ginger + cinnamon

Diets are indeed sad but it plays a big role if I want to be skeleton thin.


Finally I got to make my own gingerbread cookies after a long time considering whether I should. One day my younger siblings came back with some birthday party packs and a gingerbread man was in each packet. That's where I got my inspiration from. So I decided that I should spend my Saturday baking....

Gosh it wasn't an easy task. Mixing the ingredients was a piece of cake but shaping these people was one hell of a difficult task. My dough was very soft so everytime a man or lady was shaped, I had to be really careful when picking it up else it'd get misshaped and wouldn't look like people anymore. However after 4 hours, 40 gingerbread people were baked and thankfully were very delicious.


A day later, all gingerbread people are happily in everyone's stomach. It's heartbreaking to see how fast the cookies go down our throats when it took hours to make them. Nevertheless, I'm happy that I baked it.

goodbye 2007

It's time to say adios to one roller-coaster-ride year. So much has happened in a very short period of time - successes, failures, ups and downs. Let the past be a lesson for the future undertakings.

Not to be forgotten, the things I am thankful for:

1. To perform dances after so many years
2. To run for marathons, eventhough it's not a complete one
3. To graduate with wonderful results
4. To conquer the highest peak in South East Asia
5. To be part of the most gorgeous wedding
6. To be employed by a foreign financial instutute

What made my day was the following words by my boss:


"Thanks for the cupcakes. They're delicious! I believed you received heaps of compliments already. Wishing you a good year ahead and may your aspirations come through. But your efforts are needed of course!"

walking down memory lane

2 days to Xmas and I'm looking forward for another day off work! Eid-ul Adha was just a few days ago and it was celebrated moderately by us. I actually spent most of the day catching up on my beauty sleep. Been staying up late watching McDreamy in action. **droool**

This month is a month of excessive spending. Strangely, it wasn't for my new clothes or new shoes. There were too many gatherings - from farewells to reunions.... and hell they cost quite a damage to my pocket. Looks like I'm going to begin the next year with very little money in my piggy bank.

Although, I am filled with joy and happiness to share some wonderful news from my high school friends. One is engaged, the other too is engaged and one more is having a baby! What an exciting way to end the year.

Not only am I hearing these great news from them, I'm also bumping into familiar faces which I haven't seen in a long 7 years. They all look the same, just like how they were in school uniform. Makes me wonder whether they think the same of me but to be honest, I hope they notice some changes because I think I have grown so much since the last decade.

I have grown to love cupcakes!
(Picture taken at Bijou)

bits and pieces

Professor Snape looks very ill. The surviving fish which my little sister bought last week is not looking good today. He keeps resting on the floating leaf in the water, if not on the stones at the bottom of the bowl. I worry very much of his health. It doesn't look like he's going to be here long.

Update: Hantu Ikan has taken over. Snape is dead. :(

I am finally experiencing this again. Spending Ramadhan at home where I don't have to worry about what to eat for breaking fast. No more having pathetic sandwiches. No more having that oily and fattening mosque beriyani. Soon enough, I don't have to feel guilty for skipping lectures on Hari Raya day.


Suddenly out of nowhere, I'm craving for chocolate muffins. Would it be mean to be baking chocolatey things when my younger siblings are fasting? Probably it is, but tough, I think I am baking tomorrow. Something to keep me occupied.

Tribute to Tinkerbell*

I decided to explore my limited creativity by baking fairy cakes, also famously known as cupcakes. It's a craze over here in Malaysia to bake tiny little butter cakes and then make them pretty with icing sugar and sugar decorations. Since everyone calls them cupcakes, I thought why not be slightly different. So I call mine fairy cakes.


This was the first time I baked at home since 4 years ago. It took twice the usual time to prepare the ingredients mainly because I couldn't locate all the tools and machines I needed for the bake. The mix was impressively nice with some taste of orange zest in it.


The fairy cakes (actually they look more like muffins now) smelled orangeely gorgeous right after they came out of the oven. Note that these are still my cakes even if the cups are different from the previous picture. And this was not it. Far from completion.


Next task was to use our imagination to decorate these small little fairy cakes. We were very into decorating, also a bit too competitive for the first few cakes. After the 8th cake, I honestly couldn't be bothered to make them anymore prettier because I was overdosed with sugar. Also I ran out of ideas.


The final product. We also decorated our fairy cakes with fish roe. Check the orange one out. Haha, no... those are all coloured sugar.

Later after the mini project, we headed to The Apartment at The Curve to check on the popular cuppacakes. I have to admit, they were wonderfully done. Compared ours to theirs, you can actually see that we're beginners.

Fairycakes

Cuppacakes

From this, I can conclude that baking these fairy cakes was no doubt a fun experience. But I just cannot bring myself to eating them. So I'm sticking to basic cakes with no fancy decorations.


*my missing fairy earring who is probably enjoying herself in Sabah.