My Yummy ABC - Almond Brownie Cookies

I have to admit this is the best choc cookies dat I have ever made and I will stick by this recipe.

I made ABC - Almond Brownie Cookies yesterday. Actually my initial plan was to bake either a Marble Cake or Zebra Cake. I took the butter out from the fridge to put to room temperature but when the time comes to start baking, I ended up making ABCs.

Personally, I really found em cookie-licious .. totally different from the choc cookies I've ever made and this is the first time that I enjoyed eating my cookies.

I simply love baking this kinda cookies .. u put teaspoonfuls of the mixture and the cookies will spread when you bake em. Ironically, I felt making these are as easy as ABC too .. as the name suggests .. hehehe

Oh ya .. I did earn some brownie points from colleagues who tasted my ABCs. One wanted to order for Hari Raya. ORDER?!?!? Whoa .. is she for real or wat?!?!? Well, I would be most glad to take orders .. ;-)

This is how it looks before I put the ABCs in the oven ..

Here are the ABCs cooling off on a wire rack ..

And now, we move on to the recipe:-

Ingredients

1/2 cup almond nibs, roasted
125 gm butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
11/2 cups self raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup semi sweet choc chips

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.
Beat butter and sugar till creamy.
Gradually add eggs, beating thoroughly after each addition.
Fold in sifted self raising flour and cocoa powder gradually. (I used my hands to fold)
Then fold in the almonds and choc chips.
Place teaspoonsfuls of mixture on a non stick pan. Dun forget to space out for spreading.
Bake for 15 mins until cook.
Leave in pan for a couple of minutes then turn out into a wire rack to cool.

Cupcakes (Part II)

So this is Part 2 to this cupcakes craze o mine.

Last Thursday, I managed to make about 30 cupcakes for my daughter’s 4th birthday - Choc Chip Cupcakes with Royal Icing. I used the same premix as before but added semi sweet choc chips and made royal icing with orange flavouring.

I am still an amateur so I had to be contented with the outcome. I am proud to say I tried my level best to make some homemade stuff for my lil angel.

There will be more cupcakes making in times to come. Next time, perhaps, I’ll frost em with Chocolate Ganache instead .. mmm .. SINFUL .. ;-)

Anyway, here are some pictures to share:-

Tihani, the bday gal, in her Punjabi suit, on the way to kindy for Racial Harmony Day as well as cake cutting.

The un-iced cupcakes.

The iced cupcakes.

And here is the Royal Icing recipe :-

Ingredients

2 egg whites
4 cups of confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
orange flavouring
pink and blue colouring

Method

Beat egg whites and gradually add confectioners sugar till stiff.
Add orange flavouring.
Divide the mixture into two bowls.
Tint one with pink and the other with blue coloring.
Pipe onto the cupcakes and decorate with extra choc chips and sugar pearls.

Try em ..

Cupcakes

I know there's this cupcakes craze going on. I look at websites, blogs, magazines - and I read about cupcakes. There are surely a yummy little treat.

I have been telling myself to try out and I finally found time to do Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing yesterday. This is kinda good timing as I thot of bringin them to my daughter's school for her bday. This is a trial one so I only made a small batch. I used a premix for the cakes, basically, I just had to add water and eggs. As for the Chocolate Icing, I used a recipe which I got from my Rnet fren. Here it goes:-

Ingredients (small quantity)

1 square chocolate, melt using double boiler method
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cup icing sugar

Method

Mix em together using a hand whish till they are smooth.
Then pipe em on top of the cupcakes.

Overall I am happy with the end result .. ;-)

Yorshire Pudding - Gracias sis!

My sis went to London for a 3 week holiday and came back two days ago, Tuesday afternoon. As usual, I love to receive "pasalubung" - dats souvenir in Tagalog .. hehe ..

This "angkapal mukha kho" aka "muka tak tahu malu" actually called her up and asked her to get me Instant Yorkshire Pudding for souvenir. Actually I saw a cook show and they were cooking something English, ie. Yorkshire Pudding with roasts and good ole sauce to go along .. slurp! As any good lil sis would, she bought me 2 packs.

Thank you lil sis! Will invite you over when I make Roast and Yorkshire Pudding yah!

Berry Jam Cake

Last May, 18 May 06, to be exact, I made Berry Jam Cake. It is actually called Chocolate Jam Cake but since I omitted the chocolate and just used berry jam for this recipe, I call it Berry Jam Cake instead. This is how it looks like.

Ingredients

100 g butter
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup jam (i used mixed berry jam)
1/3 cup hot water
2 medium eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cup self raising flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

Preheat oven to 170C.
Grease a 20 cm tin tin with softened butter.
Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda into a blow.
Combine butter, sugar, jam and water in a small pan over low heat till dissolved.
Add butter mixture and eggs to the flour and mix but do not overbeat.
Turn the mixture into the greased tin and bake for 40 mins or until cooked.
Allow cake to cool in the tin for abt 10 mins before turning it out to cool on a wire tray.

Sowee .. & 5 Takes!

Gosh .. its been a long long while since I last updated my blog. I tried to but when it is time for me to upload pix .. i face some difficulties .. danget.

Well, I will try to update more often from now on.

As for today, I'll talk about 5 Takes. It is about 5 travel journalists (TJs) who travel across Australia and the Pacific Rim, which includes Singapore, as part of their itenerary. They had to survive on a US$50 a day budget and took suggestions from the website's forum on where to go, wat to eat, wat to do, etc.

I was a follower of 5 Takes which is aired on Discovery Travel and Living. When they were in town from 22 - 27 May, I got my hubby to just try my luck at looking up for them at the backpacker inn that they were staying in. Bam! there they were just outside the inn. I then approached the guys and got to take pictures with them.

Well, I was featured in Renee's vlog .. interested to see em .. u can find Renee's Singapore vlog here .. http://www.travelandlivingasia.com/5takes/season2/renee/vlogs/2/index.shtml

Here is a pic of me and Renee .. i call her the bubby gal ..

This season 5 Takes is over and I would like to wish all TJs all the best in whatever they do!

Bicycle, So Old Skool ..

I went to my brother's place yesterday to chill. Brought the kids to the playground to play and they enjoyed themselves tremendously. Observed my own kids and the other kids and it was an eye opener .. some rough kids, some gentle ones and kid bullies do exist .. hahaha ..

There was this incident, when my nephew actually touched a big boy's bicycle and you know what the boy did .. he grabbed my nephew by the wrist and disallowed him to touch it .. REAL JERK .. you just have to say nicely, not grab someone's hand like a big bully .. of course sil had to intervened .. gosh .. what was he thinking .. my nephew is only 2 ..

Anyway, I have to share this picture which was taken yesterday ..

I just love the old skool look of the bicycle that Tihani is sitting on.

Tihani, mama promise that I'll get you a bicycle for your birthday this year yah .. you've got to start learning to ride, gerl.

Eggs and Sausages

Whoa .. i havent been productive in the kitchen lately. I have been hit by the virus called "LAZY".

Last Thursday and Friday, I attended some Stress Management Course - "Stress Management through Body Awareness" by Bob Feldman. It was total relaxation.

After course on Friday, I managed to catch up with an old fren, Su and we kinda went coffeeshop hopping .. hehehe. Though the meet up was short, we had a good time chatting. Su, if you are reading this, we sure gonna do it again sometime right??

Anyways, back to cooking. I prepared something simple for breakfast today, ie. Eggs and Sausages. Hmm .. i know how unhealthy it is to eat processed food eg. sausages, but hey, these are nice comfort food. So as not to feel bad about it, I baked the eggs instead of frying them.

Ingredients

6 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1 onion, finely diced
5 tbsp mince meat, precooked
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 180C and grease 6 one cup muffin tins.
Mix everything together.
Pour into the muffin tins.
Bake for about 30 mins till cook.

Serve baked eggs with boiled sausages.

If I have the time this week, I will be sharing an overdue post Baked Corn Pudding which I baked two Thursdays ago but havent had time to update. Watch out this space again for the updates!