Chinese New Year Cookies

A week with so much to keep me busy as a bee. After the birthday party and valentine, we dived right into Chinese New Year!

Planned to make some simple ghee cookies, but changed my mind on the day itself. Since I have some leftover butter cookie dough from the birthday party. And I actually came up with this perfect idea for leftover dough.

No time to wait for your dough to warm up to room temperature for rolling? No problem!

I used a Melon Baller/Fruit Scoop/whatever you call that to shape my dough into little balls. Baked them for however long they need to fill my kitchen with sweet cookie smell, and topped them with the melted chocolate I prepared while baking. Lastly, sprinkle a tiny bit of rainbow bits on them and they are done!

The chocolate really makes them taste sooooooooo good. I used a mixture of milk and dark chocolate, and I'm simply a genius to get such perfection the first time. Hahahahah!

Valentine 2018

A new tradition added to the calendar this year. Valentine's Day!

Well, I've actually made card for Valentine's Day before (though not consistent), but from this year on, I'm making an effort to keep the Japanese tradition of chocolate-making on this day.

Let's focus this mini card that was prepared before the actual day. Once again, it's made of 99% recycled material. The usual recycled namecard featuring a new addition to our tool stash, The Elephant Clear Stamp. Totally love this series of My Favorite Things Clear Stamps, so expect to see more of them!

The pink card base is actually the wrapper of Tokyo Banana! Pink and Giraffe! Which was irresistible for me. BUY! BOUGHT! And RECYCLED!

The wrapper is adhered to and strengthened by a calendar page. Adhered the elephant and balloon in pop-up tape, and added random heart paper punches all over. Lastly, handwritten "Love" with Versamarker and embossed at the top left hand corner. Sometimes, I'm amazed at how all these trash can come together and transform into something of such beauty.

Next on to the chocolate part. For the first year, I went for the simple, most traditional - Chocolate Truffles. Nothing fancy, just basic Chocolate Truffles.

Though I did try adding some rainbow bits for some fanciness, it failed terribly. Always good to have room for improvement next year, right? As you can see from the photo, that I got lazy towards the end, and didn't bother to roll them at all. But nonetheless, they are still yummily tasty!

Changed the recipe (from what I got from the internet) BIG TIME. And honestly, I didn't mean it. I got confused with all my conversion and overestimated the weight of the chocolate bar I used. Despite this crazy mistake (that I only realize way after), it came out just fine! In fact, I think it's even better! Because the original recipe actually requires you to remove the truffles from the refrigerator and serve when it's in room temperature (I'm assuming that it would be softer that way, than being cold from the fridge). But mine actually has a really nice texture and firmness straight from the fridge. Definitely a big plus, since ain't nobody has time to wait for yummy snacks!

Sorry for the long post and yeah, stay tuned for the next!

Mickey Birthday Party - Garlic Baby Boy [Chocolate Tartletts & Jelly Cups]

Let's continue from last week Mickey Mickey Mickey!

Used the same dough from the butter cookie recipe, and shaped them into little tartletts. They are not the most presentable or the prettiest, but they definitely taste good (and overly sweet =X). So you can't deny me an A+ for effort, especially for those ears that took so much work!

Last but not least (but I feel otherwise), Jelly Cups! 100% store-bought jello, with minimum preparation, and poured into individual jelly cups. Well, sometimes it's the simplest things that count. =D

I suppose it's a big achievement to be able to prepare a dessert table like this. Though it's just simple pastries this time, let's work harder to improve and have a party at home sometime! Woohoo~