Devil's Food Chocolate Cake Anyone?

Oh my..oh my.. I've been so lazy in updating my blog lately. So many things to do. Even when I have the time I just couldn't find the words to start off my entry. Sigh...

OK, to cure my writers' block, I'll share with you this Devil's Food Chocolate Cake I made on My birthday(tak abes-abes pasal besday dia lagi???). Hahaha... sounds weird doesn't it - baking my own birthday cake but I absolutely barred my husband from buying me any cake. Well, first of all, there are not too many choices of nice cakes over here in Dublin and secondly, I would prefer to try and experiment with new recipes that I found on blogs and on the web. So, here's me baking a cake myself instead.

Looks so ugly but yet tastes so lovely. Ahaks!

I took the recipe from Kak Ayu's blog (Ohhh... kek kek coklat dia sedap2 belaka). Somehow, at the end of mixing the ingredients the batter wasn't thick enough and I just realised that I accidentally used the wrong cups to measure the water and butter milk. I used one cup instead of half a cup of water  and half a cup of butter milk instead of a quarter of a cup. Urrrrghh... Not wanting to waste the mixture, I just gambled and added another batch of ingredients without following the proper instructions and did things the wrong way around like beating the butter and sugar first etc..etc... . Surprisingly, the cake turned out to be quite nice (ayat nak sedapkan hati) and so yummy and because of all the extra ingredients, bigger. All the better, of course. Ahaks.

What I like about this cake is that in between layers, there's the cream cheese frosting which makes it even tastier. Emmmm nyum...well you can try it yourself if you don't believe me.

I promised this will be the last entry about my birthday. After all, today is the last day of January and I'm turning 26 (like some people say) only once (or maybe twice!) in a life time. Hehehe... I just enjoyed my birthday so much.  Can't wait for next year. Eh but I just remembered that I didn't tell you guys what I got myself with my gift voucher yet??? Hehehe. Jeng...jeng...jeng...

A birthday treat from my good friend Mrs. AngeliNastasya @ Starbucks, Thanks dear.

Pic courtesy of Mrs AngeliNatasya

Birthday dinner with family and friends @ Wagamama

Am so blessed. Alhamdulillah.

Big Boys Don't Cry (Apparently)

I wanted to post this last Friday, but somehow I couldn't find the USB cable for both my camera and mobile.  I don't have a bluetooth connection on my laptop either (ewww...so ketinggalan, I know). Anyway, I managed to find it just this morning.

As some of you know, Husayn is 4 already. Despite having a baby brother he is more of a baby than his brother (when he wants to be). Lately, he's been crying a lot. He will cry whenever he gets the chance whether its waking up from sleep, wanting to eat, not wanting to eat, wanting to get something, not getting something, etc. You name it and he will use any excuse to cry.

However, being all that doesn't stop him being so vain. Every time he wears his clothes, he will ask me to button up his shirt until the top and make sure his hair has been combed, in his preferred style. Of course, he chooses what to wear himself. And, his playschool girls are not his friends except for his one and only Nadeen.

While on the topic of his best friend, this morning, I remembered to let him know that his best friend might be coming over to visit soon. Unusually, this time he kept quiet. Curious as to his unusual reaction, I asked him...

Aren't you happy, Husayn?

He shook his head which basically meant that he wasn't all too happy. I couldn't detect a single bit of excitement on his face, at all. So, I asked him again...

Mummy: Why Husayn? I thought you missed Nadeen and wanted her to come and visit, really bad.

Husayn: (in a soft voice) No, I don't want her to come anymore because Ameera said that she's my girlfriend but she's not. She's my best friend, not girlfriend.

Eager to deny that he had a girlfriend, he then started to cry. Again. Errrghhhh...

Mmmmm...kids nowadays.

***************

On the way home from school that same day, he showed me the card that he had made himself (with some help from his teacher at school).

 Cute and all Husayn on the inside: "Mummy and Me" said Husayn "and oh, a little sun too"

And this one was made the day before by Ameera in school as well. Thank you kids. Mummy loves you so much!

After all the excitement of the day, he settled down to making rice crispy with marshmallow cupcakes while waiting for Ameera to come back from school.

Happy Birthday Mummy Nana!

It's my Birthday!!!

Another surprise. This time from my Beloved Husband and the kids arranged for this to be sent directly to our doorstep earlier today.

I feel blessed and happy being surrounded by such loving and caring people. Thank you Allah for this gift. Thank you for everything. Alhamdulillah.

A Surprise From All Around the World

Early in the morning, while I was busy scraping the frost on my car's windscreen, the postman came up to me and passed me a small packet and a letter. Hmmm...both of them looked like they were from Ireland so, I didn't think much of it. I assumed that the letter was probably from the bank or one of our many bills while the packet was probably a free sample of whatever product I registered for online. I didn't bother to open it and continued my de-icing task.

As soon as I finished that, while warming-up the car to send my daughter to the bus stop, I opened the packet. It initially looked familiar but still I couldn't even guess who it might be from and what was inside it. I don't think my husband would surprise me this way (he's much too predictable) but who else was going to do something like this? Hehehe...

I read the letter and shaking with joy and excitement I called my husband straight-away...

Mode: Jiwang with O-Town's All or Nothing playing on the car radio (ignore the lyrics), I almost shed a tear or two...

You see, it's my birthday tomorrow and I got an early birthday surprise today. The gift was all the way from my hubby's beloved sisters who were based all around the world. I'm so happy and would have never imagined that I'd receive such thing in the post!

It was so nice of you Mona, Sara, Jat and DikYam and of course Mama to even to think about my birthday. I am so thankful to have my husband and how lucky I am to be part of the family. You've always made me feel like a real sister to you all. I can't say anything but a Million Thank Yous to all of you. You all really made my day. Only Allah can repay your kindness. InsyaAllah.

An Advance Happy Birthday to  Hisham ..... ME!

Missing all of you.

From Dublin with Love
xoxo

Boxing Day?

Do you know what it means?

I bet everyone knows and is always looking forward for it. Well,  to be honest, I'm not really into it. OK, I lied, of course if I had all the extra moneyI would love to join in but not for me, at the moment. Also, my husband had been sick the whole week after Christmas and we didn't go out at all (I was too frightened to drive in the snow and ice!).

But, between being busy preparing meals for the family and doing other things around the house I managed to gather enough courage and popped out a few times and to get some medicine for my beloved husband. The roads were just mad with people heading towards the sales. Even going to the shop nearby took me an hour to get to. When I eventually made it to the shopping centre, the place was so crazy and jammed pack with people. It just made me wonder whether there really was a recession going on in this country.

Anyway, the only shop that I could squeeze into had (not surprisingly) something to do with home and kitchen stuff. I didn't have any intention to buy anything really but I just couldn't resist it when these signs greeted me at the store...

I eventually dragged mysef out of the store with the few bits and pieces below...

These are for my millionaire project... ahaks!

How I wish I could have them all. The whole set. Everything. Maybe two of each actually.

The advert for the store that had been playing on the radio then (which annoyed my husband to no end) was:

This month, all cookware and kitchen ware half price! When it's gone it's gone!

Note: The pictures show only a section of the store which is the very first row of the store, right in front of the cashiers so, imagine if I had all the time to explore the whole building. Yikes.... I just love baking, cooking, kitchen and all sorts of other home stuff.

Squashed Sandwich

This is what happens when your kids watch too much television. Hmmm...

On the way to school one morning, Husayn kept on telling me that he wanted to eat a squashed sandwich, just like the character Humf on Nick Jr. Not surprisingly, I was a bit confused as to what a squashed sandwich was and considered it a challenge from my own son. Eager to to find out what this mysterious food thing was, I asked him to tell me about it.

Husayn gave his demonstration...

Step 1: Take a yummy sandwich (the yummy ones that Mummy makes should do)

Step 2: Put it in a bag so it won't get dirty...

Wait...Dirty? What's going to get dirty?

Play the video to see the next step in making Husayn's own version of Humf's Squashed Sandwich...

Finally: From Mummy Nana's Oven

As you, my beloved readers of my humble blog might know, I love to EAT and dine out although doing so is not a real option at the moment. I am not working and there's a recession here, therefore I have to cook and bake anything remotely connected with food.

I've also been selling my food but in the manner of the Malay proverb, Hangat-hangat tahi ayam. Unfortunately, as not many people actually know about the existence of my blog (it's still a semi-secret thing that I don't openly share with people that I know), business hasn't actually been booming. So, after a long period of pondering and looking at my financial situation, I decided that it was about time for me to tell everyone about my business. Well, at least my contacts on Facebook as the next step.

I'm not sure whether I am shy or I cannot cope with it but I had to really push myself. I kept telling myself that I needed to start somewhere. My husband has always encouraged me but I just don't know why I don't have the guts to do it.

OK, so here I am, with a Bismillah I am officially launching my bakery business and you can browse all I have to sell at the moment on my Bakery page (I've added a link just below the blog's header) to see a summary of my home-baked goodies, some brief details, price and minimum order quantities for orders around the Dublin, Ireland area. If you are willing to collect then by all means, please contact me to arrange collection details.

Thanking you  for all the support and hope I will be able to make it a success. InsyaAllah.

Back to School

I've been very busy for the past few days. Although every kid in Malaysia has been back in school for a while now, after almost  2 weeks of Christmas holidays, Ameera was just back in school on Wednesday. Of course, there's nothing new about that...

But, it wasn't easy for me. After a while, I got too used to the holiday season and started waking up late (after 8 at least as Subuh here this time of the year ends just before 9) and stayed up late at night watching all sorts of movies. Like I said, the first day was really hard for me but I managed. I just had to. Despite having to go back to my normal routine, I still had a chance to make some Tuna Mayo buns and potato bread.

Oh...and I'm just so proud of myself. Hehehe...

The next day came along but it still didn't get any easier as it was tiring enough for me even up to today. Oh why can't I turn off this lazy mode I'm in at the moment? It's the New Year and I need a new attitude. Positive vibes, please come to me. Hehehe...

The Tantrums You Never See

He can be very cute...

He can be very adorable...

Who would think that these two little angelic boys would have such horrible tantrums?

This is one that wasn't that bad. It was just over an ice-cream cone actually.

Ben 10 goes Bad...ahaks!

And this little fella is even worse. He wanted an ice-cream as well but learning from his big brother's unsuccessful attempt, he decided to take it up a notch. Hahaha!  

A New Day in the New Year

I woke up yesterday morning still feeling the same. Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah for everything.

We were watching a movie the night before the New Year and didn't realised that we were officially into 2011 until we heard the fireworks around and saw a good few sky lanterns in the air.

What else were we supposed to do on this kind of day? Makan-makan, of course. Yup that is one of our (Malaysians who live in Dublin) favourite things to do when the holidays come around. Luckily, after few doses of antibiotics, my husband felt a bit better even though he clearly wasn't fully recovered. We were out and about again after almost a week of staying at home.

 Happy Faces. Can't wait to go out!

And, out we went to meet friends to errr...makan-makan. This time, I brought along some home-made profiteroles and sausage rolls as my contribution to lunch at a friend's house. There, she baked a really nice Roasted Chicken. Seriously, it was really nice and moist. Although we were on time (sort of), nobody else had arrived yet so, we went ahead with the eating and by the end of it, we realised that we had finished almost a whole chicken between the two of us. Eh, OK I'm telling a lie as there were 4 of us but I don't think the other two girls ate that much compared to us. The other guests weren't there yet so why let a finely cooked meal go to waste? Hehehe...

I didn't snap any other pictures of food as I was so shy to take out my Pink Sony Cybershot DSC-T2 as others there had their big and powerful DSLRs and brand new Sony NEX cameras. Err... no lah... I wasn't shy, I was just busy eating and I forgot about getting pictures and all. Seriously, their pictures look better than my compact camera so it's better for them to take my pictures. Ahaks...

Anyway, what's your New Year resolution(s)? Mmm, I never thought of anything myself this time around. You see, I'd already hoped to become a better person on the New Year per the Muslim calendar, InsyaAllah and once a year is enough isn't it?

But, whatever it is, I still want to wish all of you Good Luck for whatever you wished for this year (no matter what calendar was used!).

Last Weekend Before the New Year

I meant to post this entry last night but for some reason, I think I forgot to press the Publish Post button. So, bear with me as this post was meant for last last week...

Over here, on Christmas day, all of the shops are closed. The weather is not that good for sight-seeing either. My friend, Mrs. AngeliNatasya invited us to her house for a small gathering with her beloved friends. And it's my rezeki as she ordered buns and doughnuts from me. I thought I took a of picture of them before I left home that day but when I checked my camera I couldn't find any. Arrrggghhhhh...!

As you can see from her own entry, we stuffed ourselves with all the delicious food she made on the day and stayed there until the next evening. The grown ups and the kids had so much fun as this turned out to be a sort of mini sleep-over at her house, eating, watching movies, gossiping, eating again all day and night. All thanks to the bad weather as our car was very likely to be stuck in the snow if we attempted to drive home that night anyway!

So, a big Thank You again to you Tasya and family for the nice time we had and thank you for ordering my buns and doughnuts too. Sorry for the mess we made and the broken glass. We really really enjoyed it errr...not the mess we created bit, of course.

We're still in holiday mood and maybe the other Dubliners were busy shopping but we were still stuck at home. My poor husband was  really sick this week so we just stayed home finding various ways to kill the time and to the rescue again, came Mrs. AngeliNastasya with the prescription for my hubby who hopefully, will get better soon so that we can have at least a few more days of proper holiday-making before he starts his busy period at work for the next four months.

Anyway, as we were at home yesterday, my kids requested that I make doughnuts again. I didn't get to take  pictures of my gorgeous (ahaks!) doughnuts the last time around so, I made a few of them in different glazes and toppings to show to you all here. Hehehe.

Want to order some, anyone? Do get in touch with me, OK?

Hope it's still not too late to say...

Good Bye 2010...Hello 2011!