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. 

Pandan agar-agar with coconut milk recipe

I had some free time yesterday morning whilst waiting for the kids to get up from bed. After I've had a cup of coffee, watered my plants, done the laundry and run the dishwasher, I've decided to make agar-agar for dessert.

Pandan agar-agar is something that I used to make during my secondary school years. I used to have a good recipe for pandan agar-agar, given by my mum, but had unfortunately lost it. It has been at least 10 years since I last make one.

I still remembered the ingredients though, although not the amount of ingredients. Luckily, the pandan agar-agar made came out perfect, and all my kids loved it.

Pandan agar-agar

Here is the recipe that I used:

Ingredients:

A packet of agar-agar powder

230 g of sugar

750 ml of water

200 ml of coconut milk

1 egg

Some pandan leaves

Part of the ingredients used

*Note: I used swallow globe brand agar-agar powder in green, you can also use the clear version instead. The original recipe from the agar-agar powder packet called for 250 grams of sugar and 1 liter of water, but since I am replacing the water with a mixture of coconut milk, egg and water, I have reduced the sugar amount by 20 grams.

Method:

1. Blend together water with the pandan leaves to get pandan extract. Sieve through a strainer.

Pandan extract made by processing pandan leaves and water using a food processor/blender

2. Mix the pandan extract with sugar and agar-agar powder and bring to boil in a pot, stirring occasionally.

3. In a different container, mix the coconut milk and egg.

4. Once the sugar and agar-agar powder had dissolved and the mixture has started to boil, mix in the coconut milk and egg mixture.

5. Stir well and let it simmer for a while before turning off the heat.

6. Pour the mixture into a container (i used a 7 x 7 inches of square cake pan) and let it cool before transferring it into a refrigerator to set.

I used a 7 x 7 inches container, and the height of the agar-agar came out great

Mini pleated wristlet

My mum had actually requested me to make her a small wristlet a while back, for her to place her handphones. However, since I've not been sewing, I had put it in my to-do list. Since sekarang saya dah start menjahit balik, maka wajiblah untuk saya selesaikan apa-apa yang ada dalam to-do list saya tu.

I spent my Monday evening sewing her wristlet. Since I've never done the same wristlet pattern before, it took me quite a while to figure out how to cut the fabric and how to do it. Alhamdulillah, I managed to put things together and I really love the result.

I used a soft japanese cotton for the exterior, and a normal plain cotton for the interior.

Here's the front view of the writlet:

And here's the back/interior view of the wristlet:

I went to my mum's place on that Monday evening itself to hand her the wristlet, and I'm glad my mum suka wristlet tu.

Handmade hobo bag

I've not done any baking recently, except for the occasional breads and buns for our own consumption, tu pon sebab saya gatal-gatal request bread maker from my dear hubby and he bought me a kenwood breadmaker as per my request. Thank you so much sayang for the breadmaker.

 

 

Apart from that, I've also not done any sewing for almost 3 months.. Kesian kat my sewing machine, lama betul terbiar. Baru-baru ni je rasa macam ada mood nak start menjahit balik, lagipun it's about time anyway sebab banyak juga baju/seluar yang dah terkoyak etc. So, aktiviti menjahit dimulakan dengan me-repair baju & seluar yang dah terkoyak.

 

I've then decided to make myself a new bag, nak bagi datang mood menjahit :)

 

So, last Saturday was spent sewing my new hobo bag. I used cotton for the exterior and lining, and a thick interfacing as stabilizer. I used a magnetic snap button for the opening of the bag and even included a small pocket inside the bag for small items. I absolutely love the result!!

 

 

Suka sangat sebab my current bag is kind of small, tak muat nak letak banyak barang. With this bag, siap ada enough space untuk letak baby wipes and diaper as well as a big container of raisins for Nuha.

 

 

 

Apam polkadot dan cookie monster

Dah lama betul tak update blog ni, dah almost 3 months. Bukan setakat tak update, buka blog sendiri pon jarang sangat-sangat.. Mesti ada yang tertanya-tanya, busy sangat ke sampai tak sempat nak update blog ni.. takde la busy sebenarnya.. order apam polkadot pon saya dah stop ambil since early Oktober hari tu. Ni gambar order apam polkadot dan apam cookie monster yang saya terima in early October, baru sekarang nak masuk dalam blog:

 

 

 

Apam polkadot tu ordered by my mum's friend, apam cookie monster tu repeat order from Kak Alia, thanks both for the orders!

 

For information, I've temporarily stop taking any order for both apam polkadot and mini cheese tart since early October 2012. If I've decided to resume taking order for these 2 items, I will let you all know k.