Valentine's ♡

Decided to bake some jam sandwich cookies as a last minute sorta thing, 'cause I don't really think V'day is such a big thing anymore, if it ever was. My firm belief is that everyday should be v'day if you love a person and you don't need to show your love only on a special day. Still, baking is always fun; don't really need an occasion for it.

Pre-baking - I think my dough rolling skills need much improvement

Out from the oven - added strawberry and apricot jam as filling

The cookies turned out quite well, although we didn't really eat them in the end, 'cause we were so stuffed from our lovely dinner. I gobbled them down the next day, oops.

A really pretty handmade card from the boyfriend ♥

And J made me a really pretty card; I must say he is getting better and better at scrapbooking/making cards. He always makes the cards he gives me 'cause he knows I love handmade stuff and I really appreciate the effort :') And he bought me the ♥-shaped Starbucks card~ ('cause I told him he had to), and gave me a lovely frame with pictures of us for me to bring along on my travels, such a darling.

And after that we went home and snuggled down to watch Sherlock. My kind of Friday night date ♥

Bacon egg cups and sunflower art

So one fine day my girlfriends and I decided to have a cookout/potluck. Everyone had to make a dish, so I finally managed to try a recipe I'd kept bookmarked on my web browser for a long time. Breakfast bacon cups! A recipe that looked really easy and infinitely yummy.

This is how version #1 looked like:

Followed the recipe mostly, but left out the cheese 'cause of one friend's preference. The cups didn't turn out looking as nice as I'd hoped.

Some tips / reminders to self:

- Don't crack the whole egg straight into the bacon cup. Too much egg white might cause the piece of bread at the bottom to float up and the cup will go out of shape

- Use a smaller muffin tray (or bigger pieces of bacon?) so that the bacon wraps more securely around the egg

- If you prefer a perfect looking sunny side-up (runny yolk), change the heating of the oven to bottom-up. If you prefer a yolk that's more cooked just do the usual top-down/bottom-up heating

- Maple syrup can be replaced with honey, it tastes fine

This is how version #2 looks like:

Adapted the recipe and found a new way of making the cups. It became bread flowers instead of bacon cups. Basically I made cuts on the sides of the bread and folded them. Also, instead of the honey/maple syrup butter I used garlic spread. I think black pepper would go well with it. Two bread flower cups can be a whole breakfast on their own; two whole slices of bread, two slices of bacon and two eggs! And there are endless ways to adapt the recipe. Like using ham and cheese instead of bacon. And it is so easy and fuss-free~

Random flower art I arranged and took a snapshot of. 

The sunflower bouquet J got me for my graduation ceremony fell off the window ledge one day and the sunflowers threw down their petals in protest at the uncivilised treatment. Felt so sad about the half-bald sunflowers and I couldn't let the petals go to waste, so they're currently being pressed in a notebook under a humongous stack of notes.

Valentine's Day

happy valentine's day! it's been quite a while. i've been crafting, just not blogging about it 'cause i've been so lazy. so i shall simply fast forward to what i've done for v'day this year~ 

So I haven't done anything for V'day since my girls' school days, when V'day was very much hyped. And I figured this year would be the last year when I'd have the leisure to make something for V'day, what with uni graduation and all. 

Simple handmade cards! With my favourite lace doilies that decorate anything so well. I used them previously for my 21st birthday party invitations. The heart-shaped ones were bought in the US by a dear friend who knows me very well (: So I made a card for the boyfriend and notecards for the girls.

And I baked a tray of brownie. I really wanted to try to make these brownies they are soo cute, but my supermarket failed me; it didn't sell black/white/red icing (whyy?!) (T__T) and it was too late to head to a baking shop to get icing, sigh. 

So in the end I had to resort to making cookie cutter (literally) brownie bites. I used this recipe, but took the advice from other bakers who commented and used butter instead of vegetable oil and cut sugar to 3/4 cup. It was pretty easy to make and it tastes yummy, so I foresee myself making more, just as a snack or something.

Small brownie packages for friends in school, wrapped in baking paper and tied with scraps of ribbon (:

Bake: cookies&cream cupcakes

So, for a heartfelt thank-you gift I decided to bake some cupcakes (o^-^o)

 

Dry ingredients mixed

All ingredients mixed

The first batch that came out burnt...I stupidly thought 350 degrees meant degrees celsius. Vaguely wondered why my (small) oven's limit was only 250 degree c, and proceeded to bake the cupcakes even longer, to make up for the lower temperature... (-_-") I think from that you can surmise just how infrequently I bake.

Second attempt, before they went into the oven

Cupcakes with frosting - the second batch came out fine, so I proceeded to frost them. This was when the icing tip was still working

After two batches the icing tip decided to rebel and I ended up with weird-looking icing (see cupcake on left)

In the end I gave up and just lathered on the icing and smoothed it over with the back of a spoon and planted oreos on top

The baking itself didn't take that long, but the washing up took foreverrr.

Still, it was fun. Provided some late-night stress relief from all the studying and assignment deadlines. I have a mind to make whoppers brownies next. And a whole long to-bake list that is constantly growing...

Recipe: bakerella

bake: cinnamon tea cake & rock buns

lovely saturday afternoon spent at my cousin's house baking lovelies and singing along to english oldies (:

the recipe for cinnamon tea cake

and rock buns

mixture for rock buns

mixed to hard dough

ready to be put into the oven

baked and unbaked

perfect for afternoon tea (:

part 2: cinnamon tea cake

we were um, rather adventurous with the choice of cake tin

so it kinda turned out looking like a huge doughnut

but both turned out rather yummy, so i'm glad (: and we had fun. the cinnamon tea cake was "good" (so says the family---we baked for a gathering), if you like the dense kind of cake. i.e. like a pound cake, and not sponge cake (which is light and fluffy) but i'm guessing it's supposed to be like that? yeah. and the rock buns turned out good too. we cut down on the sugar, so they weren't too sweet, and replaced ground ginger with cinnamon (i think nothing can go wrong with cinnamon haha)