I'm a full-time mummy

I was busy the whole afternoon yesterday (which is why no post yesterday), I was caught up in a mini baking mission to bake some surprise sweet goodies for my ex-colleagues. On top of that, 2 of hubby's close friends came over for lunch cum playdate with Ben (one of hubby's friend brought along her 17 months old daughter). From morning, I started off roasting the chicken wings which I marinated the night before and hubby went out to buy some cold cuts and sausages to make spaghetti for lunch.

About 1pm+, I accompanied Ben with hubby's friend and her daughter and spend some playtime with them in Ben's playroom. Around 2pm+, Ben looked tired and it was past his naptime already. So I nursed him to sleep while hubby's friend took her daughter downstair and play with the other friend who just arrived.

I then proceeded to start baking the Shortbread Shapes cookies (total 3 batches) while Ben took his nap and hubby and friends had their lunch. I had earlier prepared the ingredients in 3 batches to save some time. By the time I finished everything (I even bake some Orange Poppy Seed mini muffins again) it was 5pm+.

After the cookies and muffins have cooled down, I got ready the small plastic bags with my plastic bag sealer and started off the packaging exercise. In total, I prepared for 13 people and all 13 will get their bag of cookies (I think I put about 14-15 pieces into each bag).

But not all get the additional mini muffins cos my SIL and her daughter came over for dinner at our place and had some, and I also gave some to hubby's friend to take home as well. So, ended up about 6 or 7 close ex-colleagues only get to try the extra mini muffins in their goodie bag.

All in all, it was a tiring but rewarding experience. I'm pretty proud to achieve all this baking within 3 hours time. I hope to be able to practise more and perhaps find some way to reduce time wastage and probably need to think of easier and faster ways to do the cookies mould. That was the tiring part of all the tasks and also when I need to turn the baking tray 180degrees midway baking to ensure the air circulation are thorough and the cookies are baked nicely all over.

Some of my ex-colleagues have already emailed to thank me for the treats and I also gave some of them the links to my recipe posts. A couple even asked me to start taking orders for Chinese New Year cookies and doing this as a part-time business... hahahah... funny, funny... I told them it's not the right time yet as I'm still learning and can only do my baking when Ben is taking his nap, maybe who knows, in future I might think about this hahahahah... until then maybe I should start training Ben to do the cookies cutting/moulding part hahahahaha...

This is my 1st attempt of making: ORANGE POPPY SEED MINI MUFFINS.

I baked this on Wednesday 10th Nov. I'm still not confident enough to ditch the premix for muffins attempt (unlike cookies) so, this recipe will still be using premix.

PREPARATION TIME: ABOUT HALF AN HOUR

Ingredients / Tool Required:

What to Do?

BAKING PROCESS

THE RESULTS

CLOSE UP SHOT

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME	"Yummy and the mini muffins are cute! I will definitely use the mini casings again since it's so much easier (less guilt for eating more hehehe...) with the bite size mini muffins now!"
BEN	"Ammm! Ammm!" (usual response...)
HUBBY	"Oooo... the mini muffins are so cute! Taste a bit sweet though"
SIL	"Mmm.. delicious but a bit sweet for me. And so much poppy seeds!"
BIL	"Ooo so cute and small muffins! Delicious! The poppy seed gives it a nice crunchy feel!" (he even MMS me a picture of himself eating the 2nd mini muffin the next day at work...)
MIL	"Delicious but why a bit sour?" (to which I told her it's orange...)

So there you go.... my 1st ORANGE POPPY SEED MINI MUFFINS attempt!

Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt - the way they turned out, nice rounded peak and the very perfect moist, the crust top is just nice, not too hard and not too soft. Just that a few of my guinea pigs commented that it's a bit sweet. I wonder whether I should add more water to make it less sweet (since I don't know how much it is in the premix).... hmm... To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

Brought to you by: Mama Baker wannabe aka

After my successful first attempt at baking Shortbread Chocolate Chip Butter Cookies without using premix, I have decided to attempt butter cookies WITHOUT relying on premix again and this time, I used cookies cutter for the added special touch!

This recipe was adapted from Sara Lewis's "Healthy Home-Made Food For Babies & Toddlers" book. Because of this recipe, I actually bought the cute mini cookies cutter! So without further ado, here goes:

SHORTBREAD SHAPES

PREPARATION TIME: LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR

* About 5 minutes to mix & prepare the dough
* About 15 minutes to cut out the cookies
* 12 minutes for baking process
*  The recipe makes 60 cookies but because my cookies cutter are much smaller, I made about 100+ cookies

Ingredients / Tool Required:

What to Do?

* Preheat oven to 180℃.
* Brush 2 baking sheets with a little oil (I used 1 baking sheet and 1 wire rack instead and I used baking paper instead)
* Put together the flour, cornflour and sugar in a bowl.
* Cut the butter into pieces and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
* Mould to a dough with your hands.
* Knead lightly and roll out on a floured surface to a 5mm thickness (mine is thicker, almost 1cm).
* Stamp out shapes with small cookie cutters.
* Transfer to the baking sheets, sprinkle with extra sugar if liked (I didn't do this as I don't want Ben to be eating too sweet stuff).

First batch on baking paper using baking sheet

Second batch on baking foil using wire rack

BAKING PROCESS

* Set oven to 180℃ and bake for 10-12 minutes until pale golden.
* Loosen with a knife and leave to cool on the baking sheets and then transfer to a wire rack.

THE RESULTS

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME	"Yummy and oh-so cute looking! Crisp, taste all are just nice!" (giving myself a pat on the back again.. hehehe)
BEN	"Ammm! Ammm!"
HUBBY	"Hmmm, taste good! Very cute shapes too!"
SIL	"Mmmm... taste very nice! The sweetness is just ngam-ngam (perfect in Chinese). Bonnie (her 11 year old daughter) also said very nice and she's not a butter cookies person you know..."
MIL	"Delicious, but I prefer to see it more brown - try baking it a bit longer - give it the burnt look."

So there you go.... my SHORTBREAD SHAPES BUTTER COOKIES 2nd attempt without using premix (1st attempt at using cookies cutter)! Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt and I have additional 2 guinea pigs (my SIL and her daughter) to test on as we're out for a family dinner just an hour after I baked this cookies! To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

I leave you with a snapshot of my cheeky little man taking a bite of the cookie while watching his Donald Duck cartoons (his gobbling record stands at 5 cookies in less than 5 minutes)...

Brought to you by: Mama Baker wannabe aka