Vanilla Flower Cookies

~ Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 9:21 AM ~

I have not been posting about my baking adventure for sometime, so few days back, I attempted this recipe which was adapted from a cookbook I bought from Borders. Although the title said Vanilla Flowers, mine doesn't turn out flowery looking as I don't have the piping tools to squeeze the batter out into flower looking shaped cookies. Anyway, without further ado, here goes:

VANILLA FLOWER COOKIES

PREPARATION TIME: LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR

* About 10 minutes to mix & prepare the dough
* 15 minutes for baking process 

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* 150 g all-purpose flour sifted (I used wheat flour)
* 50 g cornflour
(sifted)
* Few drops of vanilla essence

* 200 g butter (I used salted butter instead)
* 50 g icing sugar
(sifted)
* Semisweet chocolate chips
* A bowl to mix ingredients in
* Kitchen scale
* Spatula, piping tool (I used a plastic bag with one end snipped  a bit)
* Baking sheet & paper

What to Do?

* Preheat oven to 180℃.
*
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter & icing sugar together. Pour a few drops of vanilla essence as well.
* Sift together bit by bit the cornflour and wheat flour into the mixing bowl.
* Put the batter into the piping tool and squeeze out the flowery shaped dough on the baking sheets/tray, spaced slightly apart.
* Decorate with icing flowers (I used chocolate chips instead). See picture below...

BAKING PROCESS

* Set oven to 180℃ and bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden brown.
*
Remove from sheets to cool on racks.

THE RESULTS

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME
"Yummy! But super crumbly!"
BEN

"Want! Bikut (aka biscuit)! Cookie! More, more! Ahhh, ahhhhh! Give, Give!!"

(I had to feed him after he accidentally squashed the cookies when he grasp it... ooppss)

HUBBY
"Hmm.. nice!" 
NIECE
"Delish!!~ XD"
COUSIN
"Delicious, with more practise your cookies can beat those butter cookies outside!"

So there you go.... my VANILLA FLOWER COOKIES! Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt! I leave you with some cute snapshots of my cheeky little man trying to get hold of the cookies...

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

Child Labour?

~ Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 3:24 PM ~

Ben pushing our shopping cart during our recent grocery shopping trip...

Pregnancy at month 4...

~ Posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 12:26 PM ~

I realised that since I've announced that we're expecting early in February this year, I haven't been posting much about my pregnancy updates.. so, at 4 months mark now, I just want to share some updates on what's going on with my pregnancy...

#1: This is one heck of a spicy baby!

*Image from Google search

Yeap... I've been chugging down spicy foods pretty much lately... curry noodles, spicy fried chicken, etc etc. Spicy baby? Uh-huh....

#2: Gaining 1kg every month!
When I was pregnant with Ben, I only started gaining weight about 5th month onwards.... that too because I got scolded by my gynae for NOT gaining weight at all! But with this pregnancy, I'm steadily gaining a kilo every month and I have no idea what I did to achieve that!

#3: Favorite foods/drinks go haywire...
Prior to this pregnancy, I used to love eating fishball and sometimes looking forward to my MIL's cooking, but now, I steered clear of these foods. And weird thing is prior to this pregnancy (and with Ben) I go 'ewwwwww' at the first sip of full cream milk but this time, I just gulped it down like water... no reaction at all!

#4: Gynae check-ups
We've just went back to the hospital where I gave birth to Ben 2 years ago. However, my previous gynae was no longer working there, so we are currently seeing a new male gynae (somehow I'm more comfortable with male gynaes). Our first impression of him is good, friendly, he doesn't rush his check-up with me and he takes his time to slowly explain and answer our questions. The only downside is the journey to and fro the hospital, each ride is an hour's journey. But other than that, the service is pretty fast compared to the previous private hospital we went to for my check-ups.

The antenatal pills I'm getting from my current gynae now...

#5: Breastfeeding during pregnancy
Yeap, it's still on-going (FYI, Ben is 2 years old now)! When I found out I was pregnant 2 months ago, I was very worried as I do intend to breastfeed Ben as long as he wants (and also as long as I can) and at the same time, I don't want the breastfeeding to pose any risk to the baby as well. After much research and asking around on the mummy forums and Facebook pages, I decided to stick to it and take it one day at a time. What I can share about the experience of breastfeeding during pregnancy was well, it is a good excuse for me to take a rest. I just lie down on the bed to rest (pregnancy is VERY tiring OK!) and Ben will come snuggling to me to breastfeed. We just lie on the bed together, I rested while he just nursed on for a while and then go off to play on his own. So yeah, one day at a time...

So there you go, updates as at 4 months pregnancy... have a blessed week and thank you for reading!

*P.S: I am so glad my blog is back up now after being down since last Friday!