Not Impressed With ZALORA

Two weeks ago I made a purchase from ZALORA and one of the items sent was wrong. grrrrr. I was excited when I received the package but I was so disappointed when one of the items was not the item that I ordered. I had to call them and returned the item. And now they're telling me that the item is out of stock and they are issuing a store credit. Also, they are issuing a store credit of RM10 for the costs I had to bear for the return of the item. When I received their email, they only issued a store credit for the item and did not include the RM10. I had to call them (which took them more than 5 minutes to answer, btw) and inform them of this and they said they will issue a new one, which will be latest by tomorrow. Pffft. Frankly speaking, I am not impressed with their services at all. I've seen some people complain of the same thing on FB whereby they received the wrong shoe size and what do you know, it happened to me as well. I've been shopping online from so many online shops and this is the first time that I got my order messed up. So much for being one of the leading online business, huh?

See, even Babycakes was excited for  Mummy!

Salam Ramadhan

Last year it was the two and half of us. This year, there's three of us. Alhamdulillah ya Allah for giving us this opportunity once again to embrace this holy month. This year will be more exciting but challenging in its own way but Insyaallah we will be able to go through it. I hope my milk supply does not diminish during fasting. Ya Allah please help me be strong and please maintain my supply for my child. Amin.

glitter-graphics.com

when it strikes, it really strikes!

The baking mood has really strike me. A few weeks ago, I found this pretty cake mold at Aino, Desa Park City. It is really cheap, only RM16.90. There is also a gingerbread man mold and another mold which I can remember but I chose this design instead. 

The next day, I was so eager to try it out so after picking up Babycakes, I took her to the Cold Storage to buy the cake ingredients.

 Look how happy she is in the trolley.  And here she is figuring out which part of the trolley is yummy. 

 

I was excited to bake but a bit too lazy to start from scratch so this came to my rescue. After all, it is a trial run for the mold.

I wanted to buy the grease spray but it is expensive for such a small can. I know I needed to make sure I grease all nook and cranny evenly so that the cake won't stick. I merely used butter and flour but I made sure I leave no spot ungreased. The cake mix requires minimal ingredients so after mixing it, I pour the batter into the greased mold.

Somehow rather the heat in my oven is uneven, as you can clearly see. I sprinkled some colourful strands on the fireflies and put a few drops of red colouring on the butterflies. I also put some chocolate chips on the bees.

 My bugs cakes, fresh from the oven. They come out perfectly clean.

I should have put the colouring and the sprinkles on the bottom of the cake as the bottom of the cake will be the top when you take them out of the mold. This butterfly's antenna has broken and gone into my mouth.

 Can you see the details? They look almost real, don't they?

 

This bee was without chocolate chips as I want a few pieces to be plain as it is.

And then last Saturday I was bored as hubby was away in outstation and I had a sudden craving for brownies so I went to the kitchen and whipped up a batch of walnut brownies. I've been eating them everyday and I'm getting fat. pfft.

mind your language

I don't know about you but I get seriously annoyed when I see people write like this:

• ak xtaw ler nk wat camner
• aq suker ngok cter nier
• suka lettew
• boley jewwww
• nk minx tlg cket
• ai dah uplod pics sumer. so uols sila la laik pics ai yer
• bowrink nyer xde org nk chat dgn aq kew?

oh gosh the list is endless. I'm getting annoyed just typing them out. Seriously, how old are you to type/write like such? It's not even cute when it's written by school-going children, let alone some grown up people. Pfft. 

Perkataan panjang dipendekkan eg: AKU = AK/AQ

Perkataan pendek, tambah huruf pulak eg: I = AI 

What the hell is wrong with you??? For the sake of everyone, please, don't.

weekend project part 27

Last week's weekend project was No Bake Lemon Cheesecake. Really easy to do. Go and google the recipe or search the video on youtube as the recipes and ingredients may vary.

 

OK before you start making the cheese batter, first you have to crush some biscuits and add melted butter. I used digestive biscuits. Mix the melted butter and the biscuits and press into a spring form pan and chill in the fridge for it to set. In the meantime, you can make your cream cheese batter. Make sure you use a spring form pan for this type of cake.

 Beat cream cheese until soft and fluffy.

Grate a lemon zest but make sure you do not grate the white parts as they are bitter. Juice the lemon as well. Add lemon zest, lemon juice and condensed milk. You can gauge how much condensed milk to put according to your liking.

Dissolve 1tbsp of gelatine powder in boiling water. Some recipes don't use gelatine powder because the lemon juice can set the cream cheese but I've got gelatine powder in my pantry so I just used it. Mix the gelatine mix into the batter and continue to beat for a few minutes until all ingredients have incorporated.

Once the batter is ready, pour into the spring form pan and cover with foil or cling wrap before you refrigerate. Refrigerate for 6 hours or more. I refrigerated mine overnight so the next day the cake sets beautifully and firmly.

Once you are ready to eat the cake (honestly I can't wait to cut it the next day), slowly and carefully remove the cake from the spring form pan.

Cut with a sharp knife and serve immediately. You can always add some fruits to garnish but I left it as it is. The taste is simply refreshing and not overwhelmingly creamy because of the lemon. It is simply divine. Imagine pure cream cheese with a twist of lemon with digestive biscuits...Ahhhh bliss. Next time I want to try Oreo Cheesecake. Yummy!!

it's in the paper!

In my previous post, I blogged about how unsafe it is to park a mile away from your car especially with the recent incidents that took place in parking lots. Gosh it is scary, isn't it? It can happen to anyone, anytime but I truly pray that it will never happen to me, to my family, to you, to your family and to anybody else in the world. And to whoever did the heinous crime, you will pay for it, if not now, in the hereafter. 

I then wrote to The Star newspaper in the Letters to the Editor column regarding this, simply to address the issue. I notice that security guards are stationed at a certain place where in my opinion, they should be roaming the parking lots to monitor the area and to question whoever is acting suspiciously. It will be too late if something has already taken place, then to react. I also notice that when a car alarm goes off, nobody bothers to go and check. Sometimes the car's battery even died, or went low, leaving a pathetic blinking of the hazard lights. By the time the owner gets to the car, it will be no use as either the car was pried open or its windows smashed and the battery is dead. What the security guards should do is to rush to the scene, take note of the plate number and inform the management. The management then should make an announcement so that the owner of the car can go and check on his/her car. One time I was at a mall and my car remote control's battery was weak so I could not open the door. I had to open it manually, triggering the alarm (who says CLKs don't have a good alarm? Mine still works after so many years, thankfully). Because the alarm went off, I can't even start my car engine. It took me a good 5 minutes or so to finally switch off the alarm. In the meantime, nobody, not a single soul came to my rescue and to check what is going on. This just goes to show how 'alert' the security guards are. 

Anyway, please be careful wherever you are and always be alert of your surrounding. Please take out your car keys before you walk to your car and don't scramble looking for the keys when you are alone in a parking lot. Some malls have allocated parking lots for single ladies and for ladies with a stroller or kids but do you think that people care? I doubt that people will adhere to it. Let's say you see a couple or a single man parked in a single ladies' parking lot and you tell them to move their car because, well, you are a single lady driver, or you have a baby and a stroller with you, do you think they would move their car elsewhere? I don't think so. It will never happen in Malaysia. It has yet happen to me but I will try it one day and see how it goes. It would be fun, don't you think?

Here is a link to my letter, entitled Security Guards Who Are Merely Window Dressing. It is heavily edited, by the way but at least I get my message across. And no, I did not come up with that title.

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Risking it

We were told to exercise and move out lazy butts off the couch one too many times, don't we? How many of you actually take the stairs up to your condo/apartment (walk up apartment or flats doesn't count OK) or to your office? How many of you actually parked your car a mile away just so that you can walk a bit? I, for one hardly ever do any of the above. I hereby unashamedly admit that I am a lazy bum. No wonder my bum is getting bigger by the day. gaaah. My office is on the 1st floor and yet I take the elevator to go up. That shows how lazy i am huh? But to my defence, I have tons to carry to my office ie my handbag, my other bag and my file. On some days when I don't have a file with me, I would walk up the stairs but on most of the days, with or without file, I would take the elevator. Back at home I have no choice but to take the elevator because we are staying on a high floor and I need to carry Babycakes, my handbag, my other bag, Babycakes' food bag and Babycakes' bag pack. On days that I have stuffs I bought, I would have one or two plastic bags or grocery bags with me. But how come I still have these "bye-bye arms"? Pfft.

I would also find the nearest parking spot available but it is rather an impossible task here in my office area unless I do not go to court in the morning. I would make several rounds with the hope that a car would come out but luck is not always on my side. I always ended up parking a bit far from my office so I had to walk, with my handbag, my other bag and my file. 

trust me, I don't really mind walking a distance from my car or to take the stairs up to my office but with the recent incidents that happened at parking lots of shopping malls, who would want to park a mile away? Who would want to take the stairs up at a shopping mall? No way. It is not safe anymore. 

I'd rather have a big bum and bye-bye arms than risk being kidnapped, raped or robbed *touchwood*, thank you very much.

weekend project part 26

It's been so long since I last made a 'weekend project' post. Wow somebody's been slacking in the baking department, huh? Oh well, juggling work, motherhood, wifeyhood and household ain't easy my friends. It's all do it yourself baby, or the house will rut, the hubby will starve and the baby will stop growing lol. OK not funny. Recently, my baking mood has slowly started to come back. We have a huge oven as a wedding gift from my besties but I left all my baking utensils at my parents' place and I never bothered to bring them to my place just because well, urmm, I have my hands full. Weekends are the time when I would clean the house, do laundry (this requires a whole different post altogether) sweep the floor- gosh that reminds me, I should actually mop the house! When was the last time the floors see water?

Anyway, I have forgotten that baking can give me a slight sense of relaxation and happiness after finishing and looking at the end product. But I hate the cleaning up part, though. Pfft.

Now that I have brought all baking utensils to my place, it's bake time! It started with a buttermilk cake with hazelnut praline topping which I copied from here. It looked so tempting so I decided to bake it for Father's Day. It was a hit. Then my mum was saying things like "see, how nice it is that you bake your own. you should bake more often yada3" and before I know it, I started googling for recipes and also watching videos on YouTube. I then stumbled upon a video on how to make cake pops and gosh who would have thought that it was so easy to make? A bit tedious but easy peasy! I made them last weekend.

I used an instant cake mix as I was too lazy to bake from scratch. Thank God for the invention of these instant cake mix. I feel like a pro in an instant. The fewer the ingredients needed, the better. I bought White Wings Our Favourite Moist Chocolate as it only requires milk, eggs and vegetable oil but I simply used cooking oil because I don't have any vegetable oil. I baked the cake on Friday night and let it cool overnight.

The next day, when the cake is obviously cooled, crumble them into pieces. I did not crumble the whole cake in the beginning as I need the right texture for my cake balls. I added Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Vanilla frosting bit by bit so that the cake won't end up soggy. In the event your dough becomes too moist because of too much frosting, you can always add more cake in it.

Mix the frosting and the cake crumbs either with hand, spatula or a cake mixer- I used a spatula as it would be a hassle to clean the cake mixer later. It's all about being efficient, people! Once you've got the right texture, ie not too soggy or moist and not too hard, roll the dough into little balls. Do not make them too big or the stick won't be able to support them.

Lollipop sticks are available at baking supplies stores. Once the balls are ready, dip one end of the stick into melted chocolate and stick it into the balls. (that doesn't sound right, does it?) Shoooh dirty minds! Anyway the melted chocolate acts as the glue to stick the balls on to the stick.

Refrigerate for an hour or more so that the balls are set. While my cake balls are in the fridge, I managed to iron some clothes, sweep the floor and take a bath. Thankfully Babycakes were having her afternoon nap so I managed to get all these done. Phew.

She woke up just as I finished bathing (talk about good timing, huh?) so after entertaining and feeding her, I placed her in her pack n play, put on her nursery rhyme dvd and I went back to finish my cake balls. It ended up refrigerated more than an hour, which is better. I then melted some milk chocolate buttons, and once the milk chocolate has cooled slightly or to room temperature, I slowly dipped the balls in it. This has to be done carefully as you don't want the sticks to be covered in chocolates as well. Plus, you need to be careful that the balls don't slip off the stick. While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle some colourful strands or beads or almonds on it. I don't have a styrofoam block or clay or sponge so I used whatever was in my kitchen, a styrofoam pack. I simply poked holes in it and slipped the sticks in it so that it will stand upright. Improvise, remember?

So there you have it, the end product- my very own home made cake pops. Told ya they were easy, didn't I? I wasn't sure if I was supposed to refrigerate them afterwards but I did. However, the chocolate buttons that I used are very thick and it ended up a thick coating. But wait, why am i complaining? They're yummy milk chocolate! Chocolate balls covered with milk chocolate- a true chocolate lover's delight. Lucky I didn't use the Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Chocolate Frosting or that would mean triple the chocolate. Take note that the frosting is a bit too sweet so use in moderation.

These cake pops were a hit at my aunt's house as I brought them over that night for a kenduri. When eating a cake pop, you have to be careful as the cake might drop so it's best to make small balls so that the whole ball can get into your mouth in one bite. Kids and adults alike love cake pops and they are a great party favour too. I might do this for Babycakes' birthday.