My Angels Birthday

Shanae (on the 17th) and Shanice (27th) are the Birthday Girls of this month

I made this cake for Shanae and I thought I may not have the energy to make another one for Shanice.  Hence, I added her name on the same cake to let them celebrate together during school's tea break.

It is a banana cake sandwich with lemon cheese icing covered with white fondant (not enough strength to knead the white fondant dough to pink or other colour...). Borrowed a good book from library about scalping fairy figurine using fondant.


So I tried and made one fairy and I put it up at the left top corner of the cake. I also used some butterfly moulds and made 2 butterflies to fill up the empty space.

This is just a cake with very simple design and decoration but it is surely made with lots of love. I'm now in my last trimester ... with the big belly and limited energy level. That's the best I can give my girls. They're still very grateful and they like the taste of the cake and they said to me, "you're the best "COOKER" in the world...". I felt very satisfied and I couldn't help myself but burst into laughter upon hearing this.

HK CNY Festive Mood

Year of Moo Moo!

There are many CNY decorations in shopping malls and by the road side in HK during CNY. Naturally, the festive mood is comparatively stronger than that in Singapore.

Hongkongers also love decorating their homes with flowers in the new year.  It signifies "Fa Hoi Foo Khai" (Blossom flowers bring prosperity).  Special festive feeling is aroused by these fresh and beautiful flowers.  However, in Singapore, due to the warm weather,  there are limited choice of flowers here and the flowers would not last long.  A few years back, I tried putting up a big vase of flowers and it really died within 2 days even though I served them with icy water!!! Really not a good sight in the new year!!

Goodies tray: The moment you walk into your friends' or relatives' house, they'll bring this out and offer you to "take gold / silver" from the goodies tray.  The dried melon seeds means "money" while sweets/candies means happiness.  I remember my younger days when my mom used to put preserved lotus seeds coated with sugar to serve all visitors.  Lotus seeds carry the meaning of giving birth to adorable children sooner and the more, the merrier.  Don't think this apply to this generation.

We came across a lions dance performance arranged by a famous HK Chui Wah "Char Chen Tien" in Central.  That was my girls first close encounter with this type of performance.  The lions actually danced through the narrow walkway INSIDE the whole restaurant, that was meant to chase out all the bad things.  And they finally performed "Choi Chean" right in front of the entrance (a lettuce hanging at entrance with a red packet attached to it).  The lions were only a few steps in front of us.  There's a short clip below for viewing!!!

Fa See (Flower Market) can be found before CNY at some public parks in HK, Kowloon and the New Territories.  The biggest and the most popular one is of course located at Causeway Bay.  You could find not only flowers but a lot of cheap household items and toys.  I have not been to one in a decade and am surprised that I went there twice this year with my big belly (I'm 6 month pregnant) barging in front... Once with my hubby at night and once with my 3 girls and maid the day before the first new year day.

It was packed with people and we really had difficulties moving around.  Still I want my girls to experience this special occasion and give them some $$ to choose a toy from the fun fair.  See what Shanice chose???  1 big pile of "PINK" inflatable shit hat!!!  What a sense of humor she has!!  By the way, shit means gold.  Let's have more shit in the new year!

Some young folks will pull funds and auction for these makeshift stalls and have it decorated and sell toys or some funny stuff.  They seems to have so much fun by shouting and yelling to the crowds for their attention and try very hard to sell their stuff.  

Some people go to these fairs for flowers.  When you're at these flower markets, you should walk through all these stalls and chase away all bad luck in the old year and hope the nice flowers will bring you better luck ahead.

"Tai Kiat Tai Lai" (Big tangerine will bring good luck)

Back from HK Trip

Finally, we're back! Wanted to post some of the photos and talk about HK CNY festive mood. Having been migrated to Singapore over a decade, my hubby and I had more time this time round to visit the places we often went and revisited some special corners and good food in HK. I hope it will not take me much time to come up with the new post!