pbb muffins

(is pb cheating on J?!)

I keep telling myself every other day that I should probably stop baking up a storm so frequently (seeing that what I bake are overly sweet and probably will cause me to go into a cardiac arrest faster than eating macs every other week)

But... I just can't resist baking muffins!? They're so fuss-free and I can bake a lot in one batch and eat it as breakfast for the rest of my week (that's if they lasted that long at home)

I wasn't even intending to bake this weekend at all but my itchy hands (and mouth) bought a bunch of bananas after driving lessons the other day and so my very itchy hands ended up baking these and something else (which involves chocolate chips too!)

My photos never come out looking all that great because I can't be bothered to find 'props' to lay around. I mean, come on, when you're drenched in sweat (thank god for the fan in the kitchen) and still have so much washing up to do, all you'd want to do is to savour your end product, feel good and proud then clean up the mess that you just created.

Plus I think I'm not so good with working with light either. I'm the best at creating big messes.

Now I have about 20 over muffins sitting in the kitchen waiting for someone to devour it (me) and feeling guilty about not preparing for my assessment tomorrow. It just irks me that I've got to be dressed formally tomorrow and trust me, I don't work well with walking in heels all day.

This recipe called for 2 bananas but because I was left with 3 bananas (my family ate them all) for 2 different recipes (the other calling for 3!!!) so I just split the mashed bananas into two.

These muffins are moist, but can make you feel reaaaaaaal thirsty because of the peanut butter, but I'd say, overall it's all good! I didn't follow the recipe with exact measurements because I was left with a tiny bit of peanut butter and I just used up whatever I had.

Recipe:
(Makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:
120ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
100g granulated sugar
2 bananas (ripe & mashed)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter (I'm sure chunky PB will work as well too)
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 200ºc 
1. Mix your flour, baking powder and salt together, then set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, peanut butter and bananas together.
3. Combine (dump) dry ingredients (from step 1) together with the mixture, be careful not to overmix
4. Divide your batter into your muffin tins and bake for 15-18 mins (mine was in the oven for 18 minutes), until a skewer comes out clean.

Enjoy and voila! So easy!

(Might make a cream cheese chocolate cake sometime - so much cream cheese in the fridge waiting to rot) 

i just can't get you out of my head

Music that has been on my playlist this month (really obsessed with the first song!)

I was intending to put up a recipe today until I realised I followed it wrongly (I woke up a little tad late and was rushing to finish it before I went to church) so it was ruined totally therefore theres nothing for me to eat (and take instagram worthy photos of))

Since I havent shared music for a while, here it is and I'm having so much trouble trying to prepare for my impromptu speech assessment on monday: I don't feel nervous for it but at the same time my inner brain is freaking the f*** out. Ugh?!

Hopefully I'll wake up in time tomorrow morning to bake something good then think back about my life and dig around for political issues around the internet. I have zero idea about anything politics related and I'd be screwed if I were to be so lucky to get a political question.

Enjoy the music!! 

sourpussies

note: i am actually eating this while typing this post (its so good i dont think i'd want to share it with anyone) (✿◠‿◠)

what is that? burnt ice cream cone on a cupcake???? what????

well it happens to look like a good ice cream cone sitting on a cupcake. 

a lemon flavored cupcake at that.

with a secret filling inside.

whaaaaaa-?!

i love how they look slightly like roses 

i'm onto my second one right now as i'm typing this post and for some reason the recipe for the cupcake itself only made 10 (or lesser if i had put more batter into each liner) and my dad ate 1 away before i could finish whisking my meringue (in the standing mixer of course) 

the recipe's lemon filling & meringue came out to be too much so i have a great leftover of lemon curd in the fridge and a plastic bag full of meringue in the dustbin （ ；´Д｀）

note to self: always tweak twerk recipes accordingly. 

My family obviously isn't lover of sweet things (yet I am hence its both a blessing and tragedy at the same time for me) and I have been trying to get my hands on this recipe since the very first day my baking adventure began 

If you do follow me on instagram you'd have probably seen like thousands a few photos of my experiences with lemon meringue tart & cake.

If i'm going to continue spending >$5 on such things might as well make my own (and i get to eat more) for about the same amount of $. Duh

I would've made a lemon meringue tart/cake but as you all know, my family isnt v supportive of my fat-ass desserts baking stint (my mom complains its fattening and sweet and i do agree) so i made cupcakes in case no one at home eats them i'll just give it to my friends (supportive guinea pigs they are - i like) 

look at those secret lemon curd filling (its so sour but i love it!!!!!!!!)

pardon for the iphone quality (im still on an iphone 4 - bleh) but i totally forgot to take a photo of them 

recipe: 

lemon curd:
62.5g sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch (corn flour)
60ml water
2 egg yolks
1/2 tbsp lemon zest
60ml lemon juice
11g unsalted butter (cubed)

1. Mix sugar, cornstarch & water in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer over medium heat, whisking frequently as the mixture begins to thicken
2. When the mixture starts to simmer and turn translucent, whisk in the egg yolks, zest, lemon juice, then lastly, the butter
3. Bring the mixture to a brisk simmer while whisking constantly and remove from heat
4. Transfer to a small bowl for it to cool till lukewarm (30 mins), then cover & refrigerate until cooled
(all these steps happened fairly quickly for me though so no vigorous whisking activity needed)

lemon flavored cupcake: (this yields about 9-11 cupcakes)
120g flour (all purpose/plain)
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
113g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice

- Preheat your oven to 175ºc
1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, then set aside
2. Cream butter and sugar until its light & fluffy
3. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon zest & juice and lastly, the flour. Mix until just combined (dont overmix)
4. Scoop it into your muffin trays with cupcake liners
5. Bake for 20-22 minutes (until your skewer comes out clean or those little annoying bits stick to your skewers)
6. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer onto a cooling rack

meringue:
60ml water
100g sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

1. Bring water and sugar to a boil over med-high heat. Once it begins to boil, turn it down to low heat and cook for 4 minutes, then set aside
2. Beat (I don't support domestic violence but when it comes to egg whites its necessary evil) egg whites until frothy, add the cream of tartar then beat it until soft peaks form
3. While your mixer is still running, slowly add the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites. Add the vanilla and beat it until the meringue is very thick and shiny

final steps to achieving those delicious tiny yellowish things as seen above:

1. preheat your oven to 200ºc (i recommend using the top heating element above would be enough)
2. use a tiny spoon or knife to cut out a small hole in the center of the cupcakes (don't cut it in too deep!)
3. spoon 'em lemon curd into the well you just created
4. spoon/pipe (pipe if you want it to look like ice cream) the meringue on top of the cupcake
5. bake the ready cupcakes until the meringues become brown (i put them in for about 5 minutes)

I wouldn't encourage you to bake anything involving meringue if you don't have an electric whisk or freestanding mixer because beating that shit out of the egg whites would take you at least half your life to get to the 'soft peak' level (or i'm just really bad with beating eggs via manual labor)

have a nice day salivating over these while i try not to give into temptation to grabbing another cupcake

downdates

my attempts to keep up with this blog while trying to sustain my humongous pile of undone schoolwork and projects is really futile 

1. i am really lazy to take out the camera to take photos of anything i bake/cook lately unless its instagram because....i really dislike my camera as of now and i dont like posting iphone photos on my precious blog

2. BESIDEs i tend to bake in the middle of the night (night therapy - because nobody disturbs me) so the lighting is horrible for photos (yay to natural lighting)

3. i promise i'll come up with something this coming week as i just submitted 3 reports altogether for the past week and i am only left with one to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

look at this i mean how does one not feel proud (after all that sleeping-at-4am-trying-to-rush-a-report saga) and the title makes everything sound 100x more chim than it is (but it IS chim)

4. although i must say that i'm going to disappear again soon after because i've got exams and internship immediately after - my lyfe

5. trying to adapt to wearing makeup (it melts off before i leave the house god damn it) frequently because i've got a photoshoot coming up (wha-?) and my face isn't very cooperative

6. OH - i've started driving lessons too and today was the fourth lesson and my instructor let me drive on the main road at 60km/h wOoO so proud because the previous 3 lessons i was so bad at it i think i nearly got into like a few accidents lmao 

i baked choc chip scones + red velvet cupcakes the past few weeks of hiatus on the blog and i think you guys should just follow me on instagram for the time being.

not to worry tho i'm makin lemon meringue cupcakes tomorrow (because i miss the lemon meringue cake from marmalade pantry so bad) 

hopefully there'll be a post up tomorrow night :) 

just something random and usel

choc guinness cupcake with baileys buttercream

This time's attempt at cupcakes has once again proven that I am not a cupcake person.
I made these with mind of my dearest friends who are somewhat alcoholics (what a wonderful friend I am). I couldn't even finish my own cupcake :/

Well the feedback was that the Baileys couldn't be tasted because of the stout present in the cupcake itself. Oh well I don't think I'm ever baking cupcakes again because

1. my family does not appreciate them

2. its such a pain to bake, ESPECIALLY them frosting - ugh!!

I'm also lazy to the point to pipe the buttercream onto the cupcake so I just anyhow-ly used a knife and plop everything onto the cupcakes. I have absolutely 0 talent in beautifying things. 

Not going to share the recipe here because I'm not very happy about it (I threw away the rest :S) but the photos look somewhat ok and I needed to blog something before I stop blogging completely :/ 

I followed the recipe from here (made a few changes on the buttercream here and there)

This week I'm making a pizza from scratch!  

P/S: Do you guys know where I can get pepperoni from in Singapore?

Macaron au Chocolat*

I have finally figured out what went wrong from the previous 2 times I tried my hands on these. This time, the batter was watery but it still came out ok-ish. So darn proud. And all the work was done by yours truly (I spent at least 30 minutes trying to sift the ground almonds because they weren't fine enough ugh)

My batter made about 30+ shells and I only used half the ingredients stated in the original recipe, and thank God, because my family does not appreciate such sweet desserts. About 5 of the shells were undercooked so it came out crumbly but the rest were actually fine. Didn't make any jam/buttercream/ganache because I was worried it'd fail and I'll just waste my time so I used Nutella instead! The result is just that its overwhelmingly sweet but all's good still. 

The recipe I followed was adapted from here, and she has a really good video on Macaron FAQ + troubleshooting so you should watch it if you're going to try it out! I think her recipe will yield at least 60 shells - so that's about 30 complete macarons and that is a lot unless you're intending to give out to your friends. 

Recipe (adapted from HowToCookThat)

This yields about 10-20 macarons (depending on the size you piped out)

Ingredients:

2 large (or 3 small) egg whites

35g caster sugar

100g icing sugar

58g almond meal (ground almonds)

15g cocoa powder

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 150ºc.

Sift the almond meal, icing sugar and cocoa powder to remove lumps.

Using a standing mixer/electric whisk, whisk the caster sugar and egg whites until stiff and glossy - if you turn the bowl upside down, it won't fall off.

Sift the icing sugar mixture into the egg whites mixture, and start folding.

Be careful not to undermix or overmix - the end mixture should be smooth and not runny, when you pull up your spatula it should make 'ribbons'.

Pipe your ready mixture onto trays lined with non-stick baking paper, then firmly bang your trays on the table to prevent cracking at the top (although some of mine did crack oops).

Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes, the bottom of your macaron should be firm to the touch and doesn't sink in. 

Now I'll just go to the fridge and sneak a few more while I attempt to nurse my impending sore throat. This is the time where one can use the term - #YOLO

P/S: I've been playing around w photoshop for my photos on the blog and I like how they turn out - whadya think? Trying to get the hang of food photography!

*Directly translated into French via Google so if its wrong its not really my fault

Aye aye baker

First and foremost, I just want to say that I haven't been such a great student at all.

It's tests week ala you-should-try-to-use-this-chance-to-pull-your-GPA-up time but all I've been doing (besides waking up 6 hours earlier to study for a paper - you go gurl) is roaming on the Internet finding useless recipes that I won't end up using.

Secondly, have I mentioned that I've decided to get an oven?

With my own money?

So proud of me.

Of course the amount I have right now can only get me a 3/4 of a better quality oven but my original plan was to split it half-half with my mom anyway.

Looking forward to 10am on Thursday when my final paper ends. Then hurrah it's my freedooooooom...for a few days before I go back to slugging over my laptop rushing out reports for submissions :( 

Now that I'm going to go out in a few to buy an oven (never thought I'd be oven-shopping) I have successfully accumulated so many recipes in my 'Recipe' bookmark, I already have a few in mind to bake this week (in the midst of studying for my marketing paper - so screwed) as long as the oven comes ASAP.

The few in mind includes:

Earl grey tea loaf (or english breakfast because that's what I have on hand anyway)

Chocolate/banana muffins (umf craving for some rn)

Macarons (Failed twice :|)

The product of my endless scrolling on YouTube and Google.

I foresee my Instagram with endless amount of photos.

Also, my friends are very much in luck for I hath cupcakes in mind as well.

Now let me go sit in a corner and think about how I should be studying.

P/S: Forcing my mom to bake a pandan cake because I haven't had her cakes in 5 years.

Aloha!

Buried in a flood of papers related to accounting (rare sight of paper flood here) I have been diligently studying for the past two hours (*pats self on back*) and felt like a need for a break between writings of financial statements and convincing myself that I do not need a snack.

I really do need a snack. 

My attention drew to my very neglected Blogger bookmark while wasting spending my time on eBay and decided that I need to blog. At least write something. Therefore here I am with a post that is useless.

When I say I've been diligently studying, I mean wasting my week away watching endless amounts of movies (and tv shows), then realising that I don't actually have time to study for my tests this coming week. I also have my basic driving test to take tomorrow (one step closer to being on the road, you guys!) and a networking assessment (I have the weirdest assessments, cue: telephone etiquette skills)

My motivation to study really is just the two weeks break that I get to write reports for 4 different modules (woo!) and watching more endless amounts of movies (and tv shows) and bake. 

I do get great inspirations in the middle of the night. In bed. 

But I'm nowhere closer to fulfilling my new camera dream and therefore I may, or may not have to work during my precious break in order to actually save some money.

I could've. If I didn't waste all that money on eBay :/ 

In marketing this is called 'cognitive dissonance' the postpurchase psychological tension/anxiety. (and regrets with a slight hint of self-hatred)

Applying my knowledge real well here.

*fills up the gap in between until I actually do something interesting enough to blog about*

May-be

 The reasons why I'm so broke in the middle of the month. 
- Baked lemon cheesecake from Jones the Grocer
- Ice-cream treat at Salted Caramel

- Antoinette's breakfast for dinner

- Louisana crepe at Little Part 1 Cafe

- A throwback photo with Reuel in 2010 

- One thursday night where we did nonsense and had supper at 2am. (We even had a vlog. This was one of those questionable nights.) 

- Being cool with one of those mirror outfit selfies and hipster filter

- Self-explanatory

- Rare rainy afternoons where I'm at home to catch up on tv 

- Enjoying my lunch from home with a book (school's pretty cool) 

- Necessary escalator selfies after a movie

- Hazelnut nutella m/s from Kith 

- Custard bun - oozing goodness

- Fooling around with a new app and being sad about HK

- My friends for you

Sorry for the not-so-long hiatus, but still a hiatus type of hiatus. 

Have absolutely nothing interesting to blog about, school's all the same. 

E-learning week this coming week and thought I could go out for some good food but to my horror I overspent so now I'm going to be a good student and clear my to-do pile as much as possible then.

Common tests in 2 weeks and holidays in 3. I am excited.

Meanwhile, do follow me on instagram - graceheahy

Useless Facts

1. I always manage to think of many useless facts about myself when I'm alone on a long bus ride. (Which is nearly every single day :/)
2. I'm a movie/film addict.Where I watched 230 films (2012) in total and.....when there's no school I'd just finish nearly 5 movies a day.  
3. For some reason I really really love Germany and it's culture yet I haven't been there once. 
4. I used to be really really girly, wearing dresses to church every week, using my mom's lipstick just for fun till the day my mom made me cut off all my hair then came the tomboy phase that never ended.
5. I have flat feet and bunion, inherited from each of my parent.
6. I have steep eyeballs so I can never wear contact lenses comfortably unless it's a great eyeball day.
7. My mandarin has deteriorated so bad - I forget how to write my name in Chinese sometimes.
8. I can't make pancakes.
9. I have been greatly influenced by the western culture.
10. I told my examiner for my GCE 'O' levels (for english oral) that my favorite food was Popcorn. I don't know how I nailed it.

Banana in PJs

Technically, the title makes sense because I made these while I was still in my PJs.

And also because I really miss watching Bananas in Pajamas.

I followed the same recipe with my choc chip muffins for these as well because
#1: I am lazy

#2: It is so easy

#3: I am lazy

Why make your life more difficult when you can use shortcuts eh?

Actually, I could've used the banana flavoring (that I happened to have found at home, which also expired but that's okay) but an authentic taste is always better.

Ingredients:

500g of Golden Muffin Mix 

140g vegetable oil

112g milk

1 tbsp vanilla essence

4 eggs

2 (or more, if you like) bananas

Recipe:

- Pour everything together except the bananas and mix, whether by hand or standing mixer. I'd recommend the standing mixer because....duh.

- Mash the bananas (I actually just cut them into slices and let the mixer do its thang and I like chunky bits to bite into) and mix it well with the mixture.

- Pour into cupcake liners (till about 2/3 full - you'd want to avoid a mess of overflowed batter) and...bake for about 20 minutes (more or less) 

- Let it cool when out of the oven because you ain't hipster

- Consume this little piece of yellow goodness

I will be back with more baking fun when I actually find time in my pile of projects. Meanwhile, I'll just do cooking instead. I feel like a domestic goddess. 

(Maybe it's all been a lie, my baked goods actually tastes horrible I just capture them really well) 

Poser Loser

By now, one should realise that I, Grace Heah, can never seem to pose for any photos.

What is that second photo there? Am I a tree? Am I a waitress carrying invisible plates? 

Beats me.

If I were famous I'd be a famous tree that grows in botanical gardens.
I think I look pretty good for a tree, don't you think? 

Shirt - Topshop/Pants - H&M/ Boots - Dr. Martens/ 

I like big muffins and I cannot lie

If you're following me on Instagram, you'd probably have seen this photo and I'm not going to lie, I really do think at this rate I'm going with my newly found cake-related baking abilities my tiny oven can do, I will emerge as a muffin baking queen*.

I think I already am. Since it's a public holiday, I took the chance to bake some banana muffins and turned out not too bad though my mom's well guidance guided me into disaster overfilling 'em cups so I got overflowed muffins.

Whoop.

Regarding my journey to my new spankin' camera, I am now three months away which means by the time I am done with school this semester, rad photos and awesome photoshopping skills will emerge.

Meanwhile, I'm surviving on my iPhone - surprisingly still working well and attempting not to spend all my current savings away on here, and here. 

I shall be revealing some banana muffins love next post (with cheats included of course - I am too busy** to be measuring the amount of flour, baking soda/powder/whatnot, sugar altogether when I do it simply with a packet of ready mixed flour). 

Afterall, I am a busy Asian teenager. 

*Don't you just love my rad photoshopping skills?

**By busy I really just mean having movie/TV marathons all day and pretending I'm too busy for a social life but I just really don't want to have a social life.

Choc chip muffins

I am honestly suspicious of my existence on this Earth. I am the worst kind of girl around. 

I like painting my nails, baking and doing what a typical girl would do. 

But unfortunately I dress like a man - buying men's clothes because I don't have a bf to steal clothes from. 

I must've been very confused during puberty. 

After a long long hiatus of my mom's awesome chocolate chips muffins, I finally made them today and turns out she goes by the cheater way of using premix. Boo!!!

But it's delicious. And easy. 

Still in the midst of convincing my mom to get the built-in oven so I can bake more tasty things for friends and family. Mainly myself, included. If I had baked these with the hugeass oven, the outcome would be even prettier, and too bad I'm saving my kachings for my camera, else I'd be getting an oven.

Now my brothers are helping me too so....fingers crossed! 

Despite the weird burnt parts on some of them, they all turned out what it used to taste like so I'm very very satisfied. Who says you can't bake with a pathetic tiny toaster oven? Hmm? 

Ingredients:

Muffin mix - 500g (I got mine from Phoon Huat - Golden muffin mix)

Vegetable oil - 140g 

Milk - 112g

Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp (My mom says 2 tbsp is enough unless you want it really dark then add more)

4 eggs 

Chocolate chips 

Recipe:

- Just dump all into a bowl except for the chocolate chips, mix well (preferably with a mixer but you can always use manual labor. I salute you if you do)

- Pour the mix into cupcake liners in a muffin tray. 

- Sprinkle chocolate chips - there's no such thing as 'too much' chocolate chips.

- I honestly don't know how long it took because every batch took about 20 minutes and due to it being a toaster oven there's no preheating involved. Just bake it till it rises, looks brown and your skewer comes out clean, I guess. :| 

IT IS SO EASY!! It's very idiot proof, really. 

I'm going to try using other ingredients sometime. But first, let me figure a way to make some bailey's cupcakes. And get a proper oven.

P/S: I'm sorry if you're a foreign reader and you can't find muffin mix because I never knew such muffin mix existed until my mom shed light on me yesterday night. 

KIGU

You're either a supporter or a hater of onesies. Either way, it doesn't matter. Because these onesies are amazing. I need them in my closet for reasons. I can list many reasons for you, but let's face it, you wouldn't want to be spending the next hour reading about 'Why Grace needs a onesie in her wardrobe'. As unrealistic as it may be for me (or you if you are too, very much in love with them) to own one, I think it doesn't matter, because at the end of the day, I don't get to choose what to wear according to the weather (unless it's possible that I like bikinis. And I get to wear bikinis to school). 

I didn't choose the weather. The weather chose me. 

Animal onesies - Kigu

Dungaree degree

Me?! Fashion?!?!?! Ha! 

Wore this outfit last week actually, just didn't bother to post it, but I am desperate for blog content right now - nothing interesting's been going on, I had to work all weekend so basically I did nothing, except feeling stressed about my workload this semester.

Anyhow, don't you think I look seriously cute in dungarees? I'm not even a cute person to begin with.

As school begins (second week now and I'm not very happy about it), I've made a pact with myself that I will not dress like an idiot anymore (read: lame school based t-shirts that I actually hate but because I'm just really..really lazy). Partly because I'm trying to get myself to dress better. As long as I don't feel like an idiot every other day, I think I'm progressing well. 

And cheers, to lessons beginning at 1pm midweek for the rest of this semester. 

Wearing:

Dungarees - Zara/ Shirt - Topshop/ Shoes - Nike

As I grow older, the photos of me from young gets more and more precious. I think I was meant to be this cool since my mom was pregnant with me. 

I was cooler than you when you were a few months old. 

#truth 

You wish

Canon EOS 650D/ Ray-ban Wayfarers/ Choies Flat boots-shoes-something/ H by Hudson sandals

If I could, I'd call this a 'spring wishlist'. But let's face it, I live in a country that is 30 degrees all year round. A drop in temperature - either a miracle or it's the second coming. I'm assuming the second coming would bring meteors. Don't ask. 

A woman can always somehow come up with a reason for buying certain unnecessary things. It's in our jeans (did I mention I own at least 10 pairs of jeans now? This is coming from a tropical gurl) genes.