Holiday home baking class

I had arranged for a cleaner to come in today. At the last minute, she did not turn up. I had no plans and thus did not know what to do. The intention was to go to the hairdresser's, but as it was still early in the morning, I decided to bake some muffins and cookies with my girl.

During most of her school hols, I like to occupy her with activities. While looking up cooking classes for kids, I found a lot of them tend to be very highly-priced. The stuff that were interesting, she wouldn't like to eat them, and the basic ones were too boring. I thus decided that I should teach her on my own. My cousins are already on the list for the next couple of weeks. Their mum wants them to pick up some cooking and baking skills and I've been arrowed to teach them a lesson or two. Once it's not done in my house, I'm happy. :D Did you already know I hate cleaning? Well, I really do. Cooking and baking is fun but cleaning and dusting, not my forte. I clean because I need to, not because I want to.

So well, having recently done a volunteer session of baking with the girls at school, I had a tub of yoghurt leftover, and not wanting to waste it, decided to let her bake using the recipe I had gotten from here. I did not follow the recipe, just used it as a base. Oreo was the substitute for Nutella and peanut butter.

Here you go, princess' first muffins all done by herself except that I had to help her place and remove tray from oven. Mummy's fault that it was too brown as I had set the oven to bake fan-forced. Yikes!

There was plenty of time left so we decided to bake cookies as well. The girl had requested for soft and chewy chocolate chip muffins and I remembered watching Anna Olson on tv one time, making just those cookies. A quick google and I found it easily. I did not cut down on sugar and am glad that it was just a nice sweet. However, the Valrhona dark chocolate chunks I had used were a bit bitter, they are fine once you get used to the taste. I suggest sticking to the original recipe. It is perfect as it is. Crispy on the outside and soft chewy on the inside.

When we were finally done with everything, a big thunderstorm started and we got stuck comfortable at home. In the end, we didn't get our hair done, but we spent a most enjoyable day at home doing nothing. :)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into chunks

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (I used 165 deg C)
   
2. Cream together butter and sugars until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.
3. Stir in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.
4. Drop by tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown around the edge.
5. Let cool slightly and enjoy.
   

Some pretty things... and a cooking class

I made my first fondant cupcakes last week. Proud of myself that I managed to pull it off. Along the way, there were broken petals, butterfly wings, flower stalks etc, but that did not put a dampener on things. I managed to make more new ones to replace. The cake itself turned out good as well. It was a lemon curd cupcake, one of my favourites. It was a hit with the girls. I got this idea out of a cake decor book and adapted it from there. In the original design, marshmallows were used. I decided to change my flowers to fondant ones instead. I'm glad I took on the challenge, and accomplished what I set out to do. As this is my first ever piece of work, I'm proud of it, even though it wasn't too perfect. :) I should have taken a better angle of the cupcake but as I was in a hurry, it was just snap and go.

I shall work on it more and hopefully by princess' birthday next year, I'll be able to make a whole cake for her. :) The problem though, is that I am not a creative person, so I need to work on that. Need lots more research and practise.

On Mother's Day, I received a card each from princess and hubby, plus a little note princess wrote me during Chinese class. That made me very happy. I'm so proud of her especially where the Chinese language is concerned. Glad to see her enjoying the language and also curiously asking the meaning of words when she spies them on tv, or when we are out and about. She'll check them on my iphone which has a dictionary and sometimes, she'd even write them down when she gets home. I am pleased that I made the right decision in sending her to Chinese Speech and Drama class and in knowing that she is enjoying every minute of it.

The two carnations were bought in church on Sunday morning for her grandma and godma.

I spent an afternoon on Mother's Day with some friends learning to make prawn noodles. It was fun and we all felt like we were back in school again, going for home economics class. :D

The most delicious pork ribs, fall off the bone goodness.