Chinese chicken cocktail buns..

 Here goes nothing... 

After a few attempts at making these little delicacies I think it's time that i shared with you all. Firstly, Chinese chicken cocktail buns doesn't contain chicken whatsoever. 

The name came from the 1950's. The bakeries in Hong Kong didn't want to waste the leftovers so they invented a filling to go inside the buns so people would enjoy them more and be able to make use of what was left. Primarily, it came from the English term for a cocktail.. Mixing things together to create something new. Therefore, Chinese chicken cocktail buns is as it is using butter, sugar and coconut for the filling. Source: http://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-hant/雞尾包

These bad boys... Where shall I start? Yummy! It took me in total 6 hours to make a total of 38 buns. Including the time for the dough to proof and to bake in the oven. Thanks to Miss LSC who kindly helped me at the end otherwise it would have taken me longer to complete. Her reward was able to eat a freshly baked bun just out of the oven. At it's best. 

I knew these would be very welcoming hence the 38 but it still wasn't enough to go round for all the those I had in mind. At least I know those who got their hands on one enjoyed them. :) some even said they wanted more. You know who you are. 

For those who are interested in trying their own hand at his this then there is a link to YouTube for the video below and its how I learnt it. Not boasting or anything but all I do now is look at my list of ingredients. The whole procedure has been memorised. It may be worthwhile to check out other videos and recipe but this one worked for me. 

youtube video: http://youtu.be/mL6EfOYM5Y0

Ingredients

Bread dough:

500g strong bread flour

7g yeast 

50g caster sugar

15g milk 

50g margarine

250ml Luke warm water 

Filling: 

150g margarine

60g dry milk powder

60g caster sugar 

40g desiccated coconut

Topping: 

50g margarine

20g caster sugar 

3 tbsp plain flour 

2 tbsp custard powder

Remember to whisk up an egg to spread over the buns and sprinkle with sesame seeds before baking for the 2nd time. All instructions are in the video itself. 

Enjoy! 

Baby knits

It has been a while since I last blogged on here to share my thoughts and activities. This year has certainly been slipping past me without myself knowing. 

What have I been up to since my last post? After the epic failure, the next project(s) I have been working on are still work in progress. Finally, I have managed to complete at least one of them. 

Lets start off with the cardigan, Sirdar escape dk 100% wool. It was great to work with this as the pattern I followed was for a striped cardigan. I couldn't resist in using a self striping yarn. I was trying to use some of my never ending stash. 

The hat was just luxury to knit with. Thanks to Erika Knights British wool. I just used less than 25g to knit a 0 -6 months size. It was so soft and allowed me to have my dream come true of picking up a rather dinky ball of yarn off a shelf in Wool & Co, Dundee. 

Booties... The yarn used was bought from a few years back. It was a trip in Edinburgh, K1. The lady sourced from local farms. So it's a little bit rough looking but if I remember correctly it was Hayes Moss. 

I just LOVE knitting baby items. Please note, I'm not expecting. Its family members and friend. Baby stuff are all so dinky which means it requires less time to complete but it took me a while before I actually got round to sew up the pieces together. Now that I have the time I can plan and prioritise everything. 

Below are pictures of what I'm about to post to a friend in London. 

I hope the owner of these items will love them and get a sense for fashion at a very young age. Kaffe Fasset style. =) 

Epic failure

Never knew being a 'baking queen' the word failure would exist in their dictionary. Well, today it's made an appearance. 

It was such a pleasure to actually have one thing being filed under the failed department. Macaroons.... What an epic failure. I guess with this under my belt I will have room for improvement right? 

This first one is before it went into the oven to be baked. Pretty right? I thought I would have been able to get away without using a nozzle to pipe these monsters out... Wrong! 

Look at the next picture....

I couldn't even get one perfect shell off that sheet. Possible reason for failure? 

1. Lining the trays 

2.not keeping an eye on the time to open and close the oven door briefly. 

3. Missing out a few steps by mistake... 

Lesson learnt. 

However, taste wise - it was ok - maybe make the shells a little bit thicker. I couldn't let my voluntary guinea pigs to try them. Just one step closer they would have got them. Next time. 

Party Percy

Loving this wee elephant. 

This elephant has a heart breaking story - losing someone close is hard to accept. The wound will never be healed - only my Almighty God can bring me peace and be my comforter. 

This special wee person will forever have a place in my heart, never forgotten. He brought me a happiness that can't be described but it was I who gave up. 

Lgc pattern issue 50 

Food! Glorious food!

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's come to my attention that this blog is become more about my little creations and have neglected the food part. So, I'm going to compile it all under the one post now.

It's too bad that I can't make changes to where I want the photos to go unless I am using an actual computer. I do apologise if it gets too messy.

Where do I start? I have 5 photos to share with you. I shall work my way around them all and having to shorten it all into a paragraph each. Everyone knows the saying 'a picture says a thousand words'

The first one was taken at the 'Pancake Place' in Dundee. This was my brunch one Sunday afternoon before driving back to Aberdeen for work. There was quite a bit of variety to choose from in terms of pancake's wise. However, I spotted the 'rocky road' one from my previous visit. I really wanted to try it the next time I was in Dundee. This was 3 pancakes stacked up with marshmallows and chocolate sauce with ice cream. It was yummy indeed and it wasn't too sweet which was surprising. I absolutely live marshmallows when they have been heated up a little to make them gooey inside. However, it is rather filling and I couldn't even finish it all.

The next 2 photos underneath are taken from 'Oko Express' in Glasgow. I had a great girly day out with one of my closest friends. It was one of their special bento box and a sushi roll. It was a while ago so I can't quite remember the names of the food I had there. It may look like there is a lot to eat but I think I managed to eat all of it since I was really hungry that day after a whole day of retail therapy and having to drive back up to Aberdeen.

This isn't too bad going considering I have now covered 3/5 photos. Every one of see photos do bring back fond memories which are now going through my mind.

Next, this was a meal that was prepared by the chefs in 'China Garden' in Hadleigh. It was the week where I went to England for a little holiday around September 2012. The food was great but there wasn't quite enough to go round for everyone. To be fair, you can't have too much of good food. This meal was mainly seafood which I love as that is what I was brought up to eat. Typical Chinese.

The last photo now. His was taken just for fun.. It was to show how much food John and I would order if we were extremely hungry. I think this photo only shows about 3/4 of what we actually ate that night after a day out in Brighton. I was a little bit disappointed with the pork chop that I had. I think I was expecting a different sauce to go with it. Anyways, it was great but I was getting really full by the time I got to the main course. We like to have all the food brought out when they are ready rather than having different courses.

I think this is it for this post. :) I hope this post hasn't been too boring. Take care until the next time.

10 weeks labour...

Is this my first post for this year? Well, happy 2013 to everyone who reads this post of mine.

I must say that this cardigan (shown below) has taken 10 weeks to knit up and there has been a bit of hesitation on deciding if I really wanted to use the yarn that it asked for. I can say it is really worth that little bit extra money. I tend to have a taste for the more expensive stuff in comparison to what my budget normally is. However, I seem to manage to talk myself into going for the stuff at the top end of the market. 

This cardigan is knitted with Artesano Aran wool which is made up of 50% alpaca and 50% wool. Lush. 

Today, I finally managed to  get some buttons to finish the garment and it looks too good. =) It should be good enough to keep me warm for the rest of the wintery season in the UK.This cardigan makes me very proud. 

This cardigan has taught me a new skill, 3 needle cast off.

Spiral rib hat

This was another quick knit that I found online. This hat was knitted up very quickly for a friend's son.

I was given a scarf that his granny made home whilst in Hong Kong. My mission was to find yarn that was similar to the colour baby blue. I didn't know where to start looking. I popped along to my local yarn store to look for some clues. To my surprise the girl knew what it was and advised that it may be slightly different in colour die to the dye lot.

I was quite happy with the yarn so I bought some of it and started to knit. It was so soft to touch and I'm sure it would keep the child very warm in the winter.