A quick hello

Hello, I just got back from a week long holiday in Hong Kong.

Will update properly soon.

In the mean time, go here for little daily snippets of my life.

My failed attempt to bake Matcha Green Tea Cupcake

This Matcha green tea cupcake is among the very first recipes that I've tried when I started baking 3 months ago.  I was a newbie, still is now. It was a failed attempt but a fun one nonetheless. My recipe is from BakingMad.


Ingredients for the cupcakes:

175g unsalted butter
175g self raising flour
175g caster sugar (feel free to halve this if you don't like overly sweet cupcake)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 vanilla extract
1 tbs matcha powder
3 eggs 

But as you can see here, I cut the ingredients to suit my needs. Which later I found out is a big mistake.

It is a must to sieve the dry ingredients especially the flour because it helps your cupcake to rise when baked.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. This took roughly around 5 minutes at medium speed.

This is my another mistake. Adding the egg and dry ingredients at the same time.

Although the recipe says adding the rest of the ingredients together into the butter and sugar batter, I suggest that adding the egg first and whisking it together until it is well incorporated. Only then you can add in the dry ingredients little by little while whisking at slow speed to avoid the flour creating mess. 

Once your batter is ready, scoop into the cupcake case and bake for 20 mins at 180 degree Celcius.

Ingredients for the icing:

300g icing sugar (I halved this)
175g butter
1 tbsp water
1tsp matcha powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter until smooth and add the icing sugar little by little. Lastly, add in the rest of the ingredients. And there you have it.

Lucky I have the buttercream icing to cover my ugly cupcakes. I didn't beat the cupcake batter well and it ended up crack and rupture in the middle. So I covered it generously with buttercream. Taste wise it was okay but I could have done better.

I once read that baking is different from cooking. In baking, you have to follow the ingredients closely if compared to just wing it in cooking. Well I learnt my lesson through my failed cupcakes. Now that I have enough practice, my cupcake is close to perfect, if I may say so myself. Next I have to work on my buttercream and piping skill obviously.

Kid grows so fast

I was looking through photos in my camera last night and found lots of Danish growing up photos. Looking back at those photos, he looked so young and still a tiny teeny toddler.

Fast forward a year later, he can speak better and can talk non stop. Looking through his photos just makes my heart melts.

I'm not really a kid person but seeing Danish for the first time is really a love at first sight for me. I immediately fall in love with this giant baby.

That silky smooth skin has been machine-gun kissed lots by me hahahhaa

Every time he came over to my house, my room is his playground and his favorite toy is my camera ='=

Since then I've deleted hundreds and hundreds of blurry shots and out of focus photos taken by him.

This is him trying to take the camera away from me

This was taken a year ago. He was so cute and still have his baby fats.

He literally climbed everything in my room.

This was taken early last year, the baby boy was eating on my bed ='=

Rummaging through my shelf and read my books.

Last month he was staying over at my house and doing what he like best in my room ie; rummaging my book shelf. We read the book together but this time he recognized some numbers and alphabets too.

He even can pointed to my air flow and said "circle"

His current favorite song is the shape song, so he's been busy pointing to different thing with different shapes.

That is when I realized that Danish is no longer a clueless toddler. He understands so much and can perfectly conversing with us. My Danish is growing up so fast.

It is impossible to take a good photo with him now

The only way to get still photo of him is when he's concentrating on his cartoon

Or when he is sulking 

This is taken today for his pre-kindergarten class next year hahahahah

I really love this kid <3 p="">

Can't imagine how will I be when I have kids on my own, I'll probably be an obsess mom. 

Nutri Juice detox

This is a very long overdue post. I know, it's my laziness that got in the way of my writing. That's why I have zero entry in October. But I have my reason. I update my daily life snippet in my Dayre because it is so much more convenience. Anyway, back to the topic of my post today. I'm very into healthy lifestyle as of late. I figure if I'm too lazy to work out, the very least that I should do is watching my diet. That's how I got into juicing in the first place.

Every weekend I would buy fruits in bulk for juicing. I would wash and cut my fruits and juice it into bottles. Since I make my juice fresh, I can't make in bulk. Normally, I prepare 2-4 bottles for 2 days worth of juice. Then I have to repeat the same process after 2 days. Enjoyable? Yes, for the first few times. But after awhile, I got tired because I have to clean the kitchen and the juicer.

Lucky for me, my friend Sara started her healthy juice business called Nutri Juice. It is like the universe is listening to my plight. I was so happy when she started Nutri Juice because that means that I now can have my juice fresh and deliver to me with just a few text messages.

Got my fresh juices delivered to my house for my detox.

Nutri Juice offers an affordable daily cleanse program which is what I chose. I decided to try detox on weekend because it is easier for me. 

These are the juices that I chose. I can't decide which one is my favorite, it's a tie between Super Yellow and Summer Orange Glow.

Taking my first sip of The Healing Son which is their new juice menu. It's a mix of papaya and raw veggies. This one is super filling and I felt full for the whole day.

On to my second bottle of day

The third one

The forth one

The fifth one

No photo for Green Punch because I gulped it down too fast. I was hungry, guys. Anyway, I'm really happy with my detox day. It really does help my bowel movement because everything went down smoothly hahahhaa. 

I think for you to see the obvious result of detox, you have to do it for at least 3 consecutive days and strictly no solid food. So, if any of you interested to try cold pressed juice, feel free to contact Nutri Juice and share your experience with me.

Homemade Almond Milk

I'm a huge fan of Youtube because it is my survival guru. No kidding, I learnt how to cook properly on Youtube, I learnt how to bake on Youtube, I learnt how to put on makeup on Youtube. And today I'm going to share what else have I learnt from Youtube, making my own almond milk.

Almond milk is not common in my place. I know about it from watching Youtube videos of some beauty guru breakfast meal. They brag about how good it is and what a great substitute of dairy milk it is. You can read about the benefit of almond milk here. 

Since almond milk is not readily available and if available, normally cost triple of the normal milk, I decided to make my own. It is so simple and take less than 10 minutes (if you minus the soaking time). I used this guide from The Kitchn and and this video from Youtube.

Ingredients needed are:

1 cup of raw almond

2 cups of water, (more for soaking)

Sweetener like maple syrup, I used honey

Got my raw almond from Farley for RM7 for 100gram. 

Step 1 is to soak the almond overnight or up to 2 days.

I soaked my almond with water for one and a half day. They said the longer you soak your almond, the creamier your milk will be.When soaking the almond, don't put too much water, put just enough to cover all the nuts. Then cover the lid with towel and leave it for at least an overnight. The almond will soaked up the water and become plump. 

After an overnight, your almond water will look like my photo above. Don't worry about whitish bubbles. It is phytic acid released by the almond.

Step 2 is to throw away the soaking water and rinse your almond thoroughly.

At this point, you almond will be plump. Rinse it properly to get rid of the leftover soaking water.

Step 3 is to combine the almond and water in the blender.

1 cup of almond calls for 2 cups of water. Make sure the water is clean and safe for drinking.

Step 4 is to blend the almond and water at high speed.

I blended mine for at least 3 minutes at high speed then stop at interval to check if my almond has broken up properly. I shook the blender gently and continue to blend for another 2 minutes until the water is white and opaque.

I only stopped when froth like above formed.

Step 5 is to strain the almond into cheese cloth or muslin.

I don't have cheese cloth or muslin cloth so I use coffee strainer instead which works perfectly line. Pour the almond into the coffee strainer like my set up above. Remember to put a strainer under your coffee strainer to ensure no almond crumbs get into your milk.

Step 6 is to press the almond.

After pouring the almond into the coffee strainer, gather all of it and twist the coffee strainer off. Then press with all your might to get all the milk into the cup. And lastly, add in honey for sweet taste.

I got 2 bottles of almond milk from the recipe above. Almond milk can be store in refrigerator up to 2 days. As for your almond crumb, you can make a meal out of it. Just google any recipe that using almond crumb.

My total cost for the almond milk is only RM7 which is super cheap and I get yummy homemade almond milk out of it. The recipe is so easy and basically fool proof. You should try it at least once. As for me, why buy if I can make it at home for lesser price.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

I have tried cupcake many times before and now I wanted to step up my baking game by making cake. As a starter, I picked the easiest recipe from my favorite baking side BakingMad. I looked through the site and found Lemon Drizzle Cake to be the easiest one. Only need 5 main ingredients that readily available in my kitchen.

The recipe is here. I however omitted the cornflour and ground almonds because I don't have any. It doesn't compromise the taste of my cake because it is still delicious.

My ingredients. I halved all of the ingredients because I wanted a smaller cake. 

I think the most important step in the whole process if sieving the ingredient especially the self raising flour because I skipped this step in my cupcake when I made it first time. My batter was clumpy :(

Tada my lemon drizzle cake. I overdone the lemon drizzle with caster sugar and it was too sweet. Hence I only drizzled a little bit. And my cake cracked at little bit when I took it out of the tin because I didn't greased it properly.

I super love how simple yet delicious this cake is. I'm not one to brag but I've nail it down for this one. Now I'm off to make banana cake. Bye!

Tanah Lot | Bali

I promise this will be the last installment for my Bali trip back in April. I was so lazy to finish the blog post for Bali but I thought every part of Bali deserves a post on its own. Plus it is my first ever solo trip. Every adventures need to be jot down here for my own future reference.

I spent my last full evening in Bali with another tour from Pak Putu. This time I went for Tanah Lot tour. The sky was bright and beautiful in the morning but came afternoon, it was overcast and drizzling during my tour.

First place to visit on the tour is Taman Ayun Temple. This is inside of the garden. Sorry for the low light photo, told you it was overcast.

Entrance of Taman Ayun Temple. It was really impossible to get a photo without having others photobombing you. The flock of tourists were everywhere. 

I would love to know more about the history of the temple but Pak Putu was not well versed with the story of the temple. I asked some questions but he couldn't answer me. :(

The garden itself is not too large and most part of it are still under maintenance. Some workers were working hard restoring the ruined statues under the rain. Our visit there finished in just half an hour. It was raining and I was cold. Plus Pak Putu himself did not know the history of the temple. So, it was quite boring for me.

Spotted lots of Ogoh-ogoh sold in Bali. Ogoh-ogoh is the statue which have forms of mythological beings especially demons and is used during Nyepi Day. If you're planning your trip to Bali at the early of the year, make sure you take note of when is Nyepi Day because on that day, no activity are allowed and everything is closed. Nyepi Day basically means Silence Day which follows by New Year in the Hindu Calendar.

Next we moved on to Tanah Lot which took about one hour ='=

I was getting dizzy from the moving vehicle and the cold from the rain. Thankfully I brought shawls to wrap myself in. Very useful to bring along shawl because some temples have strict dress code and lady should covers their leg.

The famous Tanah Lot which is a cursed place for couple according to the history. This is where the Bali Curse started. Legend has it that the couple that visit Tanah Lot together will break up afterward. Not sure how true the story is but I'm not taking chances. But I did read that lots of couple, even the steady one broke up after visiting Tanah Lot.

It been raining the whole afternoon, so the tide was high and the current was strong. We couldn't walk over to the temple but being there watching it from afar was awesome. The strong wave crashing against the rocks made it even more wonderful.

I kept walking to edge of the rock to get close view of the wave but Pak Putu kept stopping me. It was dangerous but I couldn't help it. I love the water and kept imagine how does it feel to swim there wtf morbid much.

I spent close to one hour in Tanah Lot just taking in all the view and the experience. I even saw a surfer surfing on the strong wave. He made it look so easy. 

After Tanah Lot, I asked Pak Putu to drive me to the famous Warung Nuri in Seminyak. Everyone keep bragging that the pork rib is a must try in Warung Nuri. Honestly during my whole trip there, I did not had any meal that satisfy me.Probably because I didn't venture out much. The only time I walked around Kuta was before my flight back. 

I wandering around Kuta in my effort to search for bakso because I was craving one. Found a place that serves one but it is a rather high end place and sadly the bakso suck. I was reluctant to walk further because a tout keep following me to promote his motorbike wtf.

I was really mad at him. When he first approached me, I ignored him. He kept walking beside me asking me gazillion questions. I tried to lost him by entering a craft shop but the damn bastard was waiting for me outside. He literally been following me the whole street for 20 minutes. 

In the end, I got so mad at him and snapped at him to leave me alone. It worked. Sigh, I should have just yell at him at the first place. 

Anyway, back to Warung Nuri. It changed its name to Wild Hog. So, next time you're in Bali, look for Wild Hog instead.

The interior is very quirky and the patrons were 80% foreigners. 

I had the famous pork rib and Bintang beer. My verdict, it wasn't up to the hype. Sorry everyone but the pork rib was just so so to me. I didn't try anything else because I was alone and had nobody to share with.

Well, this is the downside of solo travel. You have nobody to split the food and the transport fare. But it is still enjoyable for me. A friend asked when I will do my solo travel again, right now I'm not so sure when. With the weak Ringgit, I have no mood to plan my travel for next year but so far I have some trips that I already confirmed.

If I were to do another solo travel, I think I will head over to the country Down Under. Hehehe