Baking Taitai 烘焙太太: My 2013 Chinese New Year Bakes

Tuesday 23 July 2013

My 2013 Chinese New Year Bakes

Blogging is something new to me and I know it takes time and effort to maintain it. Being a stay home mum with two active kids and without any helper, I have put the idea of starting a blog behind me due to my busy schedule. However, I have received constant encouragement from my friends to start one to share my bakes and recipes. In February this year, I started my Facebook baking page to share my bakes and experiences. It has been well received and in just five months, it has more than 800 likes. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friends and readers of my baking page who has been supporting me all this while. Recently, I have received feedbacks that finding my shared recipes on the baking page is not so easy as one have to scroll down to earlier posts to search for it and it is quite cumbersome, hence the birth of this blog. I hope you enjoy reading my blog and trying out the recipes which I will be sharing as I experiment in my humble kitchen. :)

Like to start off by sharing the Chinese New Year bakes which I have done for my family and friends this year and it is also the first year that I have attempted to bake instead of buying from the store. As it is the year of the snake, I made some 'snake' Danish butter cookies which I am very pleased with the look and taste. Each piece is unique on it's own and they differ in look and shape as they are done with free hand piping. Don't you think some are quite cute-looking? ;p

The photo below shows my first attempt of pineapple tarts. I must say it is hard work. No wonder the hefty price you have to pay especially for homemade ones. My friend Emily has generously shared her recipe with me and I love the melt-in-the-mouth texture!

My first attempt of pineapple tarts

More variations of pineapple tarts

Click here to see the Danish Butter Cookies recipe which I have used to make these snake cookies.

As my daughter is born in the year of the Snake, these snake cookies were made specially for her. Not forgetting my little boy who is born in the year of the Pig, I made some 'pig' pineapple tarts for him. Now nobody says I am unfair. ;)

Click here to see the German Butter Cookies recipe.

Upon seeing my friend, Lai Yong, who posted her homemade Bak Kwa on Facebook, I was tempted to try it out at home. She was really kind to share the recipe with me and thanks to her advice that I managed to produce tasty and healthy homemade bak kwa for my family.