J's 3rd Chinese New Year

It's the Lunar New Year again! In 2013, J was born and he celebrated his CNY as a new born, who then only knew how to drink milk and sleep. Last year, 21014, we didn't come back for new year, coz didn't get to grab cheap ticket. So we spent J's 2nd CNY at Genting. This year, 2015, we are back to Kuching again. Although J is 2 years old, he has spent 3 CNY, so, according to the Chinese Calendar, he's 3 years old. Well, it doesn't matter coz no matter how old he is, he is always my little boy.

Last minute pre cny shopping at The Spring

Family portrait before attending Cousin Issac's full moon dinner

J expressive face in the car

J at City One

J at one of Kuching landmark

J with Ivan gor gor

J with Joshayne didi

J first gamble

It was an enjoyable New Year as J starts to know everything. He explores, plays, grow and had lots of fun, especially with his Ivan gor gor. J even knows how to shake hand with people, take ang pow and signs gong xi gong xi. Isn't he a big boy now? I'm so touched :)

CNY 2015: 4th bake of the year, kek lapis Horlicks

Never in my life I think I will be able to bake a kek lapis. Since young, people around me has been telling me how hard it is to bake, how tedious and time consuming it is. That's why everyone would rather buy than to bake it themselves. The thing now is, I'm at a place where I do not know where to get nice kek lapis so I have no choice but to bake it myself. I googled and found that the traditional kek lapis require 30 egg yolks! Imagine what u gonna do with the 30 egg whites.... Then, I came across this recipe which only require 10 eggs. Thanks to Guai Shu shu blog. I didn't know if I should follow the original version or healthier version, so I came up with a half half version...

Ingredients:
200g superfine flour
230g Horlicks
120g icing sugar
350g butter
1 can condensed milk (390ml)
9 grade A eggs

Method:
1. Sift the flour and Horlicks, put aside
2. Cut the butter into cubes, add in sugar and cream till pale and creamy
3. Beat in eggs 1 by 1, making sure it's fully incorporated before adding another 1
4. Add condensed milk
5. Lastly add in the sifted flour and Horlicks and mix well
6. Preheat oven at 200 Celsius, set oven to top grill.
7. Prepare baking tin of 9'x9', layer with baking paper and grease the sides with butter
8. Preheat the baking tin for 1 minute
9. Pour in first layer (thicker), approximately 8 small ladle (my ladle size is like a bigger spoon)
10. Bake until slightly brown (about 7 minutes), remove from oven and flatten it and poke using tooth pick if there's any bubbles
11. Repeat the process until batter finishes (bake each layer about 5 minutes)
12. For the last layer, reduce temperature to 160 Celsius, top and bottom grill, for 8-10 minutes
13. Wait for the cake to cool down completely before cutting it

Note:
1. Recipe calls for flour, but I still have superfine flour so I used them, recipe too uses sugar but I have icing, so it'll end up the same
2. I've added Horlicks by 30g because i saw someone commented that the Horlicks smell is not strong enough. You can always use other flavor
3. Grease the side of the baking tin about 1-2cm and grease it repeatedly as it takes up to 1.5 hours to reach the top of the tin
4. Do spare at least 2 hours to make this cake, it is not hard but laborious
5. The cake tastes better after a night or two in the fridge, as the Horlicks small slowly infused into the cake and it won't taste as sweet as freshly baked

Butter cut into pieces

Condensed milk

Sift Horlicks and flour

Butter and sugar ready to mix

Piping hot lapis from oven

Horlicks lapis ready to cut

CNY 2015: 3rd bake of the year, Cornflakes mix in a cup

This is my 3rd bake for this CNY. Last week's bake, which was meant for CNY is all gone. Looks like I will have to bake again sometime next week so that I'm able to bring them back for my mother in law to try. Well, this week, I'm going to try something I've been wanting to try but lazy to do. Cornflakes mix in cup. I am not sure how to name it, so I'd just name is as how it looks like. Recipe as follow:

Ingredients
Honey 70g
Sugar 80g (I used brown sugar and will reduce as I find it too sweet)
Butter 90g
Almond strips 50g
Cornflakes 180g
Thousand island decorative sugar (to sprinkle)

Methods:
1. Mix honey, sugar and butter in a saucepan then melt them with low flame.
2. Pour in almond strips and cornflakes into the mixture
3. Mix them until all cornflakes are costed with the mixture. (I smashed the flakes while mixing)
4. Scoop out the mixture and put them into small paper cup
5. Sprinkle the decorative sugar (any type will do)
6. Bake at 160 Celsius for 7-9 minutes until cornflakes is golden brown

Note:
1. Remember to wait for the cornflakes to cool down before trying it because the sugar and honey is very hot and it will stick to your tongue causing injury
2. U can add in other nuts or raisins into the mixture for more variety
3. Pre heat oven before baking
4. You can change the amount of sugar and honey to your taste, likewise, you too can omit sugar and increase honey
5. You can lightly break the cornflakes before mixing, I choose to do it while mixing
6. Total time used to bake this is 30-40 minutes, so it is an easy bake. You can also ask your kids to help you with it, my son did it with me and he end up munching those cornflakes mixture before I'm able to bake them.

Baking in progress

Cooling it

Into the container they go

J running away after stealing my pre baked cornflakes mixture!

CNY 2015: 2nd bake of the year, Little Sheep

Whilst waiting for the almond crisps to bake, I prepared the ingredients for the following bake, Little Sheep German Cookies. Basically it uses German Cookies recipe but moulding the cookie into Little Sheep. It is just too adorable to not try to bake it. Last year I've baked German cookies so I kinda have an idea of what to expect. So here's the recipe:

Little Sheep German Cookies
(Yield approx. 80 pieces)

250g butter
80g icing sugar
250g potato flour
160g superfine flour
Chocolate chips and.black sesame for decoration

1) Beat butter and sugar till light n fluffy
2) Sieve potato flour and superfine flour. Mix them into butter and sugar mixture
3) Put the batter into the fridge for 20-30 minutes so that it is easier to shape
4) Shape the batter into round shape, add 2 chocolate chips as horns, sesame seed as eyes and 2 small ball between horns
5) Bake them for 15-20 minutes at 150 Celsius

Note:
1) Can replace superfine flour with normal flour
2) Use cheap local made chocolate as they are more heat resistant, you do not want the horns to melt when they are baked

Ready to bake

Baking of Little Sheep

Due to my body condition, I made half of the batter and kept half for tomorrow. It's indeed time consuming shaping the sheep. 

CNY 2015: 1st bake of the year, Almond Crisp

It's this time of the year again... I told yuan last year that I am not going to bake this year coz it's just too tiring for me. Furthermore, I'm expecting another baby, my body might not able to stand too long... But, blame it on my itchy hand. I can't help but to bake after seeing so many posts online. So many people baking and it's making me hungry!

This afternoon, I made Yuan bring me to the baking ingredient shop to buy ingredients to bake. I've decided to kick off my baking with Almond Crisps. This recipe is easy as there is this premix powder, and all you have to do is mix it with nuts of your choice. Initially, I wanted to bake with almond but looking at the price of it, it's wiser to mix with other nuts, eg. Pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, peanuts flakes, etc.

Here's the recipe:
100g florentine premix
200g nuts (almonds, pumpkin, sesame, etc.)

1) Mix florentine and nuts in a bowl
2) Place baking paper or parchment paper on baking tray
3) Spread the mixture on the baking paper. Make sure the layer is level
4) Place it into the oven and bake for 5-7 minutes at 160 Celsius
5) Take it out when it's light brown. Cut it immediately while it's hot cause it will harden when cool.

Note:
1) Spread a thin layer if u do not want your crisps to be too sweet
2) Make sure to take the crisps out when it's light brown, not brown. It gets burnt easily
3) Some people pour 1/2 of the mixture on tray, then nuts then another 1/2 of the mixture again. Whichever way you do it, make sure where there is powder, there must be nuts and vice versa

Baking in progress 

Cut it into pieces while it's still piping hot

This is how 1 piece looks like

Total yield for 300g powder (of course, some extras went into my stomach)

Happy Baking!
Ps: I'm a novice baker, if I can do it, so can u!