my baking diary #15 Happy Bunny Year!!

Happy Bunny Year to All on the 4th day of the Lunar Year!! Hope everyone will have a healthy, wealthy and properous year ahead!!

Been wanting to post the agar-agar i made for CNY, but as usual, short of time... after receiving nice comments on the Hello Kitty coconut milk agar-agar i made for xh's 1st birthday, mum suggested that i make more and bring them to aunt's house during CNY visiting....

bought the mini koi fish and pineapple moulds from Kitchen Capers during lunch sometime back... coz i thought "Nian Nian You Yu" and "Ong Lye" is rather auspicious for the festive season...  Came across the big koi fish mould at Phoon Huat, and since its only a couple of dollars, thought it would look more presentable! 

My initial plan was only to dab some orange colouring as most koi fishes are orangy-white in colour... But after seeing Anncoo's post on her colourful koi fish agar-agar, i can't help but add in a couple more colours! 

This was the first batch of koi fish agar-agar i made to bring to Dear's place as dessert after the reunion dinner... But even before dinner, a couple of Dear's siblings had already tested them... Comments received were good, as the coconut milk actually gave a very nice fragrance, and

the agar-agar- wasn't too sweet.... Dear's brother even commented that they look too good to be eaten!

I had wanted to try Ann's method of putting in raisins as eyes, but forgot on that very night i made them, so the fishes are 'eyeless'... guess this is the reason why i feel that they dun look that complete....

this was the second batch of agar-agar i made on new year's eve... instead of using raisins as eyes, i decided to use brown colouring to complete the eyes instead... so this batch of agar-agar making took me a long long time...

i had to add different colourings to different batches of agar-agar, hence, by the time i completed some, the agar-agar would have harden in the pot, and i have to boil them again to achieve the liquid form...

but with the 'eyes' i thought they look so much better, though i think it would look even better with black eyes?

though i used a couple of colours in making the koi fish agar-agar, the hardest to make was not the fish... but the pineapple!!

from the ribbon to the stem and the fruit... i have to hold the mould at slanted angles to make sure the colour does not run... in order to ensure they can 'harden' fast enough to start on the other colour, i had to cool the mixture in a bowl first, but gotta work fast in order to pour them in the mould! confused? think if you do agar-agar, you will understand what i am trying to say...

i actually bought a mould with four mini bunnies for the occasion as well! but i totally forgotten about it as it was not with the fish mould... i wonder why... but never mind, perhaps i can make them for this friday's gathering at J's place...

Now that the CNY festive baking period is over, its time to start on other cookies (but i still have some leftover pineapple paste, a packet of kueh bangkit premix, a packet of butter crunch cookie premix)... i got an order to fulfil - baking some cookies (butter cookies and horlicks doggies) as party favours for my sis's colleague's daughter... and i wanna bake some cookies for v-day as well... not forgetting yx's 3rd birthday in March... exploring icing cookies for J's daughter 3rd birthday with her (most likely) princess theme in mind...

Next on my to-do list, is to bake some cookies i have shortlisted from this "1 Dough, 100 Cookies' book that i got from D as a X'mas pressie...

Ok, back to reality after the long weekend... its back to work tomorrow...