Peachy Delight...

Had a last minute order from a M'sian lady who is currently in S'pore to visit her daughter. She only told me a day in advance, but she seems to want the cupcakes so much, thus I didn't have E heart to turn her down. Infact she told me to make any cupcakes that was convenient for me. Got her to chose between peach or chocolate (E only ingredients I had at tht point of time) She chose peach cupcakes. Made really simple decorations with little hearts and chunks of peach. She was very happy with the cupcakes...so Yeay! :)

Before baking

Elvis sandwich :D

I have been wanting to try this for ages now! Its a slightly healthier version of the King of Rock and Roll fav sandwich. I'm not that big a fan of Bananas but this was SO FREAKING DIVINE! I so wanna eat these again...

Ingredients:
1tbsp brown sugar
1 banana - sliced
2 slices of bread - wholemeal/white bread
2 Tbsp peanut butter ( I used 1 tbsp which I thought was sufficient)
1 Tbsp butter (I used 1 tsp)

Method:
Melt butter in a small saucepan. Throw in the banana slices and brown sugar. Pan fry lightly till brown, sticky and bananas are slightly seared.
Toast bread slices. Top with Peanut butter on the banana and caramel mixture.
Dust on sprinkles of cinnamon and serve warm.
Go easy on the caramel sauce if you don't like it sweet
Dig in!

*This is making me hungry!!

A dream of many, the perfect companion...

On Friday, E 3 happy sisters came over to help me with E skewing of E satay for E bbq. They also brought along the perfect companion for me. All charming and versatile! (No it's not Hrithik or Shahrukh....not that I would mind though :p)



They brought along this!!

Kitchen Aid Artisan 5-Quart Stand
Mixer!!!!

This was part of E b'day gift shared by E 4 immortals. Their parents and 2 other cousin chipped in too! I kept saying "oh my god" to E extend that I sounded STUPID! :p Seriously I couldn't say anything else....not even a thank you initially! It was just shocking. I meant, they already bought me a lot of books, a necklace, muffin pan....etc2! I'm like..."why do you all have to spend so much??!" Sk reply was "This just show how much you mean to us..." Awwww! I swear, if I was butter....I would have melted from a solid to a liquid state in 2 secs! Sumthing that a microwave cant do :P

I was planning to buy this in March where I'm gonna bake a lot for my cousin's wedding. I'm grateful that I really mean that much to them. It's really touching. I'm actually embarrassed too that my 2 oher cousins had chip in too. I'm not even super close to those 2 guys. Furthermore, I doubt they even know wats a kitchenaid!! I had a talk with 1 of them and he assured me that it was "nothing" Err ok then....:p

Oh ya, my uncle aka E 3 happy sisters father was telling me....it's like a scheme, to get me bake more for them. Ahhhhh.....sounds cunning! Of coz I know it's not true....I wld still bake for them with my trusted kenwood and they knew it too! :)

Surprise!!! :p

I have been wanting to share E presents I received on my b'day. Most are things I never expected I would get! :D



So, let's begin with this HTC touch from Mom and my 3rd brother. I love this fone! It's a touch screen too, just like my cam. I always had a thing with holding a stylus in between by fingers :p




The biggest surprise came from E 4 immortals (Sk, Shaf, Nk, and izzybaby) My paternal cousins aka Sk, Nk and izzybaby are siblings...so its perfectly normal for them to come together with this surprise thingy. Shaf is from another side of my world aka my maternal family. We don't hang out as a group...not that they are enemies or anything like tht :p

It's just that there weren't any such opportunities to do so. So, it all started when I arrived at Easy coast aka E "celebration venue" E 4 of them were cycling together like 4 long time friends! They then handed a whole bunch of presents to me and said it was from all of 'em! I was lost! I wonder, how they "got together"...how they manage to keep in touch...etc2! There were so many qs in my mind but no1 would offer any answers! It was supposed to be a secret! Anyways, they made me open the presents and E 1st thing I opened was this.

I OBVIOUSLY loved it! E M shaped pendant was so pretty!!!

Then it was these....lots of simple yet yummy looking Italian food. A perfect gift for E Italian in me :D

Then it was this. - Rule number 5 says "if you borrow it, return it" Makes me wonder if that is a hint coz I still have 2 of Shaf vcds with me *Grins*

And there is THIS! This was a BIG BIG shock!!! I saw this books somewhere in Oct when I went to borders. I LOVED the book. I wanted to buy it but the inner me was debating as to how I don't need the book. But it was a collectible item!! It was quite pricey and I already spent quite an amount on jewellery before going to borders, so I decided to skip this 1 first. I told them about this existence of this book. All of us are bollywood fans and we didn't even know there's such a book! I didn't know they would end up getting this book for me! I felt bad actually...E last thing I want is for them to spend so much money. They are ALL students after all! Anyways, if your are wondering why I love this book so much.....here's a preview!!

SHAHRUKH!!!!!! *Starstruck* :p

Theres recipes from Shahrukh Khan, E kapoor's family recipes, E bachans and lots lots more! How can 1 not love it?

Next was this....When I bought a Dorie's book to reward myself for all the hard work I did during Ramadan/Eid, I wanted to get Nigella Express too but then I thought I would just buy it next month instead (It was supposed to be a gift for myself on my b'day) Sounds weird eh? But, I thought, we are supposed to love ourselves too right?:p Apparently, nowadays I keep rewarding myself with baking books and bake-ware! *Serious psycho baker tendencies showing* :p

Last but not least, was this muffin pan.

It was something I needed. I bake so much but I only have 1 muffin pan! I'm sure E gals realised that too, so they had to purchase 1 more for me :P

All these surprises made me shed a tear or 2. It was too touching as to how they went to all this trouble to get stuffs that I liked. Sk even had to travel all the way from Tamp to Clementi to get the Bollywood cookbook coz it wasn't easily available.

Oh ya, there was this handmade card signed by all of them too! I took E card, read the 1st 2nd line "to our dearest sister, " I stopped coz I was sure Im gonna end up crying! Trust me, I can be such a crybaby at times...esp on that day. Everything was just touching to me! Maybe I was feeling vulnerable coz I was a year older? Haha! *toink2 my head* :p

This lovely necklace is from another Immortal aka BB.

A day before the party, I was kept "away from home" and I spent the night at her place. Her hubby was so kind as to drive me around on both days! From fetching me from my place to theirs. Driving us to east coast for the celebration, then shopping at Ikea and back home! BB even gave me a $100 HongBao. She said "I wanted to buy the wilton cooking and icing decorating set for you, but it's out of stock...take this money and find a nice bake-ware for yourself." Awww...Actually, way before my b'day BB had been asking as to what I want for a gift. She had a list of things from handbags, shoes, ...etc. She kept telling me to chose what I wanted and obviously I wouldn't! :p

There were other gifts from others...earrings, perfume and chocolates. I received quite an amount of cash from my mami and brothers too *Blink blink* :p

Last but deff the best surprise was when I came back home later in E night, mom said some1 had hang a bag of putu piring on E door and she concluded that it was from 1 of our neighbours.

As I was about to unwrap E putu piring, 1 of my uncle came to my mind. I remembered that once I wanted to eat putu piring and it wasn't available. Btw, this uncle is E 3 sisters dad. So I called up Nk/Sk (I can't rem which 1 I called! Hehehehe) and got her to ask her dad if he did left the putu piring. My uncle then talked to me on the phone and said he has been wanting to buy the putu piring for me but it's always unavailable and today he managed to get some. Hh actually went to get E putu piring after work and sent it over to my place...Haiz....I was all touched and teary again. I don't remember being this emotional on my b'day. I wonder if its E age or it's just coz of the bundles of love bestowed upon me. For now, let me believe its E latter. :p

Thanks peeps.....whenever I watched E video we took on my b'day...I feel so lucky to have all of you around me. Thank you for making me feel so loved!! *wipe tears* :D

Peanut butter goodness!

This is an encore of the banana cupcakes I made earlier. These were frosted with peanut butter. Yum2! Recipe can be found here

1 recipe, 2 dishes.

Bought some mussels at Cold Storage. Both me and my sis in law love mussels wherelese mom and my brother are the opposite! So I had to cook something different for 'em. I decided to cheat a little...erm ok maybe a LOT! :p I cooked some sambal and in half on the sambal, went in some mussels. In the other half of the sambal, I added prawns. The best thing was, nobody realised it's E same thing! Hehehehe. I added some french beans to E prawns so that it looks more different! *Grin* Taste-wise, they actually tasted quite different. Well, prawns and mussels taste different after all, thus when E juices mingle around with E sambal, both E dishes ended up tasting different :)

It's a classic!

It's 3am and I know I should be sleeping. Oh well, I had to get down with my newsletter. It's quite a simple newsletter, yet I spent quite some time putting it all together....haiz. Well, at least its done! Next week gonna be a busy week for me! We are having this huge get together next weekend! I can hardly wait! Every1 seems to be excited about it...both young and old :p

Anyways, I have not been coming up with new cupcakes for my site. I was free last Thursday and I decided to bake. Of course I needed guinea pigs to try those cakes :p I had 3 volunteers aka E 3 happy sisters. Thanks gals! :D So I wanted to make chocolate cupcake that tasted totally different from my Heavenly chocolate cupcakes aka E little devils. The only similarity I wanted was that, they should taste just as good or even better!.

I did some research and finally settle on a mix of 4 different recipes. With those 4 recipes, I somehow put all of them together in the form of cupcakes! I wasn't very sure whether I was doing it right, but I knew I had to try it! I even told Nk that I was dying to try this out. She felt that I was being over dramatic. Oh well, I guess I do have my "bollywood moments" *silly smile*

A marriage of 4 recipes for E cake and Special ganache. . .

The cupcakes were MIND BLOWING! The 3 sisters loved it and even I loved it! I ate 2 of these babies easily! (Note: I'm not a huge fan of chocolates) The cake was so moist and soft...maybe it's due to the 1.5cups milk used. It seems like you don't really need to chew much...it just "melt" in your mouth. The ganache is so yummy too! It's not the normal cream+chocolate ganache. I even dropped some Valrhona Equatorial in the ganache! :) I love this 1 more than E little devils. Maybe coz this is something new. Anyways, Nk thinks that these cupcakes are gonna rival the little devils. lol...sounds cute. I'm actually imagining little cupcakes fighting with each other, jumping on top of each other and trying to crush each other toppers! :p I guess, I should go to bed before this end up being a nonsensical post :p

Thai Express :p

When my passion for cooking was developing, I used to "kepo" around in my mamis(aunties) and grandma kitchen whenever I slept over during the school holidays. 1 line that I frequently heard in the morning was "Thinking what to cook gives me a headache!" At that point of time, I think it was not as issue at all. I mean how difficult is it to decide as to what you wanna cook? *Roll eyes* I was always able to come up with a lot of ideas as to what I think they should cook. (I guess, it always ended up being what I wanted to eat :p)

Anyways, as I have been cooking over these years, I actually feel their pain...or should I say, I feel their headache? :p Oh well, at times it feels like I already cooked every single dish that existed! Its like...sambal...checked! Kuah lemak...checked! Curry...checked! Soups...checked! Nasi lemak checked! The list just go on and on. Of coz it's not true that I already cooked "everything". There is still so so many new things to try.

It's actually very inappropriate of me not to know what to cook for our daily meals. Just look@ my cookbooks....I have loads! At times, I flip through the pages, and I go "Hmm...too tedious. I don't think this wld turn out nice. Ah this is easy....uh oh..I don't have coconut milk!" Most of the time, I'm worried that my brother would not eat something that is totally "alien" to him! Today was 1 of those lucky days where everything just fall nicely. I flipped through a book, found a simple recipe, had all the ingredients in the fridge and there was no reason as to why my brother should dislike it as this dish uses chili padi. ANYTHING with chili padi works for him! :D

The dish turned out delicious. Actually reminded me of a coconut-less version of ayam lemak chili padi. Since it's good, here is E recipe! :p

A

Ingredients

1/2 chicken (about 5-6 pcs)

4 garlic - blended

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 tsp salt

Mix all the above ingredients and let it marinade for 15mins.

In a pan, add some oil and fry the chicken pcs till light golden.

Set aside.

B

Ingredients:

12 dried chillies

5 garlic

1 large onion

Blend the above ingredients till fine.

Juice of 5 limes

4 kaffir lime leaves - tear the leaves a little to release more aroma and flavour

2 lemongrass - slightly crushed

5 chili padi/Bird's eye chili - optional

1/2 tsp sugar

Method:

In a wok/pan, drizzle some oil and add in blended ingredients.

Add lime leaves, lemongrass, chilli padi and fry till fragrant for about 10-15mins

Add in chicken pieces and about 1/4 cup of water. Cook for about 10 more mins

Sprinkle some sugar, salt and add in lime juice.

Throw some basil leaves in the dish and serve!

Fluffinana

Thanks to Nk, I have absolutely no idea what E title of this post should be! I still have organ trading all over my mind! :p Well, she had to do a position paper on organ trading and she obviously had to ask some "ideas" from me. Not that Miss Brainy can't do it on her own. I think she' just distracting me from watching my fav tv shows coz she can't watch 'em! *Gasp* How cunning!! Anyways, I can't come up with a proper title. I was thinking of Fluffy Banana Cakes. I ended up condensing it to Fluffinana! *giggles*

Anyways, these were made for my uncle and family. It's just a little gesture to show how grateful I am coz he has been driving mom all around finding stuffs for E new house. Infact he already did a LOT of stuffs on his own! Almost every week, he would be doing something for us and E new house. I'm actually planning on making something for him every week as a bribery a token of my appreciation. :D

These cakes were really fluffy and nice! Original recipe was from Aunty Yochana but I made some changes to it coz I wanted to use E sour cream that I had in E fridge.

Recipe coming up tomorrow! Now I wanna sleep :p........... Nites! :)

*UPDATED

Ingredients:
180G Fine Sugar
180G Butter
2 whole Eggs + 1 Egg yolk
260G Self Raising Flour
2 Tbsp sour cream/plain yogurt
50G Dairy Whip Cream/evaporated milk
1 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 Tsp Stabilizer
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
220G. Bananas - mashed
Slices of Banana for Decorating the top.

Preparation:
Cream butter and sugar till white and creamy.
Whisk in eggs gradually, stabilizer and whisk well.
Add in whip cream, yogurt, mashed bananas, vaniila essence and mix well.
Add in flour, bicarbonate of soda and mix well.
Pour into a baking pan/cups and arrange banana slices on top.
Bake at 170C till cook. (about 1 hour for a cake and 20 mins for cupcakes)

Another Italian Speciality...

I have been wanting to make Panna Cotta for at least 2 years now. . . but for some reason or the other, it never materialise. I had some cream in E fridge and my cousin was coming over, thus it was the right time to make some and distribute the calories evenly among us. :p

Panna Cotta with gula melaka was the choice coz I have seen a couple bloggers craving about it! It was soooooooooooo good! Rich and creamy....E smooth sensation in your mouth was just heavenly!! Its officially the 2nd greatest dessert ecstasy next to the gorgeous Tiramisu! :D

Panna cotta is an Italian dessert made by simmering together
cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set.
An Italian phrase which literally means "cooked cream", it generally refers to a
creamy, set dessert from the Northern Italian region of Piedmont. It is eaten
all over Italy where it is served with wild berries, caramel, chocolate sauce or
fruit coulis. It is not known exactly how or when this dessert came to be, but
some theories suggest that cream, for which mountainous Northern Italy is panna
cotta famous, was historically eaten plain or sweetened with fruit or hazelnuts.
- Wikipedia

Ingredients:

100ml fresh milk (use 200ml if you don't like it too creamy)
200ml fresh cream
20g palm sugar
7g powder gelatine + 50ml water

For syrup
40g palm sugar
50ml water

Directions
Add fresh milk, fresh cream and palm sugar into a pot and bring to boil (stir firmly during cooking). Remove from heat
Combine gelatin powder with the water and add into the pot. Stir until gelatin is dissolved. (I actually mix the water and gelatin and micro it for 30secs 1st)
Place the pot into a container that contains ice cube and cold water and stir the mixture until it cool.
Pour the mixture into the suitable containers.Freeze at least 1 hour or keep in fridge for 3hours.

For the syrup:- Add palm sugar and water into a pot and bring to boil.
Before serve, pour the syrup on the surface of the panna cotta.

Serve Chilled!!!

Din's Bday...

Theres a lottttttt to blog about, so many pics to upload and I don't even know WHERE to start?! I guess I just start on E latest ones. So it was my cousin's bday 1 day after mine....

I went over to his place coz E 3 happy sisters were there. Me, Sk and Izzybaby were bz in E kitchen while Nk basically did nothing. *sheepish grin* Oh well, can't blame her I guess...she had school *roll eyes* :p

Anyways, E party ended up "bigger" than wat we expected. And all I had was a small cake enough for feed about 8 ppl! A few of his friends turned up and I was panicking deep down. I was so ready to give up my share of E cake and was wondering which cousin of mine would be willing to sacrifice their slice of E cake too! I doubt they would be willing but I was hoping.... :p

Its a Peach Tiramisu! :)

So this was E cake. I should ve taken some pics when I was at home lah! It's like, I have to wait for a long time for E cab and then wait some more at E void coz izzybaby didn't "pick me" up on time :P E cake did melt a bit :( Oh well, I still could have taken better pictures but it was hard trying to do that coz 5 guys just popped into E kitchen and my cake was E center of "attraction" There was shocked expressions and my cousin's frens were going "You MADE the cake??" My darling cousins were obviously sweet as ever and strongly endorse my bakes. I was embarrassed@ tht petite cake and E overwhelming attention! Haha! Yes2, a girl do love attention but I prefer mine in average servings...no UPSIZE! *grins* Anyways, E cake was enough for all of us. Some ppl even ate 2 slices! So yeay! :

Sk made pizzas!! Creamy based and tomato based! I'm so proud of her really. E
fact that she made these despite E fact she could just call 6-235-35-35! :D

She even took E trouble to have E bday boy name on E pizza which is a good thing. I didn't even have E b'day boy name on his cake! Hehe....which was a good thing too coz It was his fren's bday too. It ended up being "their" bday cake...instead of just his :)

Shepherd's pie - Sk boiled and mashed E potatoes. I was in charge of E
filling :D Every1 loved E pie. So yeay again!

Keema and chapatis - Sk bought instant chapatis while I cooked E
keema

Cucumber and carrot Raita - Made by yours sincerely. I love E colours!

Tandoori Chicken - I marinated these a day before E party so that chicken would
be really well marinated :)

Sk made this! I don't remember E name of this cocktail but it was good! She
mixed 7up, sprite, slices of lemon and strawberries. I loveeeeeeeee it! E
strawberries made a whole lot of difference!

Omg! I just realised that I didn't snap any pic of my oreo cheesecake!!!! *Sobs2* :( Oh well, next time I guess! I was told that E cheesecake was so loved. E b'day boy even said that it was E best cheesecake he ever had...*awww* With such feedback, what more do you need! Oh ya, while we were all crowding around E table with all E food, my cousin's fren actually said this to him "You are so lucky that you have such cousins" Woahhhhhh! *high 5@ E 3 immortals* :D

Cheeerrrrrrrrs!! :D

Shak-Shu-Ka!

Before baking. . .

Out of E oven. . .

Served with lightly toasted baguette. Oh yumzzz!!

Shakshuka is a popular Israeli. It can be made for any meal but is most popular at breakfast where it is eaten with thick slices of toasted bread, pitas...etc... You can add pretty much anything you want to it, including meat, but the most famous version is simply a mix of a spiced tomato base and poached eggs. In Singapore, minced meat is often added and it's usually more spicy. Anyways, I cooked this sometime back for some guests. I have been wanting to share this recipe coz it's really yummy and it's a recipe that's sure to please most. So Doris Jie jie, this is E recipe you wanted. Sorry 4 E delay! :D

Ingredients:

500G minced beef

6 eggs

4 onions - Chopped

1 heap tbsp blended garlic

1/2 tbsp blended ginger

4 tbsp blended dried chillies

1 Tsp cumin powder

1 Tsp coriander powder

1/2 bottle tomato sauce

1 tbsp tomato puree

2 tomatoes - chopped

Ghee/olive oil

Coriander leaves

Fried shallots

Method:

In a pan saute onion in ghee/olive oil until light golden. Add in garlic, chili ginger, cumin and coriander. Saute for about 10 mins

Add in tomato paste, tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Season with salt, black pepper and a touch of sugar.

Pour Shakshuka in a large Pyrex dish and crack egg each in a different side of E dish. Bake for 15 mins.

Alternatively, you can serve it with single sunny-side-up

Note: If you prefer it mild or you rather not use dried chillies, jus some some chili flakes or paprika to the dish.

Cherish!

E pefect venue, E perfect weather....

With my loved ones...

5 Immortals were present!

Yummilicious food!

Delicious Durian Cake!

Plus lotsa surprises by my cousins! *to be updated later*

My b'day was perfect! :)