TGIF

Was searching for pictures of dogathon 2008 on the internet, managed to find two pics of brandy taken by a photographer in his
Flickr.

Can't show them here tho.. -_- Can't save the pics. So go to the site to see la. But she looks dem cute jumping through the tyre :p LOL

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Oh, the mid valley 8 pin tap bowling competition.. They were over-qualified ppl who's so thick faced that they joined and won rm380.. -_- No chance in winning.

But I managed to get 14th place out of 30 ppl i think. Gotten myself 2 free bowling games and 3 cans of soft drinks.. wth.. rm40 for that!! -_- I fumbled on my 3rd game, that's y I didn't finish at a higher position.

Oh well, wat's done is done. No point getting pissy and disappointed over this. Practice will make perfect. :)

One ball & 10 Pins

One ball and 10pins, yes it's bowling. I wasn't a real fan of bowling although randall bought me a ball and shoes a few years back. Not until the beginning of this year when randall got 'kicked out' of his dad's bowling team LOL It wasn't because he didn't perform well, he was the best bowler in their team, but since HSBC wants to sponser its players, they would only allow employees to join.

So randall formed his own bowling team, consisting of 8 bowlers. Team name was decided as "Never Say Die". We were the underdogs, we still are in the weekly league, but each of us has improved tremendously once we started bowling this year. Randall, the team captain is very proud of us, that is why u can spot him smiling ALL THE TIME (even if he misses his spares..) during bowling HAHA

Anywayz, we played against the strongest team today and although we lost this time, all of us bowled our very best. We lost 8-12. Close call eh? Strongest team man!! They have a state player and an ex-malaysian bowler in their team... -_- But, they are humble ppl, they gave us tips every week so that we can improve in our games. However, it was dissapointing as lucas can't join us.. Last week was the last week to enrol new bowlers.. NVM! can form another team for friday league!! :p

Bowling is not as simple as hitting 10 pins, u need to be able to be consistent, and be strong, mentally as well (Cos opponents tend to 'psycho' the not so good bowlers -_-). Talking about being mentally prepared, I have a chance to prove myself now since I will be bowling in another bowling league in 1u which is held every monday. Randall, wyzek and I were asked by 3 different teams to join them. This is not the best part, next week, my first time playing, I would be up against randall's team!! hahaha How interesting... n intimidating at the same time. Practiceeeeeeeeeeeeee!! I must beat randall, and he will nvr get the end of it! :p LOL

Practice makes perfect, so I am off to practice tomorrow morning with randall. Tomorrow will be another competition in Mid Valley, 8-pin tab (ie. as long as your first throw hit 8 pins and above, u will be given a strike). So wish me luck, Im keeping my fingers crossed!

Cupcake Deco 101 part 2

Ok, so here is part two to cupcake decoration post. I baked vanilla cupcakes, but I spiced it up by putting chocolate chunks in the cupcakes.



The result was good, since the chocolate is melted and it is in larger amount, the moment u bite the cupcakes, u can feel the chocolate oozing out... :D~~~~~~~

Ok ok.. moving on!

After baking the cupcakes, it is time to let ur creative juices flow, and decorate them so that they look even yummier!! :) One of the most common icing used to decorate cupcakes would be buttercream. Other than buttercream, chocolate fudge, fondant or royal icing can also be used. For my cupcakes, I used buttercream as the icing. It's very versatile, and u can mix and match the colours u want :) Here's a recipe for buttercream.

Buttercream Icing(Recipe from Wilton's website)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening*
1/2 cup margarine, softened
4 cups icing sugar, sieved
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 Tablespoons milk

*Since shortening has trans fat, I would substitute shortening with butter. Never use all butter for this recipe. The buttercream will be less stable (ie melt easily, does not hold its shape). So make sure you use half margarine and half butter.

Methods:
1. Beat butter, margarine and vanilla until very light and fluffy.
2.Gradually add in sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Mixture will look dry after adding all the sugar.
4. Add in milk, and beat until light and fluffy.
5. Store in airtight container and put in fridge when not in use.
6. Can be kept for up to 2 weeks.

It is recommended to prepare the buttercream a day ahead as it will be quite hectic and tiring to bake the cupcakes, prepare the icing and decorate all in one day. Spread it out, trust me, I've experienced this before. Not nice at all -_- Tiring betul!

So after all the cupcakes are cooled, the fun part begins!! Time to decorate. First, pick a theme you wan. Of if you r lazy to think of one, you can just pick out a few colours you want to be on your cupcakes. The first batch of my cupcakes I wanted to do a 'doggie theme'. I picked green for the cupcake's background. And brown for the outline of the dog, since dogs don't come in blue, red or yellow -_-

1. Add few drops of food colouring of your choice into a small amount of buttercream and stir well until all colours are well combined. Do the same to other colours of your choice. Prepare all the colours that will be used in decoration now. Will be easier than just preparing one colour, decorate the cupcakes then going back to preparing the buttercream -_-

2. Using the palette knife, apply a thin layer of icing on the cupcakes and spread out evenly.

3. After doing so, fill some buttercream into the paper cones. Cut a tiny hole in the sharp end and test the consistency of the icing by squeezing it out onto some other surface and get the hang of it before you begin decorating. Draw anything u want on the cupcake. I chose to draw a dog on leash and this is how it turned out.

I also drew some teddy bears supposingly holding baloons after i ran out of ideas of what to do for the doggie theme -_-

Other than a dog, i did paw prints with some deco as well. So the cupcakes turned out quite cute, but wasn't really happy, cos the colours were slightly dull.

The next batch of cupcakes were decorated with a 'doraemon theme' for my little nephew since he likes the cartoon alot :) I only decorate 8 cupcakes for him.

I applied the cupakes with buttercream, no colour added. I later outlined doraemon's face. I drew all of them free hand :) Later i just filled in the blue and red, and added a yellow dot on his neck as his bell. Cute eh? ;) I am very proud of the outcome.

The smiling-with-his-mouth-opened doraemon

The 'normal' smiling doraemon LOL

I then decorated the remaing cupcakes using yellow and blue icing. I used the star and leave nozzle for the motives on the cupcakes. As usual, ice the cupcake thinly with buttercream. Then squeeze the yellow icing in alternate rows like below.

After that, fill in the remaining spaces with blue icing. This are the end results. U can leave them as it is, or add pink dots as shown in the below picture.

Here are pics of the doraemon batch of cupcakes :) Love the colours!! Hope my nephew loves them too.

So that's how i spent my weekend :p Any questions, feel free to ask. Any comments feel free to let me know. Til next time, toodles and take carezzz! :)

Cupcake Deco 101 (part 1)

Since this blog has a cupcake theme, with the background to the header I've decided to give some tips on cupcake decorations. I am no expert, so don't expect too much ok! :p I like to look for designs online and try my best to follow and perfect those designs.

I've tried my hands on cupcake deco before, and once I start I can't stop. I just wanna decorate more and moreeeee. It's addictive I must say :D

Okok, moving on!!

So, before starting cupcake deco, the most important thing that u really need is...

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CUPCAKES OF COURSE!!!

duh :p Sorry la, I know Im being lame but bear with me :p

Other than cupcakes, there are some things u may need to make decorating easier. The essentials would be:

1. Paper Cones. Make these in advance, and have at least 5 so that you won't have to make it halfway through decorating when it runs out. Paper cones are handy as decorating require piping out designs, from wordings to lines. It also saves me money, rather than using plastic piping bags. So, it is better to use home made paper cones rather than plastic piping bags, more environmental friendly.

Wonder how to make paper cones? Click here to find out.

2. Nozzles are also important. It can give us shapes and cute shapes, especially flower petals. Without the nozzles, we cant make any flower petals with buttercream.


3. Other than buttercream as deco, we can purchase these ready made bottled decoration stuff. All are edible so no worries :)


4. To make various buttercream colours, we will need food colouring. Also we need the palette knife, i don't know if it's called that, but it is used to spread the icing on cakes and cupcakes.

Here is a basic vanilla cupcake recipe. If u haven't baked any b4, I would recommend this recipe, as it will not be so expensive compared to recipes like orange chocolate chip cupcakes if anything goes wrong with the cupcakes. (Many things can be added into this recipe to zest it up. You can be creative, add in choc chips, raisins, strawberries, or some orange or lemon rind, and u will get orange or lemon flavoured cupcakes! :))

Basic Vanilla Cupcake

Ingredients:

200g unsalted butter (if using salted butter, don't use salt in this recipe)

200g castor sugar*

3 eggs (at room temperature, cold eggs will make the batter curdle, so don't use cold eggs, I've experienced this many many times b4)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

200g cake flour (sieved)

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (sieved together with flour)

1/4 teaspoon salt


*If u have vanilla sugar, then substitute half of the castor sugar with vanilla sugar. This will enhance the vanilla flavour of the cupcakes. I have the method of making the vanilla sugar, I will post it at the end of this post.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C and line cupcake tray with paper cups of your choice.

2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. After all the eggs are beaten, add in vanilla essence and salt.

3. With the mixer on a low speed, add the flour, in few additions. (It is better to not use the mixer at this stage. Use a spatula to hand mix in the flour. Over beating the flour mixture will cause the cupcakes to be hard as gluten will form).

4. Fill the batter in the paper cups on the cupcake tray until 3/4 full. Don't be greedy and fill it to the brim, it will puff up, and it will be difficult to decorate later on. Bake until top is golden brown, and to test if it's cooked, poke a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean it is cooked. Remove from oven, and cool completely on wire tray.

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Vanilla Sugar(Recipe from Cupcake Blog)

1 vanilla bean

250g castor sugar

1. Split the vanilla bean into half but do not scrape out the seeds. Put the vanilla bean together with the sugar in an airtight container. Shake it once in a while. Keep up to 5days before using.

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Ok, I will stop here. Will continue with the second part of cupcake deco another day :) stay tuned!

Over The Moon

Mooncake festival or Mid-Autumn festival is celebrated by the chinese all over the world on the 15th day of the 8th month in the lunar calendar (in our normal calendar it is around September), where the moon is seen at its fullest and brightest. The is a legend behind the reason why we celebrate this festival, and there are so many versions to the story.

One of the version which was told by my mum when I was younger, was about a forbidden love between a mortal and a goddess, "Ngau Long" and "Chik Lui". But, in Wikipedia, the names were changed to HouYi and Chang'e.. I don't know how the translation goes but the story is similiar.

So, the story is about Chik Lui who was a goddess and Ngau Long who was a mortal farmer who fell in love with each other, without knowing that she was a goddess from heaven. Soon Ngau Long found out, and the gods were pissed at them as a goddess is forbidden to fall in love with a human. They had a child together, but she had to leave him and their child behind on mid-autumn. Out of pity, the gods allowed them to see each other once a year on mid-autumn. It is said that she represents the moon, he would represent the sun and the child would be the stars. So this is how Mid-Autumn festival comes about. And if u look closely, u can see outline on the moon which looks like a rabbit, which is suppose to be Chik Lui, I think :p Basically whole year round, Ngau Long can see Chik Lui on the moon as a rabbit. So, can only see no touch.. LOL

So, with the forbidden love story aside, mid-autumn festival is celebrated by kids, carrying lited lanterns and walking around the neighbourhood. Mooncakes are sold by many bakeries and chinese restaurants for people to buy. This year is different for my family, bcos they no longer need to buy mooncakes to distribute to my family. My aunt(whom I shall be referring to as D'Master from now on) taught me how to bake mooncakes :) Last year or a few years back, D'Master taught me to make the easier version, the non-bake type of mooncakes, called "Bing Pei" or Snow Skin mooncakes.

D'Master didn't want to teach me the baked mooncakes as they were difficult to be made. But finally, she has deemed me worthy that's why she passed down her knowledge to me :p LOL

So here are some pics on the mooncakes i baked. Family and friends have tried, comments came back good so I am happy :)









Some tips for those who are interested to make some:

-Always make sure that you get a wooden mould like mine shown above, nvr ever get a plastic mould cos with all the knocking you will do just to get the mooncake out, the plastic mould may break.

-The mooncake will tend to stick to the mould in the process of knocking, so make sure u put alot of flour on the mould and also on the dough b4 pressing it into the mould.

-The egg glaze should be only egg yolk, and diluted using abit of water. It is recommended to glaze the mooncake when it is half cooked, if not it will tend to be burn b4 it's even cooked thoroughly.

-Remember to keep the freshly baked mooncakes for an extra two days for the oil of skin to emerge. This will make the skin softer and yummier to eat ;)

Some websites with mooncakes recipes are below:

Mooncake recipe 1

Mooncake recipe 2

Happy Baking :)

Back for Good

Greetings!

After taking a long break from blogging, I've decided to *ahem* change my blog address as well as the content. The content of this blog will be mostly on the baked goods. Other than that, I guess I will be posting more on Brandy's progress in agility and on her outtings.

Well, since I am talking about Brandy's outting and progress, Dogathon was held today in UPM. Things didn't go as well as they did the last time she took part in agility trials. To cut the story short, she got disqualified! TWICE! So, no thropy, no Blackwood dogfood and no goodie bag for her this time. :( Didn't manage to take any pics cos Brandy was pulling me around like an excited little girl in the funfair.

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And, yesterday was someone's 23rd birthday. She wasn't in Malaysia this time around but in some really ulu ulu kampung in Indon doing her social service (ie. doing health cheack for the people and also educating them on health issues). She is known as the hot medic student by her fellow course mates, she was and still is my partner in crime (hockey stick..? lol), she was the one who bought me hot tea after i felt dizzy watching her get her belly pierced, she was the one who ate roti babi.. without me! HAHA, and most importantly she was always there when I needed help. The person is......

MISS SELINA CHEW YUET LING!!!!


So sorry la I didn't call you yesterday as I promised.. I was so caught up with things that I didn;t have time to call -_- Thousand apologies, forgive me, pls...? Promise I will take you to my work place next time... when i get a job.... Haha!