Wake Up and Smell the Cake

I was so determined to make bread that I woke up at 5.30 as I do on weekdays. And I did it! So happy :) I did one recipe of sweet bun that I learnt in my breads course. Totally love my Kenwood mixer! Here's to many more bakes using the Kenwood! I got the Titanium Major, the bowl's huge at 6.7 litres. But you'll never know when you need a big one, and since I'm buying this for long term use, might as well buy a very good and reliable one. Bosch seems good too with a huge power output. Anyway. Here are the pictures! So after mixing the dough in the mixer for about 12 minutes, here it is after some kneading using the hand. Left for proofing for an hour. Good thing I can use my counter top to knead dough! It doubled! So happy! I asked my son if he wanted to punch the dough, he touched it instead -_- He didn't want to punch it because he said it was sticky. Haha. Knead and then design, I made into butter buns and raisin cranberry rolls. Got 10 x 60g bu

So I finally did something with the speculoos spread. Made it into a cheesecake with the biscoff biscuits as the base! As usual I engaged my little boy for some help. I let him beat up the biscuits in the ziploc bag and he loved it so much! He said he was very excited hahaha. This recipe was a campak2 recipe, I based on a few websites I saw, and pretty much used whatever I had in the fridge. Speculoos Cheesecake 30 biscoff biscuits, crushed 25g melted butter 2x 8oz cream cheese 3 eggs 1/4 cup yoghurt 1/4 cup thickened cream 300g speculoos spread 150g sugar Add melted butter to crushed biscoff biscuits, then transfer to an 8 inch springform pan and flatten to make the crust. Use a mixer to mix the rest of the ingredients together, then pour into the pan and bake for about 50-55 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius. I was supposed to use a water bath method but my oven can't fit the 9x13 inch roasting pan hurhur. It turned out fine, with some cracks near the sides,

I attended my first ever baking class, bread module and I love what I learnt! I've always been scared of making breads because of the fear that the bread won't rise and I don't know how to knead. So I decided to attend a class at Zan's Treats. We learnt two basic recipes, one for savoury one for sweet bun. And we made 7 types from it. The dough was mixed in the mixer using the dough hook, then kneaded a bit before proofing. We did it in pairs so one set of dough per person. Look at the dough! So high it stretched the cling wrap! Made a pattern for this so it'll look nice haha And ta-da!!  So exciting! I am now more confident of making breads. I hope I can make it without a mixer, I only have the handheld one and my two hands huahuahua. I wanna make cinnamon buns too!

I finally did kuih bakar pandan! I bought the mould ages ago and after making home made pandan extract I finally did it. Haha. I tried both cooking on the pan on top of the stove and by oven, and the stove version is much better. Anyway I kinda overcooked the one in the oven and it stuck to the pan.  Husband told me about how his late grandmother used to make these over the stove and he loved it so much, and I've been wanting to recreate it even though she didn't leave behind any recipe and I did not get the chance to meet her. And I'm proud to say Husband loves it! Totally made my day :) The recipe is super simple, I memorised it already! I got it from Azie Kitchen , she tried it a few times and loved it and the recipe is easy so I gave it a try. 1 cup coconut milk (not Kara cream, I used Ayam brand low fat coconut milk) 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 1 cup pandan juice (2-3 tbsp thick pandan extract + water) 3 eggs Mix them all up and make sure no lumps

I made pancakes for myself yesterday, and this time round I didn't use egg but I used one overripe banana instead. Banana Pancakes for 1 1/2 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1 overripe banana, mashed 1/2 cup buttermilk You don't even have to add sugar! It's sweet as it is. Kinda tastes like jemput-jemput pisang too. Really good! Oh and yesterday while I managed to make red velvets, I only did laundry and cleaning the toilets haha. Oh wells. I did iron 3 pieces of clothing this morning and that's about it. Need to try and squeeze in some time to iron more on Friday.

I have LOTS on my checklist tomorrow! Shall arrange them in order: Wash clothes Bake 1 batch of red velvet cupcakes for office and my mum's house (just because I have leftover buttermilk ha ha) Clean all fans Bake 1 batch of banana walnut cupcakes Mop 2 rooms Frost cupcakes Iron lots of work clothes Clean toilets I hope I can accomplish all within the day. I shall start early! updated Planning FAILED! I have to bring both kids with me soooooooo I think I won't be able to do even 50% of the above. Ha.

I took overripe bananas from my mum last Friday to make cake, and it turned out wonderful! Made banana walnut muffins and once again I used another recipe (hurhur) and this time I promise I will not look for any other banana cake recipes huahuahua. Cos this one is husband approved! I like this one because it uses oil instead of butter and less than my mum's banana bread. I added 2 splashes (haha what a unit of measurement) of buttermilk to make it moist and fluffy. Banana Walnut Muffins from Tyler Florence 3/4 cup oil (they used melted butter) 2 cups flour 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda 1 cup sugar 1 bowl mashed overripe bananas (5 pieces) 2 eggs 2 splashes haha of buttermilk, maybe about 1/3 cup chopped walnuts In the big bowl, mix together flour, bicarbonate soda and sugar. Mix the wet ingredients together: oil, eggs and buttermilk. Buttermilk should be added here but when I was doing, I added in last because the batter was thick and I wanted i

Yay! So happy haha. Like finally I can make pancakes. So before I forget! I shall jot down the recipe! And best thing is it's for 1 (very hungry) person so no leftovers! Recipe from allrecipes 1/2 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking powder  1/4 tsp baking soda  1 1/2 tsp sugar 1 small egg 1/2 cup buttermilk + milk, fill up almost 1/2 cup buttermilk then top up with milk abt 1 cm deep Ta-da!! Slather with butter and drizzle with honey. Absolutely yummy :)

Wanted to make chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting for SIL's birthday but the Husband wanted red velvet with nutella like Fluff Bakery's. I have never made cupcakes like Fluff's especially the frosting because I have not mastered frosting and I had disasters with whipped cream. So for this round to make the cream cheese frosting lighter, I added mascarpone. But still not as light as fluff's and I hate to admit but I guess they use whipped cream. Le sigh. Next time maybe.  This red velvet cake uses oil instead of butter, and with so much fluid no wonder it's moist. The batter was so runny too! Made me worry that I didn't measure enough flour haha. The recipe is so easy I wrote the following without referring to the original recipe! Red Velvet Cupcakes by divascancook 3/4 cup canola oil 1 cup buttermilk  1/2 cup hot water 2 eggs 2 cups sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 2 tbsp cocoa powder 1 tsp or mo

Hello!! I know I've been missing for some time, I have lots to blog about, from the new baby to recipes tried to adjusting to being a mother of two... but I shall skip all those for now. Haha. Yesterday I tried making date cake. I don't like eating dates on its own, I do eat them when they are squashed and all watered down in overnight oats. Since I saw FFL and smittenkitchen try out date cakes and smittenkitchen loved it despite not loving dates, I thought I'd give it a try. Date Cake from taste.com.au  (I always trust AU and UK websites for desserts!) 250g dates, pitted and chopped (I just tore them using hands) 1 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 cups boiling water 125g butter, softened 3/4 cups brown sugar 2 eggs 2 cups self raising flour (I used normal flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder) Chopped walnuts, slivered almonds Soak the dates in the boiling water for forever. Hahaha no la they recommend 20 minutes but I took a couple of hours because I was busy handling

Yes I know I've been gone for ages!! Junior #2 came out 12 days early, and I haven't really been using the computer haha. I'm blogging from my phone now. Have been trying out some recipes baking and cooking, but I can't remember all of them anymore. So before I forget! Here's my lunch for today. Super simple and fast, this is really a meal under 30 minutes.  I have been trying to use up leftover bits here and there, and I have oranges which I thought I'd save for orange butter cake but I just made apple muffins (recipe is apple cupcakes in my list) few days ago.  Orange Honey Soy Chicken Recipe from Allrecipes.com;  http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/230660/orange-honey-and-soy-chicken 400g chicken breast (works with any boneless chicken) 1 tbsp ginger paste 1 tbsp garlic paste 1 onion, finely sliced (I added this) 1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup soy sauce (I reduced by 2 tbsp) Juice of 2 oranges  Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes. Fry the onions until fragrant, then the ging

Did loads over the weekend! Friday was check up day (weekly now! haha!) so it was long weekend for me haha. I managed to find butterscotch chips at Cold Storage Novena on the way back home from the hospital so I grabbed one packet! And just to prove that Cold Storage does carry the brand, I went to check at Northpoint as well and yay! Found them again! Fetched my baby boy from my mum's and went home to make nasi goreng kampung which was a tad salty but the Husband said finally it has taste -_- Haha. Nasi Goreng Kampung recipe to be updated soon! I couldn't get my hands away from the kitchen hence I made butterscotch oatmeal cookies as per the recipe on the packet. Started at like 6 and ended at 8. Yes. That crazy. While the cookies taste oh-so-yummy, I had problems getting them off the trays as they tend to stick. Sigh. Very frustrating. Doesn't help that the cookies are brittle and thin. I'm kinda thinking of making another batch without using oatmeal, an

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

No mood to work. 22 more days to EDD and 10 more working days less weekends and MCs! Haha. And this weather is perfect to sleep in. Yesterday I was at home so I made pineapple tarts! The lengths I go to to get Golden Churn butter in the tin, omg! I could have given birth seriously. I searched aisles and aisles at 2 NTUCs, 2 baking shops, whole of Chong Pang and finally found one last tin, slightly old cos the due date is October this year, and super pricey at $9.90! But I bought it cos there's no way I'm searching anymore. Apparently Phoon Huat doesn't carry Golden Churn brand, and NTUC and Giant are supposed to have them but maybe too many makcik2 and kakak2 buy oredi. Le sigh. I went Giant at Sembawang thinking there'd be stock there since it's big but I asked 2 staff and they don't know where it is either. Great. So I resorted to buying the block butter at the refrigerated section. I made 1 batch only since I only had 1 tin of butter, but at the ra

Yesterday night I was still on my hardworking cook streak and so I fried laksa mum's style to be eaten with marinated chicken wings this morning. I always prepare sahur the night before because I know I can't bear to wake up at 4 to cook in a rush. Haha. My mum's laksa goreng is something like bee hoon goreng taucho, and I love it a lot. Got the recipe from her and this is the second time I'm making them. The first time I didn't have taucho and it was a little too salty. This time round although I have taucho I still didn't have vegetables haha. Oh wells. A better try than the first, but still not perfect yet! Laksa Goreng Taucho 420g laksa noodles (because the packet is in 420g haha), washed 1 onion, sliced 4 tbsp chili paste 2-3 tbsp taucho, try not to take the water, just the beans 1 sq cm belacan 1 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp udang kering, soaked for a while Prawns. scrambled eggs (3) and sliced fishballs Tumbuk the taucho, belacan and udang kering u

Am very sleepy and cranky because I don't get enough sleep and my eyes are dry. Yesterday we had a small celebration for Junior at my mum's house. He loved it :) He loves anything to do with cake and candles hahaha. I'm making it a point to make either a smoothie or overnight oats for sahur daily for extra energy and to force myself to eat 3 ajwa dates daily. I don't like dates because they are too sweet, but when paired up with oats and/or milk, they become tasty! So far I tried the following combinations: ground almond + milk + dates quickcook oats + milk + dates banana + milk + slivered almonds + dates all blended together. The last one is my current fave! Super yummy! I still have some bananas left so I'm gonna make more banana smoothies. Maybe add in chocolate and oats this time round hurhur. Banana oatmeal peanut butter smoothie sounds nice too. I'm so excited at the endless smoothie possibilities! Best of all no sugar needed! Okay back to

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