Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

My first ever attempt at red velvet cupcakes!

 

Hokkaido Cake

This is Maya's favorite cake. A little on the sinful side, but definitely a recipe to keep. I was in such a rush to clean up after baking, that I forgot to clean the sides of the cupcake before taking a picture of them. I have to admit I was dead nervous about making them as this is my first ever attempt. As usual, I got everything from JADI, our favorite baking shop. http://jadi.westrock2u.com/601867354/index.html

 

Sinful Tarts Fun

Items: Tart shells, whipped cream, graham honey teddies, candied cherries, Reese peanut butter chips, stars sprinkles and cheddar cheese.

Method: Fill each tart shell with whipped cream and start decorating. :) That's how simple this activity is. A little sinful on the ingredients, but I guess if it's a once in a blue moon thing, it should be alright. Maya had lots of fun making these tarts. She was so proud of her little tarts she kept telling mummy she made them. And with her daddy's gene, she just couldn't help eating the ingredients while she was making them, especially the cheese.

Microwave Potato Chips

I was browsing my usual recipe hunting site when I stumbled on to this. Out of curiosity, I attempted it and it worked. Delicious too! Well.... A bit sinful though. The actual recipe can be found here : http://allrecipes.com/recipe/potato-chips/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=potato%20chips&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20Hub

The only difference is, I followed one of the commenter's advice and coat the chips individually. :)

Home Made Playdough

The original recipe can be found here : http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Playdough-Play-doh/

 

Items needed : 2 cups flour + 1 tablespoon cream of tartar = sieve together . 2 cups warm water + 1 cup salt = mix in together and stir to dilute as much salt into the water. 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil and a non stick pan.

Mix in the sieved ingredients, salt water and vegetable oil together. After the ingredients have been thoroughly mix, sieve them to remove any lumps.

Heat up the pan and pour in the mixture. Remember to stir constantly to prevent burning. It will harden into Playdough pretty fast. Remove from pan and leave to cool. You can add in coloring if you want but I decided to leave mine plain this time so that I can mix into my original Playdough which are already partially harden. :)

 

 

Instant Pastry Fun

Maya made her own tea time snack today. Healthy, fun and very easy to do. All you need are: baking tray, baking paper, pastry brush, cookie cutter, cup, an egg and ready made puff pastry. Lay the baking tray with baking paper, and start cutting the pastry with the cookie cutter. Put all the cut pastries on the baking tray. In the cup, break an egg and beat slightly. Brush the egg mixture onto the surface of the cut pastries. Put them to bake in the oven as per the instruction on the packet. And if you have extra sheet of the puff pastry, you can experiment with it, like what Maya and I did. Cheesy banana puff pastry. I could not believe it when I saw Maya nearly finish a whole tray all by herself!

 

Lollipop Soap

When I was making the second batch of soap for my family the other day, I decided to be more adventurous and made them into lollipop shapes. In fact, they actually smells good too.

Teddy Bear Biscuit

Just the other day, I stumbled upon teddy bear cookie cutters in the bargain bin while doing grocery shopping. Maya has been eyeing to use it for quite a while now. Since I had extra baby cereal, I decided to make baby cereal biscuits. Though tired, Maya was enthusiastic about making teddy bear biscuits. As usual, I prepared some snacks for her. This time around, it was homemade milk Popsicle. Luckily I made extra because she ended up eating 3. While waiting for her biscuits to bake, she decided to do her own " cooking ", inspired by her baking session with mummy.

Maya Met a Magician, Roysen Roy

We went to Sunway Pyramid the other day and coincidentally, we stumbled upon a magician, Roysen Roy. Maya was so smitten by his magic act that she insisted we went back to see him the second time. I was was quite sheepish about it as I didn't want to appear as a stalker. Thank goodness he was a charming magician and obliged to our request for photo shoot . Maya was so excited when he gave her a signed poster of himself. She took it with her throughout all of our trip until I bought her a pet hermit crab. One might ask me why a hermit crab? Well little girl has been asking for a " snap snap " crab for the longest of time. So after

consulting with the in house pet adviser from the pet shop, we decided that it's pretty easy to have one. Initially we wanted to call the crab 'Sebastian', but after a few try to get Maya to call it by it's name, she insisted that it's a crab..... not a Sebastian. So.... meet 'Crab', the hermit crab.

And just to make this blog entry a little lengthier, this is what I cooked for dinner. Garlic mussels on grilled Dutch egg plants, stir fried mushrooms in miso paste and lotus root soup. :)

 

Sarawak Laksa

I started making my own Sarawak Laksa when I moved to KL. I realized that, my mum can't possibly be here with me all the time and I can't find any good Sarawak Laksa here. Perhaps it's due to the fact that it's not very popular in West Malaysia when compared to Penang Asam Laksa. It's actually not that difficult, just tedious as it involves a lot of steps and hardwork.

Other than the mandatory Sarawak Sambal Laksa paste, one of the important part of the Laksa is the broth. The sweetness of the soup depends highly on how you make the broth. There are many ways to make this, but for me, I like to use chicken and fish broth boiled with a few stalks of bruised lemongrass. And when the broth is ready, I bring it to boiling point to cook the prawns and chicken breast. Remember to shred the chicken breast and remove the shells of the prawns.

When all that is done, it's time to add in the paste and if you like it a little spicier, some dried chillies. Bring it to boiling point before adding in the coconut milk. I like to add in a little bit of coconut cream and shrimp paste as well. If you like a simpler and plainer Sarawak Laksa, just take the label on the sambal laksa packaging out, and the basic methods are print at the back of it.

Remember to chop the coriander leaves for garnishing. But if you can find daun Laksa, that will be even better. Scald the large rice vermicelli as per instructions, or until it's al dente. Remember to run them under running cold water to stop the cooking process. To prevent them from sticking together, rub some cooking oil on them. Scald the bean sprouts and run them through cold water too.

Fry the eggs and slice them into strips. To make the eggs, beat a few eggs with a fork after adding salt and some fish sauce. Shred the chicken breast. Cut the Madeleine limes. Pound the shrimp paste. For the shrimp paste, I like to pound it with the dried chillies which I used to cook the soup. Remember to press the oil out from the chillies into the shrimp paste with a fork before pounding them with mortar and pestle.

Stir fry the shrimp paste until it becomes crumbly. A final touch, is to add back some of the chilli oil which has formed on top of the soup to the shrimp paste which you have just fried. In corporate them well. All that's left to do is to assemble all these in a bowl. Rice vermicelli at the bottom of the bowl. Pour in the soup. Arrange the shredded chicken breast, shelled prawns, scalded bean sprout, sliced egg, chopped coriander and Madeleine lime on top. Press the juice of the lime into your bowl of Laksa before eating. For a more fragrant Laksa, leave half a pressed Madeleine lime's skin in your bowl. There you have it. A simple bowl of Sarawak Laksa!..... Not so simple after all :P

 

Homemade Facial Soap

Today, I managed to make my first batch of homemade soap by myself. The last one I made was at a soap making class. Maya loved it so much because it was in the shape of one of her favorite character : Mickey Mouse. I had to negotiate with her to come out from her bath and leave Mickey the soap in the bathroom. Trust me, that was not an easy task. Well, this time around, I thought of giving this flower mould a try. I am so glad that there are no bubbles in there, thanks to the great tips and teachings from teacher Suumey, Puuuvsoap (http://puuuvsoap.com/site_en/index.php?cat=1).

Banana Walnut Bread

There were a bunch of bananas sitting in the kitchen today. Not looking their freshest, with a few dark spots forming on their skin already, I decided to turn them into a banana walnut bread. I got the recipe from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/janets-rich-banana-bread/detail.aspx . After reading all the comments posted, I decided to add another teaspoon of vanilla essence and a teaspoon of banana essence. As for the bananas, I put them in a resealable plastic bag in the fridge for 12 hours and let it sweat before taking them out. Do let the bananas warm up to room temperature before mashing them with a fork. This is seriously one of the best banana bread recipe I have ever stumbled upon. :)

Bundt Cake

My first ever bundt cake!

Baking with Mummy

Baking with Maya was definitely very fun, but I have to admit, it was a little more messy than usual as well. She loved it, and when the cookies came out from the oven, she pointed to herself and said," Make!"

Paper Punching when Mummy is Baking

I have to admit that it's really hard to do any baking or cooking when you have a 1-year-old tugging at your legs. So instead of fretting over it, I usually just open up a small make shift table in the kitchen and ensure that Maya has her drinks and snacks there. Oh, and her little DVD player. I will take some time off when allowed by the recipes, and do some simple activity with her. At least with this method, I get to watch over her, while she still gets some space to play on her own. And of course, enough attention showered on her so she let's me do my things.

Seaweed Crisps and Orange Cake

One of Maya's favorite food, seaweed crisps! I had to learn to make this from my sister as it finishes relatively fast. And the orange cake, well, I baked it for my dad's tea time.