Little Bowl

Oh…I’m sorry, I meant my darling Harisa

Yes,our mini monster’s name actually means ‘hot pepper’ in Tunisian. Well,maybe she’s turn out to be a super hottie. Hot Pepper hot! LOL

Anyway,looking at some old photos of hers (which I’ve been meaning to sent out for prints, and yet still remains untouched in my pc), I realized just how big she’s gotten.

It’s unbelievable the changes a year can bring to a child. I’m just a teeny bit sad that she’s no longer that cute little thing that I can just wrap in a blanket and watch her sleep for the longest of hours . But then again, seeing her trying to drink from a cup, pushing god-knows-what buttons on the remote control, pestering our pet cat Sasha, re”organizing” the drawers (and the list goes on..)are just as much fun and worth every second of my life.

I love you my dearest “hot pepper”!

もうすぐ我が娘は１才になります。確かに１年って早いもんですね。信じられない。この間お腹から出てた赤ちゃんが今部屋にあるものを全部散らかして．．やっぱり子供の成長はすごい！

といっても、赤ちゃんの時の写真を見るとなんか懐かしい～って思っちゃいます。

ハリサちゃん、あっまり早く大きくならないでよ～！

At the end of last month we went to Handayama Botanical Garden with Nazra. It was a day after she found her lost kitten, Milo and the outing was somewhat a celebration for his return.

Lay Yin, a dear friend of mine told us about this spot in Handayama, which I reckon was not so well known by locals (or maybe it was just us :p) where there were a whole bunch of Momiji (maple) trees, all looking gloriously red at the back of the park.

So, packed with our cammies and Harisa(my little princess) off we went.

Boy, was it beautiful! I was blown away by the spectacular view I was seeing right in front of my eyes! And how come I never knew about it after almost 7 years living in Okayama??

To prove to you just how breathtaking the view was, here are some photos that we took that day

Masya-allah…cantik betul ciptaan Tuhan kan?

And that’s why I love autumn in Japan. Although it is no more, in my heart I know that I can look forward to my next autumn, insya-allah.

先月岡山にある半田山植物公園に行ってきました。今まで私が知らないとってもきれいな紅葉がいっぱいで、本当に素敵でした。
やっぱり秋ってきれいですね。私は秋チョー好きです。

残念たが、すっかり冬に入ってしまったけど、また来年の秋が来るまで、今こころの中の一つの楽しみが増えてました（＾＿＾）／

Okay…so, continuing from the last post.

After coming back from Malaysia, life went back to normal. I did miss home for awhile though. Coming back from Malaysia with just my daughter (my husband had to go back a week before) was, I could say, not so bad either. It was a night flight so she slept most of the time, and because we’re so used to traveling together, the 2 of us, so everything went quite well.

(マレーシアから帰ってきたら毎日の生活が普段通りに戻りました。確かにちょっとしか帰ってなくて、最初は寂しくて、ちょっぴりホームシックになったが。。まぁ、これは毎回のことですけどね（笑）でもしばらくしたら、またもカップケーキを焼く日に戻りました）

So, after dealing with some personal stuff, I finally had some time to bake again, and since I didn’t have any particular order from anybody, I started to play again with some new flavors.

What I did next was White Cake Cupcake. I had some whipped cream at that time and flavored it with almond extract. Also, because I thought the cupcakes looked rather bare..I couldn’t resist but to draw these cute faces on top of them.

Aren’t they adorable?

(こちらのカップケーキはホワイトケーキからできていて、トッピングはアーモンドエッセンスで味付けしたホイップクリーム。最初の見た目はやっぱり、何か足りないのでは。。って思ってついつい顔を書いてしまいました（＾＾）可愛いでしょう？)

As for the recipe, here it is:

Ingredients:
makes 8-10 mini cupcakes
50g soft butter (柔らかくしたバター）
70g flour　(薄力粉)
20g corn flour　(コーンスターチ）
50g sugar　(砂糖）
1 egg white　(卵白）
2 tbsp (大さじ） cream/milk　(牛乳/生クリーム）
1 tsp (小さじ） baking powder　(ベーキングパウダー）
a pinch of (一つまみ） salt　(塩）

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees.(オーブンを160度に余熱しておく）
2. Mix everything in a bowl and using your mixer, mix it at high for about 1 – 1 1/2 minutes. (全ての材料をボールに入れて、ハンドミキサーで1分-1分半ぐらいHIGHでかける)
3. Divide batter and bake for 20 minutes.(混ぜた材料をカップケーキ型に分けて,予熱した160度のオーブンに18-20分ぐらい焼く）
4. Leave cupcakes to cool and pipe on some whipped cream that you’ve flavored with almond extract/essence.(焼いたカップケーキを冷め、上にアーモンドエッセンスに味付けたホイップクリームをのせて完成です！）

It’s fairly simple, this recipe. And I plan to fill the cupcakes with some sort of fruit puree the next time I make them

Hello everyone!

（皆さんこんにちは！しばらくこのブログを更新しなくて、すみませんでした！いろんなことで、ついつい手がいっぱいになってしまい、なかなか更新する暇がなくて。。（反省）けど、これから、できるだけたくさん更新するように頑張ります～）

I know, I know..when was the last time I actually updated this blog? Say…2 months ago? Although I’m fully aware that I made a promise to update this blog but I7ve been so distracted with so many things, that I neglected my promise.

Well, hubby dear wanted me to at least upload some pictures of the latest cupcakes and things I’ve been cooking this past few months, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do

So, where should we start.

Okay, September. Yes, we went back to Malaysia for a short holiday and I was asked to make my brother-in-law’s wedding cake!

Oh heck yeah, was I excited! My first Wedding!! I thought it was going to turn out just as I いmagined it would be, I had everything planned (well, in my head at least) and turns out..errkkh, well, let’s just say that I had higher hopes. But after settling with the ingredients I could get my hands on back home ( and several blackouts ) I made close to 80 cupcakes for the cupcake tower. The color was suppose to be a bit more maroonish but somehow the icing turned rather pinkish instead :p

My sister came to the rescue and helped me make the tower, in which I know that If I had done it, trust me, it probably wouldn’t look as good as that. Hee.

（こちらは主人のお兄ちゃんの結婚式に作ったカップケーキです。カップケーキお味はチョコレートとバニラで、とてもシンプルに仕上げしてみました。トッピイングは普通のバタークリームで、少し色を足してみました。カップケーキのタワーが私のお姉ちゃんが作ってくれました。本当に助かりました。ありがとう、姉ちゃん！（＾＾））

Still it was a great experience. And I have a whole new respect for cupcake bakers in Malaysia for being able to make cupcakes with the quality of ingredients that they have (well, it’s not that they’re THAT bad, but my mom was correct about the flour in Japan is VERY different from Malaysia)

Then, of course I also made some cupcakes for my family’s open house (It’s a thing we Malaysians do during Eidul Fitri). I made a couple of flavors, which my favorite were the Peanut Butter Cupcakes and Lemonny Lemon Cupcakes.

I also had a couple of orders while I was back, but again, due to the uncertainess of the ingredients, they didn’t turn out the way I expected them to be. My apologies to who ordered from me the other day, I now know that I need to work on the measurements if I ever want to apply my usual recipes using the stuff back home.

（そして実家に戻って、友達や親戚が来る日に作ったカップケーキはこちらです。今回はピーナツバター、チョコーとレモン味を作ってみました。自分的にはやっぱり、ピーナツバター味が一番うまかったですね。ピーナツバターとチョコレートの相性は期待に応えて、すごく美味しかったです。レモンとクリームチーズの組合でも美味しかったけどね）

The recipe I used for these cupcakes are from my usual recipes, but with some minor changes in measurements.

So that’s it for the first part of my quicky update

(それでは、その続きを。。。）