Express Chocolate Cupcake

I was looking for something easy to bake last Saturday. I wanted a fast, simple and easy recipe. So, I ended up whipping up these very easy and fast chocolate cupcakes. Just took me few minutes to put them into oven. It is so easy that even a person who doesn't know how to bake can come out with this cupcake.

Initially,  I thought of frosting the cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkle some rainbow sprinkles on top. The angel me and the lazy me fought in my head and the lazy me won the battle. That is why the cupcakes are naked without any frosting.  Haha! Nevertheless,  they are good on their own. If you ask me, they don't need any frosting. Moreover, cake with frosting translate to more work for the lazy mummy.  Why? Frosted cake = messy kids.

Finally, after all the blah blah blah, we have the recipe. Yay!! 

Express Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

A

1 cup general purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

150g sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

B

1/2 cup corn oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup scalded hot milk

1 Grade C egg

Method:

1. Mix A till they are well-mixed.

2. Mix in B according to the order listed above and ensure that they are well-mixed and the egg is well beaten.

3. Pour into cupcake cups or muffin pan.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 170ºc for 10 to 15 minutes. 

5. Check for doneness by inserting a pick into the cake. If it comes out clean, it means the cake is done.

(Adapted from Vivian Pang's kitchen)

3-Colours Bread

I do not like my family and loved ones to consume food with artificial colourings. However I like colourful bakes. Not only I am happy when I get to see and taste my colourful bakes. The girls are also excited and happy to see them. So I always try to incorporate colours into my bakes; natural colours that is. 

I baked a rather interesting loaf of bread, consists of 3 vibrant colours,  green, brown and white few days back. I used green tea powder for the green dough, cocoa powder for the brown and I left another portion plain.

I used Chef Alex Goh's sandwich bread  recipe and towards the end of proofing,  I divided the dough into 3 equal portions. I tinted 1 portion of the dough with green tea paste (1 tsp green tea powder +1 tsp water) and another portion of dough with chocolate paste (1 tsp cocoa powder +1 tsp water). The other portion was left plain as it is.

Zebra Butter Cake

I have been wanting to bake a zebra cake for quite some time and last week I finally baked it. I envisioned turning a butter cake into a zebra cake and when I went online to look for recipes for both butter cake and zebra cake, I found exactly what I was looking for; a zebra butter cake. I got the recipe from here.

Crispy Fried Enoki Mushroom

I made this particular dish on Wednesday.  I had no idea what to cook for dinner on last Wednesday and I have a packet of Enoki mushroom sitting in my fridge for very long already. Hubby loves enoki mushrooms but Cheryl is the opposite.  Instead of cooking it the normal way, I went online to scout around for any special way to cook it. Then I chanced upon a blog with an entry on this crispy enoki mushroom,  which I think the girls and hubby will like. 

So I adapted the recipe to my version of the crispy fried enoki mushroom from here. The following is my recipe:

Crispy Fried Enoki Mushroom

Ingredients:

1 pckt enoki mushroom
2 tbsp rice flour
4 tbsp all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tbsp fried chicken flour
A pinch of salt (Optional)
Pepper (Optional)
Enough water to produce batter that can coat the back of a spoon

Method:

1. Cut away the bottom part of the enoki mushroom.

2. Wash and drain the mushroom and separate into individual strands

3. Add in all the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and water and mix them into a batter. Adjust the water so that the batter can coat the back of a spoon.

4. Heat the oil.

5. Dip the mushrooms into the batter and deep fry them in batches.

Family Trip: Lost World of Tambun

This is a last minute unplanned trip. We had earlier plan  to  go back to Klang on Saturday night but since the plan didn't materialise,  we thought of going to The Lost World of Tambun in Ipoh. We bought the deal from Groupon only on Saturday morning and made reservation for a 2 day/1 night stay. When we made the reservation, there were only 1 room left, which is the Classic room. We have to top-up an additional RM50 to upgrade the room to Classic as the Groupon deal is for the Exotic room. 

We started our journey from Melaka around 6.30pm and reached the hotel around 10.30pm. Our room were upgraded to Executive Suite at no extra cost to us. We were so elated when we reached our suite. There is a bedroom, pantry, dinning area, living hall and 2 washrooms. It is really very comfy and spacious. I guessed that since it was already very late, the front counter staff thought that we are not coming. So they released the room thay we have booked earlier. When we reached, they have to give us the only available room which is the Executive Suite.

These are the photos taken at the suite:

This is the washroom in the bedroom

Living hall

Dinning area

Pantry

Another toilet

We had our buffet style breakfast at Garden Terrace. The complimentary breakfast is only for 2 pax. Luckily, we only need to pay for Cheryl and they didn't charge for Celine and Chloe. They have quite generous selection of food there. I love their nasi lemak the most. Their half-boiled eggs also have perfect texture. I would have love it if not because of the soy sauce that they used. They are using those sweet soy sauce. Hubby said their fried noodle and curry noodle taste quite good too. They do not only serve Malaysian breakfast but also Western breakfast. Earlier we can't locate the Garden Terrace. We thought that it is at the hotel building but couldn't find it. After searching unsuccessfully for the Garden Terrace, we asked a cleaner who happen to be there and she pointed us to the Theme Park's direction. No wonder we see so many people walking towards the Theme Park at such an hour.

After having our breakfast, we went back to our hotel and packed our things. We have to check-out first before we go in to the Theme Park as the check-out time is 12pm. We first went to the Water Park before we explored other places. The girls really had a great and fun time there. But then ....we didn't put on any sun block and had quite bad sunburn :(

I will let the photos do all the talking:

Before we depart home, we detoured a bit to have our dinner at Onn Kee, a famous nga choy kai outlet.

Kat chai shuen mui, my personal favourite

Overall, this is a very enjoyable trip for our family. The girls had a good time and we are able to relax and rejuvenate ourselves.