Crochet bags for my clients

It's been busy last week, I have no time to write this blog :(

Recently I have made some crochet bags for my clients. These bags are not too difficult to make, but still it's quite time consuming :( My hands are tired but I can't stop, I really love crochet!

Anyways, the most important thing is that they are very happy when they saw the product. That makes me feel happy too and it encourages me to continue doing it!



This bag drove me crazy because it is the first time I use the natural fiber - which is stiff and not easy to handle when I did the crochet, but I'm glad that I try this material! It is durable.

This bag is my favorite one, I just love the shape and the decorations, it is already my 3rd one that I made














I will need to find more bag patterns :) I'm sure my mother will have a lot! She is so addicted in doing crochet, beading, knitting, I just follow her steps! She is amazing hehe :) I'm so proud of her!

I will have some more crochet items coming up soon, stay tune!

If you are interested in buying them, please feel free to contact me :)

Thanks!

Australian Sticky Date Pudding

I have a friend who made Australian sticky date pudding another day, at first I thought it's chocolate cake, when I tasted it, I thought it's prume cake, she said it's date cake.

Last weekend, I made it at my parents-in-law for the 1st time, it turns out for my niece's birthday cake (I didn't know that, or I will make a cake with some great decorations!!). I'm glad that she loves it :) My mother-in-law asked me the recipe to make it again right after tasting it.

Please read this carefully: 
I made it by using almond extract because we have no vanilla extract at home :( ---> Do not use it because the almond flavor was over the date flavor, do use vanilla extract to bring out the flavor of date.

Ingredients:
Cake
200g dates, seeded & chopped
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup water
60g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour (for 1 cup flour, add 1 teaspoon Baking Powder)

Caramel sauce

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter
300ml cream

Note: you can also use my easy recipe to make the caramel sauce that I posted before. 
This time I used the cream with 35% fat, which is super delicious & rich, I found it quite different from the one I made with 30% fat.

Instructions:

Cake

1. In saucepan, bring water to boil with dates, remove from heat, add baking soda & stand
2. Cream butter & sugar until smooth 
3. Add lightly beaten eggs slowly
4. Add vanilla, beat well
5. Fold in the flour and then date mixture
6. Bake at 160 degrees for 50 - 60mins

Caramel sauce (makes 2 cups)
1. Cook slowly, stirring now and again without letting the sauce boil until sugar dissolves
2. Simmer for 5 minutes

Enjoy!

One bowl dark chocolate cake - recipe

The first time I made this chocolate cake was because of a friend's 30th birthday, he said he likes chocolate cake.

Since I had to make a 3-layer cake for his birthday, I asked for help to make the cake as efficient as possible, to save time to decorate the cake. A friend gave me this recipe, she said it is not time consuming and tasty.

This cake is very success, the 3-layer cake is finally finished by less than 25 people!

This is how it looks, the color is very dark, it doesn't taste too sweet

If you like dark chocolate, you'll like this cake too
















Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar*

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder**

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup cooking oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

Decoration (optional): powdered sugar

* I used 3/4 cup for less sweet taste
** I used 100% cocoa powder for better taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Grease and lightly flour a 9x1-1/2-inch round or 8x8x2-inch baking pan.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients. 

Then, add milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed just until combined. 

Add egg and beat 2 minutes more. 

Pour the mixture into the pan.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Cool cake on a wire rack for 10 minutes and remove cake from the pan. 

Optional: To serve, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!