homemade butter cake & bread pudding!

here are two homemade cakes i baked with my mum on the first weekend of the new year! the top and left photos show two butter cakes (one round and one loaf) while the one on the right is a bread pudding with banana and raisins.

*pictures taken after removed from baking pan for cooling. they were not steamed as the steamer was only used as 'cooling wire rack.'

Waku Waku Japanese Restaurant @ Mid Valley Megamall

Reposted from BatsuとMaru, 21 September 2012:

If you happen to be looking for Sushi King (opposite MVEV) at the usual spot in Mid Valley, you might be disheartened to find out that it no longer looks like the same place, for it has been replaced by a new contemporary Japanese dining place called Waku Waku. (Fear not, it belongs to the same company as is Goku Raku Ramen and Miraku, but does not serve pork.)

Ninja Joe @ Sunway Pyramid

my days this october are so short despite the 31 days. so i met up with minori +1 for a short lunch yesterday before my worktime, the friday before september ended.

it is not a good idea to ignore a good craving for something you have not had in a good length of time, so we head off to Ninja Joe for 6 good saucy ninjas with a couple shuriken sets - yummy goodness!

did you think us girls met up for a couple fatty pork sandwich only? of course we had other agendas squeezed into 99 minutes: Liz Lisa, banking, makeup, chatting, and A-saloon.

girls make ends meet - we make time and this proves so!

Goku Raku Ramen @ Mid Valley

after watching Railways (2010) at GSC Mid Valley Japanese Film Festival (RM5 each ticket), organised by Japan Foundation, kilmenyanne and i were starving from lack of dinner. so i intoduced her to a new place (to us) called Goku Raku Ramen because it was having a 50% discount on ALL ramen items on monday and tuesday this september.

i ordered some sort of char siew pork with egg ramen, while kilmenyanne ordered some kind of spicy char siew pork ramen. there is absolutely no way to remember the long food names especially with someone who kept pointing out good looking waiter and waitress left and right.

verdict of Goku Raku Ramen titular dish? absolutely amazing! the broth tasted thick of pork flavor, the ramen smooth and original, while the portion is definitely generous. i would eat here again even without the discount.

our drinks were not discounted but i was too full to refill my refillable hot green tea, and kilmenyanne was contented with a mug of Sapporo beer.

Japanese food is a great way to end a Japanese movie day~

Dong Cha @ IOI Mall

yeay~ this is my second everyday.com.my voucher redemption! quite a delicious treat at only rm4.75 each set.

earlier this week, after weeks and weeks of emailing and postponing, motr and terrasmark finally could meet up together with me on a weekday when i am off work. we went to IOI Mall to redeem three sets of bubble tea and jumbo wagashi at Dong Cha, one for each of us.

see, the boys fighting over who gets their Dong Cha serving first~

guess who got there first? i ninja-ed to the front of the queue!

the photo below shows a delicious large milk tea with black pearls and a belgium chocolate jumbo wagashi (see all that choco cream oozing from the center) - all mine!

movie, handicarft & tea times~

(considering it is past midnight, day before) yesterday, i had dinner at Papa Johns and then watched a movie with my family - it was Mr Popper Penguins starring Jim Carey. i guess it is only proper to say it was half family and half romcom type of movie. mummy said the penguin casts were probably remote-controlled because it would be difficult to train them to perform, but my sister said there are animal movie trainers who can, and i said we should have stayed for the credit roll to find out.

before the movie, i quickly walked into my favourite tee store, Brands Outlet to look at the current tee prints available. i immediately spotted a couple must-haves, and a couple more cute wants. i left empty-handed since i was penniless (though i vow to return soon for them!) but i did buy a pack of colourful heart-shaped beads at Daiso before making it juuuuust in time for the movie.

i am really happy to have made and wear these~

i made three sets of cute bracelets out of that pack of beads from Daiso, and added some white pearl beads and string them together with some leftover elastic thread (which are not exactly leftovers coz i still have a lot and never actually sew any shirring with it before).

cookie cutter craze!

last week i was browsing some unique cookie cutter designs, and decided i wanted to bake some cookies but the kitchen ran out of flour and i want new cookie cutter shapes. last tuesday, i took the chance to buy a packet of cookie flour at Daiso when minori and i were out for a lunch date. in the meantime, i fell hopelessly for the macaron gashapon, so i bought one as a phone accessory.

my new macaron handphone strap was randomly spat out from the gashapon machine, and i received the main character on my first and only try. i also bought two cabochon of (pirated) Sugarbunnies and DIY them into rings. it seems i still have one last plain undecorated ring - what should i stick on it?

souvenirs from japan! 「おみやげ！」

these are souvenirs from japan brought by friends and shared with colleagues two weeks ago~ the cookie boxes contains spicy cookies - i think is a great game idea (i do love spicy food too)! there is a bottle of oolong-cha (perhaps from a japanese convenience store, コンビニ) and the iconic Tokyo Tower keychain~ last but not least, a lot of yen coins (most likely enough for a few return train tickets).

*sigh* i wonder when will it be my turn to visit Japan?

Birthday cake! 「たんじょうびケーキ！」

since i enjoyed the Create Your Own Story cake from Bread Story, i decided to order the same cake again for my own birthday cake. it is actually vanilla sponge cake with fresh mixed fruits (not the yucky fruitcake type) covered with white icing.  you simply order the cake according to size (RM10 for 4inch, RM26 for 6inch) and decorate the cake with the provided coloured icing~

however, this time i bought the 4inch cake (previously i bought the 6inch cake) which now lacked space, so i could only squeeze the 'birthday number' on the top, instead of decorating something more elaborated.

plus, the icing piping bags edge had melted/liquid icing. when i lifted the piping bag over the cake, icing dripped on the white cake! luckily i could cover the 'stain' with coloured icing.

then, when i was drawing the chandelier strings, i realised i had gotten rusty and forgotten how i had decorated the cake previously, so it got messed up on the sides too.

yes, i know the sides looks terrible and you can still spot the dripping icing i tried to cover!

in the end, i added sugary stars and chocolate rice (which is sold separately from the cake at RM2 per pack). the result? i will only show you the one photo above... and leave the rest to your imagination!

Tenshi no Café 天使の喫茶 Facebook cake!

Tenshi no Café Facebook page has finally reached 12000 likes today! i did not plan anything special for today's occasion, but it did remind me of the time for the first 10000 likes!

i brought a custom cake of which i decorated, from Bread Story. it might not look like much for a 6inch cake, but i managed to cut it into eight slices to be shared with several Tenshi no Café maids, butlers and master.

☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

enchanted exam

while time permits me, i shall squeeze in a blog post or two now. exam is finally over, and the weekend begins, so semester break goes on until the weekend before valentine's day. but let's recap what happened over the past weeks. i start with a long rant, so if you wish to skip it, please click on the "continued" link below.

last week, my phone went missing. *dramatic music* here is how it went on that unfortunate day: went to college, leave bag outside classroom, enter exam, busying in the exam venue for two hours, exit classroom, check bag, noticed my phone missing, asked around and was told another coursemate's phone went missing too. WHY US? ;__;

first, the model and condition of our phones. mine: sony eri with camera and basic communication, cracked screen and missing back cover (battery is exposed). hers: nokia, black/white display and old. seriously, what kind of desperado wants our phone for? ARE YOU A SECRET ROBIN HOOD WHO WANTS TO DUMP OUR PHONES IN THE "RECYLCLE PHONE" BIN? please ask first. at least give us back the SIM card!

second, responsibility. is it the students' fault for bringing their phones to college, knowing well in advance that we are to leave ALL our belongings (which are not used for exam) whether rain or shine, outside the exam venue? or is it the college fault with poor conduct? at first you might say the students' fault but you think again - what about students who take public transport to college, one hour away from home? of course we will blame the college because as far as i know, other tertiary institutions have the student bags put aside in the exam venue, not OUTSIDE.

delicious omurice 「おいしい・オムライス」

こんにちは、ご主人様、お嬢様。

good afternoon, my master, and my lady.

お元気で すか？

how are you?

今日はオムライスを作りました。

today i made omurice.

食べたいですか？

would you like to eat?

お楽しみください。

i hope you will enjoy it.

ありがとうおはようございます！

thank you very much!

note: i was waiting for my phone to recharge after i made the omurice because there was no battery to use the phone camera. so the tomato sauce and chilli sauce started to bleed off the omelet by the time i was ready to take photos. sorry for the sloppy pictures!

Strawberry Cake

i made a strawberry cake for a birthday celebration last weekend. XD mind you, i wanted to try strawberry-flavoured Adabi cucur at first, but the recipe at the back of the flour packet has instructions for muffins, so instead of deep fry (too oily), i chose to bake (my specialty)! if not for cucur flour, i would have made the cake from scratch since i rarely use ready mix. *show off*

wait, you don't believe there is such thing as strawberry-flavoured cucur flour from Adabi? well,  i had to look twice at the supermarket shelf at first too. have a look at the following photos!

dimsum breakfast~

i have seen some spell "dimsum" as "timsum" but as long as we get the point across, let's not argue on that, alright? early today it was already raining, but since my family were all awake, we decided to go out for some breakfast at our usual dimsum place.

since the little plates the restaurant provided were cleanly white the sauces were in squeeze bottles, i had an itch to draw a cute face! i need more practice though. haha~

triangle sandwich maker!

i could not remember when or where had i seen this triangle sandwich maker before, but i remember the price stopped me from buying it, but i really wanted to try it - and now i own one! i bought it from the 'plastic-all-RM5-each' pile at Ace Hardware in Sunway Pyramid.

all that is well, ends well

this week had been unpredictable, i think. there weren't many events that happened, but those little moments were the ones that matters and left a big impression on me. perhaps it was because of the absence of english language classes this week? ^__^;;;

let's talk a little about food today! i am starving for supper~ plus, it has been half a years since i last wrote  my monthly food theme.

happy day!

you would think with a title like the above, i had had a happy day today? your guess is right - yes, i was a very happy girl today!

let's highlight what were the little things that made my day:

• the arrival of a long-(nearly-)lost parcel to complete my Sawako costume
• the compliments about my new clothes which i received a day ago
• the fun lunch with my coursemates
• and an unexpected email!

Malaysia maid-themed cafes

have you heard of the popular maid cafes in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan; such as cure, @home, and maidreamin? don't you just wish to visit one of those maid cafes? because i myself dream of visiting a maid cafe in japan! perhaps, butler cafes too.

however, the closest i ever got to a cafe maid was: Ryomou Shimei (one of my previous cosplay character who works part-time in a maid cafe). why? you have to understand it is not that cheap to travel in japan, at least for me. so, let's get started on a list of maid-themed cafes, here in Malaysia!

new semester fatigue

this has been a rather strange week, but i think i can explain why.. of late, i have been feeling sleepy easily and hungry soon after each meal too!

usually i can stay up really late into the night, way past 12midnight, but last night i could only stay until ten past midnight and i really could not keep my eyes open any longer. most likely because i sleep all the way into the afternoon during semester break last month, and now i have to re-adjust to the morning timetable. also, i get sleepy after lunch break hour, but that was probably because food+heat=sleep.

oh, the hunger issue is more serious. you could say i am eating half times more than my usual portion for each meal, so far this week. not only that, i also snack in between meals and get hungry not long after the previous meal. =__=;;; AND i don't feel full no matter how much i eat (i know there is a real disorder for this but i am sure i am not affected) until i burp (which then i can feel some food going half way up my throat) which tells me STOP, YOU ARE BLOATED. i think it's the hormones due to 'time of the month', but one fellow Gemini did experience similar hunger level (but not as serious i think) so i was thinking maybe some stars and planets position is causing Geminis to overeat this week. well, i hope it is only for this week.

or else i might grow into a large mushroom - but people will tell me, "hey, you're not that much now, won't hurt to eat a little more to lose that stick figure." well, excuse me but i do not want to lose or gain any weight! i am happy with what i already have for years.

it's sem break! day 22

happy mid-autumn festival~ it is sometimes shortened to "lantern festival" or "mooncake festival" etcetera. where do these people get their ideas. tsktsk. anyway, the actual festival was yesterday, but i was busy eating mooncake, so i am sharing the home-made snowskin mooncakes i mentioned here today.

home-made pandan snowskin mooncakes with white lotus paste filling~

these few were dotted to separate them from the ones with fillings mixed with kuaci seeds. yes, i wanted the plain filling all to myself. hahaha~ of course, i am only joking - you know that, right?

a day in september seems to be incomplete without a parcel from somewhere. so click the jump to continue reading if you have not tired from my month-long shopping craze. includes something from AFAX too~