Wake Up and Smell the Cake

I wanna bake  I wanna bake  I wanna bake! Didn't bake at all last weekend even though I had three days, and now I'm itching to bake though it's gonna be a busy weekend. Hmm. There's just too many things on my to-do list that I can't decide if I wanna make cocoa brownies or pandan cheesecake or pandan muffins or red velvet cupcakes!! Of course the easiest and fastest is the first option but I do love pretty red velvets. Options options! Sigh. Okaybyebye. Oh before I go, here's Junior! He doesn't really like bananas anymore, current favourite fruit is plums and grapes. And thank god plums are in season!

Hello hello! Dropping by for a short note on blueberry muffins I tried last Sunday. Although the recipe is To Die For Blueberry Muffins , I think the other blueberry muffin recipe has a more muffin-ish top, this was more cake-like. But I can't deny this is healthier because it uses milk instead of sour cream. Haha. No photos! Here what I used, note it defers a little from the original recipe: 1 2/3 cups flour (because I wanted to finish the whole packet) 3/4 cups + 3 tbsp sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1/3 cup vegetable oil 2 eggs 1/2 cup milk 1 cup blueberries Mix wet ingredients together in a small bowl, and the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until combined, transfer to muffin cups (I got 8) and bake for about 25 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. I'm finally finishing most of my baking ingredients, time to get new ones!! Plain flour's cleared, brown sugar, walnuts. Now I shall aim to clear my optima flour and co

Had a superb weekend which means I'm sooo having the Monday blues. I love "just us" weekends. Husband had to attend a two day convention but skipped some sessions. Me and Junior was at home the whole time except Saturday afternoon where we went for early dinner and walked around Vivo. Vivo was quite an experience hahaha. I know it's family and children friendly but Junior wasn't keen on walking around on his own yet so we didn't really take note of such places until last Saturday. We have tried to let him walk around but he was choosy with the places. We first went into Toys R Us to get him warmed up, and warmed up he was! He couldn't wait to get out of the stroller! Once out, he happily roamed free, trying out this toy and that, wanted to make friends with GIRLS omg Junior you're too young, and when we carried him, he wanted to be put back down so he could walk. We literally had to scoop him up, hold him tight because he was squirming around

I went KL a week ago for a work conference invitation. I was just an observer, so it was relaxing for me hehe. Free trip! But it was a dreaded trip. Because for the first time ever, I was going to leave behind my precious breastfed (albeit partially) baby, and that is heartwrenching for both baby and mother. I don't know how heartwrenching it is for baby but definitely for mommy! I have become so used to the pattern of cuddling him while feeding him to sleep, then I get sleepy too from all those sleepy hormones released while breastfeeding, and bedtime for me is 10-ish. But being away from baby, I couldn't sleep! Like really tossing and turning on the bed. Both nights I slept after midnight, close to 1am. It was tiring. Pumping was okay, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to pump, wasn't really sleepy after that. It has been ages since I can't fall asleep quickly. The conference was good, food's good. Food's almost always good in Malaysia haha! I

I have three green apples leftover (granny smith? Can't remember) and what better way than to turn them into apple cake! And it was the best fruit-to-cake decision thus far. There was a weird one I tried before, jackfruit cupcake and I have some longans at home and I'm thinking of some longan dish but since longans are more difficult to pit, so I left it as that. Anyway! Apple cake. I was in the kitchen and lazy to google some recipes, so I checked my two cake recipe books and settled for apple cake by Tish Boyle. The original recipe has more spices and maple cream cheese frosting which would be ultra yummy but I skipped that. I didn't follow the batter-making process either, I just added as I go. Apple Cake/Cupcake 150g butter, softened (recipe says 116g but I was lazy to accurately measure) 1 cup brown sugar, compressed 4 tbsp sugar (I added cos I thought the batter wasn't sweet) 6.4 oz flour (I used 6-ish, 7 not very sure)  1 tsp vanilla essence 1 ts

I have lots of things to blog about! I hope I can write them all. Trip to KL and first time away from Junior Chocolate Okay scrap. Husband just asked me out for a short date and I ditched blogging. Haha! But just to remind myself, to blog about: trip to KL and being away from my two boys chocolate banana cake that would've been better without the banana, sadly. Haha. Is Neil Armstrong really Muslim? Cos it seems like a rumour only. And now he's gonna be "buried" in the sea? Oh wells. It's one of those stories that you heard when you were young and stuck to you for life. There's staff Hari Raya dinner today!! We can bring family members, and I'm so excited to hear many of my colleagues bringing their kids! Yay! I wanted to bring Junior too, I really do! But maybe we should just go as a couple so we can eat in peace, enjoy the night and then steal some babies. HAHA. Okay back to work!

We met a young boy at one of the houses we visited few days ago, and ohmy GOD how drama mama is that boy! I tell you if his mum wasn't there I'd go up to him and give a good pinch on his arm or thigh or whatever. A slap would be appropriate too. So this is what happened. My little boy is still learning to play with others, at 1 year 2 months he's not much of a social butterfly. But my in-laws do train him by playing with his five month old cousin, so far it's been good. Kids that age don't share toys or even worse, get jealous and do evil stuff but Junior can pat his cousin's head when we told him to "sayang-sayang adik". Sometimes it gets violent too like a slap hahahaha but he's a boy. Anyway! So at that particular house, there were other toddlers as well, but Junior was very quiet. Takes after his mama you see, not a social butterfly. He liked this toy school bus and took it so he could spin the tyres. But at this particular instance, J

It's raya!! A bit more on that when I have transferred photos from my camera, but for now! Cake! I decided to make lemon bundt cake last Friday while we were also in the midst of sprucing up the house for Hari Raya. I have been itching to make a cake for the longest time, and I have my cake flour and all ready to go. I had lots of cake choices because of my neverending baking ingredients, I could make blueberry cake, or marble cake, or just plain butter cake, or butter almond cake, but in the end I settled for lemon bundt because of my leftover lemons from like ages ago. I was surprised I could still use them! One had been zested and was sitting in my plastic container and somehow the lemon juice was still in there somewhere, and another hasn't been zested so perfect! I dug up my previous bundt recipe , and here's what I used this time round: 3 cups cake flour, sifted 2 cups vanilla sugar (normal sugar would be sufficient) 250g butter, softened 2 tsp baking powder

Raya's coming! And the Raya Grinch is back! Seriously. I can't remember the last time I was sooo looking forward to Hari Raya. I look forward only to food and yummy cakes and kuih which I will eat at one corner sitting quietly by myself hurhur. But this time round I'll have an 11.7kg toddler to handle. I do hope he won't be so cranky. Anyway! Here's what I've been up to lately. Took Friday off so that I could have the four day long holiday dedicated for baking. Thursday was pineapple tarts at my mum's cos there is no way I'm gonna do tarts on my own with a baby to handle. We managed to make two batches for my mum's household and mine. Friday and Saturday was spent on Almond London, for three households. This, I did on my own and I literally spent the entire day on them cos every half an hour or so Junior wants my attention. I managed to get him to sit quietly for a bit, but as expected no one activity lasts more than 10 minutes, so he was off aga

I am so freakin' sleepy. I have a presentation later. I can't be sleepy. I can fall asleep anytime now. On a lighter note, tomorrow is the last work day of the week yippee!! Argh I'm in such a blah mode today. I made chocolate chip cookies last weekend, and I was kinda disappointed. Maybe I should have baked longer. The cookies were not that crunchy. Argh I'm still sleepy!!

I have bookmarked two recipes for hari raya cookies! Pandan thumbprint cookies and chocolate chip cookies . That is on top of suji, my personal preference, and almond London, Husband's personal preference. If I'm ambitious enough I'll do pineapple tarts, but there's a biggg inertia for that. Haha. Now I have to plan my schedule already! Oops looks like I have to start this weekend?! Maybe I'll start with suji and almond balls for almond London. Those should last longer than the rest, provided the cookie monster (read: me) practises self control. I think I'll make pineapple tarts after puasa ends. HAHA. For our own personal cookie stash ;)

Weekend was filled with cooking! Okay I cheated on Sunday cos we went my mum's house to cook haha, but Saturday itself was tiring enough! Invited in-laws ++ over for Husband's famous chicken rice and I made sago gula melaka. MIL made sweet sour fish too which was yummy! We wanted to make stir fry vege but at the last minute our stove's spark wasn't working!! Like wth! Oh wells. Luckily the chicken is all cooked! Maybe I'll make the stir fry today for sahur. So after 2 pots of rice, two kilos of chicken fried, three times of boiling sago, 5 big bottles of bandung, we ended up with one messy kitchen but it was all worth it! I am so fortunate to have a husband that cooks well :) Then we went to Geylang after that. Ha. The mandatory, not-my-fave-place-to-visit bazaar. And time flew while we were there! We didn't realise it was almost midnight! Poor Junior fell asleep in his pram :( I wasn't in any shopping mood at all because I was worried about Junior. Any

Warning: sorta religious post ahead. HAHA. I know, even I am not used to such things :D Came to work and they're playing Quran recitation over the PA system. Weird much. It's almost 9 already! But I'm looking forward to tadarus later, if there is one. Yesterday I joined in and I'm ashamed to say that I'm such a lousy Quran reciter. Shame shame. Made so many mistakes. But thankfully the other colleagues were encouraging. Truth be told, since I've moved out of my dad's house, I haven't really recited Quran much. I know I know, what a setan I am. Hah. So I think I shall start again. I need such pushes. Today is quite the "Islam" day. Not only am I psyched to recite, I'm also looking forward to Happy Hour. Instead of the usual games & sports, for Ramadan, they have organised for us Quran classes with Ust Zulkiflee Bachik. Yay! Looking forward to that :) Today is day 5 of Ramadan. Alhamdulillah fasting has been easier than expected f

Yup made these again yesterday morning while Husband was asleep and Junior clinging to my leg (yes, clinging -_-), banana chocolate chip muffins. If I make them again, I must remember to make these few changes: use 1 tsp instead of 1 1/2 tsp of bicarbonate soda add more bananas! Or not. Maybe if I reduce the soda the banana taste would be better. This time round I remembered to add the chocolate chips in, and I sprinkled more on top too! HEEHEE. I ran out of milk too, so I used the leftover whipped cream I had. Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins 1 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda 3/4 cup sugar 4 medium bananas, mashed 1/4 cup cream 2 eggs 1/2 cup canola oil pinch of cinnamon Mix all dry ingredients in a big bowl. In a separate bowl, mix mashed bananas, eggs, cream and oil together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Lastly, add in chocolate chips. Transfer to muffin cups and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes. M

Just a quick update! I know I have loads to update and recipes to write here of my hits and misses of birthday celebration, but that will take me quite a while so I'll do a short update on blueberry muffins I made last Saturday morning. I got the recipe from homemadewithlove , and I loved it! Gave a little tweak here and there out of convenience haha, so here's what I used: 2 eggs 1 cup white vanilla sugar 1/2 cup canola oil 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tub light sour cream, 250g 1 cup frozen blueberries, don't thaw Zest of 1/2 a lemon Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl, including the zest of lemon. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and add your wet ingredients: sour cream, oil, eggs. Mix well but don't over mix. The batter will be sticky and with low viscosity. Add blueberries last, only mixing into the batter with a couple of turns using a spoon, then spoon the batter in muffin cups. I got 9 big muffins and 3 med

I just have to remind myself to blog about these once I'm done with 14 July: Junior's birthday my birthday our birthday cakes our little family vacation Extremely busy at work, and tired when I get home. No time to blog yet, sadly. But I do wanna share about the birthday cakes especially! Some hits and misses. Okay back to the neverending work!

How time flies! I can't believe we have Junior for a year already. This time last year, I was induced awaiting for the birth canal to open up, just the start of a very long labour . This was the monitoring device for my contractions. Not much contractions huh. Hence, 44 hours. Haha. My labour was pretty easy, just that it took a looooong time. Thank God we didn't have to go through any assisted delivery or caesarian. Junior was happily snuggled in my womb not wanting to come out, he was happily kicking still. Pushing itself took almost an hour. But at last, at 11.02pm, 30 June, he popped out. My 4.056kg charmer. We love you very very much little sweetheart! The energy you drained from us, almost every night of disturbed sleep, extra fats, stretchmarks all worth it for you have brought endless joy, countless smiles, much love that we all need in this world. Aww Mama's about to tear.

Husband's home YAY!! But he was kinda knocked out from exhaustion and got sick too, and so I did lotsa cleaning over the weekend. Junior is glad to have his daddy back, he's such a happy boy :) My Sundays are back i.e. the usual sneaking-in-a-bake in the morning while Husband is asleep hehe. Made a welcome home cake for Husband! Also an excuse to try my new heritage bundt pan, my one true love in the baking pan world. Just look at it! It is just. Gorgeous . Totally worth the $52 I splurged. If I have a daughter I'll pass it down to her. HAHA. I wanted to make the fool-proof confirm Husband-approved butter cake, but I couldn't resist not making any changes so I decided to mix around a bit, used my pandan essence to make pandan marble cake. I added a bit of green colouring but it was too little, should have added more. The marbling effect isn't obvious. The pandan taste wasn't overpowering, just a hint of pandan. I think it would be better if the pandan batt

Counting down to being reunited with Other Half! 17 hours more to go :)))) Absence does make the heart grow fonder. But the absence shouldn't be too often either, that wouldn't be fun for me anyway. But but but!! Am sooo excited to welcome Husband back!! I've paid back 11, 18 left. Of late I realise I get slight headaches in the afternoon on the days I fast. Maybe it's due to lack of water and food? I'm now contemplating if I should continue, but I should at the very least try, if I can't then that's another story. Headaches in the afternoon is tolerable, but my headache on Day 11 started early, like at 10am thereabouts. And by the time it was almost time to break fast, I was really famished. I do know some people don't fast and pay fidyah instead with the reason of breastfeeding. Hmm. Sounds too easy, doesn't it. Haha. I'll try and see how lah. I wanted to welcome Husband back with fresh homemade butter cake but I didn't have time to.

I went to ToTT today! Another baking supplies shop visited! I'm left with the one at TKC and Sia Huat. I was there to check out the bundt pan collection and see how extensive a collection they have. And I was amazed! Aaahhhh bundt love!!! ♥♥♥♥♥ But but. Let's talk about going there. ToTT shares the building and carpark with Sime Darby. It's a good thing for husbands whose wives spend ages in the shop. Like me. They can just go next door and admire the cars. I was sort of enthralled when I entered. I didn't expect it to be so spacious and huge! The displays and arrangement is just beautiful. I went to the baking aisle to search for pans and there I found it! Shelves of bundt pans! Omg they have practically everything! From the classic bundt to the fancy ones such as castles and mini bundt pans too! I wish I own them all! I found souffle bowls/ramekins too and it's pretty cheap! Better than the ones I got at Daiso, more colourful and cheaper. Darn. T