It's been 10 years!

Hello to all,

Today marks my blog's 10 year anniversary.

I started blogging after I had my first child and this year she turned 10 in August. The first recipe that I blogged about was the Moist Chocolate Cake that I bake quite often. And until this day, I've posted 1288 posts, of which should be around 1200 recipes, at least. Many of the recipes are with referred sources (usually with some personal adaptations to suit my preference) and recreated by me without any recipe to refer to, and I'm always proud of the recipes that I created by myself.

Looking back.... My most active years were 2010-2013 and in 2010 I posted for mostly 6 days a week. 2011 I slowed down a bit due to my house move and a new baby. I really slowed down when I went back to work. I tried hard to upkeep my tempo, but it was hard. Even when I finally resigned and left the working world, it's hard to go back to how it was.

Why did I resign from my lifelong paying job as a Government School Teacher then? Blogging earns alot, right, with all the high readershipI get....... Some people tend to think I earn a lot from blogging. If USD20 a month is a lot, please .... I'm really not earning enough to even buy the annual amount of butter I use in a year. Being a mother is difficult. Being torn between children and work, I chose to stay home and be just a mother and wife. I didn't resign to focus full time on blogging.

Maybe sometimes I felt silly, that I share recipes for free, and some people, knowing that my created recipe works, just use it for commercial publication that isn't for free. This type of feeling just makes me feel demotivated. But what can I do? I feel happy when people try the recipes I shared and feedback to me. And I am happy with all the new friends I made on Facebook when reader connect to me, and that's what I should focus on.

Many years ago, I was tagged by ShuHan from Mummy I can Cook to do a '7 posts' post. I responded to her invite, but I did it the wrong way instead by listing my fav 7. LOL. I guess I should revisit that and do it right this time.

1. The most beautiful post
2. The most popular post
3. The most controversial post
4. The most helpful post
5. The post that was surprisingly successful
6. The post that did not get the attention it deserved
7. The post I'm most proud of

Orange Sugar Buns

I love orange flavoured bakes. It has a wake me up effect.

My kids love butter sugar buns, so I made the usual butter sugar bun into an orange sugar bun.
You can use your favourite basic bun recipe and mix the sugar with some orange zest to get the same effect.

Gone in a day.

Coconut Pancakes

My mom used to make this quite often whenever she had extra coconut milk from our weekly kaya making sessions. But since she doesn't use measurements, they always come out different. LOL.

The version I made today is inspired by a popular backpacker's cafe in Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands, called T Cafe (now renamed to Lord's Cafe). I read online (prior to my trip) that it was one of the most popular items on the menu, and so I ordered it. It arrived as one large round thin pancake, at least 10 inches big at 2-3mm thick. When I tasted it... it was a soft thin pancake that reminded me of Mom's coconut pancake but it had a nice hint of lime. Sprinkled on top was toasted coconut. That piece of thin pancake wasn't cheap and 1 slice didn't make me feel even 1/8 full.