Sugar Cookies / Butter Cookies

Sugar Cookies / Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 170g butter
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 ½ cups flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C.
2. Prepare a few cookie sheets.
3. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add in salt and vanilla extract and mix evenly.
5. Use a spatula to mix in the beaten egg.
6. Put all flour in and make a firm dough.
7. Chill dough in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
8. Roll out dough to ¼ inch thickness and cut with cookie cutters.
9. Bake cookies on cookie sheets for 12 to 15 minutes, or until cookies turn light brown.
10. Remove cookies from oven and place on cooling rack.

Notes

• Replace vanilla extract with other flavors to make different type of cookies.
• Add smarties or other decorations if desired before baking, or decorate cookies after baking with icing.

References

• Passionate about Baking - Smartie Cookies

Cookies turn out to be really fragrance due to butter, pretty neat recipe to make xmas cookies.

^StarrY^

Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake

Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake

Ingredients
For Crust

• 200g cracker crumbs
• 100g butter, melted

For Filling

• 750g cream cheese, soften
• 400ml condensed milk
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 340g chocolate chips, melted

Instructions
For Crust

1. Mix cracker crumbs and melted butter together.
2. Place mixture firmly at the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

For Filling

• Preheat oven at 150°C.
• Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor, mix until smooth.
• Pour filling onto the prepared crust.
• Bake cake at 150°C for an hour.
• Let cake cool at room temperature.
• Refrigerate cheesecake overnight before removing from cake pan.
• Add decorations as you like.

Notes

• For bittersweet taste, try using unsweetened chocolate instead.

Reference

• Diana's Desserts - Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake

I used normal milk instead of condensed milk, it turns out just fine. The cake tastes really nice, not too rich, really yummy!

^StarrY^

Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups milk
• 1tsp. white vinegar
• 1¾ cups all purpose flour
• 1½ cups sugar
• ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1tsp. baking powder
• ½tsp. baking soda
• ¼tsp. salt
• 170g butter, soften and cut up
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Combine milk and vinegar and leave aside for 5 minutes.
3. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.
4. Beat in butter at low speed until mixture is crumbly.
5. Add in milk mixture, eggs and vanilla extract, beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.
6. Spoon batter into cups and bake for 20 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched.
7. Remove cupcakes from oven and cool completely.

Notes

• There's white frosting in the recipe but I did not make them, refer to the link below for frosting ingredients and instructions if you want to add them.
• There's a conversion calculator on this recipe site if you want the measurements in grams, link here.
• Cupcakes will crack if over baked, be careful on the timing.

Reference

• Diana's Desserts - Chocolate Cupcakes with Fluffy White Frosting

I've cut down sugar when baking, only added 1 cup instead of the original 1½ cups, cupcake came out nicely and it has slightly bitter cocoa taste which I love! Suitable for people who enjoys cupcake but do not like them sweet.

^StarrY^

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

Ingredients

• 140g castor sugar
• 6 egg whites
• 6 eggs yolks
• 1/4tsp. cream of tartar
• 50g butter
• 250g cream cheese
• 100ml fresh milk
• 1tbsp. lemon juice
• 60g cake flour / superfine flour
• 20g corn flour
• 1/4tsp. salt

Instructions

1. Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of a cake pan and preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the cake flour, corn flour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.
3. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in sugar and salt, whisk until soft peaks form.
4. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and mix well with a spatula. Pour mixture into cake pan.
5. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hour 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160°C.

Notes

• Water bath - Place cake pan in a rectangle tray filled with water for moisture.
• If using salted butter, omit salt from ingredient list.

Reference

• Diana's Desserts - Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

It's really soft! Try this out if you love light cheesecake, it's good. =)


^StarrY^

Something Useful...

Boo!

It's realllly long, right? =p

Well, I really love Tumblr, the interface and stuff... but I think I might revive this blog into something else... something useful perhaps.

I have been baking quite a bit recently, and I love it, more than cooking. So I am actually thinking to share recipes I used in this blog, good idea?

Well, I got to find a new layout that is more suitable, this one has been sitting since last Christmas, ahaha... and then I'll start posting some nice recipes that I know, hope to find more in the future.

Maybe someone will be interested to share their recipes with me too?

There will be some activity soon, till then.

^StarrY^

Tumblr

Boo!

Life has been super busy and all, but...

Just a quick note that I have been trying out Tumblr, and I think that's pretty good... so this may mean I might not be updating this blog anymore, but who knows... maybe I'll still come back when I have the mood or something, so I am keeping this blog as well...

... it all depends on my mood. XD

For now, do drop by . lil space . when you are free and is interested. =)

^StarrY^

Happy Chinese New Year & Happy Valentine's Day!

Boo!

Taken at Sunway Pyramid.

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Chai!

I have been really occupied for the past few days, tiring but I do think it's one of the best time I had, first time spending my CNY days in KL with only my family and close relative, fun! Other than the unbearable hot weather for the past few days, I don't really have any complains at all... had so much fun that I don't mind missing some sleep and wake up early just to meet up with my cousins. =)

My uncle, aunt and cousins came to KL on Saturday for reunion dinner, so got to help out my mom a little in food preparation and stuff, since we shouldn't celebrate due to my grandfather's recent death so we only had a normal dinner at home, but the food is still tasty, mom's cook is always the best! =p After dinner, we went to Look Out Point for the KL night view, on the way there it was drizzling, lucky for us the rain stopped when we reach there, but the temperature is still high, no wind and sooo humid! The view was just okay, all the places have been used to open more restaurants now, according to my brother. Sat for a while, had a drink, chit chat... and then we went to Mid Valley for midnight movie, can't believe there's loads of people still in KL! XD We watched Tiger Woohoo, a local production by Astro and MyFM, okay for me... not boring, not exciting, but I guess it's okay considering it's a local production. I love the cute little tiger that Astro designed!

First day of CNY is also full of events, had lunch with cousins at OldTown then walked around Sunway Pyramid for the whole evening, most of the shops are open so it's good, lots of stuff to see lots of people too. Then we went for dinner at a restaurant near my house, the food was okay, not great but still nice. It was a long dinner, we chit chat a lot I guess... after that went back to my cousin's hotel and also head to Starbucks for a drink and chat until 2am I think...

Second day of CNY was in KLCC, packed with people, I don't understand why... The original plan was to visit either Aquaria or Petrosains but both of them has a long queue, we decided not to wait and went to walk around instead. =/ Had early dinner that night, my mom's food again, yummy! Went to Sunway Lagoon, my first time... apparently there's a few sections which are open during the night, we went on the roller coaster and suspension bridge, not too bad but it's really hot and sweating away isn't fun at all. =( Since it was the last night, didn't want to go back so early, ended up in OldTown again, chit chat, eat supper...

Tiring but fun, finally yesterday I get to rest and recover, slept for almost 12 hours straight haha... XD and today, went to friend's house, spend the day playing cards and chit chatting, nice to meet my college friends again. Just few more days of my CNY holiday, gonna treasure it for sure, sleep, watching TV series, eat, going out...

No Valentine's Celebration this year because we both are busy and spending time with relatives, so maybe we will do it some other time, or maybe next year... XD

^StarrY^

A Day of Fun!

Boo!

Busy busy busy! with many stuff... work is one thing, then there's Restaurant City, (fluff) Friends, TV series, anime, games... never had time to blog or maybe no mood to blog (too lazy =p) So anyways, CNY soon! yay! one week holiday for me, awesome! but before that I got to finish off my work by the end of this week, hopefully I can...

Putting that aside, last week I finally did some CNY shopping at Sunway Pyramid, couldn't do that earlier because EdeNz was studying for exam, so no outings. I bought a few stuff and also spent a lot on food, as usual. XD Food first!

We stop by this small shop named Honeymoon, mainly sells desserts and it's full of people! The menu has lots of dessert, hot and cold, so hard to pick one lol... so in the end both EdeNz and I choose one, instead of sharing. XD


I ordered Honeydew Sago, something very ordinary I guess, but I love it! Taste good and not too sweet, it's big though, better to share!


EdeNz ordered something with ice cream, fruits and crystal jelly?? I forgot the name, but it's nice! two scoops of ice cream with mango, kiwi and watermelon at the bottom and lots of rice jelly kind of thing, yummy and filling too!

It took awhile for the order to arrive though, maybe 'cos there are lots of customer? The table beside us order a durian dessert and we could actually smell it from our table, kinda bad because I don't like it. =\

So, after continue shopping till 8pm I guess, it's dinner time and EdeNz insist on having Japanese food and because I don't want to queue up, we ended up in Zen, expensive stuff! which means food camwhore time! =p


We order lots of stuff... so let's see...

Sashimi to start off... yummy, rich in taste, no complains.

They have something like wintery menu, and there's this baked oyster, so I ordered one. I love it but EdeNz don't like the taste that much lol...

Follow up with soft shell crab maki, it's huge! Can't eat in one bite...

Hotate mentaiyaki, my favorite!

Cold Wheat Noodle, couldn't recall the Japanese name, but this is better than soba!

Last but not least, Wagyu tataki! Yummy beef!

Overall, the meal is satisfying and the bill is also very "lovely", haha... Oh well, guess I won't be doing much shopping or eating next month or two... =\ But I had fun, it's been awhile since we went out and enjoy ourselves like this...

For now, maybe some sleep and continue to work hard! and look forward to CNY holidays! next up will be my shopping stuff. =)

^StarrY^

Hmm...?

Boo!

Almost half a month into 2010 already?! So fast! and things I do everyday? besides Facebook, it's always anime or TV series... hahaha! XD

Then, just last week I had problem with my stomach, food poisoning maybe... and fever for few days, it was really bad. Luckily it's all over now, I'm back to normal, yay!

Hmm, don't really have anything to talk about, I'm just bored right now... waiting for my torrents to complete so I can watch some anime and series... but these 2 days I have been waking up early, so it's kinda tiring, I definitely gonna get more sleep tonight, maybe soon... to cover up haahaha! well, can't wait for the weekend to come, I'm just feeling lazy...

will write again when I have something to talk about, next time...

^StarrY^

Happy New Year!

Boo!

It's finally Year 2010, yet another year passed by. Lots of stuff happened over the past 12 months, some happy, some sad... regardless, there are all now part of my memories, I wouldn't say it's a good year but it ain't bad as well, things changed when time flew by, that's how it's supposed to be, right?

I am definitely looking forward to have a good year, so before anything else... it's party and celebration time! =p I took the day off for new year's eve, simply because I don't feel like working till late even on a day where everyone's celebrating. My day starts pretty late since I get to sleep in, watched Nodame Cantabile Live Action, which is really really awesome... still yet to finish but I definitely will. =)

I am also thrilled when the courier guy rung my bell and delivered my new bag that I ordered the day before, I thought it's not gonna make it so I am really happy!

Of course, the bag is pretty and all good, I'm loving it and have been using it ever since.

I also bought this cute little toothbrush holder, isn't it very creative? Hehe... I am seriously gonna do more online shopping, so convenient and easy, no hassle like finding car park in malls or too much people in the store.

EdeNz came after work to pick me up for dinner, and Matt managed to join us too... we don't like to go to crowded place and would love to avoid any jams, so we decided to go for Shabu Shabu at Kuchai Lama, though it's not been that long since we went the first time... Unexpectedly, there's a long queue when we arrived, I thought most people would choose to go party or countdown and stuff like that...

So, after we put our names down for the queue, I went to a boutique nearby to kill some time, and it happens that the boutique is having a 50% sale, yes everything is -50%, how wonderful is that lol...

The boutique's name is F Block and they give pretty shopping bags.

Cute top.

Pretty dress, the pattern is really nice, just couldn't see properly in this photo.

Lot's of cute dresses but it's quite rare that I get any chance to wear one, in the end I bought a blouse and a pretty skirt, all together they cost around RM70+. Good deal! XD

For dinner, it's lots of food, especially pork slice lol... since it's buffet, we just keep ordering... other stuff are good too, generally, we didn't find anything that is bad here... yummy!

Pork overload.

There are 3 soup base to choose from, clear, miso and tomyam.

We all ate lot while keep chatting, fun times! The good thing about this place is it's properly air-conditioned so we never sweat and the food comes on the conveyor belt or served, so we don't have to fight with aunties or uncles at the food counter. =)

Not to forget fruits and dessert after a satisfying meal.

We sat there for almost 2 or 3 hours I guess, chatting and eating... time do passed by fast when you're happy and enjoying the moment.

Got back home just 10 minutes before the clock struck 12.00... happy and satisfied. So that's goodbye 2009, welcome 2010!

^StarrY^