Oreo Cupcakes

It's been a long time since I last baked. I've prepared the packet of Oreo in my kitchen a while ago and have been waiting for the right mood for baking.

I adopted the recipe from here. I prefer vanilla cupcake so I used 100g self-rising flour instead of 75g flour + 25g cocoa powder and castor sugar instead of brown sugar.



I followed the method for making the frosting but I couldn't get the correct texture, so I spread the frosting onto the cupcakes instead of piping, but I really would like to try to pipe pretty frosting onto my cupcakes one day.



The frosting has the correct sweetness that I like, and the crispy base is a brilliant idea. Simply yummy~

Handbag organizer

Sometimes I have trouble finding the thing I want from my handbag. A big handbag is useful as I can put everything inside. It becomes a problem when I have to search for something from the mess.

I came across something called the 'handbag organizer', but the price is not something I'm willing to spend on. So I tranformed one of my many woven bags I got for free during shoppings into a handbag organizer.





Not only that my handbag is now more organized, it's easier when I switch handbags.

Strawberry cheese (cup)cake

I only left with 250gm cream cheese, so I scaled the original recipe to make only 6 cupcakes.

250 gm Philadelphia cream cheese
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup castor sugar
3 disgestive biscuits
1 tbsp (melted) butter
3 strawberries
strawberry jam

1. Crush the digestive biscuits. Combine the biscuit crumbs with melted butter. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom of each cupcake mold.
2. Mix cream cheese, sugar, pure vanilla, egg and beat till creamy.
3. Fill each cupcake mold (3/4 full) with the cream cheese batter.
4. Bake at 175°C for 15 mins.
5. Remove cupcakes from oven and cool individually on wire rack.
6. Place half strawberry on top of each cupcake and drip with strawberry jam.
7. Refrigerate the cupcakes before serving.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

I bought a lot of strawberries from Cameron during the weekend trip. Besides eating them fresh, I used some of them to made strawberry jam.

I used:
12-13 big strawberries (cleaned and halved), smashed with a potato masher.
1/3 cup of castor sugar.

1. Pour the sugar into the smashed strawberries, mix it, then pour into a sauce pan.
2. Keep on stirring over medium heat.
3. Boil the mixture till it's slightly thicken (the mixture will get further thicken when it's cooled down).
4. Pour the mixture into a sterilized bottle (I re-use a preserved vegetable bottle and boiled it in hot water).
5. Close the bottle tight, place it in the fridge after the jam is slightly cooled down.

Using towel in Yoga class

A small towel comes in handy in class not only during perspiration.

1. Use it as a prop (if you do not have a belt).

Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend)


Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose) - Hand

2. Use it as padding for knees.

Crescent Moon

3. Use it as blind during Shavasana, so you don't squeeze your eye lids to close your eyes.

Think positive

Because I believe in Law of Attraction, I like to think positive.
Only with our heart and mind open, we can keep more beautiful things.


Purvottanasana

Spaghetti with homemade sauce

200 ml Cream
125 gm Pamersan Cheese (I think it's too cheesy, should have just use 100 gm)
Some chopped Broccoli, Shitake Mushroom and Onions.

1. Oil the sauce pan with 1/2 teaspoon butter.
2. Fry the onions and mushrooms. I prefer the vegetable to be fresh and crispy so I didn't fry it together with the ingredients here.
3. Pour in cream and bring it to boil.
4. When almost boiling, lower the heat and pour in cheese (I should've chopped it into smaller chunks so that it's easier to melt), keep stiring till all mixed well.
5. Pour in boiled spaghetti and broccoli.
6. Mix well and serve.



I love the creamy texture. I tasted it while cooking and it was just nice, but it was too cheesy when mixed with the spaghetti and eat it mouthful. Seriously have to reduce the cheese the next time I make this :p