Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Very Sick!

I've been sick since Christmas Eve, in fact I was not feeling well since BB Rae's birthday since I'd stayed up through the night to complete her birthday.

On Christmas Eve morning, I rushed to Phoon Huat to get the baking stuff for the Christmas Oreo cheesecake and caught a cold there due to the blasting aircon.

My body temperature spike to 38.8'c on Friday and developed terrible sored throat.
I refused to go to doctor since I know I'd never take the antibiotic, so I endured the terrible body ache and sore throat till now.

My throat is still inflamed but is better then what it was 2 days ago and still have fever around 38'c.
I hope to get well by tomorrow to receive the new year!

It is my worst nightmare to fall ill with no help and still have to look after bb, do housework, cooks and clean etc.......
I get very depressed whenever I am ill........

Fear of a SAHM (with no help) is to fall sick!


Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas 2013

Bb Rae loves cake, just like mommy.
To make her a happy girl this Christmas, I've made her a Oreo cheesecake.





Sunday, December 22, 2013

Home Bake Birthday Cake

This is my 1st attempt in making a cake with frosting and decor.
It is a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and fresh strawberry filling.












Saturday, December 21, 2013

My Precious Bb Turns 2 Today!

Today, 21 December 2013, marks another milestone for my bb and me.
Yes, she turns 2 years old today and am a mum for 2 years and still counting on .........

I've set the timeline to give her strict home cooked food till she turns 2 and from now onwards, I'll be slightly lax in introducing outside hawker/ restaurant food.
So it means, I'd not need to cook porridge early in the morning for her lwhen we are going out for  lunch or dinner.

She has almost all her teeth in place except for the last 4 molars, so she now has powerful jaw to chew on almost anything.

To celebrate her 2nd birthday, I've baked a chocolate strawberry cake her.
This cake took me almost whole of last night to complete as it's my first time baking a 2 layered cake with frosting and decor.
I've baked the cake yesterday afternoon while bb was having her afternoon nap and only make the icing, frosting and decor at 11pm after putting her to bed.

I gotta complete the tedious baking and frosting by this morning as we need be in school for bb's annual Parent Teacher Conference and follow by lunch for our small family celebration at a Japanese restaurant.

I've done 90% of the cake decor and left with the last bit of decor to be assembled at my mum's place later.
Yah, we are celebrating her birthday at my mum's place tonight.

I can only take the cake pic when I put up everything together at my mum's place.

My darling girl, Happy Birthday!
Mommy loves you always!


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Banana Blueberry Muffins

We've some over ripen banana and some blueberries so I've decided to use them for baking.

Banana blueberry muffins recipe
Ingredients: 
Dry
250 g all purpose flour 
1 tsp baking powder 
1 tsp baking soda
 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Wet
60 g unsalted butter (melted, at room temperature n mix into the wet ingredient but I prefer using cold butter doing rubbing in method to the flour
 60 g fresh milk 
2 eggs (lightly beaten) – I used medium 60g eggs 
2 tsp vanilla essence 
80 g  sugar 
 3 big over-ripe bananas (mashed) – about 80g each
I mashed 2 and lightly mashed 1 to be used as fillings insert in the middle of the mixture of the muffin cup
80g blueberry (leave some to sprinkle on top)

Method
1 Mix dry ingredient - flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg powder and salt in a bowl
Add in cold butter using rubbing in method.
2 marshes 2 banana till liquid like and likely mash the last one and leave aside.
3 Mix wet ingredient - egg, vanilla essence, milk and sugar then add in the marshy banana
4 preheat oven to 200'c and grease the muffin tray 
5 pour dry ingredient slowly to wet ingredient scope by scope and mix, then add in blueberry
Note: lightly mix and limit the mixing stroke to achieve fluffy muffin texture
The batter must be "spoonable" and not too wet.
6 Scope into the muffin cups till 90% full and sprinkle some blueberry on top
7 Bake in 200'c oven for 5 mins then turn to 180'c for about 15 mins or golden brown

Yield 12 muffins



Thursday, December 12, 2013

My love still gives me flower

Yes, RY gave me 2 dozens of pink roses for my birthday!
I'm very happy that he still gives me flower.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Happy Birthday 2013

Today is my 2nd birthday I celebrated with my bb Rae!
RY took a day off and we went to view a new school in the morning after sending bb to school (we are contemplating to switch her to another school as I'm not happy with the food menu in her current school which consist of hotdog, crab stick and fishball etc).

We fetched bb from school at about 12 noon after her lunch in school and went to Itacho for sushi/ sashimi lunch.
Bb only had steam egg since raw fish is a big No No for her.

After lunch, we proceeded to Swensen for ice cream.

We rushed home by 3pm for bb to take her afternoon nap.
While she napped, I started to prepare dinner.
Yep, just like Cinderella, I transformed from a happy n glam mommy (dolled up in dress) to a typical auntie doing the washing, cutting, cooking and cleaning etc........

This is my cheeky girl who will turn 2 years old in a weeks time!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I've always wanted to bake chiffon cake but was told how tricky and difficult it can be as any mistake made during the preparation or baking processs, the whole cake will be a disaster.

With my new KA mixer, I feel that it's time for me to venture into "Chiffon" baking.

I'm not too receptive in using artificial flavoring so I bought a bunch of fresh pandan leaves to extract the juice with the help of my muscle man - my hubby, RY, since I've don't have the juicer equipment so I need him to do manual squeezing using the bare hand.

Pandan Chiffon Recipe

Pandan Juice Extraction
A bunch of pandan leaves (about 20 to 30 leaves)
Trim away the tip and discard old and dried leaves
Wash and soak leaves till water is clear
Blend with minimum water
Squeeze the juice out
Leave in fridge for over night to get the dark green substance settles.
Use 25g of Pandan juice extracts

Coconut milk 70g (preferably fresh but pasteurized packet from the cold refrigerator section in supermarket is ok)

Mix coconut milk and pandan juice to get 95g total volume of mixture and set aside at room temp

Egg White
180 g egg whites (I used 5 egg whites as my eggs are smaller)
½ tsp cream of tartar
50 g sugar

Egg Yolk
60 g egg yolks (I used4 yolks)
50 g sugar
60 g vegetable oil
¼ tsp salt
100 g cake flour, sifted with baking powder 
1 tsp baking powder

Method (preheat oven 180'c and ensure the lowest rack in the oven is used for the baking, wash and dry a 21cm chiffon tin - ungreased and clean dry tin)

Egg Yolk
1 Mix yolk and sugar in mixer and whip till pale yellow, thick & creamy and ribbon like
2 Add in green coconut mixture mix till evenly incorporated 
3 Add in oil and mix till evenly incorporated
Set aside mixture

Egg White
1 beat egg white till foam like using mixer
2 add in cream of tar tar
3 add in sugar in 3 portion to beat till stiff peak

Cake mixture 
1 add in cake flour sifted with baking powder into the egg yolk mixture and mix till well incorporated with no traces of flour
2 fold in egg white into the egg yolk mixture in 3 batches
3 lift up bowl and hit few times to release air bubbles
4 gradually pour the mixture into the chiffon in
5 use a chopstick to run around the edge of the tin to release more air bubbles
6 even out the surface

Baking
1 place chiffon tin I the oven bake for 15 mins
2 use a baking tray cover the top part of the oven to prevent upper heat to brown the cake surface fast and bake for 22 mins
3 remove the cover and continue to bake for another 10 mins
4 remove from oven and invert the whole chiffon ton upside down to cool the whole tin (cake inside the tin) for min 1 hour
5 when cake is completely cook, run a sharp knife around the tin edge to remove the cake



Sunday, December 1, 2013

Fresh Apricot Muffins

Last week we bought a box of fresh apricot for my baking use.
I like the unique scent of the fruits and if fully ripen, the fruit will be really sweet.
I've left the fruit in the room temperature for 4 days hoping that it will be ripen.
This afternoon I used it to bake a tray of apricot muffins.
But I was disappointed that the fruit was really sour eventhough it had turned soft.
I've to use more sugar in this recipe which I'd normally not.
I'm glad that the muffins turn out really good, not too sweet or sour.

Recipe

Muffins

Ingredient A
Plain flour 250g
Baking powder 1tsp
Baking soda 1tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon powder 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg powder 1/4 tsp
Cold butter 80g (can be melted n add to Ingredient B)

Ingredient B
Egg 2 (60g each)
Milk 60ml
Sugar 120g (if the fruit is sweet, use 90g)
Vanilla essence 1tsp
Fresh apricot 250g and remove skin and stone to purée which yield 160g (coarsly blend to have some bits n pieces)

Method (preheat oven 210'c and line 12 muffin cups in tray7
1 mix ingredient A and B separately in different bowl
2 add in cold butter in A using rubbing in method
3 mix B into A gradually with minimum stroke, fold till no traces of flour till mixture is lumpy and spoonable but not dry
4 scope into muffin cups till 90% 
5 bake 1st 5min at 210'c and next 15 min at 190'c

Yield 12 muffins



Banana Orange Muffins

I'm exploring diff flavor of muffins and this time I mic orange with banana and the taste is fantastic!

I've used the banana muffins recipe done previously and substitute 30ml juice and reduce milk to 30ml.
I also use 2 orange zest.