Cupcakes & Zhiyu's 1st birthday

CUPCAKES NIGHT 2!

Over the weekend, my sis, qiqi and I baked cupcakes (again) to celebrate xiaoyu's 1st birthday :) The recipe was taken from Children's First CookBook by Annabel Karmel.

Making cupcakes...
First heat the oven to 180°C or 350°F. Then prepare the following.

• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 125 g sugar
• 125 g butter
• 125 g raising flour
• chocolate chips

This makes about 30 small cupcakes.

From previous experience, the cupcakes were too sweet and greasy. So we tweaked the formula a little - reducing both sugar and butter - to suit our taste preferences. (experiment with the right amounts for yourself!)

Mix all the ingredients together!

Add in some flavor! We threw in some chocolate chips, but raisins or blueberries would work too.

Lay out paper cones onto the tray and fill each cone to 1/2 or 2/3 the capacity. Put in the oven! Bake for 18 to 20 mins. (watch out for the color yourself!)

Meanwhile, prepare icing...

• 25o g icing sugar
• 125 g butter
• 1 tsp water
• coloring

Again play with the proportions to get the right taste.

Baking for kids is simple. Just mix everything up and add any coloring you would like! We had green and pink. Then put the icing in a corner of a small plastic bag. Cut off a tiny corner.

Ohh the cupcakes are almost ready!

Remove the cupcakes from the tray and leave out to cool down. (IMPT or your deco will melt!)

Making our second batch of cupcakes.

Ta-da! We wrote HAPPY 1st BDAY XIAOYU! on the cupcakes!

Next morning on webcam...

Opps, qiqi already started feasting on the cupcakes!

So good to see her again, she has grown so much and very talkative now! (keeps saying "da-da-da") I miss carrying and napping with her :)

Singing a birthday song for xiaoyu... Wah she was all ready to cut her cake!

Ok, no more talking. Just eat ;)

Office Tea-time!

Yum yum yum~ Don't know where exactly these came from, but we've had a nice little tea-time (minus the tea) in office yesterday!

A whole box of cute and soft chocolate cupcakes. :D
(Someone ninjaed one before I took the picture T_T)

A poodle. (or sheep?)

A bear.

A butterfly.

Which is your favorite?
I like the poodle most. :)

The deco tastes a bit like dough but is candy sweet! And the chocolate cupcakes (base) were made just nice - not too sweet, soft, and not too dry either. Truly delicious! - I sneaked one out for wx in the end. hehe

PS: Gave me some ideas for next cupcakes session with my niece... :p

Just Noodles @ Suntec

Simply cheap and yummy :)

Rating: ★★★

[prologue]
So I thought I could grab some ice-cream waffles at Gelare (Tuesday's 1/2 price offer) then head to a Singtel store to fix my mobile plan upgrades...

Happily cabbed to Suntec (bearing $2 ERP cost), found out that Gelare is closed from June 16-18, and realized that the Singtel stores there are only "dealers" NOT "Hello Singtel". Change of plans. So what's for dinner instead?
[/prologue]

Came to Just Noodles in B1 - the fountain area. If you've never heard of this name, Just Acia might just ring a bell to you. (There's a huge chain at the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station..) The food may not look very appetizing at first, but don't run! If you are not so picky, this restaurant will serve you the best food at the best bargain!

1) Great value.
Free Flows!! If you love free flow drinks, how about some free flow ice-cream!? XD It's self-service, like the drinks, with 6 flavors to choose from. Definitely try mango and vanilla! Be surprised, they don't taste as cheap as they appear to be. Set meals include both free flow drinks & ice-cream. For ala-carte, you can also add $2.75 for the free flow offer. Entrees range from $6-$18 approx; side dishes from $1-$6 approx.

2) Decent food.
If the ice-cream is good, the entrees can't be too bad right? A mixture of korean, japanese, and some chinese style, their kimchi soup is actually much better than those you can get at food courts. Although not the highest quality, it's definitely good enough considering how much you are paying for. Also try their Unagi Kabayaki and prawn rolls!

3) Fast service.
It's really a come, eat, and go place. Well maybe stay longer for the ice-cream :p but guaranteed low waiting times. Since drinks and desserts are self-served, it helps with reduced serving time too. You can change to a different drink and a different flavor of ice-cream anytime you want.

I would definitely go there again. :)

Read more reviews here.

Where to find crispy waffles in Singapore?

Rating: ★★★

Yum yum yum. Went to West Coast Plaza with my family and found this great waffle place:

the Waffle Place Cottage!

Ordered strawberry ice-cream at Qiqi's request (I was sharing it with her). $6.80 for single scoop. Wanted to add strawberries, but was told that they ran out of them (there's a Cold Storage right downstairs you know!) >

• West Coast Plaza, #02-27
• Suntec City Mall, MY PLAYground, #03-05G/071A
• SMU, School of Economics & Social Science, #01-74
  

Their website is in the making.. Hope to see their menu and pictures of their delicious waffles soon!! XD

I recommended Gelare's waffles to @nikipaniki sometime last month. Personally, I prefer the Gelare's waffle type - the softer and fluffier kind, or if you still remember, the A&W waffles kind.

There are 4 Gelare locations in town:

• Citylink Mall, #B1-26B
• Far East Plaza, #01-23
• Plaza Singapura, #05-20
• Suntec City Mall, #02-084
  

Visit their website for a full list of outlets in Singapore.

And while surfing their website...

Look what I found!
TUESDAY! That's tomorrow!!! :D

Cupcakes Night!

Here's a recommended weekend activity for families with kids:

Note: These were decorated by my sis and niece.

BAKE YOUR OWN CUPCAKES!

My 3-year old niece enjoyed it. It's almost like playing Cooking Mama on Wii or the iPhone!
Instructions were very simple from a children's cookbook. (I'll add the recipe next time)

*imagine the missing cupcakes recipe*

Ta-da! Yummy cupcakes, but a little plain eh? Here comes the fun part of decorating your cupcakes!
The cookbook featured really cute ideas using marshmallows to turn your cupcakes into sheeps and pigs. We skipped that part because it would only make my niece even more hyper than she usually is. Lets make our own icing first. :)

*icing recipe in the works*

Add a bit of coloring! We had pink and green.

A DIY icing bag!

Look at all the cupcakes I decorated!
And the adults (me, sis and mom) decided to have a cupcakes deco competition. Each of us submitted 2 cupcake designs. Judges were my 2nd sis and bro-in-law.

I was proud of my Doraemon idea. But nobody picked it! T_T
My other design (face with spectacles) was more successful, nominated twice. No one knows about this but guess what? It's a face of wx's.

:)

January Babies Birthday Party @Cellcity

2nd blackforest birthday cake I had yesterday. Tastes not bad actually.

5 January babies in the office!! 2 of them were missing. And the cake still barely made a piece each. Cake cutter Roslinda now has more cake cutting experience for next month's feast. ;)

P.S. I randomly took a beer from a colleague. >< And got a scolding from 祥祥... ah he was scary. :s That was the first time he ever really yelled at me for something I did. sobs.

Eat Me!

Tis the Season of Strawberries
Sha-la-la-la-la~ La-la-la-la~

Isn't it so? :D
Bright red strawberries calling out to you with their candy sweet fragrance...you just cannot resist!

edit:
ok, they weren't as sweet as they looked. :(