My All-New Kitchen Aid Baby!

Just like many other bakers (and bakers wanna be like me!) there is always this choice that you have to make between a Kenwood or a Kitchen Aid. Its a never ending debate if you log onto forums what discuss which one is more superior than the other!



I had a chance to see one of the local baking sifu at her home and she was using a Kenwood Major. It was pretty bulky and noise compared to the Kitchen Aid I was eyeing the past year. Despite it being a "Major" model and big physically, it was light! The sifu placed her Kenwood on top of a pedestal and the pedestal was moving like 5 inches away from the original position within 10 seconds of beating on high! And boy, was it noisy!


Therefore, my choice would be a Kitchen Aid! Its smaller and more svelte in size and looks really sexy with its natural curves ... hehehe. And its very stable! It does not move and inch even on high speed! And its pretty silent too, which was good cos I can whip up something late at night and my neighbours wont complaint. Oh boy! How I love it! And the colors are so vibrant and can brighten any kitchen up!


However, being a very simple me, I decided on one of the safest colors in the world. It blends well into my kitchen (ie not standing out!) and that is what I want. My focus in my kitchen is the kitchen and not its appliances *wink*.


What's your choice?

New Year Celebration Cuppies

Having had a really joyous Christmas dinner with turkey and all, we settled for a quiet New Year's eve. The after-dinner cleaning that week was quite torturous you know! But thank god for SIL's maid and Moi Cheh (my confinement nanny when I had Bryan - yeah, we keep in touch!) they helped me with the cleaning the dishes, etc. Was sooo glad!

Mom was cooking the usual home dinner for New Year's Eve but I suggested to her to cook an extra dish cos I had in mind to invite my MIL, SIL & BIL over again for dinner. They are getting the house painted for the CNY and the kitchen was in a mess, so I thought, why not invite them over again for a homely meal. After all, it is New Year's eve.

On New Year's Day, I got a bit bored when Bryan was having his afternoon nap. I decided to embark on a cup cake making journey. It's a journey I have never been before. The ingredients are simple and the method is pretty simple too, so why not give it a try. So off I went into meddling with icing sugar for the first time in my entire life!!!!

Guess what? I think I just was soooo proud of myself! The texture of the cupcake was almost perfect. It taste no different from those that I used to buy from. I was beaming with glee! Icing was good too! It was easy to whisk into form and easy to work with (no melting).

The only down side of this all was my skills lah. I mean, this is the first time ever I am making my own icing, no proper tools, nothing. I used by butter knife to slather a bit of the icing over the cuppies, threw in some sprinkles and topped it with some store-bought flower icing.

I made a total of 14 cuppies. 2 went into hub's tummy right after. I had 2 too *wink*. 4 went to MIL's house that same night. 2 more for my mom & sis the next day. Hubby whacked another 2 more the next day and so did I.

I'm cooking!

I can't believe it myself! I actually cooked 2 meals!!!! Actually it was 3. Cos the very day we moved in, we had to cook a meal for ourselves (so as to "wong" the kitchen la), so I ended up doing a simple one-pot bak-kut-teh and fried vege. Simple and nice. Chewah! My ILs came for dinner too. Have not heard any complains or tummy ache, etc, so I guess it went well.

Last weekend (Friday off mah), I masak spaghetti cos I won a free pot mah. So try using it lor. It was pretty easy but my first time mah, so a bit kelam kabut in the kitchen lah. But still ended up both hubby and I sapu till almost habis lah. So I think it went ok as well lah. Hehehehe. For the spaghetti night, I also tried to make some fresh prawn + mango wantan, deep fried till crispy. It was yummy to me, but hubby said a bit funny taste ... guess its the mango lor. He not used to having menu that has cooked fruits in them, so thats why lor.

On Sat, we went to Petaling Street to get our first X'Mas tree, so ask hubby to tapau a small portion of duck for our dinner. Got home, I fried some cabbage + tri-color bell peppers & also fried 3 eggs with some (immitation) crab meet + corns! Trying to be a bit adventurous cos if it was our moms, dont think they will use that combination! Overall, good also. Edible lah.

Dont ask me for recipe yet ok, me test test kitchen only.

Proposed Kitchen Design

Do you like this? I love it but white is definitely a no-no for me since I dont intend to have a live-in maid to help me with house chores. However, the clean lines and simplicity does appeal to me.

Any words of advise from any of you on kitchen cabinets before I work out my final design with my contractor? Appreciate it - thanks!

Signature Kitchen's Showroom @ Ara Damansara

We are not totally sure if we can afford an interior design company to take care of all our renovation needs. Nevertheless, we did go around town to check out some kitchen cabinet companies just to see what is the latest trends and what kind of costings they are offering.










Signature Kitchen is pretty known for its kitchen cabinets and now, even wardrobe as well. They are also well known for its pretty expensive prices and not-so-good after-sales service. We have a friend who had a hard time calling them back to do some minor touch-up work.






But our intention is to check them out and see what they have to offer. No harm right?



I was kinda surprised to find a pretty comprehensive collection of kitchen ideas available there. Of course having $$$ makes all the difference and I enjoyed browing around their show kitchens.






They offered to do up a mock design for my kitchen (for free) and I gladly gave them my layout plan for my kitchen (which is always in my weekend bag cos only on Sats I have some time to scout around for stuff needed for the house).

A week later, the kitchen planner came out with a design for my proposed kitchen. When it comes to designers, its difficult to find a good balance of designing vs practicality. Designers want to showcase their talent in designing but not really taking into consideration whether it works in the real world.

First impression, of course looks really nice. But when you think deeper and look closely, there are many things which may not work for my needs. White? Looks good but not practical. Open concept? Hmm .. very modern but might not work for me either. Costs? First quote does not sound scary .. only about Rm20k for both wet & dry kitchen ... but beware .. lots of things not included in the quote!

Look's like I got a lot of thinking and searching to do these coming few weeks.

Asian Food Channel

May I ask what is your favourite channel on TV?

Previously, I would only turn to the sports channels on Astro like 811 or 812 right up to 815 but for the past year, 703 is my favourite!

The Asian Food Channel is a pretty good source for all your cooking, baking and food needs. It consist of both local and foreign cooks with tonnes of recipes and tips for viewers.

My currant favourite is of course "Sugar", by pastry chef, Anna Olson. She makes baking look ridiculously easy and what I admire her most is that she hardly uses a mixer but instead uses just her magic hands. I really wish I had her talent.

I also enjoy watching Jamie Oliver's "The Naked Chef". He is such a character to watch, making cooking sumptuous food seem like as easy as ABC. Care to try his recipes some day?

Kitchen Aid Mixer On Sale!

There are many bakers (serious ones and to-be ones - like me) out there who would really love to own the "grandmaster of mixers"! I for one, would love to someday, own a kitchen aid!

Saw this on sale at the recent Home Interior Fair and both KL Convention Centre and Mid Valley Megamall over the weekend. At both fairs, the price is the same. Kitchen Aid is pretty much a controlled item by its suppliers whereas for Kenwood I guess you can get some discounts in some departmental stores it but its still rare to get a good bargain!

Even at the discounted price, I did not purchase one. Honestly, I find this unit slightly smaller than my expectations. It can probably whip up one cake at a time. Not that I whip up many cakes at one go but since it would last me many years to come, I might as well get something with additional capacity?

Perhaps maybe when I move into my new home next year, I would consider purchasing one then. Moreover, I hardly have time to bake these days and I am still on "probation"stage - haa! haa!