Friday, January 31, 2014

Chinese New Year Cookies Bake Sale 2014: Thank you for your support!

Today is the first day of Lunar New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

I would like to thank everyone who has supported my CNY bake sale. This year, I have made a total of 26 containers of pineapple tarts and German cookies. Thank you Mary, Jesslyn, Jessie, Nan Lau, Marissa, Jamie, Fen Fen and Meifeng for buying my homemade CNY cookies. I hope you all like the cookies. I'm also sorry that I had to reject some orders. Hope there will be a bake sale next year.





In addition, I also received a last minute order from my blog reader Meek. This is my first chiffon cake order! Thanks for giving me confidence in my chiffon cakes. I decided to include this in my bake sale as well.



This year, I did not indicate how much to donate (unlike last year, I donated $1 for each container sold). Instead, I will donate a sum of $50 to "Make-A-Wish Foundation® (Singapore) Ltd" which helps make wishes come true for children with life-threatening medical conditions and bring them hope, strength and joy. Thank you Mary Ng for donating an extra $14 in addition to the cookies bought and support my bake sale for the second time!

So on the first day of the Chinese New Year, I contributed $50 in the name of "Small Small Baker" through sggives.org charity donation portal. Although it is only a very small amount, it's the heart that counts. Hope everyone can start doing more for the less fortunate.



I wish everyone a Horse-picious Year!
May all be safe and healthy!!

祝贺大家:新年快乐,出入平安,马到成功,马年大运!!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Pineapple Tarts with SCS Butter

I finally start my CNY baking yesterday!

I am very happy because I am invited by SCS butter to try out and feature some of their newly created recipes for Chinese New Year using SCS Butter. I think I mention before, I grow up eating SCS butter. I love spreading my bread with SCS butter since young! My mum was using SCS when she baked CNY cookies last time, and until now, I still continue using SCS butter, especially for all my cookies during CNY!

I was given a list of recipes, both sweet and savoury. I tried out two of their recipes yesterday - the open and closed pineapple tarts. A good warm up for my upcoming baking for bake sale. :)

Coconut-Dusted Golden Pillow Pineapple Tarts

This is a very special recipe that is worth trying! I never thought of coating the pineapple tarts with desiccated coconut before. It makes the pineapple tarts more fragrant!


Ingredients (I make 80pcs cos I like mini tarts)

250g SCS Salted Butter
100g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla essence
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cold milk
400g plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup desiccated coconut, more as needed
650g pineapple paste

Method

1. Cream butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg yolk, vanilla essence, salt, baking soda and cold milk. Fold sifted flour into the mixture and mix until the dough just comes together. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 mins.
2. While the dough chills, divide the pineapple paste into balls of 8 g each. (I skip the steps of making pineapple filling on my own.)
3. Take a heaping teaspoon of dough and use hands to flatten it. Put the pineapple filling in the middle and wrap it with dough. Remove any excess dough and mold it to your preferred shape. Dust with desiccated coconut.
4. Preheat oven to 180C. Arrange the tarts on a lined baking tray and chill the cookie dough pieces for 10 mins.
5. Bake tarts for 25mins (I bake about 20 minutes) or until the dough has turned golden brown, rotate trays halfway through baking time.
6. Allow pineapple tarts to cool before storing them in airtight containers.

This is how the tarts look before they go into the oven. Pretty! The dough is quite soft to handle. So do put it back to chill if it becomes too sticky.


Tada! My pineapple tarts look great and unique after dusted with the coconut!


At the same time, I also did the second type of pineapple tarts.

Flower Pineapple Tarts

The ingredients for this recipe is really simple. It is actually an eggless recipe too.


Ingredients (I make 38pcs)

230g plain flour, sifted
50g caster sugar
90g SCS Salted Butter
35g SCS Spreadable Butter (I use all salted butter)
2 tbsp evaporated milk, more as needed
300g pineapple paste

Method

1. Combine flour, sugar and butter in a bowl and mix using your hands. Once crumbs are formed, add the evaporated milk one tablespoon at a time and knead until the dough comes together. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
2. While the dough chills, divide the pineapple paste into balls of 8 g each. (I skip the steps of making pineapple filling on my own.)
3. Dust the working surface with flour and roll out the pastry to about 0.5cm thick. Use a flower cookie cutter to cut out each piece of dough. Arrange them in small baking cups on a lined baking tray.
4. Preheat oven to 180C. Place the pineapple balls on top of each piece of cookie dough. Make a small flower using a mini flower cutter. Place on top of the pineapple balls (optional).
5. Bake tarts for 20mins or until the dough has turned golden brown, rotate trays halfway through baking time.
6. Allow pineapple tarts to cool before storing them in airtight containers.

The flower pineapple tarts before baking, so pretty right!


I love them so much! Take a piece!


Thank you SCS butter for sponsoring the butter! I will like to try out other recipes if I have the time after my CNY baking. Do check out their Facebook page for more ideas!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Chinese New Year Cookies Bake Sale!

Have a few requests asking me if I'm selling CNY cookies this year. I have been considering whether I can go through the mass baking again. Haha! So here it is! The mini charity bake sale! As usual I will only bake during the last 1-2 weeks before CNY cos I like all my cookies fresh!

Some of my last year's bake sale.



This year I will not be selling my signature Cashew Nut Cookies. Only 2 types of cookies will be on sale.

Pineapple tarts
Buttery and melt in mouth
* Container full: $10 (about 25pcs)


German cookies
Buttery and melt in mouth
Choose
- plain
- chocolate
- mix plain and chocolate (not marble)
* Container full: $8 (about 35pcs)


Please note that the container I'm using is same as last year.
Top diameter 11.5cm, Height 6.5cm

Last order: 20 January
Baking schedule: 20-26 January
Collection: 25-29 January

Confirm your orders before 20 January.
Again it will be a very mini bake sale. Quantities will be very limited. :)
All to be self collected from my place at Toh Guan Road (near IMM). No meeting up and home delivery.

***
Same as last year, I will be donating part of the sales proceed to charity:
which helps make wishes come true for children with life-threatening medical conditions
and bring them hope, strength and joy.
(Through sggives.org charity donation portal)

A Big Thank you and please support!

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Hong Kong 2013 Day 2: The Peak

Day 2: 31 October 2013 (Thu)

After a short rest in the hotel room, we left to visit The Peak. You can take MTR to MTR Central station. However, we wanted to experience the Star Ferry, so we need to get to the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier. Good thing that our hotel provide free shuttle bus services between the hotel and Tsim Sha Tsui. We booked our seats in advance and took the 530pm shuttle bus which will drop us at The Sun Arcade. From there, it is a short walk to the Ferry Pier.

Past by 1881 Heritage.


Star Ferry

At Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier. Sky darkened very early. Think we started abit too late and will be missing the sunset at The Peak.


Open-top Bus

We took the ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central. After that we boarded the Peak Tram shuttle bus No. 15C at the Central Bus Terminus (near Star Ferry Pier 8). We were lucky to board the Open-top Sightseeing Bus! The ride was very enjoyable during night time!


Peak Tram & The Peak

Reached the Peak Tram Lower Terminus where we will take The Peak Tram to The Peak. The queue for the peak tram was crazy. Super crowded! We waited for close to an hour before we boarded the Peak Tram.



The ride up to The Peak on the Peak Tram is a must-try experience in Hong Kong. The slope upwards is so steep that the buildings below all become tilted! DO sit on the right side of the tram cos there are more buildings to see. Actually it's better to go during day time and come back during night time so that you can view Hong Kong's day and night scenery.


We left at 530pm and reached The Peak at 8pm! Took such a long time! Everyone was so hungry. So we quickly settled our dinner at a Hong Kong Style Cafe.


After that, we went outdoors for a view of Hong Kong at the top! Super cold and windy up here! So sorry for the low photo quality. It was hard to take photos at night time using my normal phone.



Walked around the place for a while before we were back to the long queue for the Peak Tram again. Worse it had to be outdoors. No fun queueing so long in the cold weather.

Taking the Peak Tram down. This time we will be moving backwards because it is a one-way track! More fun! Again, please choose to sit on the right side too. But I only got the left seats as there were too many people on the tram. There was nothing much to see, only trees in the dark. But better than standing. :)


So, then we took the same route back, by bus 15C, then star ferry... Too late to catch the last shuttle bus. So we took the taxi back. It happened to be Halloween night. Still many crowds around at this time. The taxi queue also very long. By the time we were back to hotel, it was already 11pm. Dead tired and very sick of waiting and waiting for the whole night.

Next: Traditional Dim Sum

Saturday, January 04, 2014

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

Here's my first bake in 2014! Trying to post my bake as soon as possible this time. Must kick the habit of blogging too slow, hope it can last. Hahaha!

This recipe is taken from "Okashi: sweet treats made with love". Have been wanting to try this. Just happen to buy 2 boxes of blueberries and the itch to bake something. So this becomes my tea-break yesterday. The baking cups were bought from Hong Kong.


I like this small recipe, I make exactly 6 muffins, just enough for my family (ignore the kids they only love chocolate, hehe). This muffin uses creaming method. The muffins are quite nice, soft and not too sweet and oily. I like the additional crumble toppings, sweet and crispy. Lots of blueberries! I love watching the blueberries oozing out during baking!


Blueberry Crumble Muffins

Ingredients (make 6 muffins)

Crumble Topping:

20g unsalted butter, softened
20g castor sugar
20g cake flour, sifted
10g ground almonds

Muffins:

50g unsalted butter, softened
40g brown sugar
30g castor sugar
1 egg (about 65g)
60g cold fresh milk
120g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g fresh blueberries

Method

1. Make crumble topping. Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix with fingers until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Chill in fridge until use.
2. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Sift flour and baking powder twice. Set aside 18 blueberries.
3. Beat butter with mixer until soft and creamy. Add both sugars and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Add egg and beat until well-combined.
4. Add 1/3 of flour and fold in with spatula. Add 1/2 of milk and continue to fold batter gently. Add another 1/3 flour and fold in, followed by the remaining milk. Add remaining flour and fold through, but do not over-mix. Add remaining blueberries and fold in gently.
5. Spoon batter into cases until about 3/4 full. Divide the 18 blueberries among each muffin, then sprinkle crumble topping over.
Bake for about 25-30 mins, or until muffins have a springy texture when pressed gently.
6. Leave muffins to cool on a wire rack. They are best served warm, and consumed the day they are baked or the day after. If not consuming immediately, store in airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days, freeze for up to 2 weeks.

Recipe from: Okashi: sweet treats made with love

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Goodbye 2013 Hello 2014 & New Announcements

Welcome to 2014! Looking back at previous years, I don't seem to have the habit of compiling my bakes of the year. After seeing many bloggers doing it, I did mine this year.

Took a morning to look back at my posts last year, not many actually :P. I did my first charity bake sale for CNY, baked MORE chiffon cakes, did more kiddy bakes, played with fondant the first time, made mooncakes. I posted more unrelated to baking stuffs, haha! About gardening and half-way through my Hong Kong trip. Still have not posted up some bakes yet.

Some of my favourites for last year.


I'm not a very hardworking baker and blogger. I don't write well, I take my photos in less than a minute. I don't bake that often. I take longer time to blog, especially when there are more ways of sharing my bakes online, like through facebook and instagram. :) I choose to blog more casually now, at my own pace. Blogging is my way of recording my own recipes, my thoughts, my life, my experiences. So that I can have great memories when I look back. If I have shared a good recipe, inspired you to bake, provided some useful information, that's a bonus! :)

Good things come and go. I have 2 announcements to make today.

Aspiring Bakers is coming to an end this year. This had been on my mind for the longest time since last year as I think I have not done a good job. It is a hard decision to end AB. And I finally decide and officially announce it today. I hope you are reading this! This month's 39th theme: CNY Rock & Roll is the second last one. The last theme will be Rainbow Cakes/Ombre Cakes hosted by Cynthia. I really enjoyed the food posted by all bloggers and readers. Aspiring Bakers has great moments, bringing everyone together to share and make friends. I am very proud to be the starter of this event. Hope all of you will give great support for the last 2 themes. :)

The other announcement is about my online shop SSB Baking Supplies. It was started a few months ago, selling baking/cooking/packaging products. Thank you to all my baking friends who supported by buying and sharing about it online. I hope to look for more interesting products that are harder to find here and keep the prices affordable (some shops are selling too high!). Earning a little extra income and also fulfilling my little dream at the same time. Please support to keep it going!

Online shop: http://ssbsupplies.com/
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/SSBsupplies

Wishing for a good year in 2014!