The countdown : 10 days

Countdown to the festivity : 10 days to the eve
My demon bake ! The most difficult bake will have to be this Kuih Bangkit, it's part of Nyonya delicacy, Kuih Bangkit as in Coconut Cream Cookies or literally translated to Rise Cookies takes days ahead to prepare and I need to be prepared mentally to embark on this " melt-in-the-mouth" cookies. So for the third year, I am with my obsession again and some how my dough didn't felt good to begin with. The recipe said knead into a pliable dough and how pliable is pliable when I have not seen one ? Unlike many people who had this hands me down recipe, I had none, for the women from my mom and her generations are the liberal women who actually had careers and don't actually sweat it out in the kitchen.  I failed to obtain that "melt-in-the-mouth" texture, thou it's very aromatic from the coconut cream this round, so something is rightly done here, it's just that I failed miserably to achieve that  "melt-in-the-mouth" texture. However the cookies improved with a decent softness the next day. Threw away what remains of the dough after two trays. Sigh!

Nian Gao - Always, there is some thing new that caught my interest.

The Sticky Glutinous Cake is a welcome sight every Chinese New Year and it only appears once a year. Traditionally it is a must have in every household as it symbolize progress, advancement and growth. I made my first Nian Gao this year instead of buying from the market. The process is said to be tedious, well, not after one tried at baking the Kuih Bangkit. The hardest is getting the sugar to caramelize to a certain degree (great amount of patient here)  to obtain that distinctive color so to pass it onto the Nian Gao when it's done, and the next is most probably time, it takes about 3 to 4 hours of steaming and constantly checking the water on the steamer meaning no sneaking out of the house for a Starbucks grande.  I think I am addicted to this !

Project Pyjamas, a charity drive by NWUKMSIA (Nordic Walk UK-Malaysia) to raise awareness for a little bedtime comfort for the children in the foster homes or orphanages held  at our Perdana Botani Lake Garden on the last weekend of January. It's been ages since I went for a walk or a jog at this garden in the city. This was a  fun  Charity project, with people coming in all sorts of their ideal pyjamas wear.  SpongeBob , Mickey and Minion print Pjs including some traditional PJs  appeared on the scene that morning; spotted also a lady in robe and rollers in her hair, a lady in kaftan, some sporting guys in their sarongs and even teddy bears came along too. The shy ones are in tee and trousers or short. Mommies and kids came too and the seniors came in a groups. The charity drive is aimed at providing pyjamas for the kids in orphanages and the walk is open to the public by registration.

The Lake in the park

 The stream

Cascading waters

The weather was beautiful, the sun came out late which made the walk even more pleasant

 Jaimis who went with me found the clown who made each of us  a baloon crown, LOL 

Spotted too are these few ladies who came in their make-believe see thru lingerie 

My last bake will be the crunchy seaweed crackers which is house favorite and a cake to bake and getting the house ready for the festivity in 10 days. I still have the curtains to sew and my "cai" to put up.

Thank you Carol, Vickie, Brigitte and Meari for visiting and  leaving me your sweet comments in my last post. Seriously, I will need to improve the shape of my Doggie Cookies.

My Cherry Blossom wreath is done Brigitte only that  I will need some help in getting a good photoshoot of the wreath , hopefully I have another last blog post before I take a break for the festivity 

Till then, take care everyone and have a wonderful weekend