When Baker Barks: February Roundup; CNY's

During any eve-celebrations, it'll be one whole lot of disastrous and stressful days for the parents. Fatass Michelle, Rufus and I were not any somewhat parents. But, it's an assurance that we were in the same footstep as those parents were. Any celebrations for the matter, eve's the most busiest days, where preps must be quickly and nicely done before the arrival of the real day of celebration.

It's not just us. Citizens woke up early to set up the decors, lanterns etc.

Gorverners too; during midnight, there'll be really fiery red hot lanterns strecthed along the lamp posts. Very warm indeed.

Back to the decors, the stereotype of decorating a house or a living room during Cny does really exists. Briefly, whenever you passed-by their houses, you can clearly see one pair of red hot lanterns. Okay, maybe two pairs, if they had places for it. On the other hand, for living rooms, most of them will show-off their newly decorated pussywillows, which is the snapshot above. (Think of a Christmas tree, decorated nicely with striking gold tinsels and silver wire ornaments.)

Here's one good news. Luckily, we all were not married. Married couples gave out red packets, which contain a huge sum of money. Some. Not all. Fatass Michelle was kind enough. She gave Rufus and I beef-sticks. No, she gave ME beef-sticks! (*Loved*)

Cut the chase, our prep was just baking C-grade cookies. Not tiring, not that hectic, but, all we had was a medium sized oven. Time was limited. To stop any lame suspension which Fatass highly supports on, I'll put up the next image for a better imagination, on how C-grade babies would look like.

I don't quite remember how many containers we've filled up. Some of them were made and posted in this doggie blog for the past few months. Am only posting those which never made it here.

C-grade Baby No.1
Red Bean Pastry

From its name, no doubt that the fillings will be made out of red beans.

Red bean pastes were bought so that things would go smoother and easier.

Pastries were taken out twice for the egg-wash process.

And it was a hit of all the other C-grade cookies because of the soft texture the pastry has and the generous red beans fillings.

As it turns to be baked, the surface will turned into golden brown.

C-grade Baby No.2
Green Bean Pastry

It's the same as red bean pastry. It's only the matter of fillings. Fillings were substituted for the other, green bean.

Generous fillings doesn't mean anything. It tasted C-okay. Like most other C-grade babies did. Still, the red bean tasted best.

C-grade Baby No.3
Choc Chips Cookies

It's very powdery and chocolatey. Powdery, which we can classified it as melt-a-lil-in-your-mouth cookies, I guess.

The dough needed to be refrigerated as it was very soft in terms of texture. After refrigerated for an hour or two, the dough became handy.

Loaded with chocolate chips and very very chocolatey. Very.

We smelt cocoa from here. Blame the cocoa powder.

C-grade Baby No.4
Flat Choc Chunks Cookie

Fatass was a chocoholic. And always will be. Forever. Dogs can't be one because there'll be side effect on them. Google the effects. I'm out of words to describe the whole bad effects thingie. This cookie here was made out of cookie dough and chocolate chunks.

Dough was refrigerated to further the process. The dough do looked like cookies and cream ice-cream.

1-1/2 cups of chopped chocolate were used. Insanely chocolatey.

But doesn't have any cocoa aroma; since it was purposely omitted. Flat and crispy. With a hint of melted chocolate chunks.

And we did store them in an air-tight container.

C-grade Baby No.5
Cornflakes' Cups

As easy as D-O-G. Snoopy's cornflakes were used. The cornflakes already had a thin layer of brown sugar and powdered sugar. So, I do not need to switched on any mixer to mix the flour etc. Because there's ready-made cornflakes to be used.

Yellow mini paper cups were used, instead of the black ones. Black ones should be nicer, but Fatass sulked when I've chosen black. So, yellow got to go. I'll keep the black ones.

Before taking them into the oven, these babies needed to be cooked once in a deep pan with a sufficient amount of honey and butter. That is the main reason that the readily baked cornflakes' cups were hard to be taken off from the mini paper cups. Boy oh boy.

Then, D.I.Y-mixing is needed, in the deep pan. Thrust and throw them over, to ensure each and every flake will be covered with honey and butter.

When mixing is done, put a tablespoonful of these flakes into the mini paper cups. Not too much, and not too little.

Baked them, in a preheated oven. When done, these babies will turned out fine, golden brown, like a newly tanned Brazilian goddess. And yet, shiny.

After they were cooled on wire racks, it's time to locked these babies up, into a transparent container. Shout babies, shout!! (*Aah*)

C-grade Baby No.6
Milo & Choc Cookies

Made out of milo powder and half the cocoa powder. One cut-out cookie that doesn't need to be refrigerated. The cookies were airy though.

And not sweet enough, for us. So, I came up with an idea, that is to top some chocolate ganache. Fatass Michelle just nodded.

Thus, first layer of topping was spreadable chocolate ganache made out of cooking choc and a little bit of vegetable oil for easy spreading.

By adding milo bits, it was a bit lumpy. Dots, oh dog?! We don't care because it's C-graded. Come on. (*smiles*)

And next layer, topped with a mixture of milo powder and icing sugar. Sweet toppings with not sweet cookie as base. Life's saved.

Once again, they were store into airtight containers, like how I used to store the other babies. But, with an additional piece, layers of parchment paper.

C-grade Baby No.7
Melting Moments Without Cornflakes

Based on Periplus's Cookbook, since it looked simple, we take on the easy challenge. This melting moment cookie recipe does not need any cornflakes as part of its ingredients. That'll be good, as we wanted to try to bake the other ideal melting moments with cornflakes in it for a comparison. The cookie turned out to be not that tasty enough. Looked bland, tasted bland.

We've changed something here. In an exact way, I should say, we've altered the recipe, by adding something in it. We rolled in brown sugar, that can be seen from the snapshot above, where sprinklings of the brown sugar were seen. Beforehand, the unbaked dough was flattened twice with a fork. The pattern shows.

After some time in the oven, the baked cookies were taken out and dusted with icing sugar. Powdered all over. Real powdered.

As for that, we've overturned the cookies to make sure that the icing was not too much.

Alas, the cookies were arranged in order, like five petals, with one in the middle. Carefully. And no parchment paper was needed. Easy!

C-grade Baby No.8
Melting Moments With Cornflakes

The other melting moment. An ideal melting moment if you asked me, while comparing the other one from Periplus above. As we can see here, it has loads of small broken cornflakes. And yes, I've been an avid user of Snoopy's cornflakes which have been lightly dusted with brown sugar.

Talking about the dough, rounded one inch balls were formed, using my furry paws. Dunk them into crushed cornflakes. Roll, roll and WHAM!

All flattened out by my small but strong paw-fist. The cookie holds onto the flakes well though. So, keep the UHU GLUE at bay!

Popped into the oven. 15 mins, voila! The cookie turned out to be crumbly, while the cornflakes were crunchy, with a little hint of brown sugar and icing.

Stored in an airtight tupperware. Simply. Don't need to be arranged in order, as long as it's facing up, and it's all done! Nothing much to be raved on, it's one simplest recipe which most beginners would try on. "Simple and elegant" - one of petite Rachel Koh's favourite quote.

C-grade Baby No.9
Checkerboard Cookies

The cookie dough was self-altered. Very special. Thanks to my helpers, Christina and Siti. Without any recipe book, Christina ordered Siti to mix in the ingredients. That's very hmm... Good. I was bewildered. Fatass Michelle was dumb-founded. Rufus was, hmm... In his kennel, sleeping soundly, as quiet as a mouse.

They managed to make the yellow dough and choc dough. After looking at the checkerboard idea, which, I, Whisky, have suggested, they finally agreed. Siti then take orders from Christina while Christina do her duties. What an idea? But these girls are way creative than a cute little poochie like me.

They came up with, pinwheels shape and mixed-up balls shape, other than the one I suggested. Very creative. Just like me. Woof! (*winks*)

Soon then, the checkerboard was chosen, to be baked in bulk. See, dogs will never be wrong! Guess what, the last verdict for these Christina D.I.Y cookie tasted good, good as in, it tasted similarly like most shops have been selling. Very amusing and mysterious woman...

C-grade Baby No.10
Christina's Cake-Cookies

One of Christina's next experiments. Once again, Siti took her orders. I can sense her doggie-bake-it-yourself in her. She's... She came up with the cake-cookie, where flours were substituted with self-raising ones.

And see that cute middle choc cake-cookie? Barked Out Loud. It looks so much like my wastings. A nicer and proper word. It tasted cakey. Like cake and erm, cookie. Well, they have fun with the pipings as well, while gramps was chit-chatting with Fatass. That was where the baking sessions had ended. Finally.

That was the eve's. What's up on the very first day of Chinese New Year? And the other Cny days? Well, supposingly we were all as happy as Mika did in his Grace Kelly music video. I bet you doggie-lovers had the same as we did. Fatass was all groggy due to late nights. Switch to the other topic, Rufus and I were as tired as hell. Clad in red doggie apparels. We had a wholesome of camwhore shots here. Loads. Just in case no one know who's Rufus and Whisky, here we are... With more descriptive info after each hot shots. BOL.

Me, myself and I, McWhisky.

The white albino which I hated when he camwhored too much, poser McRufus. See, you know what I mean now... Yoga pose made him his day.

Rufus, the fattie was very proud when people go huh-hah over his yoga pose. That was his reaction. High-nosed.

Rufus and I were dressed in fiery red. That was hot. No, I was the hottest. (*Smiles*)

Damn, bad angle! I looked like a dumb blonde. Dogged you Fatass Mich, dumbass photographer who takes awful shots.

You shouldn't be laughing, you big fat albino! You're not as photogenic as me though.

Rufus gets more attention than I did. Nah, just because he got a red Chinese samfu suit which Fatass bought for him in Hong Kong, that doesn't mean that he's cuter. As for me, my suit was a stretchable one, more breathable. See, he's sweating. His samfu suit was super thick. Good for him. He needs a fast-diet. Slim down, boy.

A fresco of him... What a modelled act?!

See, poochies like us got more hugs and kisses during Cny's. Too bad, Fatass an ass. BOL.

More hugs and kisses for us!

More!!! (*Growls*)

Prosperity McWhisky, me!

Prosperity McRufus, him!

Fatass Michelle, no prosper-prosper. You're very prosperous now!

There's more shots to come. But editing is super tiring. Rufus and I were tired too. And he's telling us! How honest. No more camwhore-camwhore.

On other days, Fatass got some cute and colorful mini Yee-sang's snapshots posted right here.

That's one of the must-eat dishes. Where you can play frisbee and tossing with it. Boy, it was fun.

But, it's more like Kitty's fav meals. Fresh uncooked salmon and scallops. And sour sauces.

Come Kitty Kitty...

One of the best altered snapshot from Rufus for doggie-lovers out there, wishing "Happy Belated Cny". For any downloads of these images, without any words on it of course, jog to my deviantart. You'll get them there. FYI, copyrighted. (*Grin*)