Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Since today McDonald's closed for 2 weeks because of COVID-19, I took the opportunity to feed the kids my pancakes and remind them that storebought isn't always best. PLEASE GET THAT IN YOUR HEADS KIDS. See lah, dowan to believe mama can cook right. But I'm glad all pancakes were finished! Yay! There's no need for buttermilk for these, and it's fluffy and soft and wayyy better than McDonald's honestly. Pancake Recipe 1 1/2 cup flour 3 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt (but my butter is salted butter so I omitted) 1 tbsp sugar 1 egg 3 tbsp butter, melted 1 1/4 cup milk Add wet ingredients together, mix. Then pour into bowl of dry ingredients. TADA. SEE SO FLUFFY

When daddy is away, we bake! HAHA.  Bake we did, while daddy's plane was taxiing. I wanted to try florentine almond cookies for the longest time, and finally I did! And it's almost finished now too. Thinking of making more tonight. Super simple! I bought the premix from Phoon Huat quite some time ago. Also bought almond slivers, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.  I used this recipe here , and here's the ingredients I used. 70g almond flakes 25g pumpkin seeds 35g sunflower seeds 50g florentine powder Line an at least 9x9 inch tray (I used a 9 inch round tray) with baking paper. Mix all the ingredients together and lay flat on the baking tray. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 14 minutes. They told to cut right after taking out from the oven, but it hasn't set yet so I didn't. Once cooled I broke it into shards. SEDAP ok! Feel less guilty eating this compared to a cookie. HAHAHAHA. Didn't get much though. And after the kids saw me b

I realise a cupcake and a butter cake recipe should be different after making this cupcake, cos a butter cake will typically separate from the tray and you can just pop it out but you're not supposed to do that with cupcakes. This is by far the best vanilla cupcake I've ever made, with a really pretty bump and super light, perfect for frosting. I've also made a good basic frosting and this time I really used the proper recipe hahaha. My princess has been bugging me DAILY to make princess cupcakes, and I finally got round to it by printing the princess pictures and pasting them on these bamboo sticks which is used for mini kebabs I guess? I did go round looking for ready made cupcake toppers (Robinsons, Toys R Us and Phoon Huat) but they didn't sell. Only found upper half dolls (no clothes) at Robinsons and Phoon Huat but I was lazy to make fondant clothes so no. And Robinsons charged $20 for the pack of 4 dolls, but Phoon Huat charges $12 only! Rip off. I assembl

Over the weekend, the little one is finally moving out of our room, about the same age as my first. Surprisingly it was easy, maybe since toys are in that room and she has company, and hello kitty bedsheets too. We arranged on Saturday evening, and rearranged on Sunday morning because of the airflow from the air conditioning. Kids are happy with their new arrangement. Our room is finally kids free!Such a milestone! But it does feel quite empty now, and we kinda miss little girl's lingering smell. But at least now we don't have to worry about waking her up! This is the result after the second shift Did a simple lempeng pisang for Sunday morning, which I had no recipe (lots of bananas, flour portion less than bananas, sugar, water and splash of milk). Just a watered down version of jemput-jemput pisang and with less oil. What's not to love! Mine were odd shaped though, but it'll all end up in the tummy so who cares.

Start of a new year! My little boy is in K2, and princess is starting school, same place as her brother. Over the weekend we made cupcakes for a get together and for some at home, since Husband loves red velvet cupcakes. Used a repeat of this recipe , cos since Husband doesn't like change when it comes to food,  I won't google for a new one. Plus I could get like 30 cupcakes per batch! But I didn't manage to make proper frosting since: I didn't have enough icing sugar. The ants in my house are amazonian ants. They went into the supposedly air tight container and ate my icing sugar. Happily eating my icing sugar. Luckily I have some left in another packet, but wasn't enough so I ground some normal sugar to top up. Was supposed to buy mascarpone cheese but Friday plans changed, so could only get cream cheese. Frosting didn't turn out as light. Hence, sinful. Frosting wasn't enough for all! For the first time, I don't have enough frosting! Even

Husband is away, thankfully not a lot of times this year. I have not blogged for ages!! I have also not been cooking or baking much, just the usuals so nothing new that I can post. Finally my princess wants to help me bake. We made oreo cupcakes, which after baking was yummy, but the day after, a bit dense. But the office people finished them up anyway! Oreo Cupcakes 250g butter 1 cup sugar 4 eggs 2 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 10 oreos (with cream) crushed Chocolate chips I let Princess mix them all up, no 1 egg then mix then another egg method. Didn't even bother to sift the flour hehe. Turns out okay! Maybe next time I can cut 1 egg and add milk instead for softness? This is more sinful (250g butter!!) than the Oreo Muffins , maybe I shall stick to the other recipe instead and omit the baking soda. Also, some of the cupcakes were dripping with butter oil! I drained them with kitchen towel. If they were just a cake block, the base would be real

It's been ages (in my definition) since I last baked, what with the 3 weeks in UK and the prep weeks before that. I wanted the kids to help out in some way, so I enticed them by making pokeball frosting, and also using hundreds and thousands sprinkles. I made the cakes on Saturday evening, a simple whisk using my Kenwood and a repeat of the Moist Banana Cake with Yoghurt though I substituted yoghurt with milk + cream + apple cider vinegar. The cake batter is a lot, I got 15 cupcakes + 1 Hello Kitty cake. We frosted 9 cupcakes as pokeballs, and the rest with the balance of cream cheese frosting and added hundreds and thousands. My frosting wasn't stiff enough and I wonder why. Maybe I shouldn't have added the lil bit of whipping cream. I used 125g butter + 250g cream cheese + about 3-4 cups of icing sugar. Maybe I should reduce the butter next time. Junior did the black lines on the pokeballs, he didn't want to frost the red (pink actually) and the white. He al

Yet another dessert to clear the fridge, banana oat crumble. Crumble, pies, cobblers are the best way to clear fruits! These used so little flour! Banana Oat Crumble 4 -5 bananas, sliced into circles 1/4 cup flour 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 cup oats Sprinkle of cinnamon powder 4 tbsp butter Chopped walnuts Chocolate chips Put the sliced bananas in ramekins, I used 6. Add in the walnuts. In another bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon and oats well. Add in butter. I find that using hands is the best, and after all you're going to sprinkle them over the bananas. I added in chocolate chips last, cos I forgot about it, and seems like it was a good thing too so it can hold some shape! Haha. I'm using Aalst chocolate, which is yummy but way cheaper than Ghirardelli or Valrhona. Husband approved! Cos it has chocolate chips -_-" Yesterday Junior did the first part of his holiday project, which is to cook something healthy and document in a scrapbook.

Yesterday I was on a cooking frenzy, and I stopped short of making apple cobblers. I'll do that soon! I'm expecting it to be better than apple streusel pie. I made ayam sambal, though still didn't quite get the same taste as my mum's, but almost there. That was settled in the morning. And near lunch time, I made homemade chicken nuggets for my kids. Have been wanting to try this because I've read reviews saying that kids love homemade nuggets, and also we had them on the island hopping trip in Krabi recently.  Was also a good opportunity to clear the fridge! As usual. Haha. That goes to show how much stuff I buy but don't actually have full purpose for them. HAHAHA. Homemade Chicken Nuggets 1/2 kg chicken breast 1 cup panko breadcrumbs 2/3 cup freshly grated parmesan 1/4 cup flour 1/2 tsp salt (or more, depends) sprinkle of pepper & smoked paprika 1 egg Pound the chicken breast slightly so that the meat can cook quickly. Slice thinl

Haven't posted for so long! Not that I haven't been cooking, but all aren't new recipes. This year I made 1 less kuih compared to last year, since I'm always the one finishing these cookies. So it's the usual Almond London, Kuih Tart and Chocolate Chip Cookies. Last Saturday was my little girl's second birthday. We made no big celebration, just us 4 at home with a little Hello Kitty cake :) I made the cake on Saturday morning, before we went to the swimming pool. But cos I couldn't wait for the cake to cool, I left it in the pan and when we came back, the bottom sides were sticking to the pan noooooo. But I oiled it already :( So here's the outcome. Sigh. Whipped some whipping cream to cover it up, but after 10 minutes on medium-high and still no peaks and we had to go Raya visiting already, so I left the whisk, bowl and cream in the fridge. Whipped it again (about 7 minutes on speed 4 out of 6 on my Kitchenaid) at night and YAY! It worked!

So today is Day 2 of Junior's K1. His session is 4 hours, with a break for snacks i.e. breakfast since he doesn't want to eat before leaving the house. My parents will nag at me for not giving him breakfast but he doesn't want to eat! Yesterday I gave him nutella sandwiches, a little extra than what he gets during nursery. He finished all 4, which is about 2 slices of bread. Today I packed for him fish finger burgers. Airfried fish fingers sandwiched between white bread, no edges. Gave him 2 slices of bread and 3 fish fingers in total. I added a teeny bit of light mayonnaise and thai chili sauce for some flavour. My mum said he didn't finish it, only ate 1 set. Sigh. Not sure what to give him tomorrow. Maybe nutella sandwiches and fish fingers without bread? It's so hard when children are picky! And especially when they don't eat eggs! Oh wells I'll see what other ideas I can come up with. 

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

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

I have been on and off work this past week because we were cleaning our home to make way for baby before fasting starts. We've managed to clear loads of stuff and made way for new wardrobes for the spare room (for Husband's long coats etc) and for the kids' room, and got brand new airconditioners for all the rooms! Ka-ching. Our home is all set now, minus the dining table which is still a hand-me-down. Oh and our bed could do with a change too but that can wait. Did some normal cooking and a little baking over the days, made bread pudding and this time round it turned great cos I soaked the bread in the custard for almost an hour. Soaking it prevents the crust from being too hard when baking. Oh and I attempted apple spring rolls too! I think I prefer banana chocolate spring rolls instead. Here's the recipe: Apple Spring Rolls , recipe from Crazy Mom Cook 6 small apples, peeled and diced 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/3 cup brown sugar 2 tbsp butter 2 tsp orang

Very very lazy Monday morning today. Cousin got married over the weekend! Junior was in a good mood for both days, surrounded by family which he loves. This was after the nikah at the girl's side. He was happily making this cute pose and laughing at himself haha. My little king, slightly sleepy yet still wanted to pose with his crown. Managed to slot in semolina pudding on Saturday morning, finally I got to make some. It's kinda hard to find a recipe online cos there's German version, Indian version and others as well. Few weeks ago I came across a recipe book by an Indian/Pakistani Singaporean and the semolina pudding looks like what I was looking for so I tried it out! Sadly I didn't have rose water so the Indian flavour fell flat. Or maybe I should add in more cardamoms next time. Semolina Pudding , by Liza Kassim 900ml water 1 cup sugar 2 tsp rose water (I didn't have this) 1 pandan leaf (Didn't have this either) 2-3 cardamoms 400ml