Unambitious Baker

I've been stuck at home for more than a week now and frankly, I'm getting  restless. I mean, it's great to spend time with the kids and watch cartoon all day long but when I think about my thesis, I get so uptight and worried.

To keep myself occupied, I decided to try my hand at baking. When did this happen? Two days ago, when I almost killed myself watching Yo Gabba Gabba. Before last week, the invasion of Yo Gabba Gabba in our household was minimal because the kids didn't watch a lot of TV. Now that the school's closed, they're getting heaps of YGG.

source

Okay. Let me tell you why I hate it. The show is about 5 monsters and DJ Lance going around teaching kids some positive stuff. The teaching part is fine but the rest is NOT. First of all, the songs are so monotonous and annoying. They get in my head and give me the worst migraine ever. Especially that song "party in my tummy". The person who composed that number is a total moron.  Second reason. The way DJ Lance talks to his entourage is so annoying. His giant teeth and silly glasses are so damn annoying. Period. How about the five monsters who sing and dance with DJ Lance? A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G. Now, if there's anything in the world I can't stand, it's this show. I don't know why the kids love it so much. Whenever it's on, their eyes are glued to the screen in a hypnotic manner. It's kind of scary.

If you've never seen Yo Gabba Gabba, you should count yourself lucky.

Now where was I? Oh yes. Baking. I had so much fun baking last week that I wanted to do it again and again. To impress hubby, I decided to bake cute litlle cupcakes all by myself. This means, getting a recipe and  starting from scratch. I planned to do exactly that but when I thought about the pain of measuring the ingredients and my tendency of going overboard with the baking powder, I decided not to take the risk. At this stage, my emotion is so fragile, a cup-cake disaster could crush me.

So I did what's sensible and bought this.

Since I didn't own a muffin tray, I had to get one from the supermarket. I was about to purchase a $29.90 cupcake tray and a mixing bowl when I suddenly ask myself,  how often do I bake anyway? The fact is, I'm not really into baking and the last time I did was two years ago. Based on that reflection, I decided to scrimp and get my supplies at a thrift shop. The charity shop at Blenheim Road was a perfect place to start.

My mission was to get a muffin tray and a round cake pan but when I got there, my shopping list multiplied. They've expanded the store and added  heaps and heaps of stuff! For someone whose mom is a hoarder, I found it so hard to resist. 

After an hour  of scavenging, I decided to buy these...

 

A cake pan and cookie shapers



An old cup cake tray and another cake pan

A serving dish

  

Everything for $10.00. After that very theurapeutic session, I went home and started baking. Step 1 was mixing packet A with water, butter and egg. Step 2 was pouring the batter into the cupcake liners in the muffin tray. Step 3 was popping the muffin tray into the oven. And then I was done. The best part was spreading the icing on the cupcakes.  

The batter

All done!

Alden getting impatient

Yeah. I had a lot of fun. It kept my mind occupied and it made me forget about Yo Gabba Gabba. I think with a few more practice,  I could pull off that lemon cheese cake recipe Carol was telling me about. Now wouldn't that be something!

There's nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked cookies

Daylight Saving Time started yesterday and I’m so not loving it. Before DST, we were only 4 hours ahead of Malaysian Standard Time. Now, we’re looking at 5 hours. FIVE HOURS. What's the big fuss? Well, that extra hour makes it a tad more difficult to go on skype with family and friends in KK *Sigh*

Daylight saving time (DST; also summer time in British English) is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. DST's occasional clock shifts present some challenges. They complicate timekeeping, and can disrupt meetings, travel and sleep patterns.

  - Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia

Because of the chaos of daylight savings, my sleeping habit is a bit messed up too. Before DST, I normally get up at 8.30 in the morning. Today, I got up at 9.30 a.m. Why did I get up at 9.30 a.m? Because the clock said so!

I guess all these DST-related things take a little bit of getting used to.

Despite all my complaints about DST, I was in a very good mood this morning. I woke up wide-eyed, ready to take on the day. My energy level was up and I suddenly had this unexplainable urge to bake - something I don’t normally do on a regular basis. So in an attempt to fulfill this urge, I decided to bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Actually, it wasn’t really a decision. It’s the only recipe I know and thanks to CL and sis, all the ingredients were in my pantry.

So I started. I had this vision of CL’s freshly baked oatmeal cookies, all golden brown and yummy and beautiful. Enthusiastic, I took out the sacred recipe from my hand bag,  measured all the ingredients and followed the instructions conscientiously. There was no agak agak. I even used Alden’s syringe to measure the vanilla essence because I wanted to make sure everything was done according to the recipe. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. I was finally done when it suddenly hit me. I had no raisins! The recipe says Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and now I have to omit the word raisin from this recipe? I panicked. No raisins! No raisins! No raisins! What to do?

After a few minutes of contemplation (should I drive to COUNTDOWN and get the sultanas? or should I just forget about baking?), I decided to continue without the raisins. That was probably the biggest decision I’ve made today.

It took me an hour and 35 minutes to get the batter done. 

This is the first batch. The instruction says, bake for eight to ten minutes until golden brown. I popped them in the oven and waited exactly ten minutes. As you can see, it was a near-disaster...I didn't bother checking the oven.

The second batch wasn't so bad...

 When I was done, my assistant helped me with the scraping.....

 doing a really good job at it...

a lot of licking...

and the verdict is....?

They're yummy! His face says it all...

and this is a hidden Mickey just for Alden

My oatmeal cookies didn't turn out the way I wanted but they were delicious nonetheless. For someone like me whose baking skills are limited, I consider this a huge success :-)

You might want to try this recipe. It's so simple!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients

170g butter

200g white sugar

2 eggs

5ml vanilla extract

155g flour

5g baking soda

3g salt

225g rolled oats/ quick cooking oats

200g raisins

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°c

2. In large bowl, ceam together butter & sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs + vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins.

3. Drop onto cooking sheets.

4. Bake for 10 minutes in oven until golden brown.

*courtesy of Caroline Lee

Good luck!