Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Yup that's right. Together with my sister-in-law, we made red velvet cupcakes. The first time I made them was with my FFLs at the Pasir Ris branch. Hurhur. I can't remember which recipe we used cos I wasn't the one choosing it, but I know it was on epicurious. It was quite tedious, the recipe method was kinda lengthy. I remember there's mixing of cocoa powder with water, and then mixing was in batches or something, and we used a whole lot of colouring! Like two bottles! The cupcake wasn't that special, and it had a weird taste from all that colouring. I thought I'm never gonna make red velvets again since there's nothing special about them. Then my SIL wanted to make some cos she and her husband love red velvet. So okay, I went on the search for the perfect red velvet cupcake recipe, and I'm proud to say I am the queen of recipe googling!! Hahahaha. I came across this super moist red velvet cupcakes from The Alchemist, and it was amazing!

Lots of things happened with Junior last weekend! Saturday we spent almost the whole day at home. Glad we did, cos we witnessed Junior's first crawl! Yay! He was reaching out to get my handphone hahaha. It's the cutest thing ever :) And he didn't want to just crawl, he wanted to stand too. So the entire morning we played in his room, he used the shelves to help him stand, and we did some reading and learning of alphabets too! He now knows not to bite the books and cards when I tell him not to. Yay! Achievement for me! Yesterday Junior and I sent off Other Half to Jakarta for a work trip. I wanted to try and get him used to the car seat, but guess what. The whole journey home he was crying and crying! Only stopping for a while to catch his breath. I was speeding all the way and singing and trying my best to entertain him with weird noises but nothing worked! Poor boy :( Then we went to my mum's and he was much happier then. What's not to like, everyone

*** Edited! See bottom. *** Finally used my 6 sad bananas sitting dejected at the corner in my fridge. I decided to try a recipe I'm not familiar with, cos I have been baking banana cakes before and I totally love my mum's recipe, but it's time to try something different. I tried Dorie Greenspan's banana bundt cake . It has rave reviews, so I gave this a try. Did I love it? Well. Despite claims that it is the best banana cake recipe ever, I still prefer my mum's recipe. That is da bomb!! Ingredients (what I tweaked it to) 250g butter 350g cake flour 250g plain flour 2 cups sugar 2 tsp bicarbonate soda 3 eggs 250ml sour cream 6 medium bananas, mashed 2 tsp vanilla essence Cream butter and sugar together. I was lazy to take out my mixer so I mixed by hand instead. It is tiring mixing that much ingredients!! Add in eggs one at a time, mixing for about a minute before adding in the next egg. Add in vanilla essence and mix. Add in mashed bana

I'm taking a breather from work. Did quite a bit today, a rate I hope I can do everyday. Today I discover that I work well when I'm angry. Weird isn't it. But true story. Angry + pissed = replying more emails, clearing more papers. On to happy, frivolous stuff!! I do hope my bananas can wait for me while I find time to bake them into a banana bundt cake! I was sooo tempted to make them yesterday while I was working from home in the afternoon but I was kinda engrossed in getting my work done so I put off baking. That, my friends, is a shocker. Very rarely you see me choosing work over baking. But miracles do happen and I was in my workaholic mode (another shocker). Back to the bananas. Their skin looks so terribly brown already. But seems like that always happens when I put bananas in the fridge. Wait for me okay!! Only 2 more days to the weekend and I promise I'll mash you up and bake! That reminds me. I have 2 lemons still sitting in my fridge. Will be using some

Birthday celebrations are never one day affairs these days. We started off with the Battleship movie which I totally was against watching previously, but because it's the boy's birthday, I reluctantly agreed. And I loved it! The plot was kinda normal bang boosh shoot shoot stuff, but there's humour and I especially like the Jap guy who was made co-captain! His ideas are awesome. Oh! And the part where the navy veterans helped out too! Enjoyed the entire two hours haha! Birthday boy gave me that "see I told you it's good" look when the movie ended. Heh. Fine fine I'll join u in such movies again next time haha. Saturday, I planned for a morning picnic at Botanic Gardens and a visit to the farmers' market for some yummy cupcakes but it rained the entire morning so we had to change plan: lazed around at home for a bit and then off to the market to get ingredients for big feast (birthday boy's request). The rain subsided in the later part of the m

Just came back to office today after 3 days of MC. The usual throat infection fever cough running nose combo. Still have cough though. It has been an unproductive 3 days. The pile of work waiting for me at office and at home too. Only did laundry once and I spent most of my time at my mum's cos I was too lazy to go back home after sending Junior in the morning. Plus there's free food at my mum's hurhur. I was itching to bake, and when I finally decided to (same day as laundry), something last minute cropped up and my equipment went back into the cupboard. Bummer. I wanted to try out my expensive cocoa powder! Anyway. The blessing in disguise was getting to spend more time with Junior. Doing the usual, playing with pots and pans and the laundry basket. He loves household items very much. Watching us hang the laundry to dry fascinates him all the time. And something new he did: check what's under the ottoman! He is one inquisitive boy. He loves to practise sta

I can't seem to get my entire house clean every weekend, and I am seriously considering this as part of my house cleaning regime: I don't know where to get one, but I can always make one. I saw those yellow cloth thingy at sold at CK store and I'll just fix it to Junior's unwanted rompers. And off he goes mopping the floor with me. Mopping the floor is a must now, especially with lift upgrading going on, the floor is quite dusty. And whenever I hint to Husband to help me mop, he offers to get those weekend helpers instead -_-" Not exactly the answer I was looking for!! Okay. This shall be the project in the coming week! FYI this is not child abuse, this is called getting baby accustomed to housework.

Yup I bought another one. Haha. The one sitting at home (Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman) hasn't been used either. I can't help it! Okay okay I'll stop at two only. Two cake books should suffice. I must use the one at home before this one arrives, which is at the end of the month. Plenty of time! Hurhur.

Season's here! Well it's been here for quite some time just that I haven't bought any. Today I bought two boxes, and I finished one (250g) in about 10 minutes. I could eat more actually, but I'm saving the other pack for tomorrow. Eating Korean strawberries always reminds me of my pregnancy with Junior. Same time last year, I was gorging down these sweeties almost everyday! Totally love them! Easy to eat, sweet and full of goodness. These are particularly sweet! I was thinking of making some cake or dessert with strawberries, but seems like these sweeties won't even make it to weekend for my weekly bakes. Heh.

It's one of those shitified days that makes you want to lock yourself away from everyone because everyone around you is being negative. Except Junior. Junior can sit with me in my locked up room. Oh and the locked up room should have lots of baking supplies and goodies and an oven and a mixer. But for an immediate cure, I need a good comforting lunch. Oooh yeah I've decided. I'm gonna stuff myself with Swensen's. Haven't had that for some time already. Good ol' mega burger hurhur. And some ice cream too if I'm feeling like a glutton. YUMYUM CAN'T WAIT FOR LUNCH.

I have always loved Beyonce. I love her songs, her strong vocals, her squeaky clean record, she is an artiste I respect. In the Hollywood & entertainment world where marriages don't last, her marriage with Jay-Z is a breath of fresh air. This might sound stupid but it would break my heart if they were to divorce. Then I saw this link on ivillage. I am Beyonce . Total love! Photos that are just sincere, fresh, heartwarming. Beyonce is just awesome.

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

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