Duncan Hines Red Velvet Mix #CheatBake

Soooo.... how are y'all doin'? 

Yeeeahhh...It has been a while. More like 3 months and 9 days but hey, who's counting? 

Well jokes aside, it was a very hectic semester. I usually bake at least once during the semester but did not get the time to. So, when exams were over, I just had to bake something. My aunt came down to Singapore about 2 months ago and I asked her to get me a red velvet cupcake mix. I don't know what it is about me and red velvet - I am just so keen to find out more about this not-that-mysterious-over-hyped cake. Yes, I know I can do it from scratch and it does taste better but I am lazy time to time (fine, all the time) and I want to make something with a bit of satisfaction and tiny bit of hard work thus I use cake mix. Don't judge.  

Duncan Hines - Apparently a stranger recommended it to my aunt in the store. Thank you stranger. 

This cake mix is different from many others I have used before. It includes frosting! Well, let me talk about the frosting later. 

Pastry Bag included! 

Okay - this cake mix is crazy bright red. I have made red velvet many times before and I have never been able to get the perfect red that this red velvet cupcake mix does. It's crazy! The moment I added in the water, it was like as if it was the Plague of Blood and Moses dipped his staff into the bowl and turned it into blood. Perhaps that comparison was a tad extreme, but you get my point: It was really red. 

Oil, Eggs and Water - Yup...alot of hardwork...

I thought I should be innovative and change up the recipe a bit. I added these Hershey's Chocolate buttons into the cupcake mix. I know...It's like as if I have learnt how to stop time. 

Pardon the blurriness, getting used to mah new Samsung Galaxy S4 !

Well here are the baked results:

                                    

I have learnt a very important lesson from this cake mix. Never use powdered frosting mix. The cake was not bad - I would say it was moist and fluffy. The frosting, however, was bad. I'd rather make my cream cheese frosting the next time when I am not lazy and have $6 to buy 227g of Philadelphia's Cream Cheese block. Regardless, I still piped the cream cheese frosting and also added some sprinkles for some. 

My dear cousin's 'artistic' piping skills

My other cousin's piping - well, she doesn't know when to let go, clearly. #poopcake

My piping. Sigh. Of course, the picture must turn out blurry. 

SPRINKLESSSS

This brings me to the end of this baking entry.

Apart from my baking entry, what can I say about my life? It has been good. Although I had a pretty hectic semester, it was not so bad (and people say I am not open about my life more! Ha!)

Well adios! Hopefully I will squeeze in a couple more baking/cooking entries before school starts in January 2014.

Good Night(:

Can I Marry This Muffin Man?

This is an overdue post!! Been such a long time...right..I mean..yeah...okay. 

This is a shoutout to my amazing internship buddies who passed me these amazing muffins on my last day.
They were super duper good. I will just let the pictures speak :                                    
           

I know...it just makes you want to cry. What a beauty.

                                     

With Chocolate Rice

Banana Walnut... AMAZE BALLS

Cheese...wait for it

Pumpkin...this should be the way vegetables should be served

Blueberries in NTUC: 6-7 SGD...In a muffin? $1.50ish WHAT UP MUFFIN MAN.

THIS IS THE BOMB OMGOMGOMGOMG EAT THIS OMG JUST EAT IT AHHH

Yeah...my mum asked me what I was doing. Told her "Foodography"..Get it? No? Okay. 

You can find these babies here:
Chocolat and Spice
1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, Singapore 082001

Alright. I am done. School has started. Totally loving it...haha not. God knows when I will cook/bake next!

Till then, Good Night !

Thai food and Rickshaw Peddler Empathy

I ended up spending the day with my mum and sister today. It was an interesting day and I will tell you why (if you are interested to know about my life-but it's not really that exciting, why are you reading this? Are you really that bored? Well-I appreciate it--I digress, please read on)

My dad has been raving about this AMAZING Thai food at Arab Street called Koh Nangkam. They are a Southern Thai Muslim Food Restaurant. My dad kept  comparing the food standard to the Thai food we had when we were in Thailand. I guess our expectations were a tad high when we arrived. It was alright but I do not think I would go back there. I would rather go to Thai Express or pay $200 to travel to Thailand to have good Thai food. (Thai Express would be cheaper...but I guess you knew that..'ahem')

Some sort of flower drink...Hibiscus I believe

We ordered some drinks. My sister had the lemongrass drink and I ordered the Roselle..or Hibiscus drink. I must say water never tasted so good. Haha. I was just not a big fan of the ordered drinks but my mum really loved the flower drink. I guess I am just not the type of girl who likes to see flowers in her drink--perhaps in a bouquet but not in my drink or food. My sister's lemongrass was alright--it's basically like someone crushed the lemongrass and added water to it but then again, it did live up to its name.. lemongrass drink.

Phad Thai ;)

This dish arrived piping hot! We mixed it like you should with every phad thai dish. Took a bite and realised--they kind of forgot..that basic spice..what is it again..salt. I don't think they boiled the noodles with salt but we requested for lime and that made up for it.

Hatyai Chicken..ooh damn it looks good 

Oh. My. God. This was what saved the meal..a bit. A bite of these wonderful crispy, juicy chicken wings dipped with the sweet and spicy chili sauce will make you dance. Yes. Dance. These were gooood and you know it is good when a person adds more 'o's to the word 'good'.

Green Curry (Chicken)

Add Caption about this?? Well this is kangkong !
 This picture has been CAPTIONED.. booyah! God I need a life.

Okay..I didn't take photos of all the rest of the food we ordered because..well I was hungry and I could not be bothered to keep Instagramming the photos.. yes I  was that hungry. Anyways, I realised that the green curry, kangkong and thai fried rice we ordered, there is this strong turmeric taste that I felt was a tad too much. I like my kangkong with belachan which my mom absolutely hates but for the first time she loved this kangkong dish which did not use any belachan (duh why else would she like this dish...). We had also ordered the tom yum soup--which was a bit too salty. I think the Thai Express Tom Yum soup is still the best I have tasted in Singapore. I know that's a huge insult but it's true!

Mummy's Cooking :) 

I realised after reading what I just wrote I sound like some foodie..bitch. Well, I am not! I guess this place was just not fit to my palette but it might fit to yours....whoever I keep referring to in this blog. The price was not too bad. We ordered small which cost us $5-$7. Oh! In the end, I had the glutinoous rice with mango which was recommended to try. Well...don't. 

After having such a huge meal, we decided to head down to East Coast Park to do some cycling. My mum had packed some food for us to eat there which is pretty awesome! The picture may not be appetising but trust me it was good. 

We headed to get a cycle and along the way we saw a new type of bikes called 'Family Bike'. There are like 3-6 people on this bike peddling and looking all so happy and fun. So we decided to take one for the three of us. It cost us $30 for an hour and twenty minutes. My mum really wanted to cycle and since she did not know how to cycle with just two wheels.

We started to laugh our ass off. 

While everyone was on their cycles and roller blades, here we are laughing and peddling to save our lives. It was not easy. I do not know how the other families made it look so simple but we were struggling. My mom gave up and she sat like a queen between my sister and I. I am quite a lazy person so my sister ended up doing most of the peddling. Eventually, we all took turns, including my mother. I must say-I was the laziest of them all. I really salute all of the rickshaw peddlers--it is hard to carry two people. I cannot imagine the amount of effort all the rickshaw peddlers have to put in to bring so many people around in a day just by...well peddling! It's crazy!!!

At the end of the day, we had a lot of fun. However, my foot got caught between the peddles when my sister was moving us and well..long story short---my foot hurts like hell and there will definitely be a bruise on it tomorrow. 

East Coast Park View

Overall, I had an amazing day out with my lovely mom and sister. 

I am tired for now. Hope you guys had an awesome weekend :) ( again, who am I referring to..and why do I keep doing it .. )

Good Night.