YES! Ombre rose cake is the one that really caught my eye when I'm in search for ideas to bake a birthday cake for Yumei. Most girls love roses but Yumei is not one of them. She would prefer a big yellow SUNFLOWER and will go crazy over it. So guys... you know what to do if you want to have her heart. But of course, flower is not the major part of it, SINCERITY! Yes yes yes, saying about sincerity, definitely I have that. That's why even though I know Yumei is not fascinated with roses, I've still gone ahead with the design cos she will know I'm full of sincerity when I'm baking her this cake.

This is my time trying out, spent quite long hours on mixing colours and piping the roses. The outcome was not very neat, the outline of roses were rather rough, suspecting that I've beaten the cream too stiff. But it still give a wow factor by cuzzies cos it is my first time anyway. Yumei simply loves my sincerity. Hee... Photos contributions from lovely cuzzies.

I have 3 lovely sisters and the most independent one is none other than the number 2. Her name is Yumei and 26 Jan 2014 gonna be her 31st birthday. We are almost going to be 31 years of sister and this time round on her request via whatsapp during our sisters’ conversation, I am going to bake her a birthday cake! I thought this was the fastest decision I’ve made cos I’ve got only left with 2 days to come up with something. After searching for ideas on the net, something finally caught my eye and I told myself I am going with that. This will be my first cake in 2014 after a very long long time since Feb 2013 after Ning's birthday cake, almost a year. I don’t know what the outcome will be but I'll just do it. I'm sure even though it doesn't comes out good, Yumei will still love it.

I'm coming back! I've not been baking and writing here for more than a year and I think I should do some update and start a little baking as times goes by, at least to leave some footprints for myself to look back when I get older, as a journal for my children and love ones when I'm not around. Baking is still my favourite past time, something that I look forward to and something that greatly gives me sense of satisfaction. Recently I started cooking soup for my family! So my stories that I'm going to dictate here might not only be baking anymore. It will be my life journey. :)

Time really really flies... My sweetie pie has turned 5 today! For the past few weeks, she has all along requested for a number 5 cake for her birthday celebration in school. I googled and finally I found how to assemble a number cake, next thing was to come up with idea on how to decorate the cake. Eventually, I thought simple is beauty and decided to just pipe a few little flower petals and drop a skittle in the middle of each flower. An idea also came to my mind, shall I have a 5 layers cake to symbolise her age as well? And the answer is yes, I should go with that idea. Wait wait wait... just in case you thought it is a 5 tier cake, it is not. It is just a layer of sponge, a layer of cream, another sponge, cream and sponge again. Haha. Here comes some pictures of Ning's celebrations.

It's Feng's 2nd birthday! To cater to the kids' small appetite, instead of a big cake, I've made a tower of cupcakes instead. I tried to make it into some rainbow colours, but the outcome was not very attractive. I should have put more colourings, but come to think of the artificial ingredients, I didn't regret that I've held back. Just hope my little boy has enjoyed the sight of having a birthday cupcakes tower with a sweet birthday song from his little friends.
To "compensate" Feng for the not so pretty cuppies, I bought a beautiful Strawberry Napoleon from Prego in the evening for a small celebration at home, it was simply delicious. Hmmmmmm.... Feng, mummy wish you good health and the best of everything always. :)

I had a sudden whim one night, to make chocolate cupcakes! Without much thoughts, I took out my utensils, start whipping up and not long after, the aroma of the chocolate cupcakes filled my kitchen. They looked presentable and taste was just fine, definitely one recipe that I will use again.
Out of the blue, I thought I should try out another recipe which is highly recommended by my ex-colleage. At least for comparison to the common chocolate cupcakes that I have just baked. She met up with me recently and insisted that I should try out this Red Wine Chocolate Cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It is by far her most craved for chocolate cake and has sweared by it. Out of curiosity on how amazing can it be and because Ning was with her grandma that night, I decided to give it a go.
This time, I took lesser time than before to bake these treats, hmmmm... the truth of practise makes perfect. Instead of a 9 inch round cake, I divided the batter into 15 cupcakes. The fragrance of red wine together with the bitter sweet valhorna instantly lingered in my mouth, oh my... they were just so heavenly. The fine texture with the softness of the sponge, make it awesome! I can taste the intense flavour of red wine and it kinda makes my tipsy, might not be recommended for kids. Haha.

Thought I should do some updating here since I've not been very spontaneous for the past 2 months. I did make efforts to bake and here are some of the works crafted.

I baked these oatmeal cookies on 04 Aug 2012, a Saturday. This recipe was gotten from the Quaker recipe book. I used rolled oats which the recipe called for. I guess rolled oats will give a better texture and chewy sensation as compared to instant oats. However, I felt that the amount of oats can be reduced by a little cos the end product seems to be too chewy and rough though the taste was good with a little cinnamon added.

It was non others than chicken pies again. Hahaha. These were created on 08 Sep 2012, another Saturday. I tweaked the recipe a little this time. Tried to double the quantity and added vinegar, as it was supposed to allow easy handling of the dough. Indeed, the dough was quite trouble-free to handle this round. I also separated the dough into 2 batches, 1 was left in the fridge while I am rolling out the other. This helps to keep the dough cool in order to reduce shrinkage when rolled out.
I am not sure if it is the brand of butter that I used this time or the little tweak, that makes the pies not as delicious as before. Or is it because they were left in the fridge for a day before consumption, which had makes the filling rather dry (absorb by the crust? cos the crust is not as crusty too.). I'll give it a try again.

21 Sep 2012 - The sauage rolls... My first attempt on bread!!! My colleagues aroused my interest to give it a go. I always thought that bread making is a hassle, why not just pay a dollar plus and you get delicious bread any time you want. My opinion changed now. The sense of satisfaction, the aroma from the puffing dough and the smiling faces that I got from baking these breads indeed surpassed the hassle I thought I'd be in.
As my mixer was not the high end type, I ended up kneading the dough by hands. The process was tiring, no kidding at all. But I won't say bread making is a time consuming thing to do now cos the time spent is well worth on HOMEMADE BREAD with all natural ingredients (no improver), yet fluffy and soft!

August had been a hectic and gloomy month. I had lost someone so dear to me. I could still recall how she took care of us when we were kids, how she sayang us, how she laughed at our nonsense jokes, how she was being "bullied" by us when we grow up into adults, and so much much more. All these days were gone forever but she still remains so vibrant in our hearts. 三姨，你以经脱离苦海，没有痛苦了，要一路好走，知道吗？ 你会永远活在我们心中的，因为我们爱你。
During the last 1 to 2 weeks before she was gone, my heart was always pounding so anxiously whenever I received a call or whatsapp message from family chatroom. Every time without fail when I got the call, I'll rush all the way down to see her, hoping she still could speak to me or just open her eyes and recognised me. Every occasion was heartrending, almost everyone would tear, even though the mentally strongest person can be seen holding back tears with difficulty.  None of us wants to see her suffering so much from the pain, yet we don't bear to let her go. Despite this, on 11 Aug 2012, she decided to leave us. She is gone peacefully. The moments from receiving sms, the images of reaching her house, seeing her so still, cleaning her up, getting her dressed, kissing her goodbye to sending her on her final journey will never go away from my mind. 三姨，you are deeply missed by all of us.

I've decided to make this batch of pies, specially for 三姨. Unfortunately, she was hospitalised again. Sadly, she did not have a chance to touch these pies and all went into my cuzzies' hungry tummies. 三姨, I really wish that you will recover soon, if not completely, at least have the strength to enjoy our companionship, nice food and every love that we are bringing to you. We miss your orange juice that you always squeeze freshly for us, we miss your laughter whenever we joke with you, we miss your everything.
You made me realise that life is so fragile and we never know what will happen the next moment. I told myself that I will always make effort to be home for dinner with my love ones. This is a simple affair, however everyone's presence makes a difference and it is really a blessing to see each other safe and healthy everyday.