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!

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

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.

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!

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

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.

Kitchen Aid

This is my new Kitchen Aid mixer which I hand carried back from Mayer warehouse sales.

The sales told me the weight is about 5kg, so I thought I should be able to manage taking it via bus service.

After much toil and sweat, I mananged to bring it back via bus service as I'm very thrifty and didn't  want take taxi.

The equipment was really heavy and I didn't think it weighed just 5kg.

When I got home, I checked the specification and realised that the actual weight with box packaging was about 12kg!

No wonder I was so drained out and exhausted when I got home!

Banana walnut cake

I just got a Kitchen Aid mixer KSM150 yesterday and today I used it to whip up this simple banana walnut cake.

RECIPE FOR BANANA WALNUT CAKE

Baking tin: 1 unit of 8" x 3.5" x 3" (height)

Ingredients:
60g unsalted butter
80g castor sugar
1 egg (medium) – at room temperature, lightly beaten
130g plain flour (can use cake flour)
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
80g plain yogurt 
2 or 3 fully ripen bananas (120g)
30g walnuts

Preparation:

1. Cut butter into 7-8mm thickness and leave it at room temperature until it turns soft (it is ready to be used if you can press it lightly with your finger tips). Or grate the frozen butter into the mixer bowl and let it soften while preparing other ingredient.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder in a mixing bowl and sieve twice.
3. Put walnuts on a baking tray and roast them in a preheat oven at 120°c for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool down completely before breaking up into smaller pieces.
4. Lightly grease the baking tin and line with grease-proof paper.
5. Preheat oven to 180°C (at least 15 minutes)

Methods:

1. Cream butter, sugar with an electric mixer and beat till mixture is well combine and look creamy.
2. Add in vanilla essence. Make sure it is well combined in mixer.
3. Add in lightly beaten egg little by little, beat until creamy using mixer.
4. Add in salt and mix well in mixer, then remove from mixer to check texture is creamy before commencing step 5 onwards.
5. Mash bananas with a fork. Add into the mixture and mix well using a spatula.
6. Add in 1/3 flour mixture through a sieve and mix well by folding in gradually.
7. Add in yogurt and mix well.
8. Add in the remaining flour mixture through a sieve. Use a spatula to fold into the mixture until no traces of flour. Do not over-stir the batter!
9. Add in chopped walnut and mix well. But leave some to sprinkle.
10. Pour the mixture into the greased lined baking tin. Shake it lightly to distribute the cake mixture evenly.
11. Bake in a pre-heat oven at 180°C for 50 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked. If a toothpick comes out clean, it is done.
12. Remove it from the oven and leave the cake in the tin to cool on the wire rack for another 5 minutes. Best to serve it warm.

Note:

1. If the cake turns brown before end of the cooking time, cover it loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.

Banana Walnut Muffins

This morning I baked this banana walnut muffins.

The recipe is same as the previous banana muffins except that I added 100g of walnuts which I've pre-roasted at 180'c for 12mins.

Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping

RY bought a box of blueberry and I used it to bake some blueberry muffins but to add a twist to it, I've added crump topping.

Recipe

Muffins

Ingredient A

Plain flour 220g

Baking powder 1tsp

Baking soda 1tsp

Salt 1/2 tsp

Cold butter 80g

Ingredient B

Egg 1

Milk 100ml

Sugar 80g

Vanilla essence 1tsp

Blueberry 120g (leave some to sprinkle)

Raisin a handful (optional)

Method

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, then fold in blueberry and raisin till mixture is lumpy and thick which is spoonable

4 scope into muffin cups till 90% full then coat the crumb topping and sprinkle the blueberry 

Yield 10 muffins

Crumb Topping Ingredient 

1 tsp flour

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp butter

1/4 cinnamon powder

1/4 nutmeg powder

Mix the above and leave aside (if want more crump topping, can increase the ingredient portion)

Update : to make 18 muffins

Dry ingredient 

Plain flour 300g

Baking soda 1 tsp

Baking powder 1 & 1/3 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Blueberry 180g (leave some to sprinkle)

Wet ingredient 

Butter 110g

Eggs 2

Milk 140ml

Sugar 110g

Vanilla extracts 2 tsp

Cranberry Cheese Muffin

This morning I saw a packet of cranberry sitting inside the cabinet with the expiry date Jan 2014.

I think if I don't do something about it, I'll forget about it and risk binning it.

So I decided to make cranberry cheese muffins.

I've created thus recipe base on what is available in my fridge.

Recipe

Ingredient A

Self raising flour 220g, salt a pinch, baking powder 1/2 tsp, baking soda 1/2 tsp, cranberry 50g n raisin 30g, cheese slices cut into quarters (I used Kraft, but can use cream cheese as desired)

Ingredient B

Sugar 90g (if prefer sweeter can add more), unsalted butter 80g, egg 1, vanilla essence 1 tsp, milk 120ml

Method 

1 Mix ingredient A & B separately in 2 separate bowl (leave cheese aside as it's to be used as fillings inserts in between the scooping of batter into the muffin cups)

2 Mix B gradually into A till mixture is thick and lumpy 

3 Scoope into muffin cup and put in quarter of cheese in the middle

4 Bake 1st 5 min 220'c and then 15 min 190'c

I yield 9 muffins.

Serious Chocolate Muffins

I've baked these chocolate muffins this afternoon and it's really yummy!

I've named thus recipe Serious Chocolate Muffin.

I'm very happy because this recipe is my own creation since I can't find any for me to follow exactly.

RecIpe

Ingredient A 

Self raising flour 250g, baking powder 1 tsp, baking soda 1/2 tsp, salt 1/4 tsp, cocoa powder 70g, Choco chips 100g and a handful of raisin (optional but I like bit of diff texture n taste n not just coco taste)

Cold unsalted butter 100g

Ingredient B 

Egg 2, sugar 100g, vanilla essence 1 tsp, chocolate milk 125ml, milk 100ml (I added 80ml first and the bal I add in when I feel the texture too dry, as it depends how big your eggs are) 

Total milk added was 225ml

Note can add in more sugar if want sweeter or not using chocolate milk. I use Choco milk cos I want finish it n not let BB Rae drink since I find it too sweet.

Method (preheat oven 220'c and grease baking tin and line the muffin cups)

1 Mix all dry ingredient in big bowl, then add in cold butter via rubbing in method.

2 Add in raisin and Choco chips

3 in another bowl, mix all ingredient B 

4 Gradually fold in B into A bit by bit till mixture is lumpy and thick but not dry (must be spoonable and not pourable)

5 scope into muffin cup 90% full and sprinkle some Choco chips

I bake first 5 mins 220'c and subsequent 15 mind 190'c.

I yield 14 muffins.

Update: to make 18 muffins

Dry ingredient

Plain flour 300g

Baking soda 1+1/3 tsp

Baking powder 1 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Cocoa powder 80g

Raisin a handful

Choco chips 110g (leave some to sprinkle)

Wet ingredient

Butter 120g

Eggs 3

Sugar 110g

Choco Milk 250g

Vanilla extracts 2 tsp

Pancake recipe

This morning I prepared pancake for breakfast.

Pancake recipe:

Ingredient 

150g self raising flour (can use plain flour but need more baking powder)

1 tsp baking powder (if use plain flour then need 2 tsp)

1 tsp white sugar (if want it sweeter can add 1 tbsp)

A pinch of salt 

30g cold butter (can be melted as oil and added into the mixture but I prefer cold butter rubbing in method)

1 egg beaten

Half tsp of vanilla essence

200ml milk

Method

1 Mix all dry ingredients into a bowl

2 Add in butter using rubbing in method

3 make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in egg, vanilla essence and mix, then slowly mix in milk portion by portion

4 Heat up the pan and put bits of oil (I use Happycall non stick pan so doesn't need much oil) and place a round shape mould in it, then scope a tbsp of the bater mixture into it.  Remove the mould once the round shape is formed.

When bubbles form on the top side of the bater, turn to the other side

Note: I yield 20 small round pancake and deep freeze extras

Play Date

Last Wed, Rae's friends came over for a play date and I've prepared some snacks.

I've prepared egg mayo sandwich, mushroom cheese sandwich and banana muffins.

Banana muffins recipe

Ingredients: 

250 g self raising flour 

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp baking soda

 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Pinch of salt

60 g unsalted butter (melted, at room temperature n mix into the wet ingredient but I prefer using cold butter doing rubbing in method)

 60 g fresh milk 

2 eggs (lightly beaten) – I used large eggs 

2 tsp vanilla essence 

80 g  sugar 

 5 medium over-ripe bananas (mashed) – about 6 inches long - 

I mashed 4 and lightly mashed 1 to be used as fillings insert in the middle of the mixture of the muffin cup

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 4 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 220'c and grease the muffin tray.

5 pour dry ingredient slowly to wet ingredient scope by scope and mix 

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 90% full

7 Bake in 220'c oven for 5 mins then turn to 190'c for about 15 mins or golden brown

Orange Scones with Raisin

Today RY will not be back for dinner so I decided to do some baking since I don't have to cook dinner except porridge for baby.

I was wondering what to bake then suddenly recalled that RY bought a lot of oranges which are not sweet to my liking, so instead of throwing them away, I decided to test out this orange scones recipe.

I've done some modification in the recipe.

Ingredient:

All purpose flour 240g (but later I increased to 280g  as I've added too much milk)

Sugar 30g (I don't like too sweet but can add more if want it sweeter)

1 egg lightly beaten (keep little yolk to mix with milk as the egg wash on the scones surface)

Butter 40g

Baking Powder 1 tablespoon but later I added half teaspoon more due to flour increase

Raisin - a cup

1 orange, extract juice and also grate the skin for the zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

Milk moderation (recipe stated 125ml for 350g flour and for 240g flour should be about 85ml but I added 30ml already find it too watery)

Method:

Grease the baking tray to get ready.

Pre heat the oven 190'c

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar in a bowl, then add in butter using the rubbing in method till it resemble breadcrumbs.

Add raisin and orange zest to the mixture.

In another bowl, beat egg and add into the mixture.

Add orange juice

Add milk in moderation (think I added about 30ml then I realised the mixture was to sticky so I added more flour and baking powder.

Mix all well and make the mixture into a dough.

Roll the dough into 2cm thick on a flat surface (flour dust the surface)

Use cookie cutter to cut the shape.

Use the egg yolk with bit of milk as egg wash on the scones surface

Baking:

Bake 190'c for about 16 to 18 mins or till golden brown.

New hobby - Baking

I've a new found hobby which is possible to do now as bb goes to school, I've some free time to read up on the recipes, do baking essentials shopping etc.

I started with the basic Rock Buns to build up some confidence before I progress to more difficult recipes. 

Then I moved on to making scones and this morning I baked chocolate chips muffins.

I'm very happy with my baking adventures since all have been a success, both Bb Rae and RY like them very much.

Next in line will be cake baking which I hope would be a success too .........

Rock Buns

Recipe http://smallsmallbaker.blogspot.sg/2007/11/chocolate-chips-rock-buns.html

Scones

Recipe http://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-raisin-scones/2/

I replaced with Chocolate Chips.

Chocolate Chips Muffins (Recipes http://www.thelittleteochew.com/2013/05/chocolate-chip-muffins.html. But I replaced with butter and further reduced sugar)

Baby Rae 1st Handicraft

Baby Rae came home on Thursday 3 October her 1st art work.

It's a doll made from recycled material.

I need to blog about this before it's gone into the bin.

Happy Children's Day 2013

Yesterday was Baby Rae's first Children's Day party in school.

All schools (primary and under) were closed on 4 October 2013 Friday so there was no school for her but her school had organized a party with fun filled activity like balloon sculpture, face painting, manicure! kids gym demonstration, positive focus talk for parents and kids, bouncing castle, ball pits etc.

I brought her to the party yesterday.

To let baby experienced the joy of giving, I packed small gift packs for the whole school to let her distribute to every kids in school on Thursday 3 October on pre Children's Day as not all will attend the party next day.

I sent her to school and informed the teacher to bring her around to do the distribution.

She came home after school a very happy baby!

The gift pack consists of healthy organic treats which has no artificial addictives, which I hope all the kids can consume and a parents would also feel safe to let their bb eat in peace.

See my happy baby at the school Children's Day party.

It never appeared to me that she'd be so ill 2 hours later .......

Misadventure

A mother gotta do what a mother has to do!

If u were in Takashimaya shopping mall yesterday afternoon, you'd ve seen a crazy women shouting for help and asking for trained medical profession to come forward to help her bb who was in fits and unconscious.
Her call was answered and her bb was attended by a trained nurse who happened to be shopping and the Taka staff rendered kind assistance.
They were sent to hospital via ambulance for treatment and her bb is well n playing now!

I wanna thank all who has assisted in anyway, help or just standing by watching the free live drama.

No, I'm not ashamed of what I've done!

The ambulance medics said baby was in fits and the KKH doc diagnosed that the fits was caused by fever, till now I am still wondering what have I missed or done wrong.

Baby attended her school Children's Day party yesterday morning, she was playing happily and eating fine, she fell asleep on our way to Taka and awoke when I was choosing shoes, she helped me picked the colour, then I made payment and asked her if she wants some milk, she said no and she said she wanted cake, so I proceeded to B2 to q up for the cake.

While in Q, I maintained conversation with her, then suddenly I saw her not responding and her eyes rolled backward as her whole body became stiff. 

I quickly jumped out from the q, carried her, held the stroller and went up to B1 while my mind ran thru all the possible solutions and at the same time kept calling her name.

I realised I am not moving fast enough with bb, stroller, diaper bag in the crowd and definitely can't make it to taxi stand fast to rush her to hospital, I was thinking of calling her dad to come but it'd take him sometime to arrive from work, I also think she needed medical help immediately, so I made the instant decision to seek immediate attention to get help, which started the big calling for "help" scene.

No word can described my fear, my fear of losing my precious baby..........

I'm glad I did the right thing as I know I can't handle the situation alone with a sick baby, stroller, diaper bag and a very worried mum who may not be in her right mind in a crowded shopping mall.

She still has fever and is sleeping now.

I hope she can recover ASAP!

Note to self, must attend First Aid course to learn some life saving skills.