Wake Up and Smell the Cake

My little road runner ♥

I have always loved babies. I wanted one since I was in university. Back then I didn't even have a potential husband but I still wanted a baby don't ask me how I'll get one. Hahaha. Now I have Junior. I love my Junior. There's always something about him that makes us smile. Honestly speaking he's not what I expected, he's much much more active than I thought babies could be, and a clever cheeky boy too. Having said that, there are things we all go through as parents, the downside of parenting that we all aren't told of in baby bonus campaigns. Let's list down what they are: Babies cost a lot. And I do mean A LOT. Diapers, wipes, milk, education, childcare just to name a few. Tax benefits and cash baby bonus are great, but it can't cover the whole expenses of course. Babies make you lose sleep. Lots of interrupted sleep. Three hours is luxury, and rest is not in your dictionary.  Babies are time consuming. Having a relaxing bath is almost impo

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.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I got vanilla pods from Paragon Market Place. $17 for 3 pods. Is that expensive? Don't know. My first time buying. The first time I opened the cork, whoa the smell is overwhelming. I expected a fragrant vanilla aroma but it was more of a strong pungent smell instead. Weird. Saturday I went to Phoon Huat to stock up on some nuts and I saw they sell vanilla pods too, at a fraction of the price! But made in Indonesia. I think it was $4 for 3? Super cheap. But I wonder if it's as good. I'm still looking for a good recipe for these pods. Maybe I should get them and compare. Hmm what recipe to make with these pods... Should I just stick to vanilla cake? Or vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting. Or pudding. Or something un-cakey? Haha.

Yes it is! Husband tasted it after coming home from a prior engagement late last night. And yes he likes it! He loves plain simple cakes like this. He approves of the lemon flavour too! I guess it kills the eggy taste and makes the cake less muak or jelak. Which is a bad thing though cos that would mean I can't stop eating it hahaha. Junior has been extra clingy and needy. Like yesterday he lovingly rested his head on Husband's chest and just stayed there. And last night! Omg Juniorrrrr why must you be so fussy! Mama doesn't know what you want! He woke us up at 1+ and I finally got him to sleep 2 painful hours later. And then he did it again at 5! But that lasted 1 hour. Not too bad. For a moment he didn't want direct feeding! I panicked okay! I didn't want that incident at Langkawi to happen again! But thankfully that's over. Phew. Family day today! That is, after Husband finishes his work. Make it family half-a-day today. I have work to do too but a little

This is my first ever lemon cake. There are lots of recipes using lemon zest, but I always skipped that little bit of adding lemon zest. But yesterday while I was killing time at Paragon and hoping to get some atas ingredients, I decided to get lemons. It's time to add some zest into my butter cakes! I bought vanilla pods as well but I don't have the courage to use that yet. Can I just add that Paragon Market Place is so expensive!! Why should I buy flour and sugar there when it costs more? Practically everything costs more! Even the items labeled "manager's choice" are still more expensive than the neighbourhood supermarkets. Back to the cake! It's just the lemon bundt cake. I decided not to make lemon glaze because one, I'm lazy and two, Husband will not bother to eat the cake with a fruity glaze. I adapted a recipe from the trusty allrecipes.com because I didn't have lemon oil. But I still got a soft, fluffy and lightly citrusy cake! The lemo

My gorgeous marble bundt cake. LOVES!! Tastes much better the next day! Yumyum :) This is my first time trying my bundt cake pan! Decided to make marble cake cos anything "weird" and Husband won't eat it. I'll try other flavours next time. This recipe is from The Eccentric Cook . Finally I found time and energy to bake yesterday. Junior decided to have a long nap (two and a half hours!) thankfully! He's still not used to hearing the mixer and blender sounds. He cries almost every time. I decided to make this cake using the mixer, but initially when I creamed the butter with sugar, I mixed by hand instead cos it seems like the butter wasn't creaming fast enough. Maybe I need to use a higher speed? Still not used to it. Haha. And this cake is quite tedious compared to the hassle-free butter cakes which I'm used to. Maybe because I kept switching from mixer mode to manual mixing with ladle.  Ingredients 2 1/2 cups sugar - divided 1/2 cup unsweetene

Yup. One of those lousy days again.   Today is Friday but tomorrow isn't exactly a weekend because I have to wear work clothes in the morning for a work event. Bah. So Junior fell. Again. One of those split second falls that you saw but can never catch in time unless you're Superman. I know I know I should have paid more attention to him and prevented him from standing blah blah. My parents are making a big deal out of it like I'm a lousy parent. Babies fall. So did I when I was a baby. I feel super guilty about it already, I don't need extra nagging. And today I'm fetching Junior by myself which means more opportunities for nagging. Gaaaaah. Feeling quite shitty right now. Husband's been really busy too. And gonna be busy for the next couple of weeks or so. I want to bake. I've been staring at soooo many pretty bundt cakes I can't take it already! I need to bake! I think I shall make pandan bundt cake with this recipe but instead of using mil

Bought yet another baking tin. Hurhur. But this has been long outstanding. Bundt pan! Yippee! But I didn't get my pretty pretty Heritage Bundt Pan that I really really want cos that's really ex, like $90+ or something. Anyway it wasn't found at the shop I went yesterday. Soooo. Yesterday I was out and about in town for work related stuff, and my last stop was at Raffles Hotel which is GORGEOUS by the way!! It's like a mini botanic gardens in a hotel! Not to mention the classy vintage British decor! Anyway. My main point is, Raffles Hotel is beside Seah St which is!!! Where!! SunLik is located! Like FINALLY I get to visit that little shop tucked in the middle of a whole row of pubs. I read that that's the place to get good chocolate. Oh no! I just remembered I should have gotten Dutch processed cocoa there! Urgh. Anyway. I browsed around, and I found a Bundt pan! But only one design. Pictures courtesy of SunLik Trading . It is the classic Nordic Ware bundt p

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

I know I still have yet to blog about Langkawi, maybe sometime over the weekend. Here's a simple post for today, what I did over the weekend. LOTS of cleaning but still lots more to go, and a bit of shopping ;) My baking splurge for Sunday! Baking chocolate, my cook's measure (finally!), pandan paste, gelatine (got the halal nod from Husband hurhur), roti kirai mould and kuih bakar mould. Contemplated on getting vanilla pods but I resisted. Kuih bakar mould, heavy and rough material. Bought this upon Husband's request. He loved his grandma's kuih bakar which she cooked over the stove with something like this, so I'm on a mission to replicate it! :) There's a heavier mould, made of brass and is $55 but I think I'll try this out first. Fishing out the clothes that Junior can't fit anymore. The drawer was getting too messy. Junior's old shoes. Who says guys can't have many shoes as well?? Hahahaha. And here's my little angel with

Last day of my week's leave yesterday, and since there wasn't much in the fridge/ larder, I decided to make bread pudding for breakfast. BUT. Husband didn't want bread pudding for breakfast. He says it's dessert. Ah well. Same recipe as before , only this time I used a loaf pan instead of my 9 inch square pan and I used sliced white bread, about 8 pieces? I could fit all the liquid in the pan yay! Baked in 25 minutes. Easy peasy :) Forgot to include raisins though! So as a last minute desperate attempt, sprinkled them on top. Haha! Was delighted that I could get the crunchy crust by using normal sliced white bread, I thought I could get that only with french loaf. Can't wait to eat it again tonight!

We're going to Langkawi this Friday till the 7th, and Husband has a conference to attend from that Friday till Monday. Bummer. Anyhoo. It's back to honeymoonland! With a baby. No scooter rides there! Or... Can we? Hurhurhur :D Ahhh Langkawi :) We loved our stay there. Very laid back, and our stay at Sheraton was awesome. Humongous rooms! Okay back to present day. I have yet to pack! How much diapers would I have to bring omg! And clothes! I do think I'd have to wash some? Games! What should I do with Junior when Husband's away? I need to keep him entertained and brain stimulated. But almost everything he sees and holds, he wants to put them in his mouth. No sandy beach for him then. And the hotel we're staying in for the first three nights giving me the creeps. The name sounds nice - Awana Porto Malai. But the reviews ! Omg the toilet reviews! It's disgusting. Like moss-gross. There's picture evidence too. How can they not scrub their floors once in a

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 :)

Gonna be on half day tomorrow cos I'll be expecting a delivery. And we all know what happens when I take half day! I become a superwoman housewife ! Haha! I have planned to, in those few hours: Do laundry (hopefully the sun shines brightly so my clothes can be dry) Make pineapple tarts for Husband Change bedsheets (and wash them too if possible, but highly unlikely) Pineapple tarts are gonna take me quite some time. It's been almost a year since I've made them! Hope I haven't lost touch. Husband's really looking forward to his favourite cookies. It is almost impossible to make them with Junior around. Speaking of Junior, he has been waking us up at 3am for the past two nights, and refusing to sleep back! Yesterday he was awake for one and a half hours, the night before was three whole hours!! Faints. But I am quite amazed that I'm actually not that sleepy in the day. Weird. But that doesn't mean you can do it every night, young man!!

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

Ah. My iTunes brought me to Hoobastank's From The Heart. Reminded me of those days I'd drive my dad's (ah beng) car to school and blast the speakers with my awesome Hoobastank CD. I really really love the songs on the CD! I got it because of their popular hit, The Reason. Didn't regret buying! Haha. But I'm quite disappointed with the lead singer's inability to sing their songs live. Can't reach some of the high notes. Bleah. Oh well. In baking news, I am craving for rich chocolate cake. As per my previous post I ran out of castor sugar, and so I'm contemplating on (finally) using my Optima flour since it already has sugar. But I haven't found a rich chocolate cake recipe using Optima flour. I could improvise, but I don't know if it'll work. Maybe I'll work with a small amount first. Hope to try today, unless my boys wanna sleep early. Or maybe I can try these Triple Fudge Oreo Cookies or Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies . Interesti

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