Happy Chinese New Year!

After all the apprehension of making a taro cake, it turned out great! Actually a lot easier to make than lo bak cake since it involved no grating (I hate grating stuff). The taro cooked up really easily - just enough pieces of taro stayed whole and just enough got mushy and starchy. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of it before we cut it to give a part to my parents, but maybe a cross-sectional shot makes for better viewing.

This cake was humungous because I didn't want to separate it into two pans and then need to steam twice. Can't wait until tonight when we can feast on lo bak and taro cakes, leftover steamed fish and some traditional long noodles, prepared an untraditional way (chap jae style!)

Dessert will be the neen gow (New Year's cake). With my husband staying home for the snow day yesterday, we fried up some of the cake for breakfast. I realized that I didn't wrap it tightly enough  because it had started to dry out a little bit, but it was still delicious and soft after frying. I used a egg dip to fry them because I had such fond memories of egg dipped fried cake... somehow it wasn't as good as I remember. The egg made for a really nice crisp crust but because the egg shielded the cake from directly touching the pan, there wasn't as much burnt sugar taste (which is what I truly love). So maybe no more egg dipping. I think it may have just been the nostalgia of my now-deceased uncle frying them this way during my childhood visits to Taiwan that made them seem so much better in my memory.

On an unrelated note, I went a little baking crazy before going to my playdate/potluck lunch a few days ago and decided to also bake some matcha (green tea) cupcakes (in addition to my gruyere/asparagus tart and dim sum custard tarts). I think the little red cranberry on top makes them festive enough for CNY or Christmas :)

Yes, I suck at taking pictures and our new camera with poor light control doesn't make it any better!

Happy year of the Rabbit, everyone! 恭喜發財!