upset :(

am really upset... by so many many things...

i made some cupcakes end-oct and happily, i thought i will be the first few to submit my entries for AB, but i totally missed it!!!

was admitted to hospital for a good 8 days from 9 - 16 Nov, so there goes (almost) 2 weeks of chance of posting my bakes... afterwhich, it was a crazy catch up period for work, meeting with a 'lost and found' sec school friend, preparing X'mas present etc... and during my medical leave on the last 2 days of Nov (was planning to do my post then) had to rush to the hospital with my dad and sis who was about to give birth! what an exciting month i had right?

i am drafting this post from office right now.. coz i am totally moodless (is there such a word?) to work... upset over work, over colleagues who are forever not understanding, and the list goes on... for the first time in my 20+ months into this job, i had the sudden thought to just quit and leave! but my current situation does not permit so...

ARRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
anyway, just to share the cupcakes i made... made these for dear's birthday as a surprise, but was kinda dissapointed with the response i had from him (i am just to lazy to write about it).... recipe, please see the post before this...

all the cupcake toppers were made by yours truly (except for the '33' candle which i got from Daiso)... printed them in color, cut them out and sort of laminated them... but all were of course thrown away after the cakes were shared by dear and his colleagues...i also made them a tad bigger using some pretty cupcake liners for a few friends...

just when my mood starts to get a bit better, i hear thunder rumbling and the coldness of the office starting to set in... sigh... what a day...

my baking diary #39 red velvet cupcakes and pandan chiffon

nope, this is not the surprise i mentioned in my earlier post, but a step to it.. haha... think it should be up in my next post...

it was a public holiday, and i din go out with dear coz he was busy preparing for his exam... so whatelse to do when i have a whole day at home, other than to bake!! i pre-empt my mum on my baking since last sunday, and was glad she din nag at me... afterall, i am back at work, and my health is alot better :) except for this wound on my knee coz clumsy me had a fall when alighting from the bus... hate to have injuries on my knees, elbows etc coz these areas usually have a lot of movement i.e. the bending, straightening etc... and coz my immunity level is lower than usual, it seems to take a longer time to heal...

anyways, i was glad i get to satisfy my baking urge! haha....

i like the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes i learnt from my previous baking class.. but want to expand more varieties to it, and hence, my attempt on red velvet cupcakes... i got the red velvet cake recipe from Norms I Must, coz i saw Cathy trying it as well...

end result? i like it! though i only took a small bite.. but my mum and colleagues said the cakes taste good... so must be good! haha... coz my colleagues are rather honest and give me real comments on my bakings :)

i thought the mixture look abit too red before it went into the oven, but after it was baked, i find the shade quite nice wor...

i topped the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, also from Norms I Must... i am glad i halved the recipe coz it was just nice to frost the 16 cupcakes i churned out... but i guess due to the heat from the oven, my warm hands, the frosting turned out a tad too runny... and i should have used the simple, round piping tip... so with all these, my frosting turned out really ugly so i just sort of smooth and spread it on the cupcakes..

while looking for some cupcake ideas, i chanced upon another recipe from Norms I Must - Pandan Chiffon! My colleague was pestering me to give her a chiffon cake recipe as her girls love chiffon cake... I gave her the recipe to the rainbow chiffon i baked before, but being her first time baking chiffon, she was worried she will get it wrong... This recipe from Norms I  Must uses less ingredients, so if she really gets it wrong, the wastage is reduced... So i made a copy of the recipe for her, and for myself...

I could not resist trying the recipe out since it look rather simple... so while my red velvet cupcakes were in the oven, i quickly gathered the ingredients for the pandan chiffon.

result? with the recipe, i made a small chiffon (the pan from daiso) and 6 paper cups... other than the missing brown crust one will usually find on a chiffion (maybe my oven was not hot enough?), i was shocked at the shrinkage, as you can see from the picture at the bottom left... but the taste was good - soft, slightly moist... i wonder if its because my mum packed it in container before it was really cooled down, the top of the cake seems a little moist and sticky in the evening when i gave one to my niece... but the taste was still good! the one i churned out from the mini tube pan, i gave it to my colleague and ask her to bring it back for her gals (though it seems too small to be shared by 2, so i gave her 2 red velvet cupcakes too)...

1 more day to the weekend... am looking forward... haha :D

my beading diary #2 can you identify what this is?

At one glance, when you look at this little thing, are you able to identify what it is?

I was showing it to my mum and asking her what does she think it is, when my niece of 3 years old shout out "CUPCAKE"! Not that bad on my first attempt at 'baking' a felt cupcake.... haha!

I chanced upon this blog when i was blog surfing the usual baking blogs... and was really hooked on to the nice pictures of cupcakes like this and this...



So being me, addicted to all kinds of hobbies and crafts, can't resist attempting the felt cupcakes... But as there was no dimensions given, i did my own 'agaration' (estimation)... and really it was kind of last min, i used a ribbon as the cupcake casing....

The above was a plain cupcake... And with some 'toppings', here you go, another version :)

Am planning for a real baking session soon, for a surprise!! Praying hard nothing will come and disrupt my plans... Look out for my next post.