I'm a full-time mummy

Daddy's DIY Playmat for Ben!

~ Posted on Friday, April 1, 2011 at 3:34 PM ~

Whoaaa... Despite his hectic schedule, I'm impressed my hubby took his time to come up with this! Take a look...

Pictures sourced from Google and I don't know what other image sharing websites out there, printed using hubby's color printer onto recycled A4 papers.. I helped along with cutting out the roads, houses, trees, clouds, etc.

Yeap... hubby made the base out of the recycled cardboards in his office. And meticulously glued in those pictures I cut out earlier and he added in a tunnel and a bridge and also a garage for Ben to park his toy cars - all made from cardboards as well !

Ben loves it and wanted to include his tractor toy as well, but oh boy, that is too big for the playmat!

Ben enjoying the playmat and keep playing with the garage...

So kudos to my creative hubby for a good job done!

Posted By I'm a full-time mummy Awesome Comments (9)

Category Parenthood Tag Children, Memories, Parenting, Milestones

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Vanilla Flower Cookies

~ Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 9:21 AM ~

I have not been posting about my baking adventure for sometime, so few days back, I attempted this recipe which was adapted from a cookbook I bought from Borders. Although the title said Vanilla Flowers, mine doesn't turn out flowery looking as I don't have the piping tools to squeeze the batter out into flower looking shaped cookies. Anyway, without further ado, here goes:

VANILLA FLOWER COOKIES

PREPARATION TIME: LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR

* About 10 minutes to mix & prepare the dough
* 15 minutes for baking process

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* 150 g all-purpose flour sifted (I used wheat flour)
* 50 g cornflour (sifted)
* Few drops of vanilla essence
* 200 g butter (I used salted butter instead)
* 50 g icing sugar (sifted)
* Semisweet chocolate chips
* A bowl to mix ingredients in
* Kitchen scale
* Spatula, piping tool (I used a plastic bag with one end snipped a bit)
* Baking sheet & paper

What to Do?

* Preheat oven to 180℃.
* In a mixing bowl, cream the butter & icing sugar together. Pour a few drops of vanilla essence as well.
* Sift together bit by bit the cornflour and wheat flour into the mixing bowl.
* Put the batter into the piping tool and squeeze out the flowery shaped dough on the baking sheets/tray, spaced slightly apart.
* Decorate with icing flowers (I used chocolate chips instead). See picture below...

BAKING PROCESS

* Set oven to 180℃ and bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden brown.
* Remove from sheets to cool on racks.

THE RESULTS

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME	*"Yummy! But super crumbly!"*
BEN	*"Want! Bikut* (aka biscuit)*! Cookie! More, more! Ahhh, ahhhhh! Give, Give!!"* (I had to feed him after he accidentally squashed the cookies when he grasp it... ooppss)
HUBBY	*"Hmm.. nice!"*
NIECE	*"Delish!!~ XD"*
COUSIN	*"Delicious, with more practise your cookies can beat those butter cookies outside!"*

So there you go.... my VANILLA FLOWER COOKIES! Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt! I leave you with some cute snapshots of my cheeky little man trying to get hold of the cookies...