Short Budgety Vacation- Day 3

That was Sunday and we were supposed to meet up with Cecena, a friend whom I had not met for 19 years for breakfast, then proceed to church. However she overslept so we went out for breakfast on our own. She and family joined us later on at the eatery. 

Cecena took us to ⛪️ a Baptist church. 

The parking lot

The canteen

Resting place

My son's classroom 

This is a huge church in terms of land size. The congregation is is medium in size. 

After the church service, we went to Sugar Pantry to have a bite. 

The cakes and pastries

We bid farewell after that. 

Short Budgety Vacation- Day 2

After having breakfast at the hotel we bathed and left for Batu Pahat where the wedding was. 

The wedding was in Parit Bengkok, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat. This is a village deep in Batu Pahat. Just as the name, the place has lots of 'parits' which mean drains. 

Upon arrival, we congratulated the newly weds and greeted the bride's parents. 

The food served were Briayani rice with ayam masak merah (chicken with red sauce), rendang kambing (mutton), nangka muda masak lemak (young jackfruit with coconut milk), aca (pickles), gulai sayur (vegetables), ulam (Malay-style salad), oranges and cordial drink. 

However after taking the food from the buffet table, as I was sitting down, someone served us with additional dishes- siakap and prawns. As I was looking around I found that no other table was having these extra dishes. My hubby asked me to just eat the food. So I did. I reccond the dish was for VIP?? Well I am not sure. 

The next stop of the day is Johore Premium Outlet. In fact, I am currently writing the post here 😁

Oh the first shop we went into was Calvin Klein. Hubby bought a pair of pink pyjamas for me. It has a discount of 60%, so I thought it's a worth buy. 

Next we bought a pair of shorts or rather Bermuda for the two of us. They have 75% off. Wow! 

Ralph Lauren was the next shop we entered. Bought a shirt for my boys each.  Only about RM320. 

We saw that no one was lining up for Burberry shop so we decided to have a look inside. Hubby bought a shirt and he bought a sling bag for me as our 11th anniversary gift. 

After purchasing the things, we headed to Eight Days Hotel in Permas Jaya.  It's a boutique hotel. 

We booked two rooms with queen sized bed. However a room was on the ground floor while the other on the 2nd floor. We tried to changed but the guy at the counter said there was no more room with Queen sized bed. 

I was already not happy because of the inconvenience but giving us a room on the ground floor, what more just next to the kitchen made it worst. The cooking smell even came into the room! I was truly depressed but I dare not fully express my disappointment as I was worried if I offended hubby. 

Anyway, I let the maid and two of my kids slept on the third floor, while Kevin went down to get the remaining things from our car. I just sat there on the bed, depressed. I was thinking of how was I going to fall asleep last night. I didn't really pray to God with any exact words. All I knew was, I said "God ... God...". I believe He knows it all. So when Kevin came back, he told me that all was settled. He got us an upgrade so we got a room on the same floor. Fooh!! Thank God for the miracle. So this room had a queen sized bed and a single bed. Now I could easily took my eldest to sleep with us. He gladly slept with us, on his own bed of course. 

I wanna thank God for the better room that came in a surprise. 

Short Budgety Vacation- Day 1

My husband's colleague is getting married in Batu Pahat. We decided to attend the wedding so that we could, at the same time have a short holiday on the way there. 

The first stop was Melacca. It's a historical town in Malaysia. The journey took us about two and a half hours, inclusive of a few stops. 

Anyway, we checked in at Seri Cosa, a budget hotel at the centre of the town. It is run by Felda. We took 2 rooms as there were 3 adults and 3 children. 

Our rooms cost RM150 nett each. The rooms are small, simple and not dusty, which was very good. 

However, the rooms had no window. That made them feel like dungeons. Worst of all, the ceiling in my room, just above the bed area had a manhole, and it looked like there were some leakage stain. I could roughly guess that the manhole is the excess of a toilet above us. 

Never the less, I think you get what you pay. Further more we are only staying here for a night. So I'll just learn to close an eye on this matter. No big fuss for me this time.

So here in Melacca, we would surely go to Jonker Street and hubby would surely eat the chicken rice ball at Famosa Chicken Rice Ball Restaurant. He likes the chicken rice ball there. 

Chicken rice balls are ordinary rice cooked into soft texture and then made into sphere shape. So instead of ordering a plate of rice, one can just order how many balls he needs. 

Rice balls that look like fish balls 

Rice balls, fish balls and steamed chicken. Otak-otaks werenot in the picture.

Cendol (the green, worm-like thing in the picture) with grated ice, red beans, coconut milk and the super yummy Gula  Melaka (coconut sugar, produced from coconut flower). 

Other than that, we paid a visit to Menara Taming Sari, a revolving tower that took us up to 80 metres high. We could see the panoramic view of Melacca, UNESCO World Heritage. My sons especially the youngest, was very excited about the ride, as this was his first 'official' ride, because in the previous ride , he was still in my tummy. 

View from the tower

View from the tower

Apart from that, we also Muzium Samudera (Maritime Museum). It was built after Flora De La Mar, a Portuguese ship that sank off the coast of Melacca, when it was on its way back to Portuguese. Different types of ship from different countries were also on display in the museum. 

My youngest son was playing near the bowsprit. I supposed he was controlling the bowsprit? I'm note sure actually. 

Blossom in a Basket

I had a few egg whites from my other 'projects'. To throw them away would be a waste and to fry them with an additional egg with its yolk may not be delicious. So I recalled a recipe I once followed - Rose Levy Beranbaum's White Velvet Butter Cake, that only calls for egg whites. 

 

The recipe will actually  yield two 9-inche round pan, height about 1.125 inches. However, I used the recipe for only one 9-inch square pan, which is actually bigger in capacity than a 9-inch round pan.

Well, if I cut the sides of my cake it will be about that height, but only one cake. Anyway, I was still happy about it. 

So because there wasn't a specific purpose for the cake, I simply cut the cake into four quarters (simple squares) and I stacked two squares together. I then decorated the mini cake. 

I used only the two squares. 

After stacking up the cake, I crumb coated it with buttercream. I used light brown as base, just as the colour of my end product. After that I started to pipe the basket and then the flowers freehand. 

Here is the finished product. I managed to get the variegated colours buy spreading some coloured paste on the piping bags first before I filled the bags with cream. I then mixed the colours in the bags. I like this variegated colours as they look more natural. 

This is how the cake looked like after cutting. Note that the cake is dliggy yellowish because I used brown vanilla instead of clear one. 

I hope you get some inspiration from this posting. 

 

Folding Technique

In baking, folding means combining ingredients together without disturbing the mixture. It should be done gently yet quickly. 

As a fan of chiffon cake, it is a must to master the skill of folding because this technique is crucial to determine the success of the cake. Of course knowing when to stop beating the egg white is important too. 

So here in this posting, I am sharing a slow-mo video of folding technique in baking a chiffon cake. 

http://youtu.be/7KEF2fN5_oQ

Do give some support to this auntie ya😆

Cupcakes for Christmas

 Here are the cupcakes I made for the Christmas celebration two days ago. 

I arranged the cupcakes onto a green three-tier cupcake stand which I bought from Parkson Kuching. I found that this arrangement was perfect for the celebration as it did resemble a Christmas tree. My maid suggested that I put on the star (taken from my Christmas tree) at the top. The star actually pulled everything together. The whole thing was marvellous. I loved it. 

Close up view of the hydrangeas cupcakes. I loved the light blue hydrangeas so much. I think they looked so sweet while the pink cupcakes complimented the whole presentation.

Last but not least, thank you Dawn for the cupcake cups. 😎

Butter Cupcakes

When I visited my mom in the hometown, she gave me two packets of self rising flour, as they are about to expire (mom is weaker now, she seldom bake). 

Yes, I am a hobbyist who actually hopes to become a professional baker one day. 

When my friend Dawn asked me to make some cupcakes for the Christmas celebration, I quickly decided to use the flour my mom gave me. 

I seldom use self rising flour in baking so I looked for a butter cake recipe that calls for self riding flour at http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/19421/butter+cake

My review : 

1) The cakes were delicious and did smell great. They tasted like butter cookies to me. However, the cakes were too sweet. I will reduce the amount of sugar next time. 

2) Since I was using a 19x19cm square cake recipe for cupcakes, I reduced the baking time. It was a wise decision.

3) I poured too much of batter into each  cup so the cake rose quite high. I should have filled the cups half full. 

 

Here are the steps with pictures:

1) Get all the ingredients ready. 

* I put the vanilla powder and self rising flour together.

2) Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.

3) Add the eggs, one at a time and beat.  

4) Sift and add the flour and vanilla powder then continue beating. 

5) Mean while, get the cups and oven ready, meaning preheat the oven. 

6) Fill the cups half full with batter. 

*Notice I filled too much batter into the cups and that had caused the cake to rise too high. 

7) Bake in the preheat oven. 

8) Let the cakes cool then level the top by cutting them. 

These are the second batch I made, when I only half filled the cups. This is the height I was looking for. 

The cakes are now ready to be decorated.