Training & baking!

11 June

Supposed to start my run at 0530 but ended up only leaving the house at 0600. The toilet ritual was horrible. It’s not even a race, but it has been 3 times this has happened, on my planned LSDs.

I ended up starting at almost 0630. Anticipating a loooong journey I started slow. Knees were not in the best shape and decided to take it easy since I was running alone this time. But then I thought I saw Fong’s ride at the carpark. I wasn’t sure.

Almost at the end of Loop 1, Fong came up and I was surprised that she was still around. It made my running more fun. But then it was just a short run to the entrance and she was going off.

Total loops done – almost 4 (got discounted cos of laborious breathing and knee pain)
Went home abit disappointed.

Decided to test out my kit for the coming weekend.
Swam for 15 mins or so. Also discounted cos it was super duper cold and I felt really weak and thought I was going to pass out in the cold water. Sides (tummy) hurt while breathing, made me feel like I was still running (the type of side stitch you get while running) so I decided to call it quits.

12 June
0530 – spinned. 20mins later, AIR2 awakens. Patted her hoping she’ll go to sleep again. No luck. Plans abandoned. :(

Used AIR2 as my weights while entertaining her at the same time. Lasted for 15 mins before I ran out of idea as I was still kinda sleepy and she not extremely thrilled as I think she was still groggy ;p

0930 – went for a swim, finally a decent swim. 30mins, maybe 1.5km or so. Forgot to count my laps ;p Satisfied.

1030 – took AIR1 for a swim instead. He sat by the pool for a good 15 mins in the sun before taking a dip and then refusing to leave. J

After lunch, went for a fondant cookie deco class. It was interesting. As expected, I’m not too good with my fingers, but I think it can be improved. Now only if I can find time to bake and make all these deco. I miss baking those cuppies, though they’re not excellent, but its therapeutic, I guess.Came back and after seeing AIR1 wallop the ‘elephant’ and ‘caterpillar’, I was thrilled and convinced I should make more J for his next birthday, perhaps.

My completed project, except the pirate.

Catepillar with some parts gone

Can you guess what these are?

Boy I do miss baking.

What is that?

A very much delayed posting.

The picture doesn't do much justice as I keep forgetting and only took the photo at night. I'm not good at night photography (not that I was any good in any photography for that matter ;p)

Take a guess - what did I make? take a guess....It's not shaped like it's supposed too!

Savoury scones - aubergine, chicken ham and cheddar scones. My first attempt and it wasn't too bad. Though the dough turned out to be not as thick as it should be (it should be able to be rolled like bread dough but turned up not) it still tasted fine. I wasn't bothered to actually add more flour to make it thick to its required consistency, fearing that I might do something wrong and also the fact that I would then have too many scones!

Turned out I has scones with lots of stuff! :) Attempt #2 is in the queue...tonight or tomorrow!

Mini Cupcakes Revisited

I finally got my recipe right – and so it turned out to be durian & strawberry mini cupcakes..:)

I creamed the butter manually, and somehow I realized its not that easy…but then I told myself that this is easy compared to the usual gym routines. Hehe and so batter was done in no time but it was assembling it into those miniscule cups that took ages. After almost 1.5hrs (I don’t really remember how long exactly) out came 36 mini cupcakes. That’s slow cos my oven is not that big and at one go I can only make 18, that’s 2 trays, so in order to save some time, I fill 1 tray then put it in, then fill the other, and rotate.

So walla....36 pcs appeared...:) *photos later la...*

......2 days later...here are the photos ...the loot almost gone! :D

Mini Cupcakes

Darn!! No pics!!

In my rush trying to get those cupcakes done, Iforgot to take photos of them.

OK, things seemed simpler this time. erm, perhaps I was getting the hang of it? hehehe cam terror la pulak, kan?

I'm not sure actually how large those cupcakes were supposed to be in the recipe, but I wanted mine mini. yup, bite-size-like and it turned out to be just as I wanted. I was happy, considering the fact that I didn't 'cream the butter and sugar' like the recipe called for, and I did it my way.

I wasn't dry or hard like my previous attempt. I made plain vanilla cupcakes as I didn't want to buy ingredients for the frosting, not knowing if my cupcakes would turn out fine. If it didn't, then those would just go to waste.

The best part was, halfway preparing th ingredients, I heard a cat meow-ing away somewhere 'behind' or nearby..I thought perhaps this 'lost' cast was nearby outside (where it was the night before). Realizing the main door was opened, I quickly went to shut it, not wanting it to trespass. I was in the kitchen, baby sleeping in the room. And no one else was around. And after a while, I heard the meow again. I turned, and saw it was starring back at me from the small 'store' behind me. Alamak!!

I tried to lure it out (I dislike cats), but I guess I wasn't being nice enough to encourage the poor frighten cat out from its 'hiding'. So in the end, I shut the door to the store to keep the cat in. I was afraid it may roam around and mess up my house. I was too busy trying to bake ma! haha

So I texted hubby and told him he had a task when he comes back later.

Then I continued with baking and 'House'.

I realise i tend to not fill the cups enough in my 1st attempt. 1st attempt - 2 trays of 9 pcs each. 2nd attempt - 1 tray of 9 pcs, and 1 tray of 4 pcs. hehehe imbalances but this one reaped slightly larger ones. And I added some 'tiramisu' flavouring to it. But then I can't taste the difference la. hmmm so much for that extra flavouring :D

So, back to cupcaking - now that i can do it ok, I guess mini cupcakes would be one of the items i'll make for Raya! hahaha erm, wait, I need to make it more interesting with cute frosting la. errrrr perhaps next attempt! :D

CUlinary skills....

So finally after goodness knows how many months after buying the oven (I think it was waaaaaay before I delivered), I made good use of it.

There was grilled lamb, ala my style….then there was the long-awaited cup cakes. Hmmmm looks quite ok la, but abit dry. I had two trays, so I had to bake it twice. Second batch turned out hard, i.e. not so nice la but 1st batch wasn’t too shabby. Choc powder and chips were just normal hypermarket brand ones but they turned out to be better than I expected it to be. Hmmm looks like I don’t have to buy those expensive ones to make it taste any better.

Those were the so-called medium sized cupcakes la. So this coming weekend, I will try to make those miniature ones. Yup, bite-size ones. Can’t wait. I didn’t do it yesterday cos I didn’t have proper weighing scales. And somehow I didn’t get my vanilla essence yet for this mini ones, I plan to make them plain, so I can have frosting on it.

We’ll how the new ones go….yumyum..can’t wait. Hahaha perasan right?