Banana CupCakes

Regular Cupcakes


Mini Cupcakes


Filled Cupcake

Recently I've been really into making cupcakes. For a person who doesn't really enjoy sweet goodies, I'm surely overenthusiastic about making them. I guess I love creating it coz they are just too pretty. They are literally mini cakes! I think I'm in this just for the aesthetic value of it!! Well, one thing about cupcakes is that they are very versatile and you can change even one batch of cupcakes into many different kinds simply with fillings, toppings and decorations. So you wouldn't have to stick with just one cake till you're done with it. Besides, it's easy to gift them away coz they are easy to pack. I made this particular one with CreamCheese frosting and added some molasses and honey instead of sugar from the recipe.

Recipe (8 regular size cupcakes and 12 mini cupcakes using muffin pans)
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup really softened butter
2 large eggs
2 large bananas, mashed
Dash of nutmeg

Method
-Preheat oven to 350c.
-Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
-In a bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.
-in another bowl, cream suar and butter till fluffy. Then add in eggs one at a time.
Finally add in mashed bananas.
-Then mix in the flour mixture (I use my KitchenAid on low speed here)till just
combined.
-Pour batter into prepared liners and baked for about 18 minutes (regular ones) and
about 10-12mins for minis. Or till tester comes out clean.
-Take them out of the tins and lined them on wire racks to cool. Cool completely
before any frosting.
-With fillings, I cut a cavity with a small paring knife and fill the hole with
chosen filling and cover it back with the cut muffin top and just frost over the
top (you wouldn't be able to see the cut after that).

Note: This recipe was modified from another recipe that I've. You can omit the molasses if you don't like the taste. Personally I like it coz it reminds me of Gingerbread (except for the bananas). :) Enjoy playing with differnt decorative ideas.

Bak Chang

Wanted to make some Bak Chang (Chinese rice dumplings) but the festive season was over by a week. Know what, it doesn't really matter...afterall it's the cravings that count! hehehe...

Made the Nonya version coz that's the only kind that I really like. Used a recipe from one of my cookbooks. So to San, YES!! I finally put those cookbooks I bought to good use!! *grin* (real pathetic, I know). I also modified the recipe a little to accomodate my time, skill and availibility of ingredients.

I didn't know how to wrap the dumpling and having only seen it done, I tried to duplicate as much of it that I could remember plus whatever I can research from the net. Man....it wasn't easy! I managed to make six ok looking ones. They aren't exactly easy and took too much time. I had to pre-make the filling 2 days ahead, soaked glutinous rice and bamboo leaves a day ahead and finally embarked on the project on the third day (or rather night). By that time, I was tired and irritated coz it seems the more I make, the worse they looked and to make matters worse, I was tearing the leaves as I was making the dumplings!

Of course, as I was at the lowest point of my dumpling making project, my grams called (THANK GOD). I told her what I was doing and she kind of told me off!! hehehe...Saying that I was spending too much time on wrapping, where got all that time, better to do other things with and even her (she's an EXPERT at making this dumpling) wouldn't think of doing it even if she has the time!! So she told me that I could just laid some bamboo leaves on a metal plate (use a round baking pan here) and place the rice, filling and rice on it, top it with some pandan leaves, cover the top with the bamboo leaves and just STEAM IT till cook. GEEZ!! Why didn't I think of that!!!! *Proceeds to kick myself* I mean, I cook Loh Mai Gai the same way and it's also glutionous rice just different filling, why can't I do the same here!! I guess I never thought of that, talk about thinking outside the box! My husband said the flavor was just as good steamed but he missed the pyramid shape, so I told him he has two choices. One, he could buy some pyramid shaped mold to hold the rice and steamed it OR two, he could wrap those darn things himself!!!! Guess he was contented to just eat them as they are...

Ethan: First Day in School

"Hmmm....sure looks gooodddd."

"Should I???"

"Yah....why not! *chomp* *chomp* *chomp*"

Yup, it was my boy's first day at school last week. It was only for 5 hours and it's once a week. He gets to interact with kids his own age for a change instead of mummy all the time. He was alright while we were dropping him off at the school; all wide eyed and excited, squealing in his litted high-pitch toddler voice. It was all gggooodd...till we had to leave... We said our "enjoy", "love you" and "bye-bye"s and he looked at us, a realization in his eyes, boy, did he let it out!!! HE WAS BAWLING!!! His teacher had to carry him a little to comfort him while mummy decided to hide around the corner to pretend she had already left. It was miserable for me, they had to close the door in order for him to calm down and all I was left hearing was him screaming his head off!! I was so tempted to go into the room, get him and go back home. But I didn't, trying hard to convince myself that this is all good for him; get social skills, friends, education, blah blah blah....all the while, that little voice at the back of my head saying, "you're a terrible mother, dumping your kid there and walking away while he screamed!" Oh boy, all that GUILT!!!! Went home, cleaned the ktichen up (never had it been that clean!!), vacuumed, gardened a bit and just relax!!! BOY IT WAS GREAT!!!! All the guilt is still there but I felt I totally needed that alone time...:) And yesterday was Ethan's second time at school, he still screamed the minute he saw me leave, but he was ok after awhile. The best part was knowing that it's ok that Ethan was enjoying himself. Yes, he might screamed initially but he was having fun after that throughout the whole time in school and that's what count (yup, I called to check on Ethan and I saw him later when I picked him up, he was playing happily). So when Summer School ends and School Year starts, it would be twice a week....we'll see how he fares..*wink*

Cold Tofu with Century Egg

For some unknown reason or another, both my husbnad and my boy don't like tofu. They just don't eat it. However as I AM COOKING *wicked grin* AND I love tofu, I'll cook it as often as I could and hopefully get away with it!! *mianical laugh*

Tofu is so versatile and easy to cook and pretty much absorbs the flavours that you add it, not forgetting it's healthy as well!! SO many pros!! This is one of my fav tofu dishes that I hardly get to eat these days. With my husband, he has no choice and he will eat it (not coz he thoroughly enjoys it but just so that I couldn't nag at him) and for my son, I'm still in the midst of "training" him not to be such a picky eater!!! ;) Ed finds my attempts very amusing!! :p

Recipe (4 Servings)

Ingredient
1 Pack Soft Tofu, rinsed and drained
2 Century Egg, shelled and washed
Spring Onions, 2 stalks, cleaned
Soy Sauce (Low sodium preferred), 3 TBS
Dark Soy Sauce, 1 TBS
Cooking Oil, 1.5 TBS
Water, 3-4 TBS
Sugar, 1 TBS

Method
- Cut the Tofu into 4 parts or edible chunks and leave it aside to drain more of its excess liquid
(plz pour away all water from tofu dish BEFORE adding any toppings on it)
- Cut the eggs into small chunks and dice the Spring Onion finely.
- Place diced eggs on top of tofu.
- Then add all the seasoning (Soy Sauce, Dark Soy, Cooking Oil, water, sugar) and bring it to a
boil and take it away from heat immediately. Taste and adjust accordingly while still hot.
- Pour the sauce over tofu with eggs and sprinkle the diced spring onions on top. Serve.

Note: The seasoning is adjusted according to personal taste. I prefer it on a salty side but it's all up to the individual.

Sponge & Me

Here I am.....all lonely....no one except blankie.....
And then.................



ahhhhhh.......Sponge....me love Sponge...me best friend in the world!

Mee Rebus

Small Note : Decided that it was time to change my blog a little....wanted to keep it clean and simple. So for those who frequents this site, it's still the same....;)

Over the weekend and feeling a little "courageous", I decided to give this Mee Rebus recipe a shot. I had experimented with a couple of other Mee Rebus recipes in the past and they all turned out, erm, gross! Yes, GROSS!

But I was convinced by this particular version coz it was just plain simple and easy to follow through. Most of them asked for so many gazillion steps and instructions to follow that by the time the food is all done, I've totally lost all my appetite for it! AND if it was good, it'd have been well worth it however it was disappointing to say the least......

And since I'd a craving for it (I didn't get a chance to eat it when I was back home last month), I said to myself, "why not"........................

The above picture is all the blended spices at its raw stages. You would need to fry (as instructed) till fragrant and add into the prawn broth with the mashed sweet potatoes. It's that easy. Having the most important of this dish done, the rest is just mise en place. Of course, being a "perfectionist" ( I think the technical term here is "anal"), I HAD to make the yellow noodles from scratch (I can't find this particular noodle here, it's Hokkien Mee rather than Chow Mein). It wasn't difficult but just to eat a regular hawker fare (IF I'm back home), I would have to go through all the hassle just to get to it. It's funny and ironic!



The overall result was definitely good. In fact it was THAT good that my husband claimed that it's even better than some of the local versions he had in the past *flattery* I thought it was good too sooooooo it was lucky that I had made ENOUGH paste (AND stored in the freezer) that whenever we want, I would just have to whip it out from the freezer and mix it with more broth! :)

Grand Marnier Raisin Bread Pudding

I'd made so much bread these days that there's bound to have some leftovers. So what do you do when there's so much leftover bread, well, I made bread pudding with it. I love bread pudding but I don't eat it often. Mainly, it's tough to find GOOD bread pudding. Most of the bread pudding I've had the misfortune of coming across are the "gummy" ones. Don't ask me how they get so gummy or gluey but it just puts you off placing another spoonful of that into your mouth, let alone your tummy. Simply put it, in the words of my two year old, YUCKY!!!

Bread Pudding is not that difficult to made, it's mainly stale bread soaked with milk and sugar(I've further it by adding some Grand Marnier for a more fragrant smell and raisins for a more fruity combination)and baked in the oven. Now, I don't know what I should or shouldn't do to avoid the gummy bread pudding. I figured that over stirring the milk soaked bread might be the culprit since it causes the breakdown of bread chunks and make it more like a slurry of bread milkshake. So I left those bread chunks alone.

In the end, the Bread Pudding I made wasn't that bad. It wasn't gummy (thank goodness!!) and it was crispy on the top and quite tasty! The Grand Marnier soaked raisins helped give a different dimension to the dish. It was nice and most of all, it was easy. However it would be a while till I make this dessert, it was STILL bread and I think we're all a little sick of it now...;)

Sunnies

Never did I realize but this blog has been up for more than a year!! Heheh...howtime flies! Anyway, one of my earliest post was a pic of my little boy (than less than 1yr) wearing his mommy's sunnies, this time I thought it might be funny for friends and family to see him all grown-up (a little over 2yrs), wearing his daddy's sunnies!! He loves wearing sunglasses. I guess he sees us wearing them all the time, he wants it too. He actually has a few pair that we'd bought him but he goes through them real quick (erm, he breaks them!). So as a belated B-day for this blog.......here this little rascal with his sunnies on!!! LOL

He was trying to keep those glasses on and trying to keep his "cool" but it kept on slippng off his bridge. In the end, he couldn't stop giggling coz he thought it was real funny that those things has a life of its own!!! :D