The Making of a Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake.... yeeeha~~~~





I can't express how much my love to carrot cake, especially the cake with topping. It is the bomb!

Ingredients:

1cup of pecans/walnuts
2,1/2 cups grated carrots
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1,1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1,1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
1,1/2 granulated white sugar
1 cup canola/olive oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:
1. Preheat overn 180 celcius for at least 30mins
2. Sieve all the dry ingredients in a bowl
3. To electric mixer, beat eggs until frothy.
4. Add in sugar, beat for 3-4 mins. Slowly add in oil, then add in vanilla extract.
5. Add in the sifted dry ingredients, mix well until homogeneous.
6. Fold in carrots and chopped nuts
7. Bake for 25-30 mins, depends to your oven OR until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Frosting:

1/4 cup room temperature unsalted butter
227g room temperature cream cheese
2 cups icing sugar (sifted) (may reduce to your desire sweet taste)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp lemon juice (optional)

Carrot cake serve best with topping in my opinion, so here's my take.
1. Beat the cream cheese and butter until well mix
2. Add in icing sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest and its juice. Mix well
3. Spread in onto the cake, decorate with walnuts/ anything you like that serve well with carrot cake

Enjoy~

Christmas Celebration + Gifts

Hey everyone, Christmas was over and new year is coming. Here's some of my celebration pictures. I love how a family gather together sharing this very special day. Of course, this is my 1st year Christmas celebration with hubby and his family, everyone seems to be very happy with the presents!

Here you go, some lovely pictures:

Other than family gathering, hubby also brought me for a special Christmas dinner. I love to dine in this restaurant so much, everything seems to be perfect. The food, the combination, marvelous!

   













and then, the gifts:
  • panda and mustache shirts
  • sweat pants
  • Nike jacket
  • green towel
  • Toffifee
  • cute key chains
  • hair tie
  • The Body Shop perfume
  • a cookbook






Thank you everyone and wish you all have a great new year ahead!

Christmas Soon, Are U Ready?

Hohoho.... Christmas is just around the corner, 2 more days to go... How exciting it is! This is the 1st year I celebrate Christmas with my hubby's family, we decided to keep it small and simple because it isn't a tradition celebration for them. I decided to make cake for Christmas but that will be uploaded some time tomorrow.

Here's some photo of the decorated Christmas tree his sister had set up last week. It takes around 3 years to collect so much decoration for the tree. It is hard to find some fancy decoration here as compared to other country.











Below the tree, we put some presents, everyone in the house get a present. Hubby and I set up a rules that all present most not cost more than RM200. We didn't want others who not usually celebrate this special day feel burden to their wallet. I celebrate Christmas every year but doesn't mean that non Christian celebrate too, right? 
Front of the tree has lots of present, same goes to behind of the tree.




Other than planning Christmas celebration, I decided to treat myself with Cellnique goodies which I love so much. I found that some holy grail items from this brand and it does great job for my sensitive skin. I bought the Christmas gift set which consist of D'sensi calming cream and the newly released sleeping mask. I got 2 tiny samples and 2 facial treatment and 1 eye treatment.


At the same time, hubby brought me to shop and got me some really nice treat too. He got me Eucerin whitening face wash in gel form, bakery book and MBD cactus mask. How thoughtful is that! I have really great time exploring bakery. I used to hate bakery because I thought it is very tedious but now I like it more and more....

Lastly, my aunt's dog just gave birth to these 2 puppies... wow, they made it before Christmas arrive....


Now, how's your Christmas preparation so far? almost done? 


Visit to a New Skinfood Stall

Hi everyone, today I visit to a newly open mall at my local area. It was so crowded but hubby manage to find parking. To my surprise there's a Skinfood stall and TheFaceShop stall in the mall. I didn't stop by at FaceShop stall because it was way too crowded and hubby was rushing to work later on too. So, I just stopped by at Skinfood stall. I've been a huge fan of this brand since I was in university. Tons of newly released product, wow.....

I still have a lot of skincare product to go trough, so I only grab some sheet masks and hand cream to try out. The SA was good enough and gave me some samples...



Samples to test and so convenient when it comes to travelling... the packaging was cute too



Hubby bought me Snow Tea Mask sheet and Golden Kiwi mask sheet because I've always complain about my complexion, I have freckles and working hard to make it become less visible. Before we left the stall, I grabbed a hand cream as well. It is the hand cream from wrinkle care series: sugar hand cream.


That's all for my skinfood stall visit. I'm glad that the skincare stall is now so near to my house and working place. Review will be up after use.

Time for me to sleep now. Good night ~

Favorites of the Month

Hey everyone, is December! Gasp... time flies.

I've been enjoying November very much with travelling, working and gathering with family and friends.
Can't believe that I've been in a new industry for 5months now, work has never been easy for me, but I've try my best and still hoping it will get better and better.

Now, favorites of November. It includes products I like and dislike.


I'm still sticking with my skincare routine, nothing much change. But these are things I've been using a lot last month.

  • MBD Hyaluronic sheet mask
  • Nivea Express Hydration body lotion
  • Kose eye cream
  • Kose powder foundation
  • Benefit Benetint
  • Revlon lipbutter # cherry tart
  • Smith Rosebud salve
  • Daiso facial cotton
  • Ferrero rocher

MBD sheet mask is probably one of the sheet mask I adore the most. It is cheap and effective. Since I've dry and combination skin I decided to try on the hyaluronic acid sheet mask. Well, it is very,very hydrating. I always top up a thicker moisturizer after that and the next day, my skin looks so radiant and supple. Normally 1 box can last me for about 2 months. I use every 2-3 days and it just act like rescuer to my skin. Love it.

Nivea express hydration body lotion smells amazing, not over powering and most important it doesn't feel oily like the Nivea cream which is a nightmare for me. Upon application, it just sink into the skin and quenches my dry skin especially on my elbow and feet.Other than that, it doesn't have those weird slippery feeling during I shower in the morning. My skin loving it and I do see good results after using it.

Kose eye cream, creamy eye cream but non oily. As much as I enjoy using the eye cream, I'm still not very sure whether I will purchase the full size or not. It seems to be perfect during cold season/when I'm in air conditioning room. More suitable for night time use. But I'm enjoying using it. Tiny pea size goes long way. haha!

Kose powder foundation is a sample when I received during my purchased on Kose skincare. The foundation seems to have only one shade. It glides onto the skin nicely but beware on those dry patches, it emphasize it. I like how build-able it is but hate it when it emphasize my dry patches. 

Benefit benetint. Two word to describe : simple,easy! Sometimes I just feel lazy, well I've been really lazy to put on makeup it is so time consuming. Benetint acts as lipcolor and cheek color, no zombie look. Perfect for casual day and working day. It is quite long lasting, so you'll look awake even without tons of makeup. 

Revlon lipbutter #cherry tart. A sheer red lipbutter. The red tone is very buildable too. Sometimes we just feel red look so good and professional. Normally I will put it on when I wore a simple clothing, loose bouncy hair. A pop of color. 


Next, Smith's rosebud salve. I would say this is a multi purpose product. It heals chapped lips very well, good for lip treatment, lip prep before any lipgloss/lipstick. I even apply this on my cuticles and heels. I see significant results the next day. Other than that, it is good on its own. It isn't sticky at all, so don't worry that your hair will stick on lips.



Other than Shiseido and Naruko cotton pad, I've finally found another good quality cotton pad. This is perfect for removing makeup using cleansing water and with toner. No worries with those annoying frizz. It cost only RM5 and it is available at Daiso.


Last but not least, my new cute toys. Ribena....



Holiday vacation to Shanghai and towns around it

Hello, I've so much to talk,share and summarize about my very first vacation with my hubby after our engagement on July. Well, well, we'll definitely have our wedding ceremony just like all the Asian parents wish for. 
Anyway, is not about bragging or anything. I love to keep this as a record, a sweet memory and great time I've when I was in China. I do looking forward for trip to China maybe to Beijing next time to see how fascinating and breath-taking the world seven wonders : The Great Wall.

I know lots of people enjoying back-pack, but me, it really depends. If I were going place that I completely not familiar with I will rather pay more money and join a happy tour rather than being frustrated with all the transportation,messy map etc. This time, we joined our favourite tour guide which brought us to Korea 2 years ago. She was a very nice, friendly and caring lady. 

The 1st day, after our half day work, we double checked our luggage and my father-in-law sent us to the tour leader house and 17 of us took bus to KLIA airport. We took MAS airline for about 4-5hours and then we arrived our destination. Once we arrived we were welcomed by the local tour guide Ms Miao who is a very young, petite lady. After put our luggage in the bus we were then took a maglev which made us arrived to the Shanghai 'Dong Fang Ming Zhu' in just 8mins (for a distance of 36km if I'm not mistaken), we were then had a briefing while waiting for our bus to arrive. We had our buffet lunch in a motion restaurant.



After the meal, we went to a lower level still in the 'Dong Fang Ming Zhu' Tower, and goodness, see I'm stood on a transparent glass and my heart was bumping so fast, the wind blew and I was very cold, but I can't hold how excited it was.

Later on, we took a picture of the tower before we head for our next destination. Each destination literally took 3 hours by bus.


Then, we went to Nanjing road, we saw aunties, ladies dancing on the road and I had a star fish seafood nugget from the China KFC, cool!



On the 1st night, we watched the China famous acrobatics act '' 杂技表演艺术 ''. I just can say 'WOW' if got chance I would really want to see this show again. Wonderful.  

The 2nd day morning we went to Hangzhou to see the beautiful scenery of the Lake Xi Hu. We had our VIP little boat that fetched us around the lake. We even heard to famous Legend of White Snake who believed trapped in The Leifeng Ta. It was a very sad love story. See the pictures, it was such a nice place and soothing effect to my soul. hahaha



Hubby bought me some tidbits to eat. I love the farmers freshly steamed chestnut so sweet.


Lalala, enjoyed the chestnut we arrived to a very nicely decorated restaurant with a hint of English style. We had our lunch there. I wanted to comment something on their food, the fish due to it is fresh water fish, it has lots of bones nono for me, I scared my throat will be pricked by the bones. Alcohol beverages are around 2-3% more like our Shandy. Ha... but still got that bitter taste. 


We were then moved to the "梅家坞吃茶", according to the tour leader, for centuries since the ancient time, this village has been continually supply tea to the royal palace of China. People who lived here all have had the same surname "mei =梅", on guys married to women and followed the women's surname. 

Photo below is the wok that people used to cook tea. It smells so good each time the uncle demonstrate the cook tea process. The temperature reached up to 80 celcius.




At this tea village, we were mostly introduced with the tea called '龙井' aka Longjing cha. They told us this tea can be brewed with either hot (5times) or cold water (8times) and can last for 12 hours and it still edible. It also able to reduce cholesterol, high blood pressure. Not to worry, if you consume this tea during the night time, you still able to sleep soundly and nicely. I bought some tea and tea sweet which taste AMAZING especially the jasmine flavour candies..... 

In the evening, we went to the shooting location where most of the ancient movies/drama took place.
It is called ' Qin Huang Gong' aka The Palace of Qin and watched a very short impromptu act.



After our dinner, we went to watch show again. Well, this time is about a story and act of ' Bao yu shan hong'  aka 暴雨山洪. The place was so crowded, people all around China were there. Once you watch it, you can feel how great and how real they translate the story to the audience. It has been almost 3 weeks now since I watched the show but everything seems to be vivid and crystal-clear imprinted in my mind.

On the 3rd day, we went to YiWu International trade city. I didn't buy anything there because I don't feel to buy anything at there. But we saw a lot of Made in China product price are so cheap, you can say it from A-Z. We even went to see the famous woodcraft. I bought 2 Rosewood comb, it has a nice scent on it. The comb cost me RMB 20.

Now, move to the excited part of 3rd day trip. Our bus driver recommend us to see the Yiwu night market. It was probably the longest night market I've had in my life/ I've visited to. Things are uncountable. You can find foods, fruits, luggage, clothes, decoration, pets... almost everything. There you can find some very cheap yet good quality products. Iphone case sold there were very pretty and cheap too. Hubby and I didn't bought much but we enjoyed the street food, especially the meat sandwich '肉夹馍' it tasted so, so perfect. It was hot, juicy,spicy. Imagine holding it in such a cold weather, how nice it was. 

Day 4, some people especially old folks or mid 30-40 uncle and aunties started to home sick, missing their kids and grandchildren. Like most of the morning, we had porridge, steamed pumpkin or sweet potato, hard-boiled egg, soy milk for breakfast... we had our breakfast in hotel everyday in buffet style. I'm very picky when it comes to food especially to place I'm not familiar with. I will choose what the local people eat because I believe it will be the best food. I love how they add vinegar with food, tasted very pleasant and appetizing.

All the way we visit to some local stall, see their culture, tell you we saw people owning lots of long, big car like LIMO. To make a long story short, we had our next stop at Tongxiang. It was the place selling Chrysanthemum tea. We always heard about rose bud tea, this time I saw Chrysanthemum bud tea. It has a fine, soothing scent. Only few buds will able to make the drink taste wonderful. Since it was well process, the tea looks clean in golden yellow color. I bought 2 big jar. Quality was better than I can get in Malaysia so I bought some backup. 


Then followed by another long, long journey, we reached Wuzhen -乌镇. For many tour, visitors will only get to stay around the town instead of the guest house. But thankfully, our tour leader was sweet enough to include the guest house for us. Wuzhen also known as the waterside village in Jiangnan region. It located at the northern part of Zhejiang. Long time ago, it was one of the important water transportation.  Wuzhen is easily accessed through a number of expressways and national highways. The ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal flows through the town, which is divided by waterways into four areas, Dongzha, Xizha, Nanzha, and Beizha. Since its foundation in 872 A.D., Wuzhen has never changed its name, location, waterways, or way of life. Its traditional buildings have survived hundreds of years of weathering but remain intact today. In 2001, Wuzhen was named as a candidate for UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage List. At the end of 2006, it was included in the revised List of China’s Candidates for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage.

I can't stop sharing and telling people how nice is this place. If you visit to Wuzhen, you must stay in the Guest house. No worries, although all room rented here are in antique dwellings, they are fully furnished just like a modern house. By staying in these rooms, you can at least experience the ancient times, the scenery and the culture. I've read through the website mentioned that in Wuzhen they celebrate 12 seasons. Do browse the internet if you were interested.









Hubby and I stayed in Guest house No. 2579. Each guest house has different owner. We were given a menu list, and we got to choose what we wish to eat for breakfast. Of course, to experience the culture we try to choose as much local food as possible but not to forgot the food the we were used to in daily routine.



We ended decided to choose sweet soy milk (glass) and salty soy milk (bowl), special!
Then, we ordered the cake " Ding Sheng Gao " the white flower like cake. Inside it contained sweet red bean paste, very unusual too.





Before check-out, we bought some souvenir and took our small boat the bye bye to this scenic Wuzhen. In the town, we bought some hand warmers which looks like pillow.... and hubby bought me a leopard printed shawl. We were then transferred to Suzhou.


When we arrived at Suzhou, we were again welcomed by another tour guide. She was the local guide there and one that will share, tell great things about Suzhou. First, we when to Suzhou Museum then walked to The Lion Forest Garden (狮子林), The Humble Administrator Garden (拙政园)and Ligong di(李公堤). The day we reached day it was a rainy day, not heavy but the rains came on and off. Most of the place still remained the ancient architecture. We spent the day for sightseeing and walking around. Later on, we went to the street for some shopping. Again, everyone went crazy when it came to shopping. I bought 1 winter jacket and some local sweets.

By the end of the day, we had our sumptuous dinner. The rice was very tasty. Suzhou is not a busy and hectic city like Shanghai. I found it is quite peaceful too. Suzhou is famous for silk and their soft spoken language. We joined the local tour guide again on the 5th day.

On the 5th day, we went to the Silk trade place. There we were firstly being introduced on the life cycle of silkworm. Silkworms are actually quite big in size than what I used to think. They fed on mulberry leaves which were huge as an adult palm. Then, they will wrap themselves in the cocoon - single but lovers silkworms will wrap themselves together - X cocoon. Suzhou silk is the best in China, best in terms of quality. It is thin but comfortable enough to keep you warm. Hubby bought a Silk blanket for me too. You even can find a complete bed sheet set but it will cost RMB 4000+++. Before we moved to our next destination, the tour guide gave us a silk handkerchief as a gift/souvenir. We bought 4 pairs of silk bamboo stockings and silk Zara scarf. Talking the scarf, I love it so much, it is a graduation blue scarf.

Then for another ride, 2 hours later we reached Nanjing 南京. It is the second largest commercial center after Shanghai. We arrived there but it was so jam and the road was very hard to recognize, both Ms Miao and the bus driver had to keep on calling the local guide. We were late because of the traffic. So rush we finally arrived The Nanjing Mascacre Memorial Hall - 侵華日軍南京大屠殺遇難同胞紀念館. It is a place that we are not allow to take picture as a respect act to the death people during world war. There, we had a deeper understanding on our history. Till now the older generation (survivors during the world war) still very dislike and hate the invaders for being such cold-blooded and merciless.  We saw weapons used during the war time, pictures and more, more skeleton, short video clips, kidnap,rape etc, you will feel how grateful and how safe you are now as compare to the war period. During the war time, invaders found that it was hard for them to invade into Nanjing because it was well protected by its city wall. Now the city wall is still remain in good condition and well preserved. I had a very nice memory about Nanjing except for the scary traffic. Lunch and dinner time, we were then moved to hotel. 

Before that, we went to see the LED big screen. Hard to explain, but it is just same like the one you seen in Beijing stadium, the big screen.



The hotel was quite far from the city but it was well designed. Gosh, we barely able to bath. Such a funny story, the bathroom was only cover with glass, yes transparent glass but of course there was curtain to pull and cover so that people in the room will not see our naked body. It takes long time for everyone to find the curtain and bath 'bravely'. hahaha.....

Day 6, we visited to our last point in Nanjing Bridge 南京长江大桥, I just can say it was really breathtaking and unimaginable how they build it last time. The 4.5 kilometer long, double-decker, Nanjing Chang Jiang Bridge was only the second bridge that crossed the Chang Jiang (长江) after its completion.  Changjiang is also known as the Yangzi River or Yangtze River.  Completed in 1968 during the cultural revolution, it is also the first bridge that crosses Chang Jiang to be built entirely by the Chinese.  The influence of the era is evident in the socialist-inspired statues on either side of the bridge.  The bridge deck provides a good view of the river. It is possible to walk from one side of the bridge to the other.



 Then we went to the jade shop. Chinese love jade since ancient time. Long story, I just want to share about the jade shop. Things were marked with very high price of course the quality take part of it too. I dare not buy a single jade out there because no point I buy something that is fake with high price/ cheap price. I bought a piece of jade as necklace. I believe jade is good and protect its owner, it may sound superstitious, but you wouldn't believe unless you had seen it. 
Just make sure if you ever buy at the shop, please bargain, mine was tagged RMB10k+++ but then I paid RMB2k. That's all for Nanjing. To our last 2 destination now....

Later on, we reached Wuxi. Wuxi was named because it was lacking of tin. At here we our local tour guide was a very young lady.She is very pretty too and she decorated herself mainly with pearls. Talking about pearls, please behold, I shared about it later on. We went to FanGong to see the huge Buddha temple well, it looks more like a palace. We even got the chance to watch a short on sport show on the scene when Buddha was born, great!



We were told that in Wuxi the TaiHu lake is the 3rd largest fresh water lake in China with depth only 2m. There you can find lots of fishes, prawns and pearls!!!! We had the famous TaiHu white fish for your dinner. It tasted fresh and surprisingly it didn't had that soil scent. The next morning aka the 6th day, we went to pearl shop. We got to see pearl from all sort of colors, white, pink, lavender,black and gold. The price of pearls are all based on how round and flaw it is and the color, size. Not only that, there's also pearl cosmetics and powder from consumable to application. We decided to have group purchased for cheaper price, buy 20 free 20, cool! I got the tiny tube pearl powder, this is for me to consume to achieve fairer complexion. Then I bought some pearl accessories too, some for my mom, in laws, granny and these are all mine....

simple black pearl necklace,  pink pearl earings, white pearl bracelet and lavender pearl bracelet. Talking about quality I'm pretty happy with the price I paid and the quality I got. I bought 
a full 2 cm in diameter round white pearl necklace for my mom. Moma is super happy till today that she got to peek it every single night before she went to bed. Funny!






Last location in Wuxi was visit to pottery shop, well more like arts. The clay from Dingshan will be used to make Zisha hu or known as purple clay. Here we enjoyed looking at all those art works, some were very well inspired, some clay pot even floats on water. Each of the teapot set not only dainty but posses a value. Bought some key chains and a set of teapot for my dad.
While munching some tidbit, peanuts candy we back to Shanghai.

The night in Shanghai we took a ferry and enjoyed the night of Shanghai, the air blew to our face, so cold and freezing. It was very scenic. I started the felt time passed too fast, it was the 7th day already and on day 8 we headed back to Malaysia.



Day 8 we visited to the PuEr tea shop, China BaoShuTang herb shop, had our Taizhu lunched and waived hands to this pretty city.

p/s: sorry for such a long post, but 8days trip... so much to be shared. English grammar error, I'm sorry for that too.
I've spent 3days writing this blog post, I hope you will find it helpful and enjoy reading it.

Thank you