Nutella Whoopie Pie

This is another recipe that I've tried after the success of my Red Velvet Cupcakes: Nutella Whoopie Pie! To me, it's not as tasty as it sounds because I think it's to chocolatey to my liking (I'm not a fan of chocolates). Compared to Red Velvet, Whoopie Pie is a bit challenging. 

INGREDIENTS

• Plain flour (140g)
• Cocoa powder (40g)
• Bicarb of soda (1 tsp)
• Buttermilk (90ml)
• Vanilla extract (1 tsp)
• Butter (80g)
• Brown sugar (140g)
• 1 egg, beaten
• handful of mini marshmallows, halved
• dark and white chocolate chips
• Nutella
• extra marshmallows.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. 
Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
Pour in the beaten egg, vanilla extract and buttermilk slowly and continue to whisk hard. 
Sieve in the dry ingredients and fold into the mixture gently until fully combined. 
Stir through the marshmallows and chocolate chips then scoop individual teaspoons full of the mixture onto a baking parchment lined tray, leaving plenty of space between each one for them to spread. 
Bake in the oven for 8 minutes then remove and leave to cool completely. 
Smear the flat side of half of the whoopies with a thin layer of nutella then stick another whoppie on top, flat side towards the nutella. 
Dust with some icing sugar to decorate.

You can be creative and add in some marshmallows and chocolate chip in your pie to make it spongier and more chocolatey!

Good Luck!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Another thing I like to do during a free time is baking. I love looking up to recipes online and try them at home. Last week, I baked some Red Velvet Cupcakes for my sister's birthday. I enjoy baking because it makes me happy seeing people enjoying the cakes/cookies I made. Red Velvet is easy to make and not to mention very, very toothsome. I'll provide the recipes below. Enjoy ;)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large egg
• Buttermilk (120ml)
• White vinegar (1 tbsp)
• Vanilla essence (1 tsp)
• Red food colouring (30ml/2tbsp)
• Sunflower oil (180ml)
• Self-raising flour (200g)
• Caster sugar (225g)
• Cocoa powder (1 heaped tsp)
• Pinch of salt

Frosting

• Cream cheese (100g)
• Butter (50g)
• Icing sugar (200g)
• Vanilla essence (1tsp)

Preheat oven to 180°C. 
Whisk the egg in a bowl for a minute. 
Addbuttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and sunflower oil. 
Dump the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and food colouring into the bowl and mix together. 
Whisk for a few minutes until combined and smooth. 
Spoon into cupcake cases sat in a muffin tray so they are ¾ full. 
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until risen and cooked.
Cool the cupcakes in their cases. 
Slice a little off of the top of the cupcakes to make it flat and keep the trimmings to one side. 
Beat the cream cheese and butter in a bowl until light and fluffy with the vanilla. 
Add icing sugar and stir until combined. 
Spread a little icing on top of the cupcake and crumble some sponge off-cuts on top to decorate. 

Good Luck!

Video Game Review: Alice Madness Return

My Alice obsession started when I play this game. This game is 'sequel' to Through the Looking Glass, What Alice Found There. I don't really like fantasy-genre games but this game is an exception. This game is fun (and a bit frustrating because some of the levels are hard) but creepy and repulsive since there are lots of blood and goo. 

Throughout the game, you'll meet the characters in the book version like the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts, etc. The only difference is that the characters portrayed in the game are scarier and uglier.

Oh, the dresses are kinda cute too. My favourite is the aqua + pink coloured dress. Let me know which one is your favourite in the comments below! ;)

Book Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I have always wanted to read the original Alice in Wonderland book since I grew up watching the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. End of last year, believe it or not, was the first time I read this book. I can say it's a very queer book. I haven't read a book like this and I wonder how Lewis Carroll can create a character like the White Rabbit and the Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar. 

Just recently I've found out that Alice in Wonderland actually has a sequel to it entitled Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There and apparently Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the White Queen was introduced in this book. Unfortunately, I have been searching for this book for months now and have no luck of finding it. :(

Video Game Review: Assassin's Creed

As I have already told you guys earlier, I la-la-love to play video games!!! (Maybe that's part of the reason why I have a bad eyesight.) 

 


 

Assassin's Creed has been one of my favourite video games since 2008. It is an historical fiction, action-adventure, open world, stealth video game. What I like about this game is that I can learn a little bit more about the world history like the Third Crusade, the Renaissance and the American Revolution. Plus, some of the characters in this game are real like King Richard I of England, Rashid ad-Din Sinan, Leonardo da Vinci, etc. 

It's a really good video game and I love the characters in this series. The good news is the upcoming prequel is coming out this November!!! 

Movie Review: Memento

Memento is a psychological thriller directed by Christopher Nolan (who also directed the Dark Knight trilogy). I must say this movie impressed me and it is pretty much mind-blowing. 

This movie is about Leonard who was suffering from anterograde amnesia (unable to store recent memory) because he was attacked by two men who murdered his wife. Leonard admits to killing the first attacker but the second attacker, however, got away. Unfortunately, due to the anterograde amnesia, the last thing he remembered was the death of his wife.

What makes this movie a lot more interesting than other movie is that this movie is shown backwards. One story line moves forward in time while the other tells the story backwards, revealing more each time. This movie is undeniably the best movie of all time.

Book Review: The Beach

This is another book written by Alex Garland, who wrote The Coma (the book on my previous entry). It is influenced by Lord of the Flies by William Golding (the book that I'm currently reading).

This book is set in Thailand, it is a story of a young backpacker who met a strange Scottish man named 'Daffy Duck' who gave him a handwritten map of a hidden beach and this story is about him searching for the beach and his time there at the beach.

Again, I adore Alex Garland's writing and I recommend everyone to read this book.

Book Review: The Coma

The Coma is a very interesting novel - it explores the boundary between conscious and subconscious mind, thus, The Coma.

This novel is about Carl, who was trying to defend a girl who was harrassed by a group of men. He, however, was violently attacked and falls in a coma. He then woke up from his coma to a strange, unfamiliar life. For instance, he arrived at his friends house not knowing how he got there and the next thing he knew he was at another place. In this novel, we did not know whether he is in the conscious world or a subconscious world. 

I really like this book and it has illustrations in it which makes it more interesting. The illustrations are pretty nice, too.

 

Book Review: Norwegian Wood

Recently, I read a book written by a Japanese author named Haruki Murakami titled Norwegian Wood (ノルウェイの森 Noruwei no Mori). If I'm not mistaken, this book is named after The Beatles's song 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) from their 1965 album, Rubber Soul. I'm not really sure why this book is named after the song because I haven't listen to it yet.

This book is set in the 1960's in Tokyo and narrated by 37 year-old Toru Watanabe who reminisces his college days which at that time developed relationships between two women whose personalities are different to one another - the beautiful yet broken Naoko and lively and outgoing Midori. 

What I like about this book is that it is simple yet memorable. I highly recommend everyone to read it because it's not some typical romance novel. It's about how you cope with death and live life as it is. 

Introduction

My name is Nurul Shahida. The name 'Nurul' was given my aunt (my father's younger sister) and 'Shahida' was my father's choice. My father told me that he wanted to name me Nurul Sabrina but my mother prefers Shahida over Sabrina.

I was born in 19th January 1994 and born and raised in Johor Bahru. I have always wonder why our family lived in Johor Bahru since my father is actually from Kelantan and my mother is from Perak. I have a huge family - I have 2 older sisters, 2 older brothers, a younger sister and a younger brother (and not to forget, a pet cat named Salem). I am blessed to have such family because we always help each other out through thick and thin. 

Enough about my family, I will talk about me since this post is about me. ;)

Mostly people would say I'm boring and that I don't act my age (they say that I act 30 years older) because I enjoy being indoors. The thing is, I can't stand being outside where there are a lot of people and I'm the type of person who enjoys being with my family and my cat as I am a family person. I prefer to stay indoors because my hobbies includes reading, playing video games and baking. 

I dislike a lot of things especially anything involving physical: sports. I am not good at any sports. I had a lot of injuries due to playing sports when I was in primary school and I promised myself not to play any sports since then. However, I did play futsal last month for SUKOL but unfortunately our team lost 5-0. So, to save myself from humiliations, I would say no to sports. 

Fin.