It's Chocolaty Time...

I lurve this year December month, where we only have to work for 4 days in a week. Starting from last week, there are 4 public holidays falls in a row on every Fridays. That would meant I gonna have 3 days for weekends... Wallaaaa..

We didn't planned for any trips, we just wanna have some good rest at home. Of course on my side, I spent more time in the kitchen, do some laundry & spring cleaning. And I managed to steal some hours working on my beading embroidery.

Yesterday, the kids was suggesting if I could bake them a cake. Since I haven't bake any cakes for past 6 months (eversince I started working), I think that's a great ideas. Nafiz & Fina are excited when they learnt that I'm going to bake them a chocolate cake. My kids love chocolate cakes, I guess most kids do !

As usual, Nafiz are the one who love to help me out when it came to baking. I think I can start slowly teach him the proper technique to bake a cake ! For this chocolate cake, I add some walnuts so that rather than a plain chocolate cake, there are some nutty for the kids to munch other than the chocolate toppings with almonds & chocolate rice. And this is the first time my Batrisyia learning about double boiling technique.

I can see the happy face in Naquib's face every time he went to the kitchen to check on the cake. So after 45 mins, the cake is yummy - ready to eat. As usual, within minutes.. the cake almost finished. And Mama got another orders for next week - plain butter cake & orange cake.. Hope I can fulfilled their requests !

Nafiz & Fina wants to pose with the chocolate cake - fresh from oven.

lotsa love from me,

Let's Play With Marble...

I played around with some butter, sugar & flour and eggs of course yesterday afternoon. Had wanted to bake the cake in the morning so that my kids can bring for their afternoon school. But as usual, I always delaying my work until I start at 4 pm.

I remember Chetam gave me this recipe 6 years ago, when I first bought my oven and I have tried few times before. The ingredients are quite basic and the instructions are pretty easy. And the cake baked well except the brown part looks a bit pale due to shortage of cocoa powder. I guess I have to make my way to the shop to get more cocoa powder after this.

I was smiling the moment the kids entered the house after their afternoon school and make comments that they smelled something that make them hungry. And this is how it look 15 minutes later - only a piece left for me & hubby to share a bite. Nope they didn't finished the whole tray, half a tray actually as the other half goes to my neighbours.

And this was our dinner last nite : long beans, sambal udang, oyster burger & chicken soup. Later when DH came back, he brought same crabs and asked me to fry some. Quite heavy dinner it was, with 5 dishes served on the table. I think I'm in the mood of cooking & baking yesterday. Surprisingly, we didn't managed to finish them all probably the kids are quite full after taking the marble cake. Sorry kids, you gonna eat these for your lunch today as mommy a bit lazy to cook.

Thanks Jurra & CT for dropping by... CT, I know U stay somewhere SB kan..

Fresh From Oven

Yeah... this brownie really fresh came from the oven !!

I juz baked it half an hour ago with the assistance of Nafiz, my youngest boy. He volunteer to help out and even wait until it bake.

I got the recipe from Zalita aka Cheez, who eventually got it from Aniza. Zalita has tried this recipe few times and keep on encouraging me to try it out. And I have to agree with her that the recipe pretty easy and the brownie is sooo yummy.. And of course Nafiz love it !

The recipe suggesting to add some creame cheese on top of brownie, but I opt for almond flakes as suggested by Zalita. The reason for doing so : I didn't buy the creame cheese yet

On the other hand, today I found out the bakery shop nearby my house is selling the creame cheese. In that case, I do not need to travel all the way to Shah Alam juz to get myself a creame cheese. For info, it takes me half an hour or almost 30 km to reach Shah Alam from my house !!

Happy New Year & My Carrot Cake

In another few minutes, we gonna say good bye 2008 and welcoming 2009. I hope in 2009, I will be spending more time stitching, tatting, baking cakes & few hours a week on gardening. Not to forget, I hope I will turn as a Quilter in 2009.

So as a starter, I made this carrot cake today. This is my 2nd attempt baking this cake after I FAILED yesterday. I follow Anna Olson's Pineapple Carrot Cake Recipe from Sugar but somehow my cake turned soggy. Ha ha.... I have to admit, I dunno how to bake a cake !

For today's carrot cake, I follow Hanieliza's recipe.. Well, this time round my carrot cake baked well except it a little bit hard as my itchy hand add more flour to the recipe ! Lesson to learn, just follow the recipe accordingly and bake often, so that I will get the perfect baking skill.

I also never tried to do my own icing b4. The actual recipes (both Anna's & Hanieliza's) says to use cheese creame as part of the ingredients for the frosting. But I don't have any stock of this cheese creame therefore I opt to do a normal icing using some butter, icing sugar & milk.

Again, I have to admit that my cake decorating also poor, hik hik... Well, I should go for cake decorating classes I guess... ;-)

Thank you Elisabeth & Sheila for giving advice to overcome my blog problem. I did think of creating new blog at Wordpress but may be I still stick to Blogspot. I also tried tips like what Shiela suggested, but to no success. May be I need more time to keep trying.