Chocolate Cupcakes

I baked these last last week. Posted them on Facebook but forgot to post them to the blog. The toppers on these chocolate cupcakes, from left (back) marshmallows, (front) chocolate chips and chocolate mint sticks. Right (back & front) chocolate coated coffee beans.



Also decorated these, supposedly wanted to give to Lady Nina. But didn't seem to get the right timing for both of us. So I had to "force" SSB to take them. :p

XOX

SSB, when one says goodbye kiss, it's not rated 18SX. Normally it's cheek-left, cheek-right; or air-kiss-left, air-kiss-right... Occasionally we will add on the muah-muah sound effect. French does two times (or was it Italian) and Italian (or French??) does three times.

I normally do two lah, follow the French style, erm Italian style... French. KG, we normally do three times though. Malaysian style? Little Bro, Hobbes, PT (ex). Two; Babies, little kids. Once; Carebear, MC. None. If MC is going away for a long time, I normally give her a big hug. Hee...

So since MFG is travelling, besides telling him I miss him, I should give him a hug and goodbye kiss. (MC, kissES?? Haha...) Okay, I'm not used to giving him a goodbye kiss, but I thought I'll just follow the custom and standard practice this time.

And why would I be blogging about this everyday (not literally lah) gesture? Because this so called natural reaction for farewell had turned out uhm, pretty arrrr... shall I say uncool? Yes, me. Uncool. Humph!

First of all, it's really very difficult to give you a big warm hug when you (we) were holding too much things with your (our) hands. So it was hugging with one arm, and while hugging each other you hug the bags, and laptops and shopping bags. Haha... And could you just pause a while so that I don't have to "inform" you that now was the time for that goodbye hug? Humph...

And since you also didn't pause after the hug, all I could do was air kiss (literally kissing the air). No, of course I didn't kiss the air lah. Just forget about the goodbye kiss.

So just before we really, really part with each other, and you open your arms, I was rather surprise and didn't response to that in time. I need to switch to the ever ready mode of hugging you perhaps. You must have seen my sort of surprise look and decided not to hug me again? And very uncool-ly (unromantic-ly) I had to ask "do you... want a goodbye kiss?".

Geezz... how can anyone even ask such question??? So uncool! But thank goodness. I didn't embarrass myself because he said yes. Phew... okay, Muuuuahhh! One kiss, planted on his cheek. MFG style.

Have a safe journey honey. See you when you come back. Don't forget my presents.

Not sure what title

Sometimes I start a new post without knowing what I really want to say and so I will leave the title till the end. Chances are I might forget to type in the title, like yesterday. To prevent that to happen, I'll just randomly give a title.

Last night I've diligently gone for my back to back Monday classes but felt that I was really lacking the energy, unlike the week before. I guess it's because I missed the Thursday pump last week and I must be still recovering from lack of sleep. Anyways, I SURVIVED through the classes! You can actually imagine what we all went through in pump class when the instructor in question appeared in full top instead of tank top. Yeah, we regulars know what that meant!

Oh, by the way, we have another instructor teaching this combat slot now a days, and it had been great classes, I think I actually like this instructor better.

My usual Monday routine is to ta pao dinner and eat while drive home. I was at Starbucks last night getting my favorite finger sandwich when I got a call from Carebear. She left something at the studio which MUST be collected. Hmm... I guess I won't say what she left behind lah. So I went back to gym and have that picked up from the studio. Meanwhile, LGM told me she was having a, what I would call, really healthy meal at Secret Recipe. Hee...

Today, I started my day "wrong"... sigh. First of all, I left my purse at home. Yeah, drove without license. And MC had to go back to fetch my purse before heading to LM for gym just now because I can't go gym without my membership card (which is in the purse). Okay, I'm going to change to another purse.

The next thing was - the heel of my shoes came off. Luckily I had extra shoes in the car.

Hmm... okay, actually that's all the "bad" things. Not too bad you said?

Went to a pump class with MC tonight. I could see weights increase for MC, good job! The instructor, hmm.... The usual, except for the "variation" for squat track. I wasn't sweating so much compared with yesterday and I was so sleepy that I was yawning all the way.

On another note. I have turned down about two cupcakes order this week because I don't have enough time to bake, I mean, if I have a one week advance notice, I will be able to schedule the orders in, but three days is not something I can manage right now. Sorry! On the other hand, TD had ordered for December 9, and she place that order last month. Hehe... TD, you are good customer and I've book that order into my calendar already.

I am extremely sleep and wanted to go to sleep straight after dinner just now, but thought of coming on line to blog... okay okay. I lied. I came on line hoping that MFG is on line to so that I can chat with him. He's travelling again this week, so I will miss him loads. Again.

Can you read the fine prints? It says :"The sparks that fly between you and a certain someone this week are electric. Whether romance flares is up to you. Right now, there's a touch of lunch in the air too. Seems that fate is on your side, Cancer. Now's the time to have a little bit more fun than usual"

Hmm...

Okay, before you conclude, I am NOT a crazy believer of signs and zodiac. Well, I do read them all the time, but I always forget what it told me after a while. Or most of the time, I only choose to believe what I want to believe. Haha...

I actually do always like to take things into my hand instead of waiting. Maybe I'm just one of those less fortunate girls who doesn't have a long queue of active pursuers, therefore, I do have to look into "romance matters" myself. (I can hear some of you coughing) heh.

Having said that, sometimes when the ball is not in my court, I cannot take a strike even though I wanted so so much to do something about it. It's not about whether I want to break the rules or not. Like you've correctly described, this someone is so extremely lovable but things just always leave me with big big sighs.

One of you also told me to focus on enjoying the moments and not plan too much. I've just had another one of you told me that this time is the time I appeared to be planning the least.

So, let's see where it goes. Shall we?

Rum and Raisins Cake

Baked with raisins which were soaked overnight in rum and lemon peel. The aroma of this cake alone is so very indulging.

The egg whites were beaten separately before folding into the cake mix, it should give the cake a slightly lighter texture.

Make your own chocolates

If you have left over of chocolates (unlikely is it?) or you have bit and pieces of chocolates which you don't think is "interesting" enough for you, melt them all and customize into something you like. For me, I had a few pieces of dark chocolates of different brands which I used for baking different things previously. And I was also in a mood of combining a few things to make them into my idea of chocolate, I decided to make this.

If you really want to make some chocolate clusters, here's how simple it is to make...

First melt some chocolate of course. Dark chocolates are easier to set then milk chocolate by the way. So, melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a bowl/ pan of hot water - no need to be simmering, just hot will do.

Then prepare whatever you would like to have in your chocolate, I chose raisins (which have been soaked overnight in Brandy), roasted almonds and some digestive biscuit to make the chocolate clusters crunchier. Basically, you can add whatever you like to eat into your chocolate. This is the beauty of making your own chocolate.

How much to put into the chocolate? Depends if you want to eat a lot of the extra stuff you put in, or a lot of chocolate. I would go for really thick mixture. So, just mix everything into the melted chocolate.

After mixing everything evenly, spoon the chocolate mixture either into little paper cups, like these...

Or just spoon them onto baking paper like so. Then put them into the fridge to set.

Make them as after dinner treat or all time snacks. They are real good indulgences.

Otherwise, use them as cake decorative items or cupcake toppers.

What a week!

Phew... Thank goodness it's weekend.

Once you lack that few hours of sleep, it's going to take you more than that same few hours of sleep to recover. Trust me. Worked overnight at office with another 5 colleagues for a final production. We all went home at 4am, with me continuing with some file uploading after I arrived home. All in all, I slept 3 hours before waking up to go to work. Arrived office an hour before lunch.

While I stayed up all night to work, MFG stayed up all night too the same night (morning). He had food poisoning and had been staying up the whole night. Poor thing. So, while I am trying to recover from lack of sleep, MFG is recovering from his sickness.

I had skipped gym on Thursday so that I can sleep early. Went out to watch a movie on Friday night and I almost fell asleep in the cinema. Didn't wake up till after 10am this morning and took a nap at 4.30pm after coming back from gym just now. Baked a sticky brownies after dinner and the whole house is now smelling very chocolaty. Hee...

We originally planned to join a pump class at LM today. MC asked me who was this instructor whose name was on the timetable. Hobbes no longer teach at LM I think. Well, I've no clue who this instructor in question was, so I told MC we'll just had to find out when we were there. After finding out, we decided not to join the class. We didn't like this instructor the last time we joined his class - we thought he lacked the accuracy in both cueing and techniques. MC noticed and commented that she is now also very fussy and selective towards instructors. Well, why not?

So far, MC's favorite instructors (influenced by TTB) would be FI, but we seldom go to his class now a days, we couldn't fit into his schedules. MC likes Carebear's a lot too but don't think she can make it to Carebear's classes except for weekends and public holidays if any. And of course Hobbes' which we used to attend almost every Saturday at LM. Other instructors we just cannot be bothered most of the time.

Speaking of gym, I got a text from PT yesterday. Erm... actually ex-PT not only because I'm not doing personal training now, but PT is not longer working as PT. It's great to know that he's doing well now and is enjoying himself immensely with his new job. I seldom receive text from PT unless it's a reply to my text, it's great to know that I'm being remembered and thought of by friends. It was good to receive LGM's sms-es also the other day after my late night work. Thanks for being concern. And Gymaddict, good to know you are still my regular blog reader. Hee... suddenly become a bit sentimental.