Madeleines

Madeleines are small shell-shaped sponge cakes originated from Commercy of northeastern France. I received two pretty good quality madeleine baking pans from the States last Wednesday and it was just in time since I have friend visiting me on Thursday. I made about two dozens of traditional madeleines, and my friend and I together with our kids had them for tea on Thursday afternoon. These little cakes are pretty easy to make and my sons love snacking on them, so I am definitely going to be making more madeleines soon.

Embossed Cupcakes

Tomorrow is my birthday... I baked these cupcakes for myself. Happy Birthday to me... and this year I only have one simple wish... TO BE HAPPY.

Vanilla and Cranberries Cupcakes

There will be a few hours of power interruption at my house tomorrow, so I decided to use up as much items in the fridge as possible. What's a better solution then to bake some cupcakes! I can use up the eggs, butter, milk and my buttercream. I made some vanilla cupcakes and added dried cranberries and blueberries into the cake batter. These cupcakes are for some of my new friends i met at Juilan's enrichment class recently. They are all mommies of Julian's classmates. Sometimes we will have coffee together while waiting for the kids, and I have always wanted to bake some cakes for them and their children. I didn't have much time today so these were just simply decorated with buttercream swirl and some fondant flowers and butterflies. I hope my friends and their kids will like them.

Justen's Birthday Cupcakes

Today my younger son, Justen, turns 2. I baked some red velvet cupcakes with vanilla butter-cream and decorated them with his favorite things. Justen has always been a very easy child. He eats most kinds of food that I cook for him and he loves to eat fruits. He likes reading books, knows the pronunciation of a few of the alphabets and his first song is 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars'. He is a very independent boy and does not requires a lot of my attention as compared to his elder brother. He is often contended playing by himself and only fuss when he is sleepy or soiled his diapers. Because of the vast difference in the characters of my two boys, I tend to focus more of my energy in meeting the demands of Julian, so much so that I have friends who commented that I love Julian more than Justen. I was a little taken aback when I heard that but I know this is definitely not the case. I love them both equally. I spend more of my time with Julian because he is growing and is sensitive about our attention and love. Justen is still small and thus I let my helpers takes care of his daily needs like bathing and feeding. Not being hands-on does not mean I love him less. I bond with him by reading and singing to him. A gentle caress and a doting kiss on the cheek says my love for him. I believe he knows that I love him very much because only his mommy can calm him down when he cries uncontrollably. Motherhood is not easy and being a mother to two little boys can be quite taxing at times, but I would not exchange them for anything in the world. They are my joy and my happiness. Soon, Justen will be talking, debating with me like Julian does.... the challenge would be to devote my attention and time equally between the two of them such that they will not feel that there is any sort of favoritism involved. Meanwhile, I want to treasure the baby phase of my little boy. He is still very much like a baby, chubby, cute and innocent, and he still smells so good like a new born baby! Happy birthday Justen....don't grow up so fast.... !!!

Orange Chocolate Cookies

Someone gave me a hamper from Duchy Originals last Christmas and I fell in love with their orange biscuits coated in dark chocolate ever since. It is one of the most yummy cookies I have ever tasted. The combination of the aromatic yet slightly bitter flavor of orange and dark chocolate makes this a heavenly treat. I had some free time yesterday and decided to try baking some of these delicious cookies myself. These are definitely not as polished looking as the ones from Duchy's, but the taste of the combination of butter cookies with orange zest, orange marmalade and bittersweet chocolate came pretty close. I find them quite irresistable and finished off at least a dozen in one afternoon. I am feeling very guilty now. I need to go on a diet.

Bite－Size Desserts

I had desperate cravings for lemon tarts again, so I baked a small batch on tuesday afternoon to snack on. Made them in tartlet form so they are bite－size and therefore less sinful. Just for the fun of it, I also made some non-bake chocolate tarts with bittersweet chocolate. They are not too sweet, and comes with a tinge of bitterness, which is the way I like it.

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie

This is my first time making cheesecake.  A few friends of mine asked me why didnt I make any cheesecake before.  Well, actually I am not really a big fan of cheesecakes and therefore never had the motivation to try making one.  But I came across this recipe and it sounds quite yummy to me, so I decided to give it a try.  It has a brownie base, with cheesecake in the middle and topped with raspberry whipped cream.  I made a big pan, and gave all my loved ones and neighbors some.