When I'm bored.......

I used to try new recipes to cook.....now I try new recipes to bake.... About 12 days have passed since I gave birth, and I am one person who couldn't just lie down and keep still in my room during confinement. Ever since I gave birth to Yusof (no.2), I took care of myself, I didn't have the luxury of mom (mom spent 1 week with me after I delivered Khadijah)or MIL taking care of me...so, I'm left pretty much to my own devices and prerogatives as to what or how I handle myself during confinement!! And cooking has been part of my confinement routine.....otherwise dapur tak berasap....sian Yani...

Yes, I am very particular about this pantang thingy safe for a few things, like I gulp water like nobody's business contrary to the pantang larang of makbidan and makcik urut, I take fruits and veg, I go easy on jamus, but never fail to take supplements, nowadays its my organic spirulina and wheat grass and soya protein, this time round I try to take my fish and veg yang rebus rebus only with little salt....got to rid of the excess fat that I accumulate.....fast, coz when I put on my baju kurung pun last week .....I look hideous in it! I haven't weighed myself ever since Muhammad came out, but I feel I still have about 6 kgs to rid off.....The only pantang that I can't observe is masak....now bake and jalan-jalan.....no no I haven't gone to any shopping malls, etc.....but I usually bertandang at my mom's house once I reach the 30 day-mark!!

So, I was pretty bored last Friday (from Saturday until Thursday after I left the hospital, I spent the entire morning napping...recuperating), I checked my kitchen and supplies and found enough ingredients to try out this carrot cake recipe which uses golden syrup.....here goes:

Carrot Cake With Golden Syrup....

2 carrots (about 300 gm, grated)

150g self raising flour

75g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

80g muscovado sugar, I used CSR brown sugar that was available in my kitchen

185ml corn oil

125ml golden syrup, I used Lyle's, looking at the golden syrup in the recipe alone sold me!

3 large eggs, I used 41/2 medium that was available from my fridge

1tsp vanilla essence

You can add walnuts and raisins, I didn't as there weren't any at the point of baking..

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius (my oven that is). I lined my 20cm round cake pan with parchment paper sprayed with baking spray and set aside. Got my maid to grate the carrots and set aside. Also got my maid to prepare all the other raw ingredients, no, I weighed them!!!! Couldn't leave the weighing with her, sat gi salah timbang semua tak jadi!

Sift the flours, bicarbonate soda and cinnamon powder in a large bowl.

Combine brown sugar, oil, golden syrup, eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients using a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots (and the walnuts and raisins if you have them).

Pour the mixture into baking pan, and bake for about 40 minutes or until skewer came out clean. Leave to cool and ice with cream cheese topping.

For cream cheese topping, I used I bar on Kraft's Philadelphia Cream Cheese 250g, 1/2 bar 125g of Tatura salted (tu aje yang ada!), whip them from slow to medium speed Ms Kmix until, pale, add in 1/2 tsp vanilla essence (I would have used 1/2 tsp lemon juice to give the tangy taste which goes very well with the cake) and 1 cup of icing sugar, no the cup yang you use to drink tea, but the measuring cup for dry ingredients (I didn't even sieve this time mim..lif...lam..sin...get it!!!)...

And the result was a yummy moist carrot cake, like the pic above....thank god I had Mrs N and SW and Dr Jab to join me and borak borak for tea that petang, joined by MIL, FIL, SIL....so, what's left of the cake were enough for hubby and Khadijah before I slumbered to zzzz that night!

Point to note, the other carrot cake recipe that I use came from Wiz which is also very yummy, I have to ask her permission before I can post it here! This golden syrup recipe originates from a magazine in Australia which I stumbled upon while of course during bloghopping...and of course I have tweaked the flour content a little bit...but give it a go! Inshaallah, jadi...

Next in the agenda is Kek Kukus Buah cara orang dulu dulu, ginger cuppies, lemon poppy seed cake with lime curd and strawberry cuppies and fuit tartlet with homemade custard.....tunggu....

P/s TM, yes, I do accept tetamu...mailah when you are free!!

Cupcake baby??? and the wonders of epidural??!!

Kitchen Guardian, Dad of Four +1 +1 (ha ha no more +1 after this...I hope!) and baby Muhammad
After 2 pushes and close to 9 hours of labor......
Baby Muhammad, born on 15.7.2009 at 10.44 pm at APSH, Ampang..are those cupcakes cheeks??
Moi, trying my best to smile before the whole fiasco started.....no more after this she says...

After 7 deliveries, I can't stand the sound of this machine anymore! But the nurses said there'll be more with my daughters and DIL going into labor, kwang kwang kwang!!!

Salam all....yes, I have been pretty quiet lately, before I went into labour I have been too tired and too busy in the office finishing my work...of courselah no work will be done until...may be you are six feet under! And as I mentioned in my previous posting, I have been having contractions, err Braxton Hicks (ye ke, when it feels like the baby is going pop out), but when I go to bed at night, I zzzz, the baby zzzz and all contractions gone!

But on the lucky Wednesday 15.7.2009, I went to work as usual after dropping the boys at school, dropped by 5th floor cafetaria, got my sandwich as usual, had breakfast while browsing emails and updates from blogger friends..and I realise the baby had been rather quiet since Suboh...no topsy turvy and turning...I too didn't feel any pain...so, I decided to call my clinic and asked for an earlier appointment, which was supposed to be Friday 17.7.2009. They couldn't slot me as the day's clinic was full, instead I was asked to drop in to do CTG, which I did. I didn't think that I would go into labor that day....

Yeap, there were contractions every 5 minutes, and baby is fine. Dr. Ashar asked me to get admitted and get things going, as he said to the midwife..."Dia ni senang beranak"...yeah right!! So, I went down to do admission and later in the labor room they prepared me for epidural...yehah, epidural for the first time, and that was going to be my last delivery!Hmm, ingat tak sakit langsung...but I could still feel the sensation, but bearable...well at this age I don't think I can even stand a cut from my kitchen knife...let alone sakit beranak...so, I thought don't carelah if the pain was going to be for the most minimal time it would be, I was going for the wonderful epidural!

But, there was a twist to the whole drama....first my dilation DID NOT progress from the time my waterbag was pricked ie at 2 pm until 4.30 pm, it stayed still at 3cm....I dah panicked dah, so instead of reading a trashy magazine, I read Yaasin...and the midwife on duty who was supposed to leave at 5pm came checked me before she left....alhamdulillah, it had progressed to 5cm.....lega. After that at around 5.30pm, I have dilated to 8cm...woo hoo, thought that we might see the baby before Maghrib...at 6pm, I was 9cm..........at 8.30pm also 9 cm.......and at 10pm, I could hear Dr Ashar's conversation with the midwife at the nurses' island......"We'll see what we can do if it is still the same by midnight..." I dah kecut perut nih...could it be caesarian, forceps, vacuum...I did not read about all this and definitely WAS NOT prepared for all those, iyai yai.....so, I took out my Yaasin again and read, and read Al-Asr and prayed and prayed....

Then, at around 10.20pm, I felt the urge to push, called the midwife to assess me...and yes, after 2 more contractions, she said my cervix had opened up 10 cm, and Dr Ashar was called in......the whole drama ended at about 10.44 and Muhammad was born, by his CALM (that's what hubby said of me for this delivery) mother...alhamdulillah.

Come to think of it, why didn't I take epidural for the previous deliveries? Hubby said he survived this delivery without any scratches and howling and harsh words from me...sakit ma, how would I realise what I uttered to you???? Especially when all hubby can say is..."Tak pa you sakit beranak, gugur semua dosa...."emmm, why don't you go through 1 delivery and tell me how!!

Anyway, it's day 6 and I'm getting stronger as each day passes....maybe I would warm the oven and whip some butter and sugar earlier than expected, got to send some cakes to the midwives and nurses in the labor room (I ended up meeting all the 3 shifts due to my long labor this time!!!)as they were awesome and the girls in Dr Ashar's clinic -:)

And the figurine patah kaki!!!!!

Phew...I almost nak terberanak the morning this cakes were to be delivered......why?? Due to stress as the kakis of the figurine patahhhh!!! I had no time to repair them as I was already leaving for work....so, I quickly called Ria explaining the whole thing! Ria share the same passion and craziness for tudong M'warah as me and now is my constant supplier of those tudongs and Zhara.... nasib baik she was very understanding....so instead of sitting on a bench, when the cakes were delivered, the figurines feet rested on the bench, ha ha!! This is a first order from Ria, a Father's Day cake for his hubby who's a fan of Kedah FC!

Thanks Ria for this order...emm I have to run...no, no walk.....I hv been beeped by boss who's away, I have to attend a meeting in PJ...tra for now!

Every cake has it's story!!

9 hantaran cuppies for Fariza..

Moi working in the dark..

Moist choc cuppies with cadbury milk choc ganache!

Vanilla cuppies with buttercream icing

Yes...every cake that I made has its own story...this cakes were ordered by Fariza...who discovered me through her friend, who bumped into my blog. Fariza works in the same building, upstairs....
She started ordering profiteroles, then this cakes. Initially, she wanted just the hantaran cuppies, she hinted that she also wanted cuppies for makan-makan.....and I only dared to confirm the hantaran cuppies...due to my condition. The week after that she called and asked for the extra cuppies...25 je...she said! I said ok, but will depend on my condition...then, the week after, she emailed.....50 boleh tak? I just kept quiet....and the week that I was supposed to deliver the hantaran cuppies ie on Friday, she asked for 100.....I kesian and melted...so, I promised I would make 50 with simple icing and using the fondant flowers......in case I terberanak, at least the deco bit had already been solved...as I usually prepare fondant flowers a few days before using them...that way, I could actually plan my time!!!

Came the day that I was supposed to assemble the cakes, there was power failure when I returned home from work....so my plan was to take the next morning off, if I couldn't rise early to assemble the cakes...but the electricity came in at 9 pm....I iced the 50 cuppies first, then, when they were nicely tucked in their boxes, I started assembling the hantaran cuppies......finished 4...then...out the power went off again.....with all my stuffs strewn on the dining table I couldn't just stop....ever since I started baking, my kitchen has been infested with ants...all sorts of species and varieties...since dia makhluk Allah, I biarkan je!

So, accompanied by the lilin's I finished the remaining 5 cuppies........phew....the arrangement of flowers were all not the same...I couldn't see properly!!! Worst still, I had a text message from dear boss to cover him the next day to attend a 2-day seminar...so , my cita-cita nak masuk opis lambat sikit went down the drain...the next day, I dropped by my office to deliver the cakes, and Fariza pulak had an event in Cameron Highlands, so I wasn't sure whether she liked them or not, her colleague collected on her behalf! During the seminar, I received a text message from Fariza saying that she loved the cakes, her colleague actually mms her the pictures of the cakes!! Alhamdulillah, thank you Fariza for your orders and your support all this while!!!