Getting CNY Ready

Just three days to Chinese New Year — are you ready yet?

Looking at my Facebook feed, I know friends have been busy cleaning up their homes, getting clothes, and baking up a storm. It seems all the rage to bake your own CNY goodies these days and I’ve seen lots of pictures of yummy looking treats being churned out, from peanut cookies to pineapple tarts to even bak kwa! 

I tried my hand making pineapple tarts last year, but this year, I just never found the time nor energy. My dear mother herself also kindly informed me that she would rather not receive homebaked goods but would rather spend her calories on really good (and professionally made) treats instead. Yes, my mum cuts me no slack, I tell you.

So I decided to skip the tart making, but yet I still wanted to make something with a little CNY flavour of my own. Then while I was browsing IKEA the other day for some CNY ideas, I chanced on a box of their PEPPARKAKOR ginger thins with their pretty flower shapes and inspiration struck.

I must say that I’ve been semi-addicted to IKEA’s gingerbread since Christmas when we grabbed a couple of gingerbread christmas tees to decorate! It’s got that delicious mix of spice, sweetness and crunch that makes for a tasty treat. I thought they’d make a great addition to my CNY cookie collection with just one additional touch. At home, I got busy and this was the result!

Happy CNY PEPPARKAKOR cookies!
I couldn’t resist the pretty LYCKSALIG deep plate and tray from IKEA too!

Aren’t they cute? I think I was so pleased with them! All it took was some homemade stencils and icing, and my simple cookies were instantly CNY-appropriate!

Ok, so cutting the stencils did take a bit of work. I could have gone freehand with the icing but I preferred some uniformity and so stencils it was! On the plus side, once the stencils were done, they could be easily reused for the remaining cookies.

Here’s what I did:

I started with some thickish-plastic obtained from cutting up an unused plastic folder I had at home. I printed out the Chinese characters I wanted, then placed the plastic sheet over the paper, and cut out the outline for the characters using a sharp exacto knife. With the stencils all cut out, I placed the cookies one at a time on the back of a cookie baking sheet and positioned the stencil over the cookie. After I was happy with the position, I held the stencil in place using flat magnets — these stolen from my son’s music box! Then it was time for icing. I had a tube of white Wilton’s Decorating Icing sitting in my cupboard so it was a simple matter of tinting it red with icing colour and it was ready for use. I spread a layer of icing over the stencil, trying to get it as smooth as I could. I’m an amateur at this and I found it easier to work small batches of icing at a time to ensure it didn’t get clumpy. After ensuring every bit was covered, lift off the stencil and I was done! 

Cutting out the stencil, laying it on the cookie with the magnet grips, and covering with icing.

Peel of the stencil and voila!

The children were so excited to see these cookies it was all that I could do not to let them eat all the cookies at one go!

Little Miss Hopeful waiting for snacks.

It’s impossible to leave IKEA without picking up something, and on this occasion, I had a great time picking up not-too-traditional yet CNY-appropriate items up from IKEA to dress the house and present my CNY treats. IKEA’s LYCKSALIG range, designed for CNY, had just the right amount of red and pink and the floral prints were just too pretty to resist! I was particularly attracted to the swatches of LYCKSALIG fabric which I thought would be perfect to be used to draw the look of my CNY table together. 

Fabric is very versatile since you can pretty much turn it into whatever you want! So I used it to line my basket of oranges, top off some bottles of treats, and made a nice framed piece with the help of a LYCKSALIG coaster.

The LYCKSALIG fabric makes a pretty and festive basket liner.

LYCKSALIG fabric-topped bottles. I borrowed this idea from one of my aunts who prettifies her CNY treat bottles with swatches of fabric every year.

LYCKSALIG fabric with a LYCKSALIG coaster as a centrepiece. In an IKEA white RIBBA frame, naturally!

Here’s what it looks like all together:

Sitting pretty on my sideboard. I really love the pop of colour from the LYCKSALIG tins, one of which hides my bak kwa! I popped one of the LYCKSALIG pot stands on the wall for decor too! Table runners also from IKEA.

I also have a length which I am intending to turn into a table runner which is still work-in-progress. (Yes, I know I’m running out of time!) 

But I’m pleased to report that I’m just about ready to face the festive season. CNY, here we come! Have a blessed lunar new year, everyone!

* This post is the second in a series of posts sponsored by IKEA. All ideas and opinions are my own.