Cupcake or brownie - you decide

I set out to make chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese topping this weekend...

But guess what turned up? brownies!!!!!

How did it happen??? I really don't know...

I followed a recipe that I found here to the T. But it looks nothing like what it's supposed to turn out...

Sent flatmate a SMS: do you and your friends want to come back for dessert? I accidentally made brownies!





Verdict: Very chocolatey.. very rich.. great with a scoop of haagen dazs ice-cream..

I'm unfortunately not a chocolate fan so this takes a bit too thick and rich for me... I'll have to find a way to give them away... again...

First baking success

I struck gold with this simple banana bread recipe from Nigella Lawson. As she puts it, it's the best recipe to start with for first time bakers. And she's right!

I've not had a lot of success baking before this. I always know way before I put the goods in the oven that something's not right... but I just don't know what.. the consistency just isn't right...

I finally figured it out - it's precision... The big difference? A weighing scale... It's like an epiphany! I always thought you know how to bake or don't.. but I stand corrected. No agak-agak (guessing), just measure, measure, measure... !

The best part in making this cake is waiting for the bananas to ripen. It just takes a couple of days for the yellow beauties to mature into great smelling brown skinned babies. The smell is so strong that I worry that they'll just burst out of their skins. I put them in the rice container to help speed up the ripening process. (it literally cuts the time required by half,

I wish I took a picture of the loaf. I've already baked this 2 more times.. each time it tastes a little different, mostly due to the different degree of ripeness of the bananas. One time, it tasted like Kuih Pisang that you get from the Malay kuih store.

Very nice!

Lunch In - Teriyaki Chicken

Had to use up the two fillets in the fridge.. so I marinated them in my own version of teriyaki sauce and then put them on a hot griddle pan..

It turned out really well.. I also had vegetables left over from the weekend dinner we made for T and family. So I made a salad.

Anyway, think I should just cook lunch and eat it rather than take pictures of them.. My nanny told my niece the other day that she wondered if I ever get any work done?

I can just imagine her saying in Teochew: LENG AH.... JOR NI BOR JOR KANG, DIANG DIANG ZI JIAK???? (translation: Leng ah? how come never work, always cooking????)

OK, Ma... not that I don't work.. but everyday must eat right? Just making sure that I eat good and nice food lor... Cannot everytime eat mieh pieh kiam chye (porridge with preserved vegetables) right? Otherwise very sian right???

anyways, I don't cook that often, every time I cook, I eat that for 2 or 3 meals.... And I only bake at night or weekends...

Lunch Special - Nasi Goreng

Chilli paste is the most essential thing to have.. You can do so much with it... fry it with prawns to make sambal prawns, or fry it with meats and add a bit of ketcup and water, or coconut milk to get curry.

Fry it with rice and you get... nasi goreng!

I didn't have much left in the fridge besides a few mushrooms, a slice of ham and some prawns from the night before. So I fried some hae bee (dried shrimp - which I always have grounded and frozen in my fridge) added in the sliced mushrooms, ham and just mixed.. a bit of fish sauce was all it required...

after I finished with the nasi goreng, I realised that I had half a bag of spinach leafs. Too late to add to the wok, so I just put it in the microwave for a minute and topped it onto the fried rice..

Nice... if I may say so myself!

Choc Pudding

I baked the first cake in my oven today!

Was watching Jamie Oliver's Dinners on TV over the weekend (the Firemen episode) and since J and J are flying in for a weekend break, I decided that I'd make it for supper when they get in.

It looks great.. but it didn't taste very good... hahaha... If it looks dry, it's because it was...



I don't know.. I think Jamie Oliver's probably a great chef, but when it comes to baking.. he seems to let a few things slip...