Quality time.

Been staying home quite a lot for the weekends.

:)

I really enjoy just staying at home, 

doing nothing, 

and just spending time with my loved ones.

And maybe squeeze in a little time to bake some Red Velvet Cupcakes?

Hehe.

Tweeted that I'll share the recipe if it's a success.

So here it is!

Not sure if it will appeal to your taste buds, 

but no harm trying if you've some free time on hand!

Baking also helps to relieve stress,

with all the whisking, mixing, folding and sifting,

minus the washing up part.

Left to right: Plain flour (aka all purpose flour),
double acting baking powder (recipe called for baking powder, but I only had this at home, so I halved the quantity which the recipe called for!),
hershey's cocoa powder.


I use SCS butter (unsalted),
which I feel gives more buttery fragrance to my bakes as compared to other brands.


White vinegar and red food colouring.


Caster sugar.

DIY buttermilk because the NTUC we went to didn't have the ready made ones.
It's really easy to make this,
I'll also share the recipe later!
:D

Ingredients list


Cupcake:
- 125g sifted plain flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
(I used 1/8 because mine is double acting)
- 57g unsalted butter, room temp
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 120ml buttermilk***
- 1 tbsp red food colouring
- 1/2 tsp white vinegar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda

Frosting:
- 115g cream cheese, room temp
- 390g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 110g unsalted butter

**buttermilk substitute:
- 1 tbsp vinegar/lemon juice
- enough milk to fill 1 cup (around 236ml)
- let stand for 5 minutes




1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees.


2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder.


3. In another bowl, beat butter till soft (around 1-2 mins).
Add sugar and beat for 2-3 mins.


4. Add egg and beat till incorporated.
Then add vanilla extract and beat.


5. In the measuring cup, whisk together buttermilk and food colouring.


6. With the mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternatively to butter mixture.
Beginning and ending with flour mixture being added.

7. In a small cup, mix vinegar and baking soda.
Allow mixture to fizz and quickly fold into cake batter.




It will look like this in the end, a lil curdly but it's fine!
:)


Our cute princess wants to eat the cupcakes too!
:D

8. Divide batter into separate paper cups.
Do not fill up the entire cup, fill about 1/2 cup to give room for the cake to rise.

9. Pop them in the oven and bake for 18-23 minutes!




Poking a toothpick in to test whether it's ready to get out of the oven!


While waiting for the cupcakes to cool,
prepare the frosting!
:D

- Sift sugar and set aside.
- Beat cream cheese till creamy.
- Add vanilla extract.
- Add sugar in batches, beating well.
-Frost awayyyyyy!

Hehehe.
Sense of achievement!
Wished I had more time for baking so that I can try out the many many recipes I bookmarked on my laptop!

Recipe credited to: Joy of Baking

Next item on my to-bake-list:
Pineapple tarts for CNY!


Went to visit Chinatown's night market on one of the weekday nights to get some shopping done!
Wore the Fairylights Fishtail Skirt, in a new colour!
:DD
I already have like... 3 different colours of this skirt.
Still couldn't resist keeping one more, making it my 4th.






Sorry for the spam in pictures,
really ♥ this outfit!


Lim Chee Guan.
Best Bak Kwa in my opinion!
They always have long snaking queues when it's nearer to CNY,
so I thought I'll get mine early!




The uncle who is really expert at scooping and weighing the bak kwa.
I went for the traditional kind,
the bacon version and the gold coin version doesn't really appeal to me.
I like my new year goodies to be traditional!


The already crowded night market.
Frankly speaking, nothing much to buy!
Or maybe I didn't have the mood to shop that day.
Hahah.


Outfit for today:
TTR Basic Tank and the upcoming remake of Rahrah Cheerleader Skirt!
:)))
Wearing polka dots never fails to make me happy.



Also kept this in 4 other colours/prints already,
my 5th Rahrah skirt.
As you might have guessed,
my wardrobe is in an extremely pathetic state right now.



On the cab to meet Steph,
Thom on the phone giving her directions on how to walk to the Punggol Nasi Lemak from Kovan Mrt.






Passed her some gifts which I got for her since Christmas...
And the hua kai fu gui skirt, hahaha.

Steph also passed me a gift which she was proud of getting,
(better than a paperweight) a Dior eyeshadow palette with a cute pop up mirror!
:D




Yummyyyy Nasi Lemak!
:D


And right after Nasi Lemak,
I went for my dad's birthday dinner + mini celebration for Jessie's results day!
BURPS.

Went to Mellben's again, my dad's pick!
:)












Family photooooo!
:D
It's been a really long time since we all ate out together,
so taking a photo is a must!

Plus the boyfriends!
Just noticed Ben's guilty look...
Because eat too much right?
HAHAHAHAHA.

Nothing beats spending some quality time with the people I love.
:)
Can I have more weekends like this?

formspring me!

Off to a great start.

I'd say that 2012 is turning out pretty well so far...

Even the weather is holding up! 

:)

If you haven't realised, 

even the weather for the past few days have been pretty decent.

New favourite tank, as proclaimed on my Twitter!
:)))

Coming up in the next collection!
I'd say it's a pretty good buy at $27,
because I almost bought the original Topshop piece at a few times of this price.
Love how the big arm holes make my arms look slimmer,
don't worry because tubes will be provided!

And I was pleasantly surprised that this tank is double layered in front,
which makes it less sheer as compared to Topshop's version.


Spot Thom in the background waiting for me to be done!
:)


Days when I need my personal Superman.
Can't imagine how many trips it would have taken if it were Sissy and me.
Credits also to the abandoned trolley sitting around in the carpark!

Couple of grueling hours later,
after ensuring that our parcels are on their way to finding their new owners,
we found ourselves heading to Joo Chiat for a dinner to fill our tummies!




New mall at Katong!
:)
Wanted to explore it but we were kinda late.
Most shops were closed already!




Walked over to the nice bak kut teh shop nearby!
And thank god it closes late, so we got our dinner there.











We ordered their famous bak kut teh, thai styled tofu and fu rong egg.
All damn good!!!
I wanna bring my dad there someday for their BKT..
I'm quite sure it will appeal to his extremely picky tastebuds!






Took some time off work today because Thom bought a deal from Groupon,
buffet lunch for 2 at Mandarin Orchard's Triple Three!






Wore the Orchestra Symphony Dress in Royal Purple!
:)))
Also kept it in Coralia Orange but have decided to stash it in my CNY to-wear pile.















To be honest,
the food didn't impress me.
There weren't enough variety and the quality was kind of bad.
The best "dish" was the cream puff.

It was rather disappointing but thank god we went there using a coupon deal.
Would totally kill myself if I had to pay the full price for the quality of food.
















Thom did some of his CNY shopping as well!
:)
Best to be done early rather than going into a last minute frenzy nearer to the occasion...


He is so picky when it comes to shopping for clothes/shoes/bags.
I guess that's due to him being a Virgo.
Such a perfectionist!

I always laugh at him and say that whenever we go for shopping,
it's like a reversal of gender roles.
I shop like a man (SEE, LIKE, BUY!), while he ponders over his decisions for the longest time EVERRRRRR.




Failed to convince him in getting red pants...
BUT eventually he got himself a maroon pair of chinos!
:D
Hahaha.
Always have to push him to try new things!

Okay, abrupt end to entry because I've ran out of pictures and can't be bothered to think of how to end this entry.
LOL.
www.formspring.me/joyaholic