I'm a full-time mummy

After my successful first attempt at baking Shortbread Chocolate Chip Butter Cookies without using premix, I have decided to attempt butter cookies WITHOUT relying on premix again and this time, I used cookies cutter for the added special touch!

This recipe was adapted from Sara Lewis's "Healthy Home-Made Food For Babies & Toddlers" book. Because of this recipe, I actually bought the cute mini cookies cutter! So without further ado, here goes:

SHORTBREAD SHAPES

PREPARATION TIME: LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR

* About 5 minutes to mix & prepare the dough
* About 15 minutes to cut out the cookies
* 12 minutes for baking process
*  The recipe makes 60 cookies but because my cookies cutter are much smaller, I made about 100+ cookies

Ingredients / Tool Required:

What to Do?

* Preheat oven to 180℃.
* Brush 2 baking sheets with a little oil (I used 1 baking sheet and 1 wire rack instead and I used baking paper instead)
* Put together the flour, cornflour and sugar in a bowl.
* Cut the butter into pieces and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
* Mould to a dough with your hands.
* Knead lightly and roll out on a floured surface to a 5mm thickness (mine is thicker, almost 1cm).
* Stamp out shapes with small cookie cutters.
* Transfer to the baking sheets, sprinkle with extra sugar if liked (I didn't do this as I don't want Ben to be eating too sweet stuff).

First batch on baking paper using baking sheet

Second batch on baking foil using wire rack

BAKING PROCESS

* Set oven to 180℃ and bake for 10-12 minutes until pale golden.
* Loosen with a knife and leave to cool on the baking sheets and then transfer to a wire rack.

THE RESULTS

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME	"Yummy and oh-so cute looking! Crisp, taste all are just nice!" (giving myself a pat on the back again.. hehehe)
BEN	"Ammm! Ammm!"
HUBBY	"Hmmm, taste good! Very cute shapes too!"
SIL	"Mmmm... taste very nice! The sweetness is just ngam-ngam (perfect in Chinese). Bonnie (her 11 year old daughter) also said very nice and she's not a butter cookies person you know..."
MIL	"Delicious, but I prefer to see it more brown - try baking it a bit longer - give it the burnt look."

So there you go.... my SHORTBREAD SHAPES BUTTER COOKIES 2nd attempt without using premix (1st attempt at using cookies cutter)! Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt and I have additional 2 guinea pigs (my SIL and her daughter) to test on as we're out for a family dinner just an hour after I baked this cookies! To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

I leave you with a snapshot of my cheeky little man taking a bite of the cookie while watching his Donald Duck cartoons (his gobbling record stands at 5 cookies in less than 5 minutes)...

Brought to you by: Mama Baker wannabe aka

After two attempts at making chocolate chip butter cookies using premix in which the 2nd was a success, I have decided to take the plunge in baking cookies WITHOUT relying on premix. This recipe was adapted from Allrecipes.com. I didn't managed to take pictures of the ingredients and the process as it was a spur of the moment thing to bake it since my brother in law and his friend came by to have dinner at our house and I thought it'd be nice to have new guinea pigs to test on to bake them these cookies. So without further ado, here goes:

SHORTBREAD CHOCHOLATE CHIP BUTTER COOKIES

PREPARATION TIME: LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR

* About 5 minutes to mix & prepare the dough
* 17 minutes for baking process 

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* 220 g all-purpose flour (I used wheat flour)
* 2 g baking powder
* 2 g salt
* 225 g unsalted butter (melted and I used salted butter instead)
* 100 g white sugar
* 125 g semisweet chocolate chips
* A bowl to mix ingredients in
* Kitchen scale
* Metal cup to store melted butter
* Spatula
* Baking sheet & paper

What to Do?

* Preheat oven to 150℃.
* Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
* In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
* Gradually stir in the dry ingredients, then stir in the chocolate chips.
* Roll the dough into small balls and place on the baking sheets/tray, spaced slightly apart.
* Flatten each balls slightly.

BAKING PROCESS

* Set oven to 150℃ and bake for 15-20 minutes until light golden brown.
* Remove from sheets to cool on racks.

THE RESULTS

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME	"Yummy! Considering this is my 1st attempt at baking cookies without premix, this is really really good! Even taste better than the premix! Crisp, taste all are just nice!" (giving myself a pat on the back.. hehehe)
BEN	"Ammm! Ammm!"
HUBBY	"You mean this is from scratch? Not using premix?! Wow, taste good! In fact, it tastes better than the premix!"
BIL	"Mmmm... taste very delicious! The sweetness and all are just nice! What's the recipe?"
FRIEND	"Very good, if you add in pistachio nuts in the next attempt will be delicious!"

So there you go.... my SHORTBREAD CHOCHOLATE CHIP BUTTER COOKIES 1st attempt without using premix! Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt! To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

I leave you with a snapshot of my cheeky little man taking a bite of the cookie in our room just now...

Brought to you by: Mama Baker wannabe aka

I came across a new baking cookbook which was available for review on netGalley and decided to request it. The cover page is just so cute and totally attracted me! Btw, the book is called: "ZOMBIE CUPCAKES".

Title: Zombie Cupcakes-From the Grave to the Table with 16 Cupcake Corpses
Author: Zilly Rosen
Publisher:  Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN: 9781449401122
Paperback: 80 pages
Dimension: 7 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.
On Sale: February 15, 2011 — Coming soon!

Description from the product page:
"Conjuring up her inner George A. Romero, professional cake designer Zilly Rosen focuses her creative attention on crafting a legion of edible undead inside Zombie Cupcakes: From the Grave to the Table with 16 Cupcake Corpses. With a nod to Romero's zombie franchise, Rosen offers instructions for crafting 16 terrifying treats, including:
    * Toxic Bite
    * Zombie Rising
    * Keep an Eye Out
    * Destroy the Brain
      and more!
Readers can raise their own macabre multitude of Zombie Cupcakes creations from the undead with an average creation time of less than one hour. Each Zombie Cupcakes design includes a full-color photograph of the zombie creation at hand, as well as an illustrated instructional overview and a convenient sidebar list of every item you will need to complete the cupcake."

Cute cupcakes I like!

I love the cute cover, so scary yet tempting you to check them out further! Exactly like how a horror flick would be... you know where the characters in the film would still go and check out the source of eerie/spooky sounds and stuff and them get themselves killed or something... Hehehe... Only for this book, you get 'killed' with the cuteness of the cupcakes!

Each recipe came with the pictures of the cupcake and pictorial guide on how to do the frosting/decorative layer, which makes you drool even more and wanted to attempt to make each and every one of it! There's also a mini trivia on zombie movies for each of the cupcake recipes.

I wish I could post up more pictures to show you the cuteness and creepiness of some of the cupcakes but this book is not on sale yet (scheduled on 15th Feb 2011) so I think I better refrain from doing so.

In my opinion, the cupcake recipes are pretty easy to do, the hardwork is more on the decorative/frosting layer. I think this book is a good choice for cupcake lovers and those who are interested in dabbling with cupcakes. I would try this if I ever decide to venture into cupcakes in the future!

You can purchase this book from Andrews McMeel Publishing website or from Amazon.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a galley proof of the book via my association with netGalley as a reviewer 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"