My New Obsession - Pop cakes!!

Yeah, I know that I'm waaayyyyyy behind the current trend, but I just caught the pop cakes craze. A chocolate cake lollipop? Bursting with chocolatey flavours inside the mouth? Pure bliss, I must say :).

These are chocolate pop cakes and will make a really nice party favours. Feel free to email me should you need more details.

Free Editing Software online - I like!!

Okay, so I may not be the first to discover this totally wonderful online photo editing software, but I'm spreading the love. Go to http://www.picnik.com and you can edit your pictures for free.

Of course, to get your hands and all the amazing tools such as airbrush and all the nice frames and stickers, you'll have to subscribe BUT the free tools they offer are good enough for me. And no registration is required. AWESOME!

Here's what I did for today:

Cuppy Cakesey

My venture into the cupcake business started in March 2008. I was determined, I was focused and I was driven. A good friend ordered 1000 cuppies as her wedding favour and I was all excited. I bought all the necessary stuffs, began perfecting my methods and recipe. Boy, I was like the master baker at home. But then, slowly I begin to realize I HATED the smell of butter. I CAN'T STAND IT. It makes me gag and just the thought of creaming butter with sugar makes me want to throw up.

Yup, apparently being pregnant does that to you. But, what was I to do with all the butter, sugar, flour and cocoa?? And besides, I promise I'd make her wedding favours. Luckily, I have a very supportive family and a very wonderful sister who took two days off to help me. Even my dad helped out by piping the icing on the cupcakes. Sorry, no pics, I lost all my pics due to some stupid robbers who broke into our house and stole my hubby's laptop, digital camera, PS2 and MY WEDDING RING! Two days of baking reduced me into a very pitiful state, I lost count of how many times I puked. But, still we managed to deliver all 1000 cupcakes as promised.

After that episode, I thought I was cured from all the cupcake nausea. But boy, was I wrong. I gag even at the sound of my trustworthy mixer. I can't even smell butter, heck I can't even say the word butter or cupcake without gagging. Once, I had to decorate cupcakes for my sister's office, I had her bake all the cupcake and put the icing into the piping bag. All that was left for me to do is decorate the cupcake with the ready-made icing bag. But, just one whiff of the buttery smell of the buttercream icing sent me running to the toilet, gagging and puking.

After giving birth, I was lazy hesitant to start baking again. But, I really wanted to give cupcakes as Sara's cukur jambul favours. So, I braced myself and made 100 individual cupcakes. Since then, I've started venturing into the magical world of cupcakes again, but with not so much enthusiasm as before. I've only taken orders from friends, families, office colleagues and friends of friends.

My pricing is fairly moderate. I charge RM30++ for one box of cupcake (25 small cuppies or 16 large cuppies). If my memory serves me right, I have been taking about 30+ orders since I gave birth. Not much, but enough to make me love baking again. I especially love making orders for cukur jambul ceremony. I love making cute booties for cupcakes and baby designs are just too cute.

The reason for this loonnggg post? Well, after much thought, I decided to share the cupcake story here, as part of my achievement in life (yes, I do count baking cupcakes as an achievement. Haha!) I love how a small tiny cake can ignite such a magical response from my clients. These are the only pictures I have as I ALWAYS forgot to snap them before delivering them to my clients.

engagement favours and hantaran for this lovely bride-to-be

cukur jambul cuppies. my favourite kind of cupcakes :)

Roti Naik!! (Rising Bun?)

Back in my years at Johore, one of my favourite dish is "roti naik". It is a soft sweet bun with a very fluffy texture. I've been trying a few recipes, tweaking here and there and although I can never claim that this recipe will result to the accurate taste of the original roti naik recipe, it's pretty close in terms of taste and texture.

Disclaimer : the recipe below is my own modification based on here and here. I like my measurement to be in cups rater than all the confusing grams and whatnot. Hee...

3 3/4 cups high protein flour OR bread flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 packet (11gm) of dry active yeast (Mauri-Pan)
3/4 teaspoon bread improver
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg - lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup water (room temperature)
1/2 cup butter

Whisk flour, yeast, bread improver and sugar in a large bowl. Pour beaten egg and vanilla essence and stir with a wooden spoon. Pour condensed milk and water, stir until all the ingredient is incorporated.

Put the butter in microwave for 15 second, or until just enough to soften it. It doesn't have to be melted completrly into liquid form. Add the butter in four stages, kneading after each stage. You may not need to add the last 1/4 of butter if the dough can hold its shape and is smooth.

Now, this kneading step is very important. I am no expert baker, nor do I have any knowledge on how to knead correctly. So, what I did was turn on the TV, watch whatever is airing, and knead until three commercials interval (approximately half an hour). Oh, feel free to add another 1/4 - 1/2 cup of flour if the dough is too sticky. (I wouldn't recommend it though, may harden your bun)

When you have done with the kneading, form the dough into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and let it rise until double in size (approximately 45 minutes)

In the mean time, grease a pan generously with butter. After 45 minutes, take the dough out and punch the big ball like you would punch your ex-boyfriend. Keep punching to let all your anger the air out.

Divide into small balls, arrange in the greased pan and cover with damp cloth and let it rise for another hour or so. Bake in oven at 190 degree celcius for 15 to 20 minutes.
As soon as the hot bun pops out of the oven, brush the top with the extra butter.

I baked this yesterday, after work and by 10pm, everybody is enjoying the fluffy treat as supper. Will definitely make them again. And again.

P/S : I will put more picture of the process when I make these bun again.

Sara : 15 months

Sara is 15 months! And Mummy is super lazy to update her blog. Hehe. Anyways, Sara now weighs 13kg! And these last two weeks, her toilet training is getting worse. She purposely pee on the carpet because I think she secretly likes watching us fuss over her, our frantic reaction of pulling out her pants and running to the bathroom. But, we are NOT GIVING UP! Hehe, Sara dearie, you can pee anywhere you like BUT NO MORE diapers for you, young lady. Your bum just can't take it. Rashes will start to appear within minutes if you wear diaper.

The cheeky little girl *likes

Its getting really hard to get her to eat dinner nowadays. She will eat her meal obediently during lunch, in fact she always finishes her lunch BUT getting her to eat dinner is a different story altogether. She'll toss and turn, run and hide, anything just to get away with eating. And then, at 9ish pm, she'll do her sweetest smile and pull atuk's hand to the kitchen to find something to eat. Usually popok (keropok), biscuits or chocolates. I don't really mind though, as long as she eats. And the extra sugar during night time doesn't really affect her sleep, so as long as she's happy, that's good enough for me.

As for identification of body parts, she now knows armpit, cheek, neck and knee (in addition to this). And her newest skill is.....role-playing. She loves pretending to be nenek? mommy? a big sister? erkkk.... She has a green bear doll that she carries on her chest, she'll sing the lullaby we usually sing to her, pats the bear slowly like we do when we carry her and tries to put the bear to sleep (just like we usually do!) She even gave her pacifier and milk bottle to her bear!

Is this a sign that she's ready for a brother/sister? Sheessshhhhh, I know I'm NOT! Haha!

P/S : Oh, by the way, if anyone is interested in Sara's *fake* crocband as she wore in pics above, feel free to drop me an email or comment below. We're only selling it for RM20 and we have navy, black and white colour!

Irresistible Butt-Pinching

Now, tell me if you can resist pinching a diaper-less butt such as these pics... ;p

Hihi, I know I can't ;)

Energizer Night Race 2010

Whew! I actually made it. I actually finished the 10km Energizer night race run. I've had my moments of doubt, infact I wasn't sure whether I should go through with it.

I ran the first 2km (I know, I'm as surprised as you are!) I have never been able to ran 2km non-stop, not even during I was fit. Its just seeing all these other people ran with such an ease motivates me. Of course, after the 2km, I was alternating between jogging and brisk walking.

As I reach the 5km mark, I started thinking to myself that I can actually do this, its not that hard anyway. I kept a steady pace and I felt elated throughout the way. Even though I know that my sister was wayyyyy in front of me, that didn't dampen my spirit. I was determined to go through with this.

My spirit began to falter at 8km mark. I was heavily panting and the only thing that kept me going was sheer willpower (plus a whole jesting and shitload that I KNOW I'LL GET from dear hubby and friends). I try to amuse myself with lots of things.

I remember thinking how I could gloat and boast if I actually finish. I thought of Sara and imagined the moment where I would recite this story to her. I looked at other people and then I caught a glance of this one particular guy who was steadily running and he was wearing a black shorts. It was night time, but I could see clearly because of all the lights. There's nothing interesting about the guy except the fact that HE WAS DRENCHED with sweat so bad, he looks like he peed in his pants. Eughhh!! *no more looking at other people*

The last kilometer was a real challenge. When the secretariat tells all of us, "1km! 1km more!" I looked at the poor guy and screamed "Seriously??!! I thought I only have 200m more! Arrgghhh!" I'm such a bad sport. Anyways, I finished my race at 1 hour and twenty minutes. Not a very good time but considering I didn't undergo proper training and I only have 2 session of jogging for the whole month, I think actually finishing the 10km is an accomplishment on its own.

I can proudly say, I know I am a lot of things, but quitter ain't one of them! *woot*woot*