Resepi kek kukus coklat lembab

Hari ni anak-anak semua tak sekolah, Amirul demam sejak hari Jumaat, Faiz pula memang liat sikit nak pergi sekolah kalau abang dia tak sekolah... Nasib baik Faiz masih belum masuk darjah satu, kalau tak jangan haraplah dapat ponteng..

Since anak-anak semua ada kat rumah, Shas buat kek kukus coklat untuk makan petang. Resepi asal dapat dari blog ni, tapi macam biasalah, Shas ada tukar-tukar sikit resepi tu. Shas kurangkan susu pekat, minyak sayuran, gula, tambah esen vanilla dan gantikan tepung gandum dengan tepung kek.

Shas buat 1/2 adunan je, kukus dalam loyang bulat 7 inci. Resepi kat bawah ni untuk 1/2 adunan:

50 gram serbuk koko

200 gram susu cair

110 gram susu pekat

90 gram minyak sayuran

Campurkan semua bahan-bahan di atas dan masak di atas api perlahan, kacau hingga semua koko larut (tak perlu sehingga mendidih).

2 biji telur

110 gram gula kastor

1/2 sudu teh esen vanilla

75 gram tepung kek

1/2 sudu teh baking powder

1/2 sudu teh baking soda

Satukan telur, gula kastor dan esen vanilla menggunakan mixer. Kemudian, campurkan bahan-bahan yang dipanaskan di atas api tadi (campuran serbuk koko, susu cair, susu pekat dan minyak sayuran). Setelah sebati, masukkan tepung kek, baking powder dan baking soda.

Alas loyang dengan baking paper, tuang adunan kek ke dalam loyang dan kukus pada suhu sederhana sehingga masak. Shas kukus selama 45 minit.

Resepi coklat ganache mudah:
160 gram susu pekat
3/8 cawan serbuk koko (boleh juga guna 1/2 cawan serbuk koko)
1/2 sudu butter

Satukan bahan-bahan di atas dan masak di atas api sehingga likat. Tuang ke atas kek yang telah disejukkan dan hias.

Nuha orang yang paling excited sekali tengok mama dia buat kek, especially since dia memang sangat suka makan kek.

Chocolate chips cookie recipe

So I kept the promise I made to my kids and we spent our Saturday evening making cookies. Amirul and Faiz both enjoyed helping me making the drop cookies.

I used a different chocolate chips cookie recipe this time around, which I happened to come across the other day whilst surfing the net.

I had however changed the temperature used for baking as there was comment made by a reader asking on why the bottom of her cookies got burnt quite fast. I had also substituted the almond nibs with ground almonds. Original recipe for the cookie can be found here.

Here's the recipe that I used:

Ingredients:

250 grams butter

120 grams sugar

100 grams brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly bitten

320 grams flour

80 grams corn flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

100 grams ground almonds

250 grams chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 160 degree celcius.

Beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar until creamy.

Add in the beaten eggs and beat well.

Mix together the flour, corn flour, baking soda and cocoa powder.

Finally, add in the ground almonds and chocolate chips.

Drop the cookie dough a teaspoon at a time onto a baking sheet.

Bake for about 24 minutes.

This recipe yields crunchy chocolate chips cookie like the one bought from famous amos, not the soft chewy type like the one from subway. My kids loved the cookies made, and we liked the cookies too.  My 2 years old daughter said "mmmm, yummy cookie" a few times when eating the cookies.

This recipe is a sure keeper!

Banana cupcakes with cinnamon and chocolate chips

Yesterday afternoon, whilst on our way back home after fetching Amirul from school, I asked my two boys on whether the want to do any baking in the evening. Of course both said yes, but there were both arguing on what to bake. Faiz wanted cupcakes whilst Amirul wanted cookies.

And I get to choose because I don't want to bake both. It will be too much and possibly too tiring for them, and for their mom, since they both will need to attend fardhu ain class at 8 pm. I choose to make cupcakes as we have some ripe bananas around, and we can make use of the ripe bananas if we make banana cupcakes.  But to not disappoint Amirul, I told him that we will make cookies next, which means that I will be making cookies either today or tomorrow.

The cupcake recipe that I used was based on a recipe found online, but I had tweaked it a little here and there. The original recipe for banana and cinnamon cupcakes can be found here. I had however used cake flour and baking powder to substitute the self raising flour, reduced the sugar, added in some chocolate chips and skipped the icing.

Here's how I made the cupcakes:

Ingredients:

2 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup milk

125 grams butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 to 3 large ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celcius and line cupcake pan with cupcake liners. 
2. Sieve the cake flour, baking powder and ground cinnamon into a bowl and combine with caster sugar.
3. Add in milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla essence and stir to combine.
4. Finally, add in the mashed bananas and chocolate chips and spoon the mixture into the lined cupcake pan.
5. Bake for 12 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cupcake comes out clean.

First blog post for year 2013

Hope that it is not too late to wish all readers a happy new year.

The start of the new year also equal to the start of a new school term, which also means the start of my daily routine to fetch the kids from school. Not much changes to the routine this year as compared to last year since there will still be days when I have to go out twice to fetch the boys as their end of school time differs. The only difference I made this year is to feed Faiz and Nuha their lunch first on days when Amirul will be back late, whilst waiting for the time to go out and fetch Amirul.

Today's lunch, beef lasagne:

So, it has been close to 6 months since I quit my job and my new life has so far been great and rewarding. Although it is kind of difficult to adjust at first, and tiring at times, but to be able to be with the kids 24-7 made it all worth it.

One thing about being a stay at home mom is that you will need to have a good discipline. It is not an easy or straightforward job, balancing between the time you spent with the kids and doing the house chores. What more if the stay at home mom also work from home.

For now, I am happy with my current schedule: - make breakfast, clean the house after the kids left for school, do laundry, water my plants, wake Nuha up and bath her, feed her breakfast, start cooking lunch cum dinner by 10.30 am so that there will be ample of time prior to fetching Faiz from school, load and run the dishwasher and fetch Faiz and Amirul from school. After lunch, Faiz and Amirul will start with their homework and I will supervise. They then get to watch some TV and in the evening, after our evening tea and depending on the weather, we will either go out to the playground, go to my mum's place or spend it at home. 3 nights in a week, I will send Amirul and Faiz to attend iqra/fardhu ain classes after dinner.

I love being a stay at home mom. I am a much happier person now and I'm sure the kids also enjoy having me around.