Happy New Year! Keep calm and eat cupcakes!

Here we go again! We are back at the start of another exciting year ahead. I am so looking forward to 2015 - it's the year where my resolution is to read more books, travel to more places and eat healthier meals!

Last year was hectic for me. I suppressed my need to travel to the very least. Anand and I took a short one-day breakaway to Malacca after my maternity leave and we also went to Genting Highlands with my mother-in-law and our daughter, Anooushka. That was it! Just two trips. Why?

Deciding to travel in a year filled with air disasters, natural catastrophe and wide-spread diseases was certainly difficult. What more, with a baby at hand whose immune system was still maturing - we did not want to take the risk. (Well, to be fair, Anand did suggest a trip to Bali for my birthday. But I just can't seem to comprehend what is there in Bali that everyone raves about. I just can't bring myself to even try to look the pictures online.)

So this is it. This IS the year for TRAVEL. Keeping fingers crossed :)

The new year's eve was at a cousin's place. They got a new house with a cool pool. It was a great get together with all those far and near and dear. I decided to be extra hardworking (ok Anand had to help though) and made cupcakes for the party (plus for my neighbours!).

Surprisingly the treats turned out well on that day and I loved how my cupcakes swirls behaved! I made my mocha cupcake + espresso buttercream and vanilla cupcakes + vanilla buttercream + rainbow sprinkles. 

My cupcakes nicely boxed and fresh from the fridge.

Just a few weeks back, I also did peanut butter cupcake + peanut butter buttercream + homemade strawberry jam filling. It was just heavenly...

Follow me on my Instagram for my next cupcake adventure!

Purple and White

All I needed to make my day today. Very, very beautiful flowers and very thoughtful indeed. I have been feeling under the weather this past few days and a bunch of fresh flowers brightened up my day

24.08.2012

Yummy Red Velvet

I am not really a fan of cakes. But I do love those that comes with ice creams (mud-pie types and ice cream cakes). So, it was indeed surprising to even myself that one day I decided to have coffee and cake at The Coffee Bean.

The cake was really sweet - and the only reason I chose that over the rest was because, it looked different. Almost like out-from-a-recipe-book kind of look. So, Leena must photograph it (even though she couldn't finish eating it in the end).

This was taken some time back in April. I finally had the time to process and upload it today.

I ate this.

All you need is a little sweetness in your life...

A cake should do the trick. :P

On Thoughtfulness

Sometimes, among the many things you get on your birthday, a wish that comes from the heart is probably the best gift ever. :) Sharing three of the best I received.

A rose without thorns..

...  is like love without heartbreak - it doesn't make sense. 

And so what am I without the dearest of my dear friends? (I would probably make more sense, maybe?) :)

My birthday cake this year from the devils! :)

Prior to my birthday (which happened to be yesterday), I wasn't really looking forward of celebrating it. It's just never the same without Sathyan - the master of surprise planner in our group. Every year he will organize massive dinner plans, inviting every single person near and dear to me - to shower me with love and smother my face with cake! Even when it is his birthday, I'll get the cake all over my face - somehow! Every restaurant that we go to will definitely end up in disaster. 

Cakes everywhere except on our plates and stomach.

I still remember the time he made me stand on a chair, sing a song at a pepper mill and blow my birthday candles almost two feet away while still standing on a chair at a restaurant! Oh, not to forget the time he tried his best to cook something up for me on my birthday and the best he came up with was egg and cheese sandwich - which still had egg shells in it. It was really cute! The look on his face when I pulled out the egg shell, was priceless. I still ate it :)

I celebrated my last birthday with him last year - at that time I didn't know it will be our last celebration together. Yes, even at the hospital the cake got on my face as well...

I'm forever grateful for the wonderful girls who has always been with me and made my life and day much brighter yesterday. I thought I would be sitting in a corner of my room, keeping to myself and cry from the break of dawn till the wee hours of midnight. But that wasn't the case. And I am also so very deeply grateful they did not waste the Baskin Robbins cake on my face or the floor! It would have killed me instantly to see an ice cream cake die tragically outside my mouth!

So here's a BIG thank you to everyone who made it a wonderful day. I know Sathyan is smiling - he left me in good hands. :) But sorry girls, I still cannot promise a place in heaven for all of you though (I know my place is already reserved :P).

We had lunch at Golden Triangle - Sathyan's favorite restaurant. I could just feel him all around me yesterday :) My favorite was the prawn of course. Here's a picture of the big juicy prawns we had (I finished most of it anyway).

Yes, that wasn't the kind of treat Sathyan would give, was it? I know, I know... So, I will plan for a better one. He's going to be so proud of me. ;)

Pictures taken using SGS2.

It's Friday! I made it alive!

Work has been tight and Friday came today as a breather. Finally I had no meetings (had one but got cancelled) and I was not on-call. Of course I had lots of things to follow up and resolve, but today seemed much brighter than any other day.

I thought finally I could have a "free" Saturday tomorrow, but nope, that's not the case then! I have to go for work on Saturday and Sunday. I've been working for every single weekend for the past three weekends. On a brighter side, I'm glad I have my work to keep me occupied. It seems like a better thing to do than sit at home and look at the blank walls and... look at another wall. Haha...

Since it was Friday, Puspa and I decided to make it a day to ...erm.. celebrate... because...ermm... it's finally Friday, of course! So what did we do? We headed to Secret Recipe and bought a slice of cake each. Yummy!