***

Here’s a recap of my birthday celebration. Warning: Heavy pictures ahead.

Part I: First, on Thursday, we attended CODE:EDGE Dance Charity Gala Dinner at Raffles Town Club.

I tried to do a waterfall braid hairstyle (I followed this video) on my own hair that night. Didn’t quite get it right because my bangs are still too short and the top part of my hair is too smooth. I had to use some styling gel to hold the braid a little. By the way, I’ve been making my own hair conditioner using honey and olive oil. More on that in another post!

Yeah we have a a few water guns at home haha

Don’t have pictures to show you how yummy the food was.  I don’t photograph food when I’m around many people

The room

Throughout the WHOLE night we were entertained by dance performances. There were hip hop, break dance etc. performed by various schools in Singapore.

End of the gala dinner

After  dinner was over, they brought a birthday cake for me :)

With the husb

***

Part II of my birthday celebration happened yesterday. This time, it was among my dearest famille.

Dinner was almost very primal. We had spinach-cheese stuffed rolled chicken (get the recipe) and curry crab prepared by moi. Sis made a salmon-cod fish pie, bro brought chicken drumlets and pork ribs and the husband bought some roasted chicken from the coffee shops. Such a protein meat-feast night!  Lots of chicken consumed that night.

Sis baked blueberry muffins and brought some for us

My birthday cake was a ‘Chocolat Amer” from Bakerzin — we finished the whole cake the very same night! Something that rarely happens among us :P

Time to blow the two very christmas-y candles

[The way my niece is looking at the cake is so cute]

That night, we played a few Xbox Kinect games — from dancing to bowling to beach volley

Although I had a good time, I couldn’t not think about certain things …

My niece (who recently turned 2) also kept herself busy with her “La caze zouzou” .. I keep a cooking set at my place so that when she comes over, she can play with them

I also showed her my big exercise ball and she wanted to carry it hehe

She was also happily running around

My family means the world to me. They have been there for me through thick and thin and I’m forever thankful to have them.

Back to work tomorrow … enjoy the last bit of your Sunday!

My stuffed rolled chicken is in the oven right now

And curry crab is ready. The husband was supposed to cook that but in the end, guess who did most of it :D

I’m just waiting for the family to arrive.

Cya later …

To my Facebook friends  who have FB messaged me,  thank you for all the birthday wishes! I used to write birthday wishes on my friends’ FB wall but there are just too many of them, hence I’ve stopped doing it (except for a few like my husb, sis, bro etc).

I am a year older now. Truth  is, I’m not too excited because … well I’m a year older! I have not reached the Three Zero yet though :)

We are attending a Charity Gala Dinner later.

Sis baked a nice birthday farm cake

Food? More than enough …

I made a mixed mango prawn bacon green salad (recipe coming up)

Sis made noodles (we eat noodles on birthday because long noodles represent long life hehe) and Jamie Oliver’s Chicken Pie

Bro brought baked chicken, sausages etc…

And mooncakes <– mid-autumn festival is around the corner … there were some with bakkwa filling, some with nut fillings.

Happy Birthday!

Luckily I still have some of these …

Chocolate cake from “Four Leaves” topped with a thick ganache

Table food spread

Stir-fried pork (that looks like beef) prepared by bro and a purple salad prepared by moi — recipe to come.

This was supposed to be “gato piment“! For some unknown reasons (?), the mixture didn’t stick together! So I couldn’t shape them into balls. I wonder why (?), as my first attempt was a success. In the end, I pan fried everything — makes it healthier heh.

Fried rice and steamed fish by bro

Pizza (unique shape) and soup

My plate

There were many games for the kids but the adults were not neglected too

Here, we (the ladies) had to do some funny (Bollywood) dance moves

A colouful birthday cake

The kids had fun with the Piñata

And I had a fun evening

***

This is me when I turned 7ven. Mum made a house birthday cake for me.

Flashback Saturday. Birthday dinner for my brother.

In the kitch. I was preparing hummus dip then

For dinner we had Tender chicken, a yummy beef noodle dish prepared by sis, green salad, crackers, fruits and cakes. I was stuffed!

My dinner plate. I went for seconds.

The birthday cake: A very rich and creamy chocolate cake.

My sweet little niece who can walk a little

A short video of her walking

To end this post, here’s me and my brother hahah. He won of course hehehe. But thanks to Insanity, I am stronger now hhehe.

On Friday (it was a public holiday over here) I threw a mini Birthday luncheon at my place among my siblings and some few friends. It was kind of a very last minute thingy, something that I planned 4 days prior to the actual day.

Well,  let the photos speak for themselves.

The food first? 99% of the foodies were home-prepared

I made my own version of Enchiledas. The sauce was a Mauritian based Rougaille

We had crackers and dips. Starting from the left: chickpea sausage dijon mustard dip,  avocado cheese dip, tuna mayo bacon bits dip and hummus with the forgotten garlic! ha. I made the dips in the morning.

The crackers were not homemade though :)

My brother brought finger food + mashed potatoes (not pictured)

Beef Fried Noodles from my sis

And I also made a HUGE salad bowl

These were TV snackies

Group picture with my family

Group picture with friends

My girlfriends wanted me to open this pressie in particular

After unwrapping :) I think my smile said it all hehe

And yeash, it’s a popcorn maker! Must have a popcorn party soon.

And of course we had to test it out immediately :) We had lots of fun in the kitchen! It was super easy to make popcorn.

Plain and healthy popcorn

Even my niece wanted some? Haa I kid.

Then it was time to do the whole singing-making-a-wish-and-cutting-the-cake

With the husband

It was a very yummy, mousse-y and chocolat-y cake

Goofing around with my camera’s Fish Eye mode. Out of all, I loved how this one turned :)

Testing my camera again

Birthday pressies, including my new camera (which took all these pictures) from siblings and hubby. The Belgian waffle maker was actually a very early birthday present and I haven’t had the chance to make Belgian waffles yet!

Thank you all :)

One year ago

And one year later i.e today …

Sis got her a Barney chocolate cake as she loves Barney.

Such a cute cake don’t you think!!

Time to cut the cake

The cake

And after the mini celebration we all headed down up for a wedding dinner!

An old fashioned chocolate cake actually

The birthday boy - So not going to use thin long candles next time because they wouldn’t stand straight!

The candles wouldn’t blow out because I  used magic candles :)

It’s a moist and spongy cake

This cake is SO easy to prepare! Just dump all the ingredients into a food processor and then bake!

***

Old Fashioned Chocolate cake

• 100g plain flour
• 80g caster sugar (original calls for 100g but 80g was sweet enough for my taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 20g best-quality cocoa
• 50g unsalted butter + 35g applesauce (original calls for 85g soft unsalted butter)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
• 75ml sour cream (I used low fat)

Method

1. Take everything out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C and line and butter one 12 cm spring-form pan – you can use two if you want flatter cakes.
3. Now all you have to do is put all the cake ingredients – flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarb, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream – into a food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter.
4. Pour the batter  into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

I made a 12cm cake just for the two of us

I actually love the cracks!

***

Enjoy your Sunday! I’m making some super healthy, protein-packed and nutritious soup for tonight :)

I met the girlfriends at Brewerkz for dinner last night.  The guys were watching a live soccer match and we, girls were just busy yakking with each other. It’s been two months since we last met. After dinner the group headed somewhere else for a drinking session. I gave it a pass and headed back home as I didn’t want to mess up my sleep (and my body).

L-R: Me, Eunice, Sharon and Hazel — excuse the blurry picture. I kinda like this effect.

***

This morning it was raining when I woke up. I’m not too sure what they are building at that far end of that empty land.

Breakfast was this

Microwaved (three) egg whites topped with a tablespoon of nutritional yeast + mustard + ketchup. I love microwaved egg whites :)

And some very sweet watermelons

On a completely random note: Earlier on Saturday Mikey jumped up on the table. He wanted some attention (a.k.a food). I thought this was cute, so I quickly took his picture.

***

On  Friday, we had a very last minute unplanned early-birthday celebration for the husband. His birthday is actually on the 10th of April (next Saturday).

Related post: 1 year ago on his 29th Birthday

Group photo: With my siblings + cousin (couple on the left).

The birthday man.

Birthday cake that sis brought. It was spongy, light and not overly sweet.

Later at night I made a light dinner … fried eggs (1 egg and 4 egg whites) and prawns

***

My pen pal since high school days (from the Philippines) is visiting Singapore! She’s arriving tomorrow and will be here for 4 days. We’ve never met in person. I think it’s going to be interesting :)  Do you still keep in touch with you pen pals? Snail mail penpalling was so popular back in my high school days. I sill keep in touch with 2-3 of them (thanks to Facebook) but we don’t write letters to each other like we used to years ago.

It was my first time baking a cheesecake and I have to say that it was pretty dang good :)  Especially for a first timer haha.

Dinner was very international! We have Indian (curry), Japanese (sushi), Mauritian (dholl purri) and Chinese (fried rojak and otak otak) food!! YUMMY!!

However we still had space in our stomach for dessert :)