Quay Po Cooks: banana chocolate cupcakes

Showing posts with label banana chocolate cupcakes. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Spare the rod and spoil the child

I suspect that my mum still believes in this notion of “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. Oh, maybe she has mellowed a bit since my youngster years, but that was how I was brought up. Oh yes, there was a cane in her house when I was little. There was a cane in my house too when my son, Nick was little. Is there one in your house?

Many modern parents have a different view. A few days ago, I was at a “mamak” restaurant with my Quay Lo. There was this young mom with two handsome little boys, one age 4 or 5 and the younger one maybe two sitting just a few tables away from us.. Her little boys were so active and could not sit still. They were running around in the restaurant and making a lot of noise but their mom did not pay any attention to them. She kept on enjoying her food. I marveled at her tolerance and patience with her boys. That reminded me of my childhood days when kids were expected to be "seen not heard". I cannot remember how many times, I got caned by my mum. Oops did I just reveal that I was a naughty little girl? LOL!

I remember when my son, Nick was little like the two little boys. I was more relaxed with him compared to my mum, but I was certainly not as easy going as their mom. There was no way that I could have kept calm and serene, and continue to enjoy my food, if Nick were to run around the restaurant making noise and banging chairs. When he went out for a meal with us, he knew he had to sit still and I think I was fortunate that he was a reasonable child and seemed quite happy just to be there with us.

During my childhood days, I also didn’t see parents making a large birthday celebration for their kids. Every year on my birthday, my mum would cook two hard boiled eggs and stain them with red dye to present to me. That was my birthday gift and celebration. I really wasn't aware that I was missing anything. In fact she does this for my Quay Lo for his birthday every year, and he is charmed by the practice.

I don’t remember there was even a birthday cake until much later in my life when my sister's parents throw a party for me when I was in my teens. Of course, now many parents plan big parties for their kids’ birthdays and my niece’s sister in law recently threw a big party for her one year old daughter. That was great because I got the opportunity to get in on the fun in a way.

My mum asked me if I would like to make a birthday cake and cup cakes for her. I was happy to, because the family are old friends of ours. I was unable to attend the party but I was told that not only the little kids loved the cupcakes that I baked, but the adults did too. One of her guests asked if she can place an order with me. LOL!

Here, they are and if you would like to bake these moist banana chocolate cupcakes, click on the pictures to get the recipe.

Here another way you may decorate the cupcakes for adults. I baked these for one of my readers, Kimmie when we met up. We had a nice lunch and a long chat. She gave me a bottle of lovely Australian wine and I really enjoyed it.

As I am not very good at baking a huge single birthday cake, I baked a small one for the birthday girl. I used the same recipe but with chocolate ganache frosting instead of chocolate butter cream frosting.

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.