Chocolate Chip Cookies

Salam and good day readers!

You know usually during the eid festivities, people will bake a lot of different type of cookies. I love eating most of them, but i don't really know how to bake them. huhu...=P

But I do know one cookie recipe which is the all time favourite, chocolate chip cookies. You can find thousand versions of this recipe online, where people add some small things to perfect them. 

This recipe is the simplest that I found, it's easy to do and have a great taste too! If you like the type that's crispy, then this is the recipe for you. I don't like the colour because it'll come out a bit pale. But as long as the taste is great, it doesn't really matter right? 

So, the things that you need are:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

You don't have to add the walnuts if you don't want to. I usually don't because I hate nuts.

Then what you need to do:

1. Thoroughly cream sugars, margarine, oil, egg, milk and vanilla.
2. Add dry ingredients, nuts and chocolate chips.
3. Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 8-12 minutes. (Cookies are light in color when done.)

Simple right? Just three steps to baking your own cookies. It will turn out looking like this.

I posted these on Facebook and my uncle said it looked like 'cekodok'. Whaaat?? 

So I flattened them a bit so it'll look more like a cookie. huhu...

Enjoy!

Until next time....

Supermoon + Farewell

Salam and good day readers!

Today my friends and I went out for dinner as a farewell gathering for our friend. Her name is Jung Min and she's from Korea. She's actually a student from National University of Singapore (NUS) and did a twinning study at London School of Economics (LSE). She has finished her studies, so she's going back to Singapore for work.

I actually met her a while back in the lift of Zahirrah's studio. It seems that I always meet new people in the lift of her place. huhu...

She was the one that initiated the conversation when she asked whether I'm Malaysian. She said it was because of my scarf, very distinct for Malaysian. hehe...

From there we became friends. We never get a chance to be close though due to the packed schedule. We tried going out for lunch a few times but always have to cancel in the last minute. So this was actually our 2nd time seeing each other after so long even though Zahirrah and her lived in the same building. 

We stopped at London Waterloo before going to Chinatown.

I was thinking to bring her to my aunt's restaurant in Chinatown because she loves Malaysian food. I cooked her 'sambal tumis' once and she just went crazy over it. *my cooking is that good ok* =P

Sadly my aunt's place was closed already because we went there around 6.30pm. So we went to Rasa Sayang restaurant instead. Remember that I gave a bad review about them before, but we had no other choice. 

Jung Min and me. =D

I ordered Special Nasi Goreng and Bandung

Zahirrah and Li Sia (another Malaysian friend) ordered Nasi Lemak and Teh ais, while Jung Min ordered Char Kuey Teow (no picture).

From the left, Li Sia, Zahirrah, Me and Jung Min. Why am I the only one like that? Everyone is so formal. -_-

I really wished we could've spent more time with Jung Min to get to know her better. Hope we can stay in touch after this. 

After dinner, I asked Ira to accompany me to take pictures of the supermoon. You know about the supermoon right? It's a phenomena when the moon's location is the closest to earth. Only happens once in a while. This year, it occurred three times including today and another time will be on September 9th.

We went to Westminster bridge because it's just a walking distance from Chinatown to London Waterloo (where we'll be taking the train home) and because it's nearby St. Thomas Hospital where we can go for prayer easily. It was about 8.30pm (see big ben) when we saw the supermoon!

Taken from the opposite side of the road. Use the people as reference to how big the moon is.

At the tip of my fingers. =D

  

Hide the face. =P

So beautiful. Subhanallah!

Auuuuuwwwww.....(wolf call)

Tired after walking too much (or because too full)..hehe...

Taken at Clapham Junction station. Loved the clouds surrounding the moon. 

Well...until next time! 

Red Velvet Cupcakes Tutorial

Salam and good day everyone....

Today I'm going to share with you one of the recipe that I'm particularly good at. This is the first cupcake that I've made and it's the only thing that I can make perfectly (so far)...hehe

You must've heard of red velvet right? duh~~ I just love baking them. Don't like eating them as much though.

I got this recipe from Martha Stewart. Who better to learn baking from, right? So, the things that you need are: 

• 
  
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (or any kind of cocoa powder)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
• 
  
• For the Cream Cheese Frosting, you need:

       

• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 pound (4 cups) icing sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

It's fairly difficult to find some of these things here, like the cream cheese, buttermilk and cocoa powder. People here prefer the instant mix rather than making them from scratch. huh

So what you need to do are:

1. STEP 1

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cocoa, and salt.

2. STEP 2

   With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food colour and vanilla.

3. STEP 3

   Mix baking soda and vinegar in a cup (it will foam), and add buttermilk, filling the cup. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.

4. STEP 4

   Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake for about 20 minutes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Mine is ugly looking. I know! =P

1. STEP 5

   To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting or use a piping tube to make it more pretty!

folder [D:] experiment. cari dafni 

Put on the icing

Small and cute version

Try it yourself!

Until next time....

Colourful London

Salam and good day everyone!

Another segment of colourful London...

You know that there are many cars nowadays being built as a hybrid. Meaning that they use electricity instead of petrol. It is because electricity is easier to be generated than petroleum which is getting scarce every year.

Some parking space in London are reserved for such cars and they even put up charging poles for them to charge their cars while parking. Convenient isn't it!

More hybrid London buses are provided as well. I hope Malaysia will have more and more hybrid cars being used, at least if not, make the public transport environment friendly. But seeing that the electricity tariff is increasing rapidly, I'm not sure how big of a difference can you save from an electric car as compared to a normal fuel consumed car. hehe...

Until next time...

EID FESTIVAL 2014

Salam and good day everyone!

It was such a good day today. My friend and I went to Trafalgar Square because the Mayor of London held an Eid Festival there. I'm not sure whether they held this annually or not, but we're sure glad they did it this year. =D

I went here before for the first time for another event when I first came here, Malaysian Night. To go here, you can stop at the nearest tube station which is Charing Cross station. There were so many booths opened.

We went looking around here first.

At first sight, I wasn't really interested to see this guy doing khat, but then I saw they were giving it out for free! hahaha...so we queued to get ours. 

There were a lot of stalls from most of the muslim countries around the world, like Iraq, Morocco...

Indonesia...

and of course...MALAYSIA!! When we arrived, the cooking demo was just finished.

There were so many people queuing for Malaysian food. It felt so good watching the locals here trying our local Malaysian cuisine.

Some restaurants that you can find around London that participated in this event selling their delicious food.

The price is normal around here. Don't try to convert with Malaysian Ringgit ok. 

Black guys cooking satay. Say whaaaatt?!!

So many people here

err...is that guy still available? =P

I bought one mafla for my friend.

The show picture exhibition as well

This calligraphy was written on ceramics and canvasses.

i got this wrist band here.

They have henna studios to draw some henna. The locals love it. But henna that are drawn with patterns are not permissible in Islam. 

The even provide children activity centre for the kids to play.

We bought this coconut drink. It was so expensive...£4.50 per fruit. 

Photo session outside afterwards.

Malaysia tourism. Malaysian flag soar proudly 

There'll always be protesters. One of the things that I like here, they respect people to voice out their opinion in public. 

Because the line at the festival was too long for food, we went to my aunt's place to eat instead.

Free model at the back.

Until next time.