Ramblings of a Mami of Two

It's been a while. Apparently, it's not just me, the blogosphere has gone quiet for quite sometime now, and I think it only has twitter to blame. (and crazy desk jobs, perhaps?) Anyways. I'm still alive, alhamdulillah. Both ach and kimi are doing well, too. As the title of this post said, I am baking again. Finally. If you've been following my blog all these while, you might have read that I've made several attempts at baking, either from scratch or using pre-mixes, but 80% of the time they never came out right . Batat je semua. I gave up and declared myself hopeless. End of last year, Mak's oven played up after close to 10 years. I replaced the old guy with a basic oven, the cheapest that I could find in Giant and wasted no time testing it out the next day. The first cake I baked in the oven was a crunchy-topping lemon cake. Anddd lo and beholdddd, that was the first cake I'd baked in yearrrrsss that came out perfect!! I almost had an orgasm the mom...

Pretty Vitamin C! Previously Kimi gets his daily intake of Vit C from either frozen fruit cubes or grated apples. But lately I've been slacking off, saya agak malas utk buat fruit cubes jadi dia asyik makan grated apples saja everyday. I guess he's had too much of it dia tamau makan dah. I need to think of new ways to give him his vitamins. So last week I bought popsicle molds at Daiso at the Curve and made fruit popsicles for Kimi! Sukaaa!! Actually they're just frozen fruit purees, but instead cubed, dia bentuk popsicle. Hihihi. For my first attempt I made mango, orange + mango and kiwi popsicle. Ach ate most of the kiwi popsicle sebab Kimi doesn't quite like it. Masam kot. Hihihi. Next time will try more popsicle recipes. Suka! that's my ice cream mold, and that's my kiwi puree, that unfortunately, kimi tak suka Chocolate Chip and Blueberry Muffin I had the urge to bake something yesterday, the only things available in my kitchen are just nice to bake muffin...

Lunch Punch Doodle Bread . More pictures on Flickr. I LOVE these things! Great inventions that helps make parenting, at least when it comes to getting your little ones to eat, a bit easier. Jangan kate budak, I think Ach too, would enjoy his puzzle-shaped sandwich! Yayang, I want these can???

I baked another batch of muffins today. But instead of plain chocolate chips, I made chocolate chocolate chip muffin. Chocolate muffins with chocolate chips.  Hooyeahhhhhhhhhh againnnnn the muffins peaked beautifully! Uhuh uhuh climax melihat muffin sendiri. They tasted good too, but thats prolly because I ate em fresh from the oven. Usually they dont taste as good when cooled.  But takpe, I think i;m getting the hang of it. So lepas ni kalau tulis entry muffin lagi sure da bosan sebab da tere buat muffin. Muehehe.. Congratulations to me, I'm a muffin master now. (actually i'm the master among the beginners. bluek) I leave you with pics of my pretty muffins:

My muffins turned out beautifully today. Awwwwwwwwwww... At least while they're still hot and fresh from the oven. Bile da sejuk tak bes, cam biasa. Well, at least they raise beautifully I nearly climaxed looking at the pretttyyyy muffins. *exaggerate pls* Previously all my muffins would turn out batat and tamau kembang and penyek and rase macam makan batter / tepung tak masak, but this time at least all part of the tepung masak. The chocolate chips were all over the muffin, unlike previously the chips were all sunken to the bottom. Tak bes. Oyy besnya besnya besnya!!! Btw I used this recipe: * 2 cups all-purpose flour * 1/3 cup light-brown sugar, packed * 1/3 cup sugar * 2 teaspoons baking powder * 1/2 teaspoon salt * 2/3 cup milk * 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled * 2 eggs, lightly beaten * 1 teaspoon vanilla * 1 (11 1/2 ounce) package milk chocolate chips * 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped # Preheat oven to 400°F. # Grease twelve muffin cups. # In a l...

My first attempt at baking was 12 muffins. The muffins didn't rise and were heavy and tepung-i. Mak called it batat . Then came the second attempt, a couple of weeks later, same chocolate chip muffins, same recipe. The first batch came out OK, but still tak bes, tho not as batat as my first attempt, but then the second batch came out batat again. Same goes for third attempt, which happened to be the last one. I gave up on muffins. Couple of weeks ago while I was out for my usual Friday lunch / jalan-jalan at Curve, I bought a baking book. It was on sale. RM23 je. Today, with new semangat, I tried my luck on a moist chocolate cake. And.... guess what??? It came out both batat and half-risen. Hehehe... half the cake was OK and half the cake was batat. I wasnt comforted at all because I had actually used instant mix. Weyyyyyyyyy guna instant pun tak jadi ker??? One of the nephews even remarked, "makteh, ni chocolate cake ke piring hitam?" Agak bingai anak buah aku. Tapi, seb...