Goodbye 2013 Hello 2014 & New Announcements

Welcome to 2014! Looking back at previous years, I don't seem to have the habit of compiling my bakes of the year. After seeing many bloggers doing it, I did mine this year.

Took a morning to look back at my posts last year, not many actually :P. I did my first charity bake sale for CNY, baked MORE chiffon cakes, did more kiddy bakes, played with fondant the first time, made mooncakes. I posted more unrelated to baking stuffs, haha! About gardening and half-way through my Hong Kong trip. Still have not posted up some bakes yet.

Some of my favourites for last year.

I'm not a very hardworking baker and blogger. I don't write well, I take my photos in less than a minute. I don't bake that often. I take longer time to blog, especially when there are more ways of sharing my bakes online, like through facebook and instagram. :) I choose to blog more casually now, at my own pace. Blogging is my way of recording my own recipes, my thoughts, my life, my experiences. So that I can have great memories when I look back. If I have shared a good recipe, inspired you to bake, provided some useful information, that's a bonus! :)

Good things come and go. I have 2 announcements to make today.

Aspiring Bakers is coming to an end this year. This had been on my mind for the longest time since last year as I think I have not done a good job. It is a hard decision to end AB. And I finally decide and officially announce it today. I hope you are reading this! This month's 39th theme: CNY Rock & Roll is the second last one. The last theme will be Rainbow Cakes/Ombre Cakes hosted by Cynthia. I really enjoyed the food posted by all bloggers and readers. Aspiring Bakers has great moments, bringing everyone together to share and make friends. I am very proud to be the starter of this event. Hope all of you will give great support for the last 2 themes. :)

The other announcement is about my online shop SSB Baking Supplies. It was started a few months ago, selling baking/cooking/packaging products. Thank you to all my baking friends who supported by buying and sharing about it online. I hope to look for more interesting products that are harder to find here and keep the prices affordable (some shops are selling too high!). Earning a little extra income and also fulfilling my little dream at the same time. Please support to keep it going!

Online shop: http://ssbsupplies.com/
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/SSBsupplies

Wishing for a good year in 2014!

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Hong Kong 2013 Day 2: Baking Supplies Stores

Day 2: 31 October 2013 (Thu)

After we left Toy Street, I managed to get some spare time for my own shopping. Easy to guess right? I went looking for the baking supplies stores in Hong Kong. Before the trip, I did a quick search for the baking supplies stores here and found Cathy's post extremely useful as she got a long list of shops that she had visited! Also got some info from Wendy who just returned from Hong Kong before my trip. :) Knowing that I won't have sufficient time to shop, I targeted at 3 shops here, but in the end only visited 2.

Baking Supplies Stores

Here's a map that I roughly made markings and directions of the places I went to. I took the MTR from Wan Chai back to Yau Ma Tei. Exit from A1, walk along Pitt Street (碧街), cross the road at Shanghai Street (上海街) and turn right. Walk past a few shops, you will find On Yip Building (安業商業大廈). There are 2 baking supplies shops located in this same building.

Took the lift to Floor 8, this is 二德惠 （http://www.twinsco.com/）. They have other branches too. It's only after I returned then I realized they have a branch at Wan Chai too. Haha!

After that took the lift to Floor 1, this is 淇趣蛋糕烘焙工房 (KK's Cake Workshop).

Not sure if photography is allowed, so I just quickly took some photos. I spent more time and bought all my stuffs from 二德惠 as they were cheaper and more variety. Some of the things that I bought back. I did not spend a lot though.

M Garden Vegetarian

After shopping, I went to look for vegetarian food for my mum. If you are a vegetarian, you can find vegetarian food all over the world from HappyCow website. I bookmarked a few before the trip. There are 2 vegetarian restaurants very near to us here at Dundas Street (登打士街). We went to M Garden Vegetarian which serves vegetarian Chinese food and dim sum.

A few simple and tasty dishes.

Some info for anyone who is vegetarian.

M Garden Vegetarian
2/F, Omega Plaza, 32-34A Dundas Street, Mong Kok (nearest MTR station Yau Ma Tei)
Open Mon-Sun 11am-11pm

The other vegetarian restaurant Jade Vegetarian is somewhere diagonally opposite this building at the ground floor, easier to spot and seems cheaper! Haiz!

Jade Vegetarian
Shop B, 124-128 Portland Street, Mong Kok
Open Mon-Sun 10am-11:30pm

Kwong Wa Street (廣華街)

After the food, we intended to walk back to our hotel. We walked along Dundas Street and found a whole street selling fruits, vegetables and dried goods. We stopped by for a look. My mum bought some stuffs back. At the end of the street, we got a bit lost of the directions. Didn't know how to and how far to walk back. As we had more activities later at night, we decided to take a taxi back. The taxi fare was HK$20. I read the map after we were back and found that the street was Kwong Wa Street (廣華街). :)

Next: The Peak

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Merry Christmas 2013

This Christmas, I made a Christmas logcake for the first time.

The cake was made of chocolate chiffon cake, spread with nutella. The logcake was frosted and decorated by my nieces with nutella whipped cream. I did tried to help them to make the cake neater, but I was equally bad at it, haha! Luckily, once all the decorations were put in, the logcake looked pretty good! :)



The remaining of the chocolate cake batter, I put into my new mini flower chiffon mould. It was really cute!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!!

May everyone be blessed with good health and happiness!!!

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Hong Kong 2013 Day 2: Tim Ho Wan - Toy Street

Day 2: 31 October 2013 (Thu)

On Day 2, we woke up and saw the great view from our hotel room at the top floor!

Tim Ho Wan

We started our day with the famous Michelin Star Dim Sum at Tim Ho Wan 添好運 in Hong Kong. There are a few branches in Hong Kong. We visited the one at Sham Shui Po nearest to our hotel.

This map is taken from Google Map and I try to show its location from Sham Shui Po MTR station. We walked to Mongkok MTR station from our hotel, took MTR to Sham Shui Po Exit B2. It's quite a few streets away from the MTR station though.

From Google Map

G/F, 9-11 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon
九龍深水埗福榮街9-11號地下
Nearest MTR station: Tsuen Wan Line, Sham Shui Po, Exit B2
Opening hours: 8am-9.30pm daily

You will know you are there when you see this big sign on the street!

We thought it opened at 10am and we got to queue for a long time. But it was already opened when we arrived at about 9am and there was no queue at all. We got seats immediately! And the menu was given.

Being not the foodie type, haha, I wasn't really aware of the 4 heavenly king from Tim Ho Wan. But we did order their famous Baked Bun with BBQ pork 酥皮焗叉烧包. It comes 3 pieces in a set and this was one of my favourite!

There were 3 items from what we ordered that left a really good impression. Until now, I still can't help thinking about it. :) One of them was the BBQ pork buns above. The other was the Steamed Egg Cake (香滑马来糕）. It was very soft and had a very strong and nice caramelized sugar taste in it. It was unforgettable!

We ordered a variety of dim sum from the menu. My third favourite was the Pan Fried Turnip Cake (香煎萝卜糕). Cos the texture was different from Singapore's one, soft and QQ. Most of the other dim sum are nice too.

Vermicelli Roll

Osmanthus Cake

The Glutinuous Rice Dumpling was probably the most disappointed one for me. It was tasteless and very little ingredients wrapped inside.

Overall, the meal was good! We spent only HK$264 (~S$44) for so many items. Do give it a try if you go Hong Kong!

Tai Yuen Street (Toy street)

After the meal, we weren't very sure where to go. So I suggested Toy Street, should be quite fun for the kids. Took the MTR to Wan Chai Station Exit A3. The Toy Street, Tai Yuen Street (太原街) is just across the road.

Not much photos here as we were busy exploring the shops and stalls along the streets. After getting some toys, the kids were tired and went back to the hotel for their nap. So I took the chance to explore elsewhere. Guess where I'm going? :)

Next: Baking Supplies Stores

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