Cupcakes @ The Tea Republic, Bangsar Shopping Centre

Life has taken a small twist recently .. for the better. Have been positively buzy on weekends to meet some cupcake orders for The Tea Republic @ Bangsar Shopping Centre. Its a quaint new F&B outlet that recently opened in Dec 2010.

Sharing with you some cupcakes I did for them and it will be available for the entire month of December.



















Do drop by TTR for a cup of tea. My recommendation would be their tea blossoms .. such a sight to see the bright flowers popping up into a full bloom right in front of you!
























For a sincere review of my cupcakes, do drop by eatdrinkkl.blogspot.com. Am really surprised a reknown food-blogger actually dropped by for a review.

If I'm not back by 31 December, here's wishing every single one of you
A MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Flower Power!

Over lunch last week, my colleague suggested we drop by a nursery to see if their CNY plants have arrived. I am one, who is not keen over gardening and am glad my new house does not have any plots with sand or grass! Serious! I dont like gardening at all.

Nevertheless, I do like flowers ... hehehe. So I bought some potted flower plants at RM7 each and headed home to make it more cheerful, in preparation for the X'Mas dinner cum CNY!

I'll see how long they last *wink*

A really nice X'Mas gathering!

I am glad the night turned out well. My first x'mas dinner was not fantastic (food wise) but boleh tahan lah. Almost 3/4 kena sapu habis and therefore, not too much leftovers.

Not much time for pics but here's sharing with you what I managed to capture.

Below is the kinda-miserable turkey we ordered. Initially, when I went to pick it up, I was disappointed that it turned out so small. But during dinner, I was glad it was just the right size. I saved some meat and the bones for an awesome turkey porridge to come!



And here is the duck bruchetta that my great old pal helped me with! So thankful for his help. It turned out great! My SIL is asking for the recipe!

Prepared the salad in the afternoon and kept it chilled. Only poured the dressing over about dinner time. Sauteed some broccoli with ham too, for those we dont take fresh vege. I liked thi salad a lot. Next round, should add more nuts for a crunchy bite!

I tried being a bit creative and used my bento cutter to make some x'mas tree shaped watermelon. But I could not stomach the wastage that comes with this method. So I improvised and made "bigger" trees instead! Do you like it?

This is the konnyaku jelly I made the night before. Taste wise was at the right level of sweetness and texture wise, was quite ok. I shall keep to this recipe of 850ml of water + 220 gm sugar to 1 packet of konnyaku jelly. Its perfect for me.

Sad that I dont have any pics of my prawn mango wanton! And the warm spaghetti that mom helped dish out! And no pics of my warm brownie nor my ribena cheesecake! Or the lychee fizzy .. aiyoh!

This is my first experience at hosting a dinner. And I am glad it went quite ok. So more sessions in Year 2010!!!!

The Menu

Off I go tonight, to the supermarket to get my ingredients for my so-called X'Mas dinner! Why I said "so-called" is because i told a friend of mine what I'll be preparing and he said "huh ... so not chrismassy one?" But then, fren, I got lou-yan-kar at my dinner mah, so that's why lor.

Firstly, I made an order (way ahead!) for a honey-roasted turkey with chestnut stuffing! Rm198 for a 4-kg bird was not too bad you know. Then, I have some aglio olio spaghetti dished up warm *wink* to go with the big bird. Some side dishes .. say a fresh rainbow salad and a duck bruschetta and voila! Its a complete meal! And for my MIL's sake, I decided to ask a friend to get me some of that famous satay along the highway for that night. In case, she does not like the big bird. It's her first time, so .... And remember, dont go to any branch, just the "along the highway" branch.

But how can we not have any dessert? So I am thinking of whipping up a ribena cheesecake. Yes! Ribena cheesecake! Never tried before leh. I'll show you some pics next week ok? And how about a warm brownie too? I bought bags of almonds and walnuts over the weekend, so I may bake them by tomorrow evening, if not on Friday morning itself.

For yum seng, we will have some wine. And a bottle of coffee liquor all the way from my Langkawi trip. And of course for the kids and non-mabuk kaki, will get them some lychee fizzy to cool their throat after a heavy meal!

How bout that! Sounds good?? Sure sounds good but not sure how the dishes are going to actually turn out. Wish me luck please. Loads of em!

I tried

I really tried but equipped with just the camera from my Nokia E66, can't really expect much. Anyhow, hope you can "see" our first ever tree!

The brat is sick if it already (since the 3rd day .. oh well). But I am still enjoying it. MIL & SIL dropped by last night and they liked it too!

Spent a total of RM180 for this. I think it can be good for a couple of years, so I hope it will be money well spent.

Next on my to-do list, X'Mas dinner menu planning.

Too much?

Being my first time, I had no idea what I really needed or how much. So I ended up with 2 large boxes and 4 smaller boxes of ornaments and 4 packs of lights. I ended up using only 1/3 of the ornaments and all 4 packs of lights.




This is, of course, the in-progress pic. Too tired to take pics after it was ready. Will do so in a few days.

Is it Christmas time?

The moment month of December comes, we can instantly feel Christmassy! The lights have been up already along Ikea/Curve (now only Nov wor ...) when we visited last week. Its a nice feeling towards the year-end .. especially bonus time ... hehehe.

I have all along been planning for a tree for our new home. I intend to purchase a tree and light it up in the month of December. And its for Bryan's sake. He loves it when we visit shopping malls (the past 2 yrs) checking out all the extensive decorations while we mall-hop!

So this year, we will have one in our home sweet home. Complete with a Christmas dinner (fingers crossed!). And visits from my long-time buddies from Penang & Singapore would make it so fun! Miss them so much. Been ages since we sat down to chat. So looking forward for Christmas this year.

So Petaling Street will be my next destination - once I settle in this Nov. Heard you can find some good & very reasonably priced trees there. But tipu one lah, not the "real" tree. Here I come!

Fruit Cake with Cream Cheese

I have been waiting and waiting for this week to arrive. Yeah! I'm on long leave and this is the only time I can bake in peace *smile*. I have been eyeing this recipe for quite a few weeks and finally I had a chance to bake it just before Christmas!

Its a pretty easy recipe to work with but nonetheless, I dont know why my cake turned out crumbly.
Taste wise, it was just delicious and sweetness was just right. I have never baked a cake that taste just nice like this one. I am so proud of myself .. hehehe.

Here is my modified recipe according to what I had in my pantry.


Fruit Cake with Cream Cheese
125 gm butter
125 gm cream cheese
180 gm fine granulated sugar
3 eggs (large)
200 gm cake flour + 1 tsp baking powder sifted together
100gm mixed fruits soaked 3 days before with 3 tbsp of brandy
a handful of chopped walnuts


Method:
Cream butter, cheese & sugar till creamy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Mix 2 tbsp sifted flour with mixed fruits to prevent it from sinking while baking.
Fold in sifted flour and then stir in mixed fruits & nuts.
Pour into 8in round tin.
Bake in preheated oven at 175C for about 50 mins or till cooked.
Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.



For reference purposes, here is a pic of the batter ready to be baked.

Christmas @ MidValley Megamall

Living in Malaysia is sometimes so much fun ... cos we have lots & lots of holidays for many festivities! Although we are not Christians like many other Malaysians, I believe almost everybody I know of all races love Christmas!













Its the time of joy & merriment! Most shopping malls are brightly decorated with lots of lovely lights & christmas trees with raindeers, fake snow and loads of other decorating ideas. For us, without fail, we have to visit Mid Valley Megamall.













You can see lots of mommies & daddies busy taking pics of their little ones .. and little ones love lights & colors & candies! But mine .. sigh ... dont wanna get down .. only wants to be carried! Big time headache & back ache & feet ache!!!!

Wishing everyone a Blessed Christmas & Happy New Year!

New Age Christmas Carol!

It's a bit early but I am truly looking forward to Christmas and the year-end holidays. I still remember so clearly that last year we brought our lil one to various malls to snap lovely pics of him. At that time, he could only crawl. But this year, dont think he can stand still!

Here's a christmas carol lyrics given a new twist! Dont get depressed okay, its just for the fun of it and in the spirit of sharing ...

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why
Recession 's coming to town

It's hitting you once
It's hitting you twice
It doesn't care if you've been careful and wise
Recession 's coming to town

It's worthless if you've got shares
It's worthless if you've got bonds
It's safe when you've got cash in hand
So keep cash for goodness sake,

HEY
You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why
Recession 's coming to town!

Finance products are confusing
Finance products are so vague
The banks make you bear the cost of risk
So keep out for goodness sake,

OH
You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession 's coming to town!

HO! HO! HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!