Vanilla Butter Cake

Finally, it's the last block of expired butter left in the fridge. I did not want it to go far beyond the expiry date, therefore, I decided to bake this cake. I was supposed to use a 8" square pan to prevent the crack on the top, but I do not have the pan at home. Anyway, ignore the look. It's ugly on the outside but really good on the inside. So soft, so fluffy and so buttery! Again, egg separation cake is always soft and fluffy.

 

Here's the recipe that I used : 

Mrs NgSK's Vanilla Butter Cake

I posted the same recipe here again for my future reference. So in loved with this butter cake that I will definitely bake this again. 

Ingredients:

230gm butter (salted), softened (cool at 18-20C, not glossy)
200gm eggs, no shell (4 grade B eggs)
50gm + 150gm sugar
200gm self raising flour, sifted.
60ml milk
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

1. Preheat oven at 180C (conventional). (I only use 170C). Prepare a 8 inch square pan. Line the base and grease the sides (greasing helps the cake’s sides to rise well)
2. Separate the eggs, and place the whites into a medium sized bowl (6 cup capacity)Beat egg whites until soft peaks, gradually add 50gm sugar and beat until stiff. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and 150gm sugar until pale and fluffy (KA speed 2-4 ). Put in vanilla seeds and and beat for a while. Put in egg yolks one by one and beat well after each addition.
4. Put in half the flour and mix on low speed until incorporated. Put in milk in 2 additions and mix until well incorporated. Mix in balance of flour.
5. Put half the egg whites in and mix on low speed. Pour the balance of egg whites in and FOLD.
6. Pour batter into pan and level.
7. Bake for 45 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. (I reduced to 150C for the last 15 minutes because the top seems to be getting dark)

Banana Butter Cake

Remember in my previous post I mentioned about my expired butter? Don't worry, it only expired about 2 weeks (the smell is still alright) and I have to quickly bake a butter cake so that the butter will go inside our tummy and not the bin. My friend used to tell me that I buy things to throw, not to eat. Lol. It's quite true because I have a lot of items in the fridge that are near to the expiry date. Lesson learned, never go for groceries shopping when you are hungry! You will end up buying the whole store! 

I have few bananas that is too ripe and yucky to eat on its own, some part of the skin already turn blackish. And the idea of banana butter cake came into my mind. I started to google for the best recipe and I found this. Looks good, because I know butter cake with egg separation method is really moist and soft and delicious! Here's the recipe that I found online.

I still have two bananas left and decided to use it as decoration. Alright, the look does not do the cake justice. In actual fact, the cake is really really good. I have visitor that night and everyone praised the cake. The 6yo loved this cake so much that she wanted to bring some back. =D

Look at the super moist banana cake! The texture is so soft and fluffy. Egg separation cakes can never go wrong.. it's always the best! This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Here's the recipe that I adapted from here, posted it here for my future use. 

Ingredients A
250g unsalted butter at room temp
150g fine sugar
5 egg yolks

Ingredients B
50g g fine sugar
5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

Ingredients C
300g plain flour (I used cake flour)
sifted with 1 tbsp milk powder + 1 tsp baking powder

Ingredients D
200g ripe bananas, mashed using a fork
a pinch of salt

Method
1) Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. Prepare a 7-inch square pan, line the base and sides with baking paper such that the edges hang over the sides of the tin, for easier removal later. 

2) Whisk butter and 150g sugar using mixer till pale then add egg yolks one by one and mix well after each addition.

3) Add in half the sifted flour and mix using mixer at low speed briefly. Add in mashed bananas and mix briefly. Finally add in the remaining flour and mix briefly at low speed till well-incorporated. 

4) In a separate clean, dry and oil-free bowl, whisk egg whites until frothy, then add cream of tartar, followed by sugar in 3 additions. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks.

5) Add half of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and mix at low speed using mixer until incorporated. Add the remaining half of egg whites and FOLD using spatula.

6) Pour the batter into the prepared lined tin, smooth out the batter with a spatula and bake in preheated oven for 170C for about 60 min

7) Remove from oven and let it cool on cooling rack before serving.

Homemade chicken essence

My little boy is considered as a picky eater. I have to squeeze my brain or sometimes I just have to use force to make him finish of his food. Else he says "I don't want already. Full already." 😂 The worst is he can sit on the high chair for 1 hour plus just to finish a small bowl of rice. I just wish he has a big appetite, a big love for food just like his big sister. Till today, he only has few favorite foods. Roti canai. Cheese. Anything with strawberry. Anything orange. Soup. Vege except potatoes. Fish. And some other unhealthy food like biscuits, chocolates. No matter how much I feed him, his weight maintained at 11+ kg @ 3yo. We're a little worried about his growth. I just hope that he can put on more weight and he has a big appetite and he loves food. 

I started to google on how to increase appetite in children. One of the ways is to exercise. And no TV while eating. Feed small portion but frequently. With one small baby in hand, I hardly have that time sit down and feed him every two hours. I just have to squeeze out that time and multi-task! 

And suddenly I remember about chicken essence. Since he dislikes chewing chicken/meat,I shall make him chicken essence once a week. Hopefully it helps with his growth and he'll grow up strong. 

 

My MIL bought for me this cookware and I'm beginning to love it. All I need is to place the smashed kampung chicken on top and the golden essence will drop bit by bit from the hole. I set the timer for 5 hours so that the chicken is double boiled as long as possible.

 

The smashed black kampung chicken. I almost vomited when I did this.. haha.

 

After 5 hours.. here's the goodness! The golden soup. A concentrated chicken soup.

I plan to do this every week and hopefully it helps him to gain weight, the much needed weight before he goes to preschool next year.

Back to juicing with Kuvings

I love my Kuvings! Guess this is the best investment that we've made so far. Everyone in the house loves juice! I've not been juicing for a while ever since I started pregnant with no3, and after I gave birth, I hardly have time to juice. Taking care of a newborn is so tiring that I just leave my Kuvings to rot on the table top.

Baby Vi is now 4 months and slowly, I started to find some extra time that I can juice. One of the reasons to juice is to skip dinner and get rid of all the unwanted fats. Thanks to the delicious RT Pastry swiss roll that I'm hooked and putting a whole lot of weight. *cry* Secondly, to nourish my body to produce the best quality of breastmilk for my baby and the little toddler. Oh well, many said that breastfeeding can help mommy to go back in shape, yeah right, I'm still running out of shape. Blame my appetite? I eat more than I used to. And I always worry if I didn't eat much, I won't produce enough milk. It's quite true though, every time I skipped lunch/dinner I notice that I don't engorged neither do I feel full. 😂 So, I'm determined to go back to juicing!

It's not pure fruit juice, but more of vege juice. If you plan to juice, don't go for pure fruit juice. You're drinking fructose/sugar. Put more vege instead of fruits.

Juice for the day consists of:

kailan + cucumber + carrot + green apples + lemon + oranges

 

 

Our little baby... 

 

This is for the kids : orange + green apple + carrot + cucumber

Mommy and daddy's juice : kailan + cucumber + carrot + lemon + green apple + orange

Kuvings is the best! Look at the dry pulp. Fruits and veges are juiced out to the max!

And today, we're juicing lotus root. After googling the benefits of lotus root, I felt assured that this will help with the little boys' fever. He woke up from his afternoon nap and I felt his forehead was hotter than usual. Checked with the thermometer and true enough, he was down with fever. 38.2 degrees. Sigh. He just recovered from fever two weeks ago and today, he was down with fever again. So sad. Hopefully it's just another round of viral infection and nothing else. Every time when they fall sick, my mind just couldn't stay positive. Sigh. I just need to learn to let go and let God.

 

Lotus root is high in Vit C and it helps to cool down the body as well. If you're prone to nose bleed, this will help. And it does help to bring down your fever. So, I'm gonna juice this and let him drink. But make sure that you wash it properly because you do not want to juice any mud. =D 

It feels good to go back in juicing for health. Gonna grab more raw veges from the store and start to eat healthy!

Salmon Carbonara

Recently everyone in the family is addicted to western food. We are all so bored of chinese food and the hubby kick start the fire with his pork chop pasta. It tasted so good that I asked him to cook again this week.

Not enough of pork chop.. I saw the salmon lying in my freezer for 3 weeks already. 😱 And I decided to come out with my own recipe of salmon cabonara. It tasted good tho, the hubby said it was delicious. Not sure if he's trying to please me. Haha.

Here's my version of salmon cabonara, use what I have in the fridge.

Ingredients :
Salmon (marinade with some salt and coarse pepper)
Cherry tomatoes (cut into halves)
Cooking cream
Milk
Salt to taste
Butter (for healthier version use olive oil)
Onion (chopped)
Garlic (chopped)
Few tablespoons of white wine vinegar
Fettucine/macaroni/penne (you decide)
(since this is my own version of salmon cabonara, I don't have the exact measurement how much you should use and so on, I just go by feel. 😛)

Method:
1. Heat up butter in a saucepan with medium heat. Stir fry the salmon.
2. Add in onion and garlic. Stir fry until fragrant.
3. Add cherry tomatoes. Stir fry again for few minutes.
4. Add in cooking cream and some milk. I make it more watery so that it's easier for the kids to eat.
5. Add cooking vinegar and salt to taste. Set aside.
6. Boil a pot of water with some salt and olive oil. After water is boiled, add in pasta and cook until it's soft. Follow the instructions on the packaging. Drain and mix well with some butter and coarsed black pepper.
7. Serve together with the salmon cream sauce.
8. Enjoy!

Pandan and chocolate butter cake

I have this expired butter at home which was bought last year. 😱 I just couldn't find the time to bake hence few blocks of butter expired just like that. I have two more blocks to go after this. Guess I'll be on butter marathon for the coming weeks. Butter marathon and then exercise marathon. Haha.

I decided to bake pandan chocolate butter cake because the pandan leaves grew so wild in my garden. I harvested the whole bunch, about 30 leaves and blend it with very little of water to get a real concentrated pandan juice. Strain the juice from the pulp and keep the juice overnight. The next day, you will see two layers in the bottle and pour away the top layer. Use only the concentrated juice that sinks to the bottom. Then you'll get a real greenish nice color of pandan cake.

Here's the recipe for the cake which I altered on my own. Experimenting my own recipe. 😋

250gm of butter
250 of cake flour
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of baking powder
60gm of sugar
6 tablespoons of pandan juice

4 eggs whites
60gm sugar

Chocolate powder

Preheat the oven.
1. Cream the butter and add 60gm sugar.
2. Add the egg yolks one at a time and beat.
3. Sift in the flour and baking powder and beat well until all mixed. Pour in the pandan juice alternately with the flour.
4. Beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the sugar in three batches and continue to beat until stiff.
5. Scoop 1/4 of the egg white meringue and fold in to the butter batter. Fold slowly until all are mixed well.
6. Then pour the batter into the remaining meringue and fold well.
7. Scoop some batter and mix with melted chocolate powder.
7. Pour the pandan batter into baking tin and then top with chocolate batter. Use a knife to create marble pattern for your cake. Bake at 160c for 50-60mins. Until your skewer come out clean.

I just love the bright green color of the pandan cake. Smells so good and the color is so refreshing!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Chiffon cakes are my all time favorite. If it's not because of the sugar content, I can gobble down the whole cake in one day! I hardly buy chiffon cakes from the store, I just dislike the artificial coloring and the artificial flavoring. I like chiffon cakes that are rich in aroma, flavors and taste which means you gotta use all natural ingredients.

My pandan chiffon cake baking in the oven! The whole house is now filled with pandan smell. Awesome smell. Invert the pan immediately after the cake is done.

Here's the recipe that I copied from my all time favorite blogger - Wendyinkk.
Pandan Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:
A)
4 large egg yolks
75ml oil
115ml pandan leave juice (1/2 cup water blended with 1/2 cup cut up pandan leaves, strained)
25gm coconut milk powder
1/8 tsp salt
100 gm sugar
150 gm all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

B)
4 egg whites
90gm sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Method:1. Preheat oven to 170C
2. Warm pandan juice and mix in coconut milk powder. Stir until coconut milk powder is dissolved.
3. Mix (1) with the rest of ingredients (A) until well combined.
4. Beat egg whites until foamy. Put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks.
5. Add in sugar and beat until stiff.
6. Fold 1/4 of egg whites into (A) and combine well.
7. Repeat step 6.
8. Fold in the rest of egg whites and combine well.
9. Pour batter into a clean tube pan and shake pan lightly left and right to level cake.
10. Bake at 170C for 40 minutes.
11. Invert pan immediately after removing from oven.
12. Cut cake when totally cooled.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

I wanted to bake orange chiffon cake but I was a little lazy to squeeze out the orange juice, hence.. I looked for an easier version of chiffon cake, Coffee chiffon cake that uses instant coffee mix, 3in1.

All I can say that this recipe is great! The chiffon cake turn out to be so spongy and fluffy and yummm!

 

Baking in the oven!

 

After removed from the oven, I turned it upside down and once cooled, I removed the container and here you go!! 

 

The taste was so good, and baby boy loves it!

Here's the recipe from Table for 2

Ingredients:

A)
5 egg yolks
85 gm corn oil
115 ml hot milk
1 1/2 Tbsp instant Nescafe Gold
120gm sugar
150gm flour
1 tsp baking powder

B)
5 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
90gm sugar

Method:

1. Dissolve coffee powder in hot milk. Leave to cool down.
2. Preheat oven to 180C.
3. Combine milk with the rest of ingredients (A) until it becomes a smooth paste.
4. Beat egg whites until frothy. Add in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks.
5. Add in sugar bit by bit and beat egg whites until stiff.
6. Put in 1/4 of egg whites into (3) and fold to combine.
7. Repeat step 6.
8. Pour (7) into remaining egg whites and fold to combine well.
9. Pour batter into clean ungreased tube pan. Lightly shake pan left and right to level the cake.
10. Bake at 170C for 40 minutes.
11. Immediately remove from oven and turn cake upside down on table. (cake will sink if not done fast)
12. Leave cake to cool completely before dislodging from pan using a flat knife. Cut with a sharp knife.

Homemade Pandan Kaya

I enjoy baking bread, and we all love to toast the bread and spread a thick layer of kaya on top. It's so delicious. My mom in law harvested a big stalk of pandan leaves and I'm just so excited to blend and try to cook my first homemade kaya. 

 Look at the long long green green pandan leaves. Blend the coconut milk with pandan leaves and extract out the juice.

 Cook the mixture over the double boiler. It's so much easier this way, you do not have to stir all the time.

 The color is getting darker and darker after 30-45 mins.

 Done! The home made kaya is ready to be spread on the toasted bread!

 My first try : The texture is pretty smooth. Except I don't really like the santan smell, perhaps I should try again using freshly squeezed santan and not on-the-shelves santan.

Here's where I adopted the recipe:

Nasi Lemak Lover

Ingredients

3 large eggs (lightly beaten)
250g caster sugar
350ml coconut milk
8pcs pandan leaves

Steps
1. Blend pandan leaves and coconut milk in a blender. Strain .

2. Add sugar into beaten eggs, use a hand whisk to stir mixture until sugar dissolves - lightly stir
3. Mix the pandan coconut milk with the mixture of sugar and eggs.
4. Sift the kaya mixture into another mixing bowl.

5. Place mixing bowl over another pot of boiled water on low heat, stir kaya mixture occasionally. I placed it on top of a kuali instead since I do not have bigger pot. Stir every 1-2 mins.
4. It took at least 1hour to cook till desired thickness. Cool completely before store in a clear jar and keep in the fridge.

Orange Muffins for tea time

I always love the smell of orange, especially orange cake or muffins. It was a lazy day and I decided to bake muffins instead of cake because baking muffins is as simple as ABC. All you need is to measure all the ingredients and use a spoon/whisk to lightly stir for a lumpy mixture. So easy and most importantly, so little things to wash.

 

I adopted the recipe from Nigella Lawson Orange Breakfast Muffins
I always like the recipe given by Nigella because they are all in grams which is easier for me to measure and ensure the accuracy.

Ingredients:
    75 g unsalted butter
    250 g self-raising flour
    25 g ground almonds
    1⁄2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    75 g caster sugar
    1 orange, zest of
    100 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
    100 ml full-fat milk
    1 egg

• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Melt the butter and set aside.
• Combine the flour, ground almonds, bicarb, baking powder, sugar and orange zest in a large bowl.
• Measure the orange juice and milk into a jug and whisk in the egg and then the cooled, melted   butter.
• Now pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing with a fork as you go. The batter will be lumpy but that's as it should be: you want everything to be no more than barely combined. The whole point of muffin mixture is that it must never be overworked.
• Spoon out the mixture equally into the muffin cases and cook for 20 minutes.
• Remove, in their paper cases, to a wire rack and let cool slightly (but not completely) before devouring.

Happy Baking! These muffins were so delicious, soft and fluffy!

Easy and Fast Chicken Rice

My grandma taught me this recipe when she stayed over my place few years ago. It was nice learning lots of cooking ropes from her. How nice if this grandma of mine lives next door.. 

Yesterday, we collected our pressure cooker from the shop after pre-order for 1 week. I was so excited to see this, and the other part of me still nervous to handle this little appliance. I'm so scared of the pressure. I scared that it will explode. And then my house got burnt. Blah.

The hubby asked what special dish I gonna cook for dinner and feeling nervous handling a PRESSURE cooker for the first time, I said I'm gonna cook you a simple meal. Soup? Initially, I planned to try soup, and I thought it was the easiest. But, in the end I changed my mind and cooked my grandma's chicken rice. After finished cooking and the mode automatically changed to "warm", I thought it was already safe that I can turn the valve to "vent" to release the pressure. I literally jumped when the pressure was released cause the sound was so loud and the pressure shot up to my kitchen's ceiling. Thank God I wasn't cooking soup that time. The hot soup might shoot up to my ceiling like a volcano and burn my hand. So thankful.

After reading experiences from the pressure cooker gurus in the forum, now I know that I do not have to turn the valve to "vent" immediately after it's finished cooking. Instead the pressure will release on its own. Just wait for 20-30 mins and when the floater is down, then only turn the valve to "vent". In this case, I won't get a pressure shooting up like volcano. I couldn't wait to try again. Hopefully this time it works as it should.

Anyway, here's the easy and fast chicken rice recipe:

Ingredients:

Half chicken chopped into pieces (marinade with dash of peppers, soya sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil)

Salt to taste

Garlic

Ginger

1 spoon of butter

Pandan Leaves

Methods:

Melt the butter in the pan and add in garlic and ginger. Stir fry until fragrant, then add in the marinated chicken. Fry for a little while and then add in rice. Stir fry again. Add some salt to taste, water and pandan leaves. That's all! Reduce the amount of water because the chicken will release some water while cooking. I used 1:1 ratio of rice:water and yet it's still a little damp. So, reduce the amount of water depends on your rice types.

 

 I used the mode Chicken and Keep pressure time 15 mins. So total cooking time is 30 mins. 

This appliance makes my life as a stay at home mom so easy. I don't have to stand in front of the stove and keep stirring. I don't have to afraid of burnt food while attending to the kids. You can even use this pressure cooker to stir fry the ingredients. Thus, a less messy kitchen to clean after cooking. Cooking is so easy now. I think this is a cheaper version of Thermomix. =D

Guiness Chocolate Cake topped with Cream Cheese

I have few bottles of Guinness stout leftover from the housewarming party, I don't drink.. the hubby doesn't drink that often as well. So, I've decided to try Guinness chocolate cake! Daniel's birthday party is just around the corner, I wanted to bake a cake for him, from scratch to the buttercream to the decoration. So, I gotta practice more in order to bake a perfect and nice cake. 

Here it goes.... my Guinness chocolate cake! The first impression when I told Mr Hub that I would like to bake this cake was "eee yerrrrr, Guinness? Are you sure? Will it taste good? Will it turn out to be bitter?"

Surprisingly, the end of result of this cake is so good that after the first bite, you would want more and more and more! The taste is not bitter, neither does it have any alcoholic taste. But it's so rich in chocolate and moist! The most delicious cake that I ever bake! *because I hardly bake nice cakes. haha*

 

I've to bake this cake for more than 1 hour, then only the skewer came out clean. That explains the crack? I'm not sure. I'm not a baking expert.

I turn it opposite, so the ugly look crack look will be at the bottom. Haha.

I just poured over the cream cheese mixture and oh yeah, I really gotta improve in my decorating skills. =/

Here you go! A rich and moist chocolate guinness cake! So yummy that Mr Hubby said this is the best cake ever. He suggested I can even sell it. Lol.

Here's where I adopt the recipe - Chocolate Guinness Cake

Ingredients for the cake

    250 ml Guinness
    250 grams unsalted butter
    75 grams cocoa powder
    400 grams caster sugar
    142 ml sour cream
    2 large eggs
    1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    275 grams plain flour
    2 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

for the topping

    300 grams cream cheese
    150 grams icing sugar
    125 ml double cream (or whipping cream)


Method

• Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch spring form tin.
• Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
• Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
• When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
• Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

You can also try the recipe above with the steps below (watch the video) :
Chocolate Guinness Cake Donal Skehan

The most easy and most yummy cake ever! ever! No regrets trying this! Really ..... =)

Italian Bread - Yummm !

And this time round, I made Italian Bread from my Kenwood Bread maker (inspired by Italiannies, our favorite restaurant). All I need is to just put all the ingredients together into the bread pan and the awesome bread maker will do all the job from scratch for me! That's perfect, isn't it ? But, I just need to try and error on the preset program.

 

I've always been using Program 4, which is quite close to the bread that I'm baking. The end result is good! Perhaps if you use the bread maker to knead the bread, and then your hands to shape the bread in the final steps, the end result could be even better. 

 The dough will be a little sticky and sometimes the kneader would go out of place and the machine will start beeping. I wonder why the bread maker has this problem and I wonder if it's just me or anyone else facing this problem.

 My Italian bread is all set! And my house is now filled with the fragrant of Italian Herbs!

Among all the bread that I bake, this is the best! Soft and fragrant! Delicious if you dip in a plate of vinegar+olive oil. Just like how the Italians' use to eat their bread. I miss Italy now.

And here's the recipe which I couldn't remember where I adopt it from (my sincere apology).

30gm lukewarm water

123gm warm milk

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

15gm sugar / 1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon rosemary

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1.5 teaspoon yeast

315gm bread flour

That's all you need. Always add in the wet ingredients first before you add the dry ingredients when using bread maker. 

Cheers to all ... happy baking!

Loves to Bake - Steamed Caramel Banana Cake

Baking is so much fun. My MIL brought lots of bananas over and I just wondering what I can do with those bananas, instead of just eating them on its own. So, looking through recipes.. thought of baking muffins, but ended up I made steamed caramel banana cake. The name itself looks delicious and the end result is even more yummy. Because I like caramel. That explains why I decided to made this cake.

The recipe adopted from the website :

Nasi Lemak Lover

Just follow exactly the same, steps by steps and you will get a superb steamed cake.

But, I find it a little too sweet. Wonder if I cut down the sugar, will the cake still look this good....

 Ashlynn said she would like to have a muffin, thus, I poured some batter into a paper cupcake we bought from Ikea.

 Yummmm!! It will be so much better if I can cut down the sugar.

Looks good right? Soft and moist is the most important key to a successful cake.

The hubby loves it too... he said this is good! Yeayy!!

More baking to come. Next target will be baking a nice birthday cake for the birthday boy. So, I gotta practice more! Swiss meringue buttercream, pipping, decorating ... etc. Wish me luck!