I'm a full-time mummy

Always think of how glam it would be to have your face gracing a magazine cover?

Think no more!

On my usual prowl across the world wide web, I came across this awesome website

(* Actually I found it few months back but totally forgotten all about it hehehe...)

So, ladies and gentlemen...

Powder up, suit up, do whatever you want and get ready to be featured on a the cover of a magazine!

Did I mention these magazine covers are just for fun?

But still, awesome discovery right?

So go on and get yourself featured on a magazine and have fun!

Oh, if you like, feel free to email me a copy so that I can upload your pictures to my Facebook page for everyone else to enjoy!

This is my 1st attempt of making: BLUEBERRY MUFFIN. I baked this on Saturday 11th Sept. Sorry totally forgot to take the pictures of the process (again!)...

PREPARATION TIME: ABOUT HALF AN HOUR

* Less than 5 minutes to mix & fold batter

* 7 minutes to pre-heat the oven

* 22 minutes for baking process

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* Blueberry Muffin Mix (250g)

* 1 egg (at room temperature)

* 68ml oil

* 50ml water (at room temperature)

* Measuring spoons

* A big containter to mix ingredients in

* A flexible spatula for mixing and folding

* Cupcake casings-depending the casing size, I used 7 pieces this round

* Kitchen scale

* A small spoon to spoon mixture into cupcake casings

* Baking aluminium foil the size of wire rack

What to Do?

* Place all ingredients into a big container, making a well with the dry ingredients at the outer side while the oil, water and egg are in the well.

* Mix and fold using the flexible spatula.

* Continue mixing and folding until all ingredients are combined.

* Using the small spoon, spoon the mixture to each cupcake casing until about 3/4 full.

* Place each cupcake casings on top of wire rack which has been lined with baking foil.

BAKING PROCESS

*Pre-heat oven at 180℃ (about 7 minutes since I reduced the temperature this time by 5℃)

* Place wire rack tray into oven.

* Set oven to 180℃ and bake for 22 minutes (extra 2 minutes just to be safe)

THE RESULTS

CLOSE UP SHOT

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

* Test subject 1 (aka me): "Ooo I love it! This time is sooooooo much better! Love the top, the moist is perfect! I'm so happy I want to name each of the blueberry muffins!!!"

* Test subject 2 (aka Ben): "Ammm Ammm Mammm... "(Ben's signals for us that he wants to eat it NOW!)

(Going, going, gone!!! Ben whacked almost 1 muffin by himself!)

* Test subject 3 (aka hubby): "Perfect! Save me the last one!"

* Test subject 4 (aka MIL): "Wah! This time is very nice. See, must practise more then can make better taste!"

WHAT IS DIFFERENT WITH THIS ATTEMPT?

* Increased pre-heat time from usual 5 minutes to 7 minutes

* Reduced pre-heat temperature from usual 190℃ to 180℃

* Reduced baking time from 25 to 22 minutes (at 20th minute, I use chopstik to poke one of the muffins to check doneness then decided 2 more minutes extra to be safe)

* Maintained baking temperature at 180℃ since my previous baking attempt created nice muffin peaks

So there you go.... my 1st BLUEBERRY MUFFINS attempt!

Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt - the way they turned out, nice rounded peak and the perfect moist, the crust top is just nice, not too hard and not too soft.

Oh well, I love it so much in this attempt that I am going to name all the muffins:

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

Brought to you by: Mama Baker wannabe aka

I have the privilege of reviewing my 1st book under Free Spirit Publishing, a children's alphabet book by Coleen Paratore (illustrated by Mike Reed) called "26 Big Things Small Hands Do".

Seriously, I have a thing with alphabets stuff. Books, posters, flash cards... and I'm not very keen on the common A for Apple, B for Book, C for Cat type of stuff. So, whenever I get the chance to review the out of ordinary alphabet books, I am superbly excited and this is one of the moments for me to be superbly excited!

Just look at this awesome book!

Look at the girl blowing bubbles with one of them looking like our planet Earth! What a neat idea!

Reminded me so much of a picture of Ben and his bubble thoughts...

Anyway, I'm not a fan of blurry illustrations but this book is OK for me. It is not so blurry that it annoys my eyesight.

The pictures on each page are a delight to see.

And the fact that they come packed with awesome ideas incorporating the 26 alphabets with positive actions which we (and our little ones especially!) can do in our daily lives. I love it!!

On the first night we got the book, Ben was already flipping through the pages, pointing at the things he's familiar with - dogs, birds, guitars and so on. There is a page at the end, where it said "Yy   Small hands... YES! Hurray! High five!" with a picture of several childrens' hands raise up high and Ben followed that after looking at the picture!  Cute!

The next morning, Ben goes through the book again, pointing at guitar, dogs and so on.

Ben pointing at the cute little doggie on the front cover and then staring long at it again on the back cover.

One thing I don't like about this book is the extra side flaps (also known as French flaps) on the front and back covers. Maybe it's meant to be some sort of bookmark for the book but I find it quite annoying as it keeps jutting out and I ended up taping the flaps to the cover. Other than that, nothing much bad or negative I can comment on this awesome book!

Overall, I give this book an 8 out of 10.

This book has a total of 32 pages, all nicely illustrated, has softcover, size: 11¼" x 9¼".

Feel free to view the excerpts or read a note from the author.

Btw, this book also won the following awards:

You can get this book from Free Spirit Publishing, Christianbook.com and many more.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book by Free Spirit Publishing in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"