It's 'Loi Krathong' today in Thailand, a festival at the river. On this day, we go to the temple in the morning and make a 'Krathong', a floating round raft made from reeds and flowers built around a slice of banana tree. The Krathong is decorated with folded banana leaves, and candles. At night we go to the river, light the candles, float the Krathong down the river and the river is lit up with floating flower Kratongs. Couples float Kratongs together and make a prayer or a wish for the future. You can float a virtual online Kratong here.
In honour of Loi Krathong, I've made sweet Kratongs, Kratong shaped snacks from coconut, rice flour and pastry.

I made these rich cream kratongs (savour or sweet pastry cups) for a Christmas party for my western friends. We don't celebrate Christmas much in Thailand as a mainly Buddhist country, we also don't celebrate January 1st as our new year either. Our main festival is Songkran in mid April, the new year on the old Thai calendar. Still, a party is a party, and these sweet milky cups are nice finger food at a party. The Kratong pastry case recipe is the same as this one.

A two layer Kratong (small pastry tart). This one has a sweet rice centre, topped off with an egg pudding topping. You will need to bake Kratong cases (empty pastry cups), the pastry case recipe is the same as used in this one.