Bake it too, baby: Rocky Road Cupcakes How-to

Rocky Road Cupcakes how-to: read on, baby!

Fairy Lights and a Happy December

We are almost halfway into the month of December and it's been a good start to the season so far. As the year draws to a close, the days seem to bleed into the next, making time pass twice as quickly. While we start to (or have already started) the holiday gift-grabbing spree, here are ten ways why it's begining to feel like Christmas already:

1) The malls are draped gloriously in Christmas ornaments matching their December splendour; the window displays resemble a scene out of "A Christmas Carol" and I almost find myself tasting snowflakes.

2) Mom put the usual Christmas CD on loop early in the morning, so we get to hear cheerful carols all day long. Boomer radio online has a great selection of Christmas music, which is all I listen to currently and recently every time I am on the computer. My personal favourites include Baby, It's Cold Outside and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Last Christmas by Wham! brings back fond memories of my sweet 16.

3)

We're not having a tree at home this year. Inspired by fairy lights here, we'd broke out the Christmas decorations, stringed white fairy lights in the living room and filled a clear vase with fuschia and silver baubles and golden pinecones to use as a centrepiece for the dining table. The pair of reindeers were actually bought from Daiso @ Plaza Singapura for an amazing SGD2.00 each.

4)

The BFF returns from down-under for this season of cheer (as with all past years), of course, we had to go out on a little Korean food date and some Asian desserts! The little darling turned finally turned 21 this year, so this will be her first Christmas as an adult!

5)

There are more reasons to pick a day out of our busy schedules, save it for that special dinner date with the girls. There's something strangely exhilarating about writing that appointment in your trusty ol' appointment booklet from last Christmas. Friday's cosy dinner gathering: pasta at Arbite and durian mousse at Dessert Bowl. Seems like the good old days again.

6)

This year's Christmas presents came in early. Don't we all just love thoughtful gifts?

7) Starting on Le Projet, making mistakes along the way, and finally deciding to unravel hours of my hard (and heart) work to start all over again. Talk about perfecting that first handmade knit.

8) My fingers sting as though I've just made a pomander ball, but in fact, it was because of Le Projet. Something which involves aching arms, superb concentration, christmas carols and maybe a cup (or two) of coffee.

9) Picking out holiday cookie recipes here , and the best ways to package them here .

10)

And of course, we'd celebrated l'anniversaire de mariage de mes parents with some fast, fancy and romantic dessert: Molten chocolate lava cake fresh from the home oven (recipe here).

I'm sure we're all ready for Christmas, nést-ce pas?

Bake it too, baby: Japanese Cheesecake How-to

Japanese Cheesecake How-to: read on, baby!

Tonight We Talked about Orion

{Image via GeekMom}

The nights are getting shorter and more chilly as we advance into the last dregs of November. Friday evening, a few friends and I had come together for a late Thanksgiving gathering of sorts at a girlfriend's place, and I find it particularly bittersweet. Like salted caramel.

There is a pool right in the center of my friend's estate, which we all took off for a dip before dinner. In this crazy cold weather, we were probably the only ones there, aside from a father teaching his child how to swim at the far shallow end. We swam for a while, back and forth; one following another. One lap, two laps. Someone coughed, we laughed at one another's wrinkled fingers from staying in the water for too long and gathered by the edge of the pool when another pointed out that we could see the neighbours' Christmas lights from where we were. There is suddenly so much to find beautiful in that brief moment; the lights twinkled and the waters slushed softly against our skin and the edges of the pool. Someone realised the red clouds foretelling rain has dispersed a little in the evening sky, allowing the few stars which were visible to us living in this part of the Earth to peek through. I wondered which were stars, which were satellites, whilst our resident astronomy expert pointed out Jupiter. The planet was blazing in the sky that night.

After a satiating dinner and the ultimate bimbotic crisis (someone broke her nails), the lights went off as the surprise cake and candle emerged from the kitchen. They'd used the stove to light the candle because they couldn't find a lighter and I would probably smile every time I think about it. I realised how much we loved surprises - I'd baked for them that afternoon, too. When I closed my eyes to make a wish, I quietly sent them some love. Over the years, so many had gone, but them who remained were constant. They'd seen me transit from a girl to a young woman; now, 2 amongst us have gotten engaged.

A little before midnight, a few of us had looked out from the apartment balcony and tried to identify the winter constellations. Our resident astronomy expert, Jas, traced Orion with her fingers, smiled her little secret smile and said to me that the stars only seem to be moving across the skies due to the Earth's latitudes, Orion will still look like Orion even if it may not be in the same place the next day when we are looking up into the same horizon, because the patterns of the stars never change.

They still exist, just like those who had gone before and always loved us.

Débuter: {Verb} To start; to begin

I love November.

As much as it signifies the year coming to a close, it brings with it a hope of the spirit of renewal.

Where I am located, the transition from season to season is barely noticeable, but it can still be felt all around us. The days are getting colder. It seems to me that Christmas is approaching way faster that I thought it would come this year.

Fall brings with it a kind of beauty that is so alluring; like a whisper. Gone are the rains of October. November's dusk cast on an almost-romantic rosy pink glow on the tops of the trees outside my window, bathing them in the evening light before the night falls. I love it that families are starting to gather, drawing close and keeping company, for comfort; for warmth.

On my way home the day before, I looked out of the window of the bus and saw a lorry transporting a glittery gold decorative Christmas tree. The light from the streetlamps was caught in its boughs, and as the lorry sped forward and the boughs swayed in the wind, I swear I thought that I saw a million stars hanging there, swinging so close to me I may actually be able to touch them.

The last two months of the year does get me in more ways than one.

Bienvenue.

This is the start of The Sunday Bakery.