Ipoh ~ 2D1N Lost World of Tambun Trip (6 - 7 April)

Church friend, Sister Cheryl，旭云 and our family went for a 2 days 1 night weekend gateway at Tambun Lost World Theme Park. Really want to thank Sister 旭云 for getting the Groupon offer for this trip. It was quite cheap... er... about RM280 for 2 adults, including one night stay at the Lost World Hotel (breakfast for 2 was included), entrance for the parks and hot spring spa at night. Children's tickets needed to buy separately. We got Samuel's ticket through online at RM32.80 (entrance to the parks) and RM12+ for the night time hot spring and spa.

We started our journey from Cheryl's house around 7am. It was raining that morning (heavy rain I would say). But thank God for His mercy, no more rain after we entered the highway!

It took us about 2 1/2 hours to reach Ipoh. Ipoh is Ze-yng's (Cherly's husband) home town so he knows the place very well. He brought us to have breakfast at a coffee shop which serve very nice 云吞面 and 猪肠粉。 Sadly David and I were busy eating so we didn't mange to take the photos of the food we had. I only managed to snap the photo of the 猪肠粉.

All the children - Samuel, Vanya and Alisya were very happy and excited about the trip!

We had the famous white coffee and it was really good. Totally different from those that we used to have in Penang. We also had the 云吞面 and 猪肠粉.

We arrived at the Lost World Theme Park around 10am, got the tickets and started our fun time!

We spent most of the time at the Water Park. We checked in to our hotel around 4pm. Took a shower, the children had a short nap then we went for dinner at a very nice chicken rice shop. Highly recommended. The 河粉汤 was very nice, the chicken was not very oily, the tauge was very crispy and "fat"and lastly the fish + meat balls soup was awesome!

Onn Kee Taugeh

No. 48, 51, 53, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, 30300, Ipoh, Perak 30300

After dinner we went walked walked at the pasar malam and a bakery shop to buy some souvenir for David to be brought back for his colleagues. 

We woke up around 8am the next morning and went for the hotel breakfast and headed to 极乐洞 for sight seeing.

We checked out around 12:30pm and went for lunch before we headed home to Penang. The children were very tired after the 2 days trip. The princesses knocked out while we were waiting for our lunch at a yong tau fu shop. And Samuel fell asleep in the car.

 

It was a fun and blessed trip. Enjoy the bonding among the families. The children enjoyed the companion of each other. The laughter and sharing are the most valuable memory. Hope we can have another trip together soon. :) 

Blueberry Paste Muffins

Back dated post

Made these blueberry paste muffins for our trip to Ipoh last Sat. The muffins were soft and smelled like blueberry. Hubby said they were nice (happy!). Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
4oz Butter (unsalted)
2oz Caster Sugar
2 eggs
4oz Self Raising Flour
4 tsp of Blueberry paste (or blueberry jam)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan. Line a muffin tray with 8 muffin cases.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs with a spoonful of flour until all the eggs are combined. Fold in the remaining flour.
3. Spoon half the mixture into the bottoms of the muffin cases, spreading the mixture out to the edges.
4. Spoon half a teaspoon of paste/jam into the centre of the cases, on top of the cake mixture. Use the remaining cake mixture to top up the muffin cases and spread the mixture evenly, trying to cover any gaps at the sides of the cases to prevent the jam leaking out. (Using a fork for this is easiest!)
5. Bake for around 20 minutes, until the cakes are risen, lightly golden and spring back from a light press in the middle.

The kids love them, as well as the adults. Will blog about the trip to Ipoh in my next post. Stay tune!

Benefits of lemon water

Saw quite a few of my FB friends shared about the benefits of drinking lemon water. Maybe I can share it here too.

I remembered when I worked as a banker last time, I had a customer who was at her late 40s but she looked like early 30s. I asked what was her secret of maintaining her young look. She told me she had lemon water daily. Or 90% of the water she had, there's lemon in it. She claimed that she never use any expensive facial product or taking any supplements. So, I guess it's the lemon water that does the "magic". She even told me how to choose good lemons. Basically look for those lemons with smooth skin. Feel it with your hands, make sure there is no lump. Look for those lemons with bright yellow color and no green spots. I surfed the net and found these tips on how to pick fresh lemons. Have a look.

Ok, here are the top 10, among a lot, benefits of drinking lemon water.

1. Boosts your immune system: Lemons are high in vitamin C and potassium, which stimulates brain and nerve function. Potassium also helps control blood pressure.

2. Balances pH: Lemon is one of the most alkaline foods around. (this surprised me!)Yes, lemon has citric acid but it does not create acidity in the body once metabolized, so, you’ll reduce your body’s overall acidity.

3. Helps with weight loss: To fight hunger cravings maintain a more alkaline diet, this is because lemons are high in pectin fiber. (wao!!)
 
4. Aids digestion: It encourages the liver to produce bile which is an acid that required for digestion, which reduces heartburn and constipation.

5. Is a diuretic: Lemons increase the rate of urination in the body, which helps purify it from toxins, therefore, helps keep your urinary tract healthy.

6. Clears skin: Lemon water purges toxins from the blood which helps keep skin clear as well, this is thanks to the vitamin C component helps decrease wrinkles and blemishes. (I am so going to make drinking lemon water my habit!!)
 
7. Freshens breath: The citric acid can erode tooth enamel, so it can help relieve tooth pain and gingivitis.

8. Relieves respiratory problems: Warm lemon water helps get rid of chest infections and halt those pesky coughs.

9. Keeps you zen: Vitamin C is one of the first things depleted when you subject your mind and body to stress.

10. Helps kick the coffee habit: Normally after a glass of hot lemon water, you don’t crave coffee in the morning. Try it yourself!

Let's stock our fridge up with some lemons and give lemon water a try :)

Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Back dated post

It has been a bout a week since I last baked a cake or something. It was because I had finished most of the ingredients - like baking powder, flour, muffin cups... Suddenly I felt like wanna back something. I browsed through my pantry and found there was a bar of chocolate. I quickly went to search for a recipe online and this picture of chocolate chunk muffins caught my eyes ( I love chocolate... or you can say I am obsessed with chocolate)

I just could not resist it. So right after David reached home from work, I zoomed out to get the ingredients that I needed. I prefer muffins over cakes cos I think it's less hassle as I just throw away the cups after I finish the muffin. There is  no need of a knife to cut and no need of cleaning the plates... So here is the recipe for the chocolate chunk muffins. Like usual, I cut 40% of the sugar amount. And this time it worked perfectly. No more "too sweet" issue. Yeah!

I sprinkled some chocolate chips on top of the batter before I put them into the oven. I had one of the muffins right after they had cooled down. When I cut the muffin into half, the chocolate chunk in the middle already melted and it was like oozing out... aaawww.... satisfaction!

Yogurt Banana Cake

Baked this yogurt banana cake last night.
Hubby bought some bananas from the supermarket yesterday. But he found that they are way too ripe. So he asked me to bake something out of them. Searched the web (I don't have any cookbooks, I use the internet to search for recipes most of the time). So, I choose this yogurt banana cake from Taste.com.au.I omitted the frosting but decorated the cake with some chopped walnuts.

Yogurt banana cake

Ingredients:
125g butter or margarine
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
200g plain yoghurt
200g (1 1/3 cups) plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
About a handful of chopped walnuts

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a loaf pan with the melted butter or margarine.
2. Beat butter or margarine and sugar in a bowl with electric beaters until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at time beating well after each addition. Fold in the mashed bananas and yoghurt with a large metal spoon.
3. Sift together the flour and baking powder and then fold gently into the yoghurt mixture until just combined. Spoon mixture into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven. Stand for 5-10 minutes then remove cake from pan and place it on a wire rack to cool.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Back dated post

I like the sweetness of pumpkins. My mom used to cook it with dry shrimp and I love the soft and creamy flavor. I bought some pumpkin from the wet market the other day and was thinking of baking something out of it. I asked AiLeng for ideas and she suggested pumpkin cheese cake. I checked on this website for the recipe and I found it used too many ingredients. I don't like complicated recipes. So I searched around for cupcakes recipes. Wa la! Here it is. Baked this last Thursday and hubby said the frosting a bit sweet. I already cut about 40% of the initial amount for the icing sugar. Still too sweet? Next time round need to cut 50%!! Will 10% more make any difference? wakakakaka...

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ingredients:

*makes 12-15 cupcakes*

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I don't have ground cinnamon so I used all spice powder)

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (I omitted this)

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I omitted this)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup (180 ml) pumpkin puree (I steamed the pumpkin then mashed it with a folk)

1 cup of chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Place rack in the middle of the oven. 

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground spices, and salt

3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and pumpkin puree, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. 

4. Fill the muffin cups evenly with the batter. Sprinkle some chopped walnuts on top. Place in the oven and bake for about 18 - 20 minutes, or until firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.

 

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

110 grams cream cheese, room temperature

30 grams unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
100 grams icing sugar, sifted

Method:

1. Beat the cream cheese until smooth.

2. Add the butter and beat until incorporated and smooth. 

3. Add the vanilla extract and confectioners sugar and beat until fluffy (2-3 minutes).

4. Pipe or spread the frosting on the cupcakes.

  I personally preferred those with frosting. :) what is your preference? 

*Recipe adopted from Joyofbaking.com