Mom's first attempt at baking muffins

And what a failure! First, I forgot the oil. How can this happen when oil is one of the most important ingredients? Second, I didn't sieve the flour using a proper sieve. And lastly, I should have used butter instead of olive oil!

Despite the failed infant attempt, the consolation is I had a very enthusiastic helper in the kitchen. In fact, prior to the baking session, I had ambitiously assured him that he could be having muffins as his snack the next day.  And, he was convinced that Mom can really bake edible muffins. 

The recipe seems simple enough. I thought this shouldn't stop a novice from making nice muffins, what with Mom who used to bake banana cakes umpteen years ago.

This was what we used to sieve the flour.  I thought this would be better than not sieving at all as I had totally forgotten about buying one.  Sigh....

As Wyng was the one who beat the eggs for me, I had carelessly forgotten about adding oil or butter into it before mixing the egg and milk mixture into the flour.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the egg mixture into it. Stir well but do not overmix.

This is the result of the batter. Wyng enthused and pointed eagerly at the recipe book that the batter looked exactly the same as that in the picture.

Separating the batter into two portions.

Instead of cocoa, I used Milo to make my chocolate marble muffins. Wyng had such thrill just by mixing the Milo into the batter.

The batter, separated into two portion, one portion with Milo, one without, was to be spooned alternately into the tray.

It was only at this stage when the muffins were being baked in the oven that I realised, OMG! Mom had forgotten something!

Look at the flat muffins. See how dry and unappetising they are! They look so different from the glossy and mouth-watering muffins in my recipe book.  Not wanting to give up, I made another 6 more muffins, this time I didn't forget the oil but I used olive oil because that's the only type of oil I have in my kitchen. 

Sigh... Probably because I was using the healthy olive oil, the muffins weren't moist at all and they didn't rise! The recipe did say sunflower seed oil or butter. So, I figure olive oil will do the job.

Oh no, and I thought making muffins was easy. My 18 muffins turned out to be rather flat, dry and hard. The hardness is similar to 'nien gao' when it's not cooked.