils and bowls washed. Like it never happened :D Amazed with my speed! Haha! I wanted to try my own bread pudding recipe, and with a general idea of the ingredients from allrecipes.com , I made my own. Ingredients Half a loaf of French loaf, about 15cm long 2 tbsp butter 2 cups milk 1/2 cup brown sugar 5 tbsp condensed milk 3 eggs 1 tsp vanilla essence 1 small box of SunMaid raisins Tear bread into 2 inch squares and put in baking pan. I used 9 inch cos I didn't have a slightly smaller one. But I recommend using a smaller pan. Whisk butter, milk, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla essence in a bowl. I heated the bowl using double boiling method cos I wanted the butter to melt. Before adding in eggs, cool t

So yesterday night I got bakin'! I really really wanted to try my new mini loaf pan . It is perfect! I buttered the sides of the pan, and the cakes could be removed very easily! Love it! I didn't realise it was so pricey, when I was washing the pan then I saw the price tag - $28. T_T I know I know, I bought without checking the price haha. It was a good bake yesterday. I finished my cake flour, finished my sugar, and there are points for improvement. While I was preparing the ingredients, I realised I was short of sugar. The horror !! The recipe called for 1 and 3/4 cups of sugar but I only had half a cup! So I added in half cup condensed milk. And then I realised something, whenever I use condensed milk, I shouldn't have added vanilla essence. Happened before with the Condensed Milk Cheesecake . Gives an overpowering taste. I think if the vanilla was reduced, it would be perfect. Another thing I noticed,I didn't really taste the cheese! Haha! Maybe it's suppos

I have to curb my expenditure. I can go on and on with buying baking stuff. Yesterday I went to Kitchen Capers after a forced U-turn from going Bake King at Haig Road. Someone made me fuming mad and I sooo wasn't concentrating on where I was going, I missed my exit to PIE. And then I made one heck of a reroute, I ended up at Balestier Road and I went Kallang Bahru instead. No matter, cos I wanted to go to Kitchen Capers some day anyway. I got my mini loaf pan, baking paper, heart shaped springform pan, cupcake paper cups in baby blue with white polka dots! Oh and something I couldn't resist - Miffy cookie cutter yay! Can add on to my Chip & Dale cookie cutters hurhur. My Miffy cookie cutter and mini loaf pan. That's my measuring cup duckies set I bought from gmarket which I collected from the post office few days ago. Sooo cute! Actually there's still loads of things I wanna get, my list can go on and on. But these will do from now. I shall ban myself from bu

Other Half got for me a stand mixer yay! ♥ Not a fancy schmancy one, no metal bowl. Just a basic mixer. One which I think if Junior were to use and spoil it, I won't mind. HAHA. I wanted to get a Philips mixer but I got Kenwood instead. Have yet to unwrap it haha. Now I can whip cream and eggs! Frosting here I come! But before that... My first experiment shall be Marble Cake using Optima Flour ! Or if I'm feeling adventurous, Chocolate Banana Cake , something which Other Half would very much prefer. Heh. Here's to many more cakes! :)

So today was supposed to be day 3 or 29 but I overslept. Bummer. Junior has been disturbing my sleep a lot lately. He doesn't really sleep in the day, and at night, he can wake up every hour, sometimes a few times in an hour. Long gone are the days I had uninterrupted sleep. Yesterday Other Half wanted to eat lemak cili padi again after my successful lemak cili padi tenggiri attempt . Haha. But he wanted to cook it this time round, so I can attend to our little mister cranky and feed him dinner. I prepared all the ingredients, cut them nicely and put into bowls for him to cook. This time round I added more red chili cos I wanted to finish them and they weren't hot anyway so might as well. And more cili padi too!! Other Half prefers to blend everything, easy peasy. I on the other hand, prefer to tumbuk the chili using batu lesung just like my mum does it. To me the flavours kinda disappear when you blend. Hence more chili? Hahaha. So I let Other Half cook, and he wanted t

I have been browsing gmarket once in a while, with Shez & Juni but I have yet to buy anything from there. Until today!!! I found the cutest measuring set ! I'm on the lookout for measuring cups and spoons, and this is just too cute to resist! Cheap too! So I got for myself one set! See! Soooo cute! Hahaha. I wonder when it'll arrive though. Can't wait! :) I wanna look for bundt pans next!

Omg omg omg I am so so excited!! You must be thinking I'm crazy to go crazy over a measuring cup, but it's no ordinary measuring cup okay! It's the kind that can measure all sorts of dry ingredients in pounds. My mum has it, but it's super duper ancient I thought they wouldn't sell these anymore. Until!!! I was browsing Bake King's website - how I came here, I'll explain in a bit - and I FOUND IT !!! Here it is, the Tala Cook's Measure! Very retro looking (totally love!) and freakin' made in England can! I am so gonna buy it!! I hope the shop has it if not I'll have to order online . I browsed the website and found lots of other things I am so tempted to buy! Heehee. Lucky thing I have loads of cabinet space that can store my baking utensils :) So back to the point where I was directed to Bake King. Yesterday at Husband's grandma's house, she made for us marble cake which I totally love! So moist and soft and airy! So I asked f

Home alone lunch before check up! Decided to make mini pizzas because I have leftover capsicum and bread. This time round I added a little sauce to the minced meat. Simple but yummy! The minced meat is sweet and tasty! Ingredients 3 slices of bread 1/2 capsicum Cheddar cheese & pizza cheese Chilli sauce & tomato sauce for the base Minced meat: 150g minced meat (rough estimation) 1 tbsp light soy sauce 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp chilli sauce Yummy yumyum pizza before adding the cheese. Baked at 180 deg Celsius for about 20 min. My first time baking pizza using normal bread, and it turned out surprisingly crunchy and toasted! Love it! I have one piece leftover. Anyone wants one? :)