Black Sesame Cookies

A simple black sesame cookie with only 4 ingredients, that is if you find toasting the sesame not difficult :)

Black may not look auspicious for Lunar New Year, but i think most of us, do wear black during the festival nowadays. We have modernized, right? Hehehe.

Cranberry Orange Cookies

Yummy! My hubby said these were so good. It was at Peabody's site that I first came to know of these cookies.

I like the refreshing taste of orange in this, with chewy cranberry bits that contrasts with the crisp cookie. The orange sugar coating adds some glitter to its outlook.

Budapest Roll ~ Budapestrulle

I tried baking dacquoise once. It came out so beautiful, and so I let it cool down for a few hours, thinking to attend to it, later. But it sweated and melted in the humidity. Sigh!

I didn't realise that the cake base for this, is actually almost a dacquoise, yes just almost, or maybe it is still considered as one. It is baked much quicker, only 15 minutes rather than 1 hour. It was only after I ate it, I realised what type of cake did I bake. Hahahah.

Guangxi Banana Leaf Dumplings 广西蕉叶糍

Today is my mother's birthday. I will try to post one Guangxi dish each year on her birthday to honour her heritage.

Guangxi is one of the few places in China where banana leaves are abundant, and I saw on the internet that some are so huge, you can go all bare behind a frond and not get seen.

How to Prepare Mandarin Segments

Mandarins are abundant at this time, when it's around Lunar New Year.

If I need to use Mandarin segments in my bakes, normally I will buy canned mandarins because I had no idea how to peel away the membrane. Mandarin membranes can't be easily sliced off as the segments are loose , unlike oranges that are snugly bound.

This time, it came upon me the idea of blanching and peel, just like how we peel nuts. I tried it and it works!

DIY Icing Sugar

Icing sugar, or confectioner's sugar in the US, is also known as powdered sugar.

I have been making my own since 1996 and I don't always buy it. Why?
Because of the price, it's double of regular sugar.
And I don't want to eat any any anti caking agent if I can.
Plus I don't know why the ants at my house won't crawl into the pack of icing sugar when left around. *suspicious look*

It's not difficult and you can use either the blender or the dry mill attachment that comes with your blender. Food processor is not recommended.

Sweet Chilli Crisps~Popiah Gunting Bersira Pedas

It so happened that Chinese New Year (2014) was over and I didn't make my peanut rolls as planned. I just wanted to get rid of the pack of spring roll wrappers. Not wanting to do anything I have done, I remembered there was this popiah bersira recipe that I had been seeing on a few blogs

I have eaten this quite a number of times and it's very addictive. Once I pop, I can't quite stop. But after I have tried making this, I can totally control myself, as I know how siiiiiiinnnfuuuuuul this is. Seriously I kid you not.

Pineapple Tart Cookies (Open Faced)

I sold these 19 years ago for Chinese New Year... when I just completed my SPM (something like high school exam) while waiting for my exam results. My clients were just friends. They asked for more the next Chinese New Year. But I was doing my Form 6 (Pre-U), so, I can't sell anymore. That was the only time I sold Chinese New Year cookies.

I found this recipe from The Star Newspaper somewhere from 1993-1995, I'm not sure as I had a habit of collecting recipe cuttings. In those days, I can't afford to buy recipe books and we subscribed The Star, and I only need some effort to cut and collect the free recipes.

Fish Head Casserole

My mom shoved me this fish head. Simply because she bought one whole big fish, had the fishmonger to cut them into steaks and she didn’t know what to do with the head.

Well, haha, it’s not hard for me to find a way to cook it. I just flipped the cookbook she passed to me. There it is, almost at the end of this book is the “Fish head casserole”.

DIY Black Sesame Powder

Nowadays, you can easily get black sesame seed powder from shops, but I rather make my own to ensure I get them toasted the way I like it. It's not that hard.

Black sesame seeds are black. Yeah.

You can't see well if they are black. Whether they are over toasted or undertoasted.
To counter that, add in some white sesame seeds. Not too much white sesame seeds so that the powder stays as black as possible.

Some will choose to wash them before use, for me, I prefer to sift them.
I put the seeds into a sieve, that is not too fine. And give it a few shakes. Some stuff will fall out, usually.
If you really want to wash them, make sure you dry them properly before use, if not, they won't smell good.

Fruit Pie Cake, Frozen themed for my Lyanne

Happy New Year!

A last minute decision to bake. Her birthday was on 31st Dec, just few days back.

I celebrated Lyanne's birthday few days earlier with a red velvet snowflake cake (to be blogged next time) ... and when it was her real day.... I felt bad not making her a Frozen themed cake. She had been asking for an Elsa cake as well weeks before. I had a meeting until 4pm and rushed to the shop to get something related to Elsa or Frozen. I only managed to get these mini figurines at RM18.90. Plastic and so expensive. But thinking they can play with it after the cake was gone, I bought it.

I had 2 hours to get it done.
Now a Frozen themed cake... there must be snow. A quick cake with white snowy look..... so I made this cake that I once made for my niece.