新年快乐！Happy Chinese New Year!

恭喜发财!新年快乐！身体健康！今天是中国的新年。This year is the year of the 龙。I wish everyone a prosperous New Year!
I can't believe that it has been one full lunar new year since I have started this blog. Blogging has been quite an experience for me and I really enjoy it. I thank you readers who come stop by to see what I have cooked up in the kitchen. I'm hoping that more readers come the upcoming year.
Anyway, for the New Year,  I've decided to change my blog layout a bit, to make it more organized. I'm going to make a separate page for the different types of foods I have made. For example, I might make a category for "Asian" food, "Breakfast" and so on.
To celebrate the New Year, here's a really cute Chinese New Year song:

Here are some recipes that can be made for the Chinese New Year:

Baked Nian Gao
Red Bean Sesame Balls
Red Bean Mochi
Steamed Nian Gao　年糕
Steamed Sweet Glutinous Rice Balls
Chinese Steamed Cupcakes (Prosperity Cupcakes) 发糕

However, for the 发糕，I'm going to repost the recipe here. It's seems like everyone loves that recipe and, I've changed some of the measurements for the ingredients.

Chinese New Year Prosperity Cupcakes
Ingredients

• 1 box yellow cake mix (18.25 oz)  any other flavor is fine  
• 1 cup Glutinous Rice flour 糯米粉
• 1 cup Rice Flour 米粉  
• 1 1/4   3/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil 

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl,  combine the cake mix, sugar and both the rice flours. 
2. Next, mix in the water. oil and eggs.  
3. Boil water in a wok or steamer.
4. Fill the cupcake pans. 
5. Once the water has boiled, put the pan into the steamer or wok, cover it, and steam for 15 minutes. Once 15 minutes has gone by, take the lid off. 
6. Take it out of the wok, take out the cupcakes, and repeat until all the batter is gone. Wait until the cupcakes cool down before eating them. Enjoy! There is no need for frosting. :)

烤年糕 Baked Nian Gao

大家好！　一月二十三日是中国的新年。　昨天，我做烤年糕。很好吃。这个糕，我自己做。我家喜欢吃。　：）　 Chinese New Year is around the corner and I've decided to make a baked Chinese New Year Cake, Nian Gao. It's quite easy and simple to make. My aunt always makes these whenever we have a family get together. It's about time for me to make it myself. However, this recipe is a bit different from the one my aunt gave me. I've changed some things, however, but it's still traditional. 
I love how it's crunchy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside. It's a great texture. Yes, the texture of the outside is different from the steamed version, but the inside is still the same chewy, sticky texture. The difference besides how both is cooked, is how you can eat it afterwords. For the steamed version, you just beat up an egg, dip a slice of the cake in, and fry it. This baked version, you can eat anytime. You can microwave it if you like it warm, or re-bake it. I would re-bake it, to get it's crunchy outside again. My dad brought this to his coworker to try, and she loved it. :) Anyways, here's the recipe. I hope you guys enjoy. :)

Here's a cute video before I continue on with the recipe: 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb glutinous rice flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 can coconut milk (400 mL or 13.5 oz)
• red bean paste (optional)
• sesame seed (optional)

Directions: 

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.
2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, and baking powder. 
3. Add in the eggs, oil and milk. 
4. Pour the batter into the baking dish. 
5. If you want, you can sprinkle some sesame seeds on. 
6. Bake for 55 minutes to one hour. Use a toothpick to make sure it's cooked all the way. 
7.  When you take it out, the cake will deflate. Cutting it into pieces will be a bit difficult, since the inside is sticky.
8. If you want to add red bean, you can add that to the batter, add it in blotches into the batter before baking and swirling it, or adding it in and swirling it after 10 to 20 minutes of baking. It's up to you guys. Enjoy. 

Chinese New Year and 年糕 recipe

Hello, everyone. This is my second post. yeah me. :) Right now, it is still Chinese New Year, and boy am I really tired. I went to bed at 3 in the morning, because of staying up to eat the first meal of the New Year. I should be sleeping now, but, I can manage.  I've posted some of the pictures of the food. The first picture is the vegetarian meal that I ate. The 2nd picture is 年糕。It's really yummy. It's a Chinese  New Year cake. The last two are the prosperity cupcakes and the sesame rice balls.

 Even though the food was really good, my energy today was not. I ended up being really hyper in my first couple of classes today, playing around and hanging on the desks. I'm surprised I didn't crash. However, I did almost fall asleep during my afternoon orchestra class, while the conductor spent 10 minutes with the 1st violins working on one part. I somehow took a short nap while leaning on my cello. Quite strange. I'm surprised my cello didn't fall and that  the conductor didn't catch me sleeping. So, that's basically how my New Year went today.
  I cannot wait until all the family gatherings start for the Chinese New Year. All the younger generation people receive red envelopes. I get to spend time with my whole extended family, which is actually pretty often. At least once a month. I also can't wait to eat some more of the delicious food. It's so good, and I will post some of those recipes later on. I have to control myself about the eating though. I don't want to gain any weight.

 I think that I should post a recipe. So, as you see, the 年糕 looks really yummy. It's also something that's traditional in the Chinese New Year. So, here's a link to Christine's 年糕 recipe
One thing though,  is that, the measurements are in metrics. Here is her recipe, converted into cups and tsps and such.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup Glutinous Rice Flour
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup Wheat Starch Flour 澄麵粉
• 250 grams (4 full sticks) Brown Sugar Pieces
• 1 cup water
• about 1/3 cup Coconut Cream
• 2 tablespoon oil and a dash for the cake mold
• 1 egg, whisked

Directions: 

1. In a sauce pan, boil the 1 cup of water. Add brown sugar and cook until completely dissolved. Stir in coconut cream and oil. Drain syrup through a fine sieve to make the mixture smoother. Let cool.
2. Sift glutinous rice flour and wheat flour twice beforehand. Add flour little by little into the syrup, stirring constantly. If you'd like your batter really smooth, drain through a fine sieve.
3. Pour the batter into a greased cake mould/pan. Place in a wok and steam over high heat, covered, for about 60 to 75 minutes. The cake is very sticky, even though it may be all the way cooked. So, it sticks to your needle/chopstick if you test it. But if you can’t taste any raw flour, it’s done. Make sure to steam the cake for enough time.
4. Let cool. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. It makes it easier to slice into thick pieces when cold.  Coat the sliced cake with whisked egg, fry on medium-low heat until both sides are brown. Serve hot. Enjoy. :)

  So, before ending this post, I'd like to talk about my blog. My blogs will mainly be in English, with occasional things in Chinese and Spanish. I'll be posting recipes once a week, sometime during the weekend. So, those who are living in New Zealand, for example, it might be early on in the week instead because of the time difference. Besides just recipes, I'll occasionally have posts about random things that have happened to me that day, my thoughts, culture, rants, things about my musical life, and fitness and exercise. I guess that is it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Leave a comment, or email me at helenssugarsweetrecipes@yahoo.com. I'll be happy to answer your questions.:)