Quenching my thirst for home-baked muffins

i passed by a shop yesterday, called Little Sweet Things. They sold donuts and muffins. It was at a rather unquiet corner of a busy housing estate, and my colleague told me that sometimes, there are queues there. I looked at the signboard and a beautiful and proportionate muffin, so i decided to try some.

i bought 1 peanutella, 1 banana walnut and a double chocolate chip. Though I bought 3, I could not smell any of them, not even when I left the bag untied while in the car. Ok, i have to taste it first. They look rather nice, but the taste is disappointing. I tried some at night, and of course by then, it was a bit oily. But the thing is, the smell is not strong enough. I ate the peanutella this morning, and the rest was my mum's breakfast. Her verdict when she is back -- the muffins are not nice. She prefers mine. *a big smile with victory sign*

Since I was on half day leave today, I thought I had to come back early to bake something. Actually 2 nights ago I was already dying to bake something, but baking on weekdays is just too tight for time. So today, I quickly shopped for a while, and then came back to bake. Oh by the way, I bought a new toy for myself -- I got a new digital weighing scale! :D

I tried chocolate chip muffins. ok, sounds like nothing difficult right? Right, it is nothing difficult, just that I had overmix it a little and it was a little harder than usual. But i like the way the little fellows crack today. My muffins usually do not crack much, until today.And to be honest, the smell is nicer and stronger than the ones I bought yesterday, and I am not even using my more expensive choc chips today! I even bought a new plate (of course one of my fav brand!), to photograph the little fellows.

My mum came home, asking me which one she can eat. She found 1 of the little fellows, one which looked plain because its choc chips are embedded inside. She told him "you...i know you are the pathetic one...even if i do not eat you, you will still have no chance to be photographed because you are not photogenic enough...so let me help you out of your misery...i shall eat you up..." hahahaha.. my mum, talking to my muffins, she must be going crazy with the muffins i stuff her with. I made some big ones, and some mini ones, and here they are.

the fashionable orange box

it is amazing how some people can make it look fashionable to be carrying an orange rectangular box around. today, i happen to be one of them, finally. i was at suntec and i saw this donut shop. i was not sure if it is the one at raffles city, where crazy people actually queue for hours to buy the donuts.

i stood closer to the store, read a notice on the counter and then realised oh, yes, this is the same shop. they have a new outlet at suntec city.

and it so happened that there was only 1 other person in the queue, so me and dear decided to buy some to try. i had only tried the donuts at the donut shop (one of the many donut shops which has sprung up around the island) at the shopping centre at bukit panjang plaza. theirs is not bad, but i cannot stand the service standard of the people, and that it is always being manned by inexperienced, unprofessional part-timers. im fact, i had sworn to myself i will (almost) never buy from them again.

anyway, dear was rather excited too, to my surprise. i was deciding which flavours to choose, when he said "i choose, i choose". wow, he usually leaves these unimportant decisions to me....seems like the attractive colours and appetising descriptions of the donuts really work miracles!

i only knew there was 1 flavour i had to try -- the cheese one. i am always drawn by melted cheesy stuff. as expected, dear bought others with chocolates and even more expectedly, with nuts. as we took a walk in the supermarket after that, i was careful not to tilt the box, so that the frostings on the donuts will not stick to one another. dear was teasing me about how i was treating them as 'my precious'..haha!

we ate 4 out of the 6 as soon as we got back. it was nice. i liked the cheese one. and the chocolates one. i feel that the dough from the donut shop at bukit panjang plaza is slightly better, but the frosting on this one is better, and less likely to cause diabetes. they are a joy to eat, partly because we were chomping down with eagerness. the other reason is that, looking at the layers of chocolate, it is hard not to salivate. no wonder they have become the nation's comfort food.

will i buy them again? yes! but will i queue hours to buy them? over my dead body!

to the Moon and back

Just now, I spent some time on the mooncake ingredients I had bought earlier this week. Mooncakes this year are so expensive! So I thought maybe I will make some instead.

The last time I made mooncakes was in 2001. That was when I first learnt how to do them. I remember making the baked ones and the snowskin ones. I will never make the baked ones again because there are just too many types of ingredients which you buy and use a little, and will never use again. Moreover, they are incredibly oily during the making process, not to mention the many steps in making them. When it comes to baked mooncakes, go buy them.

So, back to my mooncakes. I bought green tea filling (yummy, my fav!). The ingredients was just about enough to make 10, according to my rough estimation. In the end, I had about 13.

complete with boxes and trays
i compared mine (solely on looks) with another one my sis had bought for me at a famous hotel. I think my mould looks nicer! nope, there is nothing wrong with your eyes or your screen. Mine really does have pink streaks in some of the pieces...due to me trying to add colour at the wrong stage... :(

Birthday without cake

Just in case you are wondering, I was not sitting around and neglecting my oven, although my blog has not been updated for a few weeks.

In fact, last week, I tried to make a birthday cake for my dad. Ambitious wish, since I have not made any proper cake complete with frosting. The end result, was nothing like a birthday cake you see in the shops. So, in case you see my cake and never want to celebrate any occasion with cakes again, I shall spare you the torture. You shall see only the sponge cake that was in it.....haha!

Yesterday, I tried to make double chocolate chip muffins. Ok, you see the word tried and you know the result. I did not even take any pictures of it. The first time I tried this damn recipe, it was too wet. So yesterday, I haved the amount of milk. Still there was too little flour and the muffins caved in a little in the middle. I was pissed at whoever shared the recipe, because there was defintely some mistakes in it. I was reading the recipe again and again before I began and I sensed that something was not right, but I decided to give it a second chance.

It was a wrong move and I wasted my ingredients again. They were edible, but not like muffins because they caved in. I had wasted my good chocolate which was quite expensive compared to what you get in normal supermarkets. On the bright side, the taste was quite nice, a very chocolatey taste. I had given my dear almost half of the total number of mini muffins, and I am left with about 20 of them. Sigh...gonna get fat again!