happy birthday #2

#2 turned one last sunday and we had a "mini" bash for him - see, lots of "mini" people came! In fact, I think there were easily 20 plus kids running around. But they were generally well behaved since there were some play stuff and craft stuff to keep them occupied.

#2 had fun, so much so he refused to nap. And he clung on to my hubby's friend like a koala. Yes, he didn't even want me!

The cake was "fun". This time I did a fondant cake. I signed up for a fondant cupcake decorating class with B-I-Y and I was confident enough to try my hand at it, since the store bought fondant they used at the class and which I could buy taste good actually! I made a train design, and to "use" up the empty space on the cake boards, we sprinkled M&Ms around. So yup, the kids went sorta crazy over it. It looks colourful and distracted the obvious "stitches" on the fondant. The cake were my standard recipe for pound cake so it held the shapes pretty well. The train track was made from the leftover chocolate fondant.

I think #2 had fun. #1 sure did running around.

I didn't cook this time. We catered in the food and bought extra "mini" food for the "mini people". I am glad the kids like the play stuff. To this day, the bouncer company still never replied me despite my emails and calls. Well, I'm never going to use them or recommend them. I guess my business were just too small for them.

We had some last minute panic attacks too. I wanted to print #2 photo on a thank you sticky label and then I realised I didn't have any updated photos of him *ack* So we grab the bedsheets, changed him and #1, and took some shots. My lumix L2 is still the best, and I think the next camera will be lumix and nothing less. Some shots turned out pretty well, so we managed to get him smiling cheerfully on the labels!

We did a photoshoot a few days ago, to "commemorate" the stage we are at. Hopefully it will turn out nice ... probably one more shoot to go, for all the kids, since my sis is back with her 2 kids too. It will be nice to have some pics of all the 8 cousins, but wondering which photographer we can use which won't faint from all the ruckus!

"Long" weekend again ...

Started on Friday, since I had a bit of my ML to clear before they "expire" soon. I treated myself to a haircut and then followed by a fondant cupcake decorating class at B-I-Y.

Somewhat pleased with my haircut but I am likely to trim it a little bit more, or else rebond it so that my curls will stop flapping around. The curls are coming back with a vengeance at the fringe already.

Fondant decorating wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I like the cake they used but I still prefer my pound cake, because it has a lot moisture than the one they taught in class. I'll relook at the ingredients and compare later and see if I could "compromise" between the 2 since my pound cake tend to crumb easily. I had expected that they would teach how to make fondant at the class but my fault, I didn't read it carefully. They used ready made fondant which actually taste PRETTY GOOD. I was chomping my way down the allocated bag of fondant (that explains my size doesn't it) while the instructor was doing the demo. Anyway, I've decided I will bake and decorate #2's birthday cake. Just hope I will survive the panic attacks/ transport logistics.

On Saturday, it was massive cleanup of my bedroom. Threw out lots and lots of toys and magazines and books to the living room, and did a massive clean up. Then I disassembled V's bed and got it stored away. In its place (plus more shifting of my bed) we plonked down my old queen size mattress (which I first used back in 2006! got from Ikea for about $200 then but I quite like the support from this bed). I took a mattress from one of the cots and then use it as the headboard. #2 finally joined us for a sleepover! BUT it was far from easy. I had envision the kids playing until they got themselves knocked out. Unfortunately V wanted to go in and out of the room with a LOUD bang of the door and #2 couldn't sleep because of that. Needless to say, V got ticked off, and she went out of the room in tears (insisted on finding on of the helper) so the Daddy tagged along with her. #2 finally fell asleep after I put the bottle to this mouth - wait, it's not milk, it's water! He's strange, more often than not, he falls asleep with a bottle of water in his mouth rather than milk (he will protest violently if it's milk) and he doesn't want a pacifier either.

I went outside to look for V after #2 fell asleep, and she was still tearing away on the potty. Made milk for her (she didn't have dinner - only wanted milk) and then she promptly fell asleep after that. The hubby got to be KING of the bed since he had the whole bed to himself, while I got to be the QUEEN, since my kids flanked me on both left and right. #2 complained right from the start about his socks and long sleeve jacket, so I had to remove for him. V was coffing away through the night and I applied vicks on her chest. #2 then promptly started crying, so I had to carry him with 1 hand while I try to wipe the other hand which was full of vicks. I think #2 may be ready to sleep through the night without milk, he only had 60 ml! Let see if tonight is still the same, but I will prob change his position a little, since he seems to complain that his corner is a little warm. V was quite happy sleeping on this bed, rather than her own little bed. She woke up, singing "do re me fa so" on the same note!

Oh in between room makeover and the sleepover, we attempted to make bak zhangs - I could get the stuffing right, but I completely forgot how to wrap them! So sad! They look rather misshapen and a bit tasteless since water got into the packets of rice, but thankfully the center still taste ok. I need to find a shifu FAST to teach me how to wrap the zhangs!

I'll probably stop pumping soon too ... getting like 300ml in 16 hours only *sigh* and this pump probably be another 200ml only ... feel a sense of "loss" ...

Cheesecake Cheesecake Wo Ai Ni!

Literally "Cheesecake Cheesecake I Love You".

Well, I can't help it. It was so easy to bake, especially if kids wants to help out and to mess around the kitchen. They like to eat it too, since I baked it into petite individual servings (cupcake kinda thingy).

I made Oreo cheesecake, but I also tried something new - rum and raisin cheesecake (well I had some brandy soaked mixed fruits that could do with some using up!).

Base recipe for the Cheese cake filling

1. 16 oz/ 500g/ 2 blocks cream cheese (I used Philadelphia - full fat)

2. 2/3 cup sugar

3. 3 eggs

4. 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

5. lots of oreo cookies

For the Cheese cake base - 1 oreo cookie (it fitted my baking cups perfectly - 1.75 inch diameter)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150 C.

2. Get the cheese to room temperature, or zap it in the microwave for 1 min (high) straight from the fridge.

3. Beat cheese and sugar till smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Add 1 egg at a time and beat till well combined after the addition of each egg.

5. Add vanilla extract and beat till well combine.

6. Crush some oreo cookies - coarsely and not finely, else your cheesecake becomes somewhat greyish!

7. Add the crushed oreo cookies to the batter and stir just a few times to stir in the cookie crumbs.

8. Place an oreo cookie at the base of each cup and then pour the cheesecake filling till 0.5 cm from the top.

9. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes (centre should still be slightly jiggly when you remove it.

10. Cool and then keep it in the fridge. It taste better when eaten cold.

Makes about 30 to 35 mini cheesecakes.

Rum & Raisin Cheesecake variation

Instead of adding crushed oreo cookies to the cheesecake filling batter, finely chopped 200g bar of rum and raisin chocolate bar and add it into the batter, together with a teaspoon of rum flavouring. You are welcome to add more raisins/ fruits to the batter. I have already a new "design" in my mind and once tested and approved, I'll post up the recipe!

Butter Cookie Recipe

This is the recipe I used to bake the butter cookies last week:

Recipe adapted from the 3 Ingredients Cookbook

Ingredients
1 cup/250g/2 sticks Butter (I used SCS salted butter)
2/3 cup lightly packed soft brown sugar
2 and 2/3 cup Plain Flour
2 tsp of vanilla extract/ favourite flavouring (I've tried Irish Coffee)

Demera Sugar/ golden granulated sugar to roll the cookie dough in

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius.
2. Cream butter and sugar together till fluffy (cream for about 5 minutes). Add Vanilla extract and beat a little more.
3. Stir in flour and mix into a soft dough (non sticky!).
4. Tear a piece of baking paper and shape the dough into a long roll on it. You can have it round or square or rectangle.
5. On one side of the baking paper, sprinkle a thick layer of demera sugar.
6. Coat the dough with the sugar. Wrapped with the baking paper when done.
7. Put into the fridge to chill for at least 30 mins (I put mine overnight).
8. Unwrap the dough and cut into slices. Place on baking sheet (I put a layer of baking paper on top) at least an inch apart. The cookie will still expand somewhat.
9. Bake for 30 minutes or till golden brown (depends on how big your cookies are).
10. Remove from oven, let it cool before storing and keep it out of the way from the kids/ adults.

Chocolate Pound Cake

Had to make one today ... had this itch to make something really chocolately and after flipping through whatever recipe books I could lay my hands on, I stuck to the guaranteed recipe that I normally used.

Ingredients

250g butter (slightly soften at room temperature)

250g caster sugar

250g self raising flour

1 cup of dutch processed cocoa powder* (I'll get around to weighing it another time!)

4 eggs

2/3 to 3/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk

plus

2 cups of semi sweet/ bitter chocolate chips**

Method

First of all, preheat oven to 170 degree C!

1. Cream butter and sugar for 3 minutes on medium speed.

2. Add eggs one by one and beat till well incorporated. Doesn't matter if it curdles at this stage.

3. Divide flour into 2 portions. Add the first portion of flour to the butter mixture and mix on medium speed for a short burst. Scrape down the sides.

4. Add milk and mix on medium speed for a short burst. Scrape down.

5. Add cocoa powder and use the spatula to fold into the mixture. Mix on high speed for a short burst.

6. Add sour cream and mix on high speed for a short burst. Scrape down.

7. Add the 2nd portion of the flour. Use the spatula to fold in and mix on high speed for a short burst. Scrape down again and mix on high speed for a short burst to ensure that the mixture is well combined.

8. I used cupcake cases so there no buttering of pans involved. Fill cases to 1/2 full and push some chocolate chips to just below the surface. Smooth over the top with a little bit more cake batter. This cake will rise quite a fair bit.

9. My oven was working pretty well today or my timer is conky (my son dropped it on the floor this morning and my oven timer has since long gone to heaven) but it took about 30 minutes to finish baking. Do the skewer test if not sure. Made about 16 cupcakes (bases 2 inch wide).

Enjoy!

* Dutch processed cocoa is not the same as the hersey chocolate or other drinking chocolate.

** I am sold on couveture chocolate chips - they are just simply wonderful and I'm not even using famous brands here.