Fruits & Nuts Mini Cupcake

I love mini cupcakes, they are so fast to bake and so easy to eat! My mini bakes are usually more welcome than the bigger cakes wahahaha.... that could be due to my poor baking skills too. Anyway, I enjoyed baking mini cupcakes because of the compliments I get from people who tried them! Now I get request from my family members too!! hee *hao lian*

This mini cupcake was actually a failure... Let me tell u why....

If you follow me on twitter or facebook you would have noticed that I recently bought myself a mini cupcake kit.

Inspired by this kit (and the recipes in it) I grabbed my apron and headed into the kitchen to bake the one Gibson has chosen. He chose a bright coloured (red, blue and yellow) cupcake with alphabets! HAHAHA it is a great challenge to me as I am so lousy at frosting cakes! Anyway, feeling very much obliged I decided to give it a try! hahaha True enough... the frosting part is a total disaster!!!

Firstly, I failed making the icings I put too much water and too much colourings, it looks terrible and can never be frosted as it is too watery. I threw it away. Still not giving up, I thought "eh I still can pipe the alphabets without frostings mah" Ya right, that is when I realised I ran out of milk chocolate that is called for in the recipe! *flip* STILL very persistent, I went ahead to melt what is left in my fridge, Fruit & Nuts chocolate. Thinking I might be able to pipe with Fruit & Nut chocolate, haha wrong! I poured some melted chocolate into a small plastic bag, cut a small hole at the corner and started piping happily when I was half way through the 2nd one... *spat* the nuts and raisin splat on the cupcake! FAILED yet again. hahaha... I ended up scooping the melted chocolate onto the cupcake as shown in the photo. It looks pretty good anyway (to me at least) and it is delicious!! (or at least my mum likes it and requested me to bake more of these!)

Fruits & Nuts Mini Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Makes 24

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 egg

1 cup self-raising flour, sifted

1/3 milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 sultanas

Topping

100g Fruits & Nuts chocolate, melted

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC. Line 24 mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake papers. In a medium-sized bowl, use and electric mixer on high speed to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.

2. Add the flour, milk, vanilla and sultanas, and beat with an electric mixer on medium until well combined

3. Divide the mixture evenly between the 24 mini-cupcake papers. Bake for 10 - 15 mins until well risen and firm to the touch. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. Allow to cool fully. Spoon the melted chocolate on the cupcake.

Botanic Gardens

We went Botanic Gardens today, unintentionally and a short one though, but we enjoyed ourselves.

We followed daddy to his work site today and since his work site is near Botanic Gardens, I suggested that we should go there for lunch (@the foodcourt). I remembered I went there for lunch with my colleagues and they rave about their coffee and tea so I thought it will be great to have a nice cup of coffee there... However, to my dismay the foodcourt revamped! It is now a cafeteria that operates like the Ikea cafeteria, ok the point I'm getting at is the coffee now sucks.

We went for a stroll after the meal. A very very short one but I feel he prefer Botanic Gardens to Zoo! Could be due to the crowds whenever we vist zoo during public holidays, anyway we will visit again! A plan visit next time. Hee

























What did they wish for???

Take a good look.....

Happy Family!

Hahahaha!! Ok I know I should be blogging about Shanghai! It will come soon! [too lazy to upload photos] :p

But I MUST MUST MUST share this piece of GOOD news with you!

We stumbled on a leaflet on our doorstep when we return home from Shanghai on Monday. Still drowsy from the flight, we left the leaflet on our the table (I almost wanted to throw it away) and went to bed.

After a long day rest and after dinner Daddy finally sat down to read the leaflet, and he goes

"eh! why don't we participate in the contest!" eh What contest?

It is this

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I am always against this sort of competition but that day I played along and even suggested we should send a particular photo for the Happy Family Contest. So just before midnight, Daddy emailed them our photo!

Yesterday, Daddy got a call from them to remind us to attend the event at 4pm...

WHY?

Because we WON 2nd prize for the contest!!! Yippee!!! hahaha... I frankly think we deserve 1st! :p

Alright, this is the winning photo

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Mini Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Was feeling very very moody last Saturday so I headed into the kitchen to bake! Hoping it will lighten my mood. It indeed helps!! Especially when Gibson ate 5 in a row!! Whats more? He kept saying "mmmm mmmm good my favourite my favourite" hahaha can anything be more satisfying then that??? Too bad i was rushing to sent Gibson for his lesson else I will frost them!! I will definitely bake them again!




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Getting Ready

So excited! Our first family trip is just around the corner!!! The incorrigible shopaholic Mummy has already spent a bomb before the trip!!! Ouch!

The weather at Shanghai can be rather cold then, so I have to get my lil' one all geared up for the trip! Therefore, I buy buy and buy (for a reason ok! I don't want Gibson to freeze over there)

I am so glad that he is as ready as I am! :p

Curious on Mummy's yet another Gmarket purchases! Mummy is Mad!

Geared up with beanie, gloves and scarf! All from Daiso!

Pardon me for this ugly picture, I have to mention that Gibson insisted that I put on his gears so that he can take a photo of me!

My handsome boy all ready for the wedding!!!

New Look!

It is always a huge HUGE challenge to get Gibson into a salon to get his hair cut. We attempted again today, FAILED! He started crying even before we stepped into the salon. Anyway, our attempt number 'lost count' failed again.

So we resort to ME cutting for him.

YES ME

Ok to be franked this is not the first time I cut for him. I found out that he dislike the falling hair especially when it falls on him. So I have to cut for him in the bathroom, wash away the hair as I cut. He enjoys the water splashing! It excites him whenever he pours water on me! Argh... I'll be drenched and totally washed out after his hair cut.

Surprisingly, he was rather cooperative today so I took this opportunity to cut them shorter. Here is how his hair turn out! Daddy says he looks like a mushroom. wahahaha...

Chicken & Corn Soup

Ever since I moved to our new home, I have been searching and trying out new recipe to serve my 2 majesty. Lucky for me, Gibson is not a picky eater and he LOVES fruits and vegetables. Therefore that leaves me with variety of choices!

One day, I chance upon this website that features Recipes for Toddlers, then on it has been one of my favourite sites. The happiest for me is she features a lot one dish meal recipe! Though I like to cook I hates washing, so one dish meal is BEST for me. :p

This Chicken and Corn Recipe is extracted from the site as well.

Chicken & Corn Soup

Ingredients:

150g chicken breast meat
1000ml chicken stocks (I used 3 tbsp of concentrated chicken stock to mix with 1 liter water)1 packet sweet corn cream style (380g) – De Monte or any other brand
1 packet enoki mushrooms * (cut away the tough part of the stems; if you think it is too long, then cut into halve, rinse with

running water)
4 pcs fresh shitake mushrooms * (blanch over hot water and slice them thinly)
Half block of Tofu, cubed

4 stalk broccoli

1-2 eggs (lightly beaten and mix with 2-3 tsp water)
1-2 slices of ginger *
Spring onions for ganishing – chopped
Corn flour mixture (dilute some cornflour with water, adjust the

consistency according to your personal preference)
Note: * Other recommended ingredients are: baby sweet corn and green peas

Seasonings:
Salt (I had omitted it because the chicken stocks is tasty enough on its own)
Pepper

Methods:
1) Rinse and pat dry chicken breast meat. Cut into small & long strips. Marinate with light soya sauce, sugar and cornflour for about 15-30 minutes.
2) Bring the chicken stocks/ water in a pot to boil. Add in chicken concentrated stock if used.
3) Add in ginger slice and mushrooms. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4) Add in cream corn and stir well.
5) Add in chicken strips and broccoli stir well until it is fully cooked.
6) Add in cornflour mixture and stir gently to thicken.
7) Pour the egg mixture slowly into the soup, stir until it forms thin egg shreds on the surface and add in Tofu. Simmer for 2minutes or until tofu is hot enough to serve. Turn off the heat.
Season with salt, pepper and sprinkle some spring onions before serving

[Extracted from http://food-4tots.com/]

Pink Sugar Rush!

As promised!

I shall now blog about the PINK STRAWBERRY CAKE.

The recipe is extracted from Joy the Baker. I love the color!!! PRETTY PINK!

Pink Strawberry Cake

Ingredients

1 (18.5 ounce) box white cake mix (without pudding)

1 (3 ounce) package strawberry jello

1 Tablespoon self rising flour

4 teaspoons granulated sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the cake, combine to cake mix, Jello, flour and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition Add the water and strawberries and mix well. Pour batter onto prepared pan (since we uses premix you can follow the guidelines on the box for the size of pan etc... Pink Cupcakes will be interesting n yummy!). Bake for 25-35 minutes(or according to instructions on the box), or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean and the layers pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer the layers from the oven to wire racks. Let them cool, still in their pans, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, run a knife around the inside edge of each pan, then unmold each layer onto the racks to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 ounce) block cream cheese, softened

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

2 (1 pound) boxes powdered sugar (It is OVERLY SWEET! unless you have very sweet tooth I think we should reduce the amount of sugar)

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fruits for decorating (amount as your wish I use Choc Rasp and Strawberries)

To make the frosting, in a bowl combine the cream cheese and butter. Beat until soft and pliable and no lumps remain. Add one box of the powdered sugar, salt and

vanilla extract. Beat until incorporated. Add the second box of sugar and mix until incorporated. If you would like a smoother consistency, and a slash of milk. If you would like a thicker consistency, and a bit more powdered sugar until the desired consistency is achieved.

Once the cake is frosted, decorate as desired.

White Cake Mix & Jello

As I cannot get strawberry jello I used strawberry banana! The closest I can get!

Pink Batter!

Fresh from the oven! (Sunken... :( Failed again sigh...)

Frosted! After I sliced the cake to even the surface hahaha and cleverly covered the sides with ladyfingers! (compliments to Lucas's Mummy :p)

Happy Birthday Ah Ma!!!

It is Ah Ma's Birthday! Initially we had planned to dine out but because of the still feverish Gibson (as of Sunday he is fine now) we changed plan to take away and dine in at Ah Ma's place. The dinner was great accompanied by Ah Ma's favourite Taiwanese drama. Hahaha of course not idol dramas! It is the forever going 'don't know when it is going to end' like it never will drama 《爱》. She loves it and thinks it wasn't a bad idea afterall to take away!

Frankly, I do prefer to the take away idea. Gibson can play with his toys and TiTi (aka my helper Wati) while I am busying licking all the chilli crabs gravy away from my fingers! SLURP... I am drooling already... and the Pig's Trotter, the Fried Rice and the 8 Treasure Chicken (literally).

My MIL has been a great Ah Ma! Gibson is undeniably very well raise under her care, my mum definitely cannot do a better job than her! Thank you Mother!

So! I decided to do something special for her on her birthday! That is besides the lovely gift that I have carefully chosen for her. Hee.... *Grinning*

It is a BIRTHDAY CAKE! I specially baked for her! YEAH!

Why is it special???

Because it it PINK!!!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

A PINK BIRTHDAY CAKE!


This photo is blur because it is taken by Gibson!


Gibson all ready for the party and feast!


Daddy still feasting while everyone is busy burbing away *Burp* opps did you smell chilli crabs? hahaha


Bouquet from Mark & Bern, and the Birthday Cake!! (where our present for her???)

I will blog on the cake seperately!

Time for a change!

Wow haven't blog for like almost 7 months!!! And the year is ending soon!

How time flies...

I have decided a switch back from multiply to blogspot, reason being I'm tired of multiply already! hahaha... and of course more people are using blogspot so I shall be copycat! :p

Well right, alot has happened within these months and I'm not going to blog about everything OF COURSE!

First of all, I have picked up a new hobby!!

BAKING!

Yeah! I'm trying to get more domesticated. (not very successful though)

Ok Ok, I got it, you are not interested to read anything about me. The purpose of your visit is about Gibson.

This is him now

A REAL MAN!!!!

Recently, he is very interested in cam whoring hahaha... I don't know he picked up from who. *blur*

And these are what I found in my camera... tons of RUBBISH!

Oh! I forgot to mention, these are just some that I found in my camera taken TODAY!