Cakes stories and a trip to Selama and Bkt Merah.....

Meeting Shila the first time after 27 years, brought back a lot of memories of staying in the hostel in Kg Pandan. In fact, i met 11 other friends on that particular day and i am very thankful to Facebook. When i first started Facebooking, i looked them up but those hostel days, we were more familiar with the nicknames than our full names thus until now the nicknames stuck amongst us. But making it difficult to find our friends. However, at last we met. Of course now we are facebooking but depending on our schedules as some of us are really very very busy women he he....
One day i saw on my wall a request for some cupcakes and a cake for an anniversary celebration. The cupcakes were delivered earlier as the a few of the children were still having SPM, then the big cake followed suit. Thanks Shila for the support.

After sending the cupcakes for the anniversary near the Zoo area, i was thinking of where to lepak and i know this one blogger friend who stays nearby. After a few calls, managed to find her house and surprisingly at that hour (around 4 ), she served my friend and i a late lunch, she had assam pedas and some vege and fried fish. Pucuk di cita ulam mendatang, apa lagi punya la sedap as we yet to eat lunch on that day. Thank you Yani (a.k.a kitchen guardian) , must make the effort for teh tarik session soon ya....

A few days later, i decided to have a haircut. Yet to have a regular salon to go to, i decided to go to the one inside the Giant building near my house. After the haircut, had a nice short chat with the owner. I gave her my card. Two days later she called for a cake to give to her staff for her birthday. She told me not to decorate the cake heavily or in her sms said pls dont spend so much time on the decoration, a simple one will do, of course i gladly obliged. I send this cake around noon on the requested day.

My hubby was and still very busy throughout this school holiday. Though the boys did not complained, but i told hubby to squeeze a few days leave for them. As the leave was confirmed short noticed, many resorts or hotels were fully book during the christmas weekend. I decided to go to the north to see the youngest sibling in Selama. My other 2 sisters and another brother with his family joined the trip. However, before the journey up to the north, i had a few deliveries to make. Firstly a wedding cake to deliver to Seremban 2. The girl who ordered the cake was so polite, she profusely apologized as she was 15 minutes late to the agreed time. Thank you Erin.After Seremban 2, we started our journey to Bkt Beruntung where my sisters waited for us at my brother's house. We made a stop at Rawang to deliver this cake with 4 boxes of cupcakes and 4 boxes of fruit tartlets. However, in a rush i forgot to take pictures of the cuppies and the tartlets......this was a birthday cake for Ibu's son, and i was very thankful to Dahlea as she entertained my last minute order of that nice edible image of Bumblebee....the cuppies and tartlet were for an aqiqah do for Ibu's daughter. Thank u ya Ibu, i really hope everyone enjoyed the sweetlittlethings.

Then we had our late lunch in Bkt Beruntung, then off we shoot to Selama. The moment we hit Tapah, it was raining all the way to Selama. We reached Selama at 9.30 that night and on the table the hot tom yam soup and rice were waiting for us. That was so far the most delicious tom yam i ever tasted. I am not a tom yam person though. It was just pure fun as 19 of us in the house, rebut2 makan, some at the table and most on the floor......then the yakking session started and the house also became an unregistered cyber cafe he he he.....
I do not know what time others went to sleep that night, when i woke up the next morning, i heard voices in the kitchen. My sisters and sisters in law already started making breakfast. Outside was drizzling yet i could hear the birds chirping away...hardly heard the sound of cars passing by....so blissfully quite. Nasi lemak was already steaming away, my younger sister were frying the left over rice....one sister in law was mixing cokodok bawang......what a breakfast spread we had on that rainy beautiful morning. Makan punya pasal lupa ambik gambar.....

The plan was for the kids to have a splash in Bkt Merah that day but due to the weather we scrapped that. Instead we did a' hunting' in Kulim which i would share the treasures in a later posting. Then we had our dinner in Carrefour Seberang Jaya ....see the pictures he he.....
The star of the trip, Thaqif my youngest brother son who is a happy
baby....never seen him being cranky...
3 sisters enjoying McD sundae on the cone he he.....



After the nice dinner, we were back in Selama and another yakking and cyber cafe session were on ha ha ha......
With my younger brother contacts, he managed to secure 3 apartments in Bkt Mewah for the next day. So with 3 MPVs full load we went up to Bkt Merah, and it was only half an hour drive from my brother's house. The kids had their splashing time the pool, and us the orang2 tua ingat we were still young and agile, played table tennis....all of my siblings except the oldest 2, can play this game very well......i dont have the pictures of the kids at the pool though...

Tak ingat yg lutut masing2 dah condemn
Before leaving for KL

the 3 MPVs

My boys with my sister and their cousin


Alhamdullillah....we arrived Seremban safely. A few days after that i baked and decorated 2 wedding cakes, cupcakes for wedding cake tier and cupcakes for hantaran. Another set of cupcakes for makan2 which picture is not here.




Sweet blue with lime green dots....i love doing this cake. Thanks ya Cikerdots...


The 2 tiers wedding cake and cupcakes, i enjoyed making these also i love the vibrant colors on the cake.....thank Fieza Hantaran cupcakes.....thanks again Fieza semoga jodoh berpanjangan hingga akhir hayat....

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Apology as i got no baby to model for this beautiful barut, and i dont think the spider would mind he he......set of 6, 5 barut and 1 kain bedung ( 1m x 1m ) for sale, interested please call me or email at 012-323 8894 / zaitgha@gmail.com
Nice blue for a good looking baby boy....girl pun boleh
Red for happy baby.......

A pleasant weekend.......

Most of the time, i cooked one or two dishes to go with rice for dinner. My boys are a good eater and they love different type of food but poor hubby prefer rice for dinner as he usually eats light for lunch. Once in a while when dear hubby said he wont take dinner at home, i would cook something else. So last Friday when hubby smsed me at noon saying he would be home quite late, i asked the boys what they wanted for dinner......Unanimously they wanted my version of Bolognese sauce with spaghetti. Hubby also asked if i had any delivery on Saturday, my replied to him was no but i had one for Sunday. So we planned to go to Malacca on Saturday just jalan-jalan cari makan trip.


The spaghetti was very good i might say...we ended up finishing the sauce with lightly toasted bread as one packet of pasta finished in a jiffy.Anyone want the recipe, let me know......

Here, i introduce you to our latest addition in the family, Blackie@Hitam, i took him from the market near my house on Baby's birthday. Didnt expect that he would turn out to be a very manja cat. He sleeps with me at night, in between hubby and i.....now we feel like we are having a new baby.....he would wake up at night and licked my nose or my chin then go back to sleep ....... and hes one skinny cat ha ha ha....
Sedapnyer tidooooo.....
Friday night while watching TV, i prepared the shell for my fruit tartlets for Sunday morning delivery.

Saturday morning, while having breakfast at one of mamak's restaurant in Sban 2, i casually asked hubby about a wedding in Rembau on that Saturday afternoon which his mum asked me a few days before. He didnt tell me anything about it and i thought the wedding was not in the 'must attend' list he he.... Aaaa.... he actually totally forgotten about the invitation and he almost jumped on his chair when asked. " Sh*t.....i promised the guy to go....so how the trip to Malacca?" he asked me, told him to postpone the trip as i felt it was not nice not to fulfill once promised.... Then almost noon we were on the way to Rembau to the wedding, with his mum and our 2nd boy. It was a nice drive, and on the way i saw an antique shop beside the road and made a comment to hubby to stop by that place on the way home later. He just nodded his head.

As we were looking for a parking space upon arriving at the wedding, we saw the kompang and caklempong people was walking back with the goodie bags in hand....wahhh i said to myself the bersanding was early as the time was yet 1 pm. When we did our salam and all i asked the bride's mum about that and she said they decided to do the bersanding early due to the current rainy spell...then we headed to the buffet spreads....it was a typical wedding dishes but the taste was very good. While eating we were entertained by a band which i felt the best wedding band i heard so far. All the 4 singers sang very well and definitely better than any of the AF winners he he.......Though i was very much love to just lepak and enjoy the music, i asked hubby to go home as i had some baking to do for orders on Sunday morning. We did stop at the antique shop and i saw a few things that i like but i felt the pricing was a bit steep, i didnt get anything. We went into the car and hardly after 100 meters driving hubby realised that his mum was not with us ha ha ha....... she was left behind at the shop. Both of us thought she was behind us when we went to the car he he.....hubby made a U-turn and there she was standing and smiling widely to us.... we were laughing about it all the way home ha ha ha ..........

That night after maghrib, i baked the cakes. After the cakes were out from the oven, the boys and i went to Senawang for McDonald supper, it was almost 10.00 pm. Dear hubby was having teh tarik session with his friends in town. At 3.00 am i started decorating the cakes and the cupcakes. Finished just after 6.00 then took a breather by watching TV, at 8.00 i assembled the fruit tartlets and we left for Mambau to deliver the goodies at 9.30 am, the agreed time to hand over the goodies was 10.00. We made it to the place in good time to my suprised as i didnt know that Mambau was not far from Seremban. The customers' sisters collected the cakes and tartlets, as she was doing her make up. These were all she ordered for her big day...the cake and tartlets for the makan-makan and cupcakes for the engagement gift . She requested my earlier design for the hantaran, the combination of purple and pink....Enjoy the pictures




After settling the boys lunch, we decided to go to a tyre shops as my old car tyres needed to be replaced. We went to Senawang and had to wait for awhile as there were many cars ahead of us. We just waited as hubby said he had to go outstation soon and he afraid that the car might gave me trouble due to the tyres. Yes, i can drive his car but dont quite fancy driving his in Seremban town.... or just to go the market behind my house..... While waiting, he received a call. The call was from his relatives who happened to study in the same Uni in the States....ha ha ha talking about a small world kan?? and during that time they didnt know they were related until after hubby and i were married and we went to Sg Besar for his granduncle's funeral. The guy was with his mother in law who happened to be cousin to my mother in law.....complicated?? in short the guy and my hubby is second cousin.... they wanted to visit my in laws.

Then i dropped hubby at his mum's place with the guests, i went home to assemble the balance of fruit tartlets balance from the order earlier. Of course the real reason was to check on my 3 rascals at home ....... Went back to MIL's place with one big tupperware of tartlets and i just listened to their conversation which half of it i didnt understand. They were talking in this peculiar accent. When they left for KL, hubby and i went home and spend the rest of the day with the boys.....its tiring but fun though......

Stories behind the cakes....

This year Aidiladha was a bit different to us as one of my hubby's cousin gotten engage on the very day. The occasion was after the Friday prayers. But before that, i baked 30 pcs of muffins and 270 pcs of plain cupcakes for wedding favors. These favors traveled to the north on last Wednesday.
At same time, i prepared 50 pcs mix flavors of cupcakes for makan-makan occasion in one of the office in Nilai.
Once the cupcakes and muffins done, i bake 2 cakes, one was heartshaped and one was round for the hantaran of the engagement of the cousin. Earlier they had given me the 'bekas' hantaran. The bekas-bekas to me were a bit heavily decorated so i decided the cakes should be a simple ones. So here was one of the hantaran cake, simple decorated with lines at the side ( i need more practice to have the lines very straight) and big cut off pink flowers and small yellow and purple flowers on top for a girl side to a guy. The cake was butter cake sandwiching blueberry filling.
Then the boy hantaran to the girl was a simple blue polka dots with pinks flowers. The cake was butter cake sandwiching strawberry filling.

The ceremony went very well and the girl looked so resplendent in blue. Congratulation Nisha and hope to see you 'bersanding' soon and berkekalan hingga ke anak cucu. Thank you for your trust in me for doing your hantaran cakes. Glad to know you both like them.
Then the Saturday morning, i send this chocolate cake to a nearby Taman, requested by fellow blogger Kay...she has been a great support to my small bakery biz. Thank you Kay and hope the children and the adults enjoyed the cake as much as i enjoyed making it.

After delivering the cake, we went up to Bkt Beruntung, my big brother's place to have a belated gathering of Aidiladha.....the itenaries was eating, eating and more eating while yakking and watching tv. We only left for Seremban around 8 and safely home 2 hours later feeling so full even the boys were complaining of eating too much ha ha ha......told them sekali sekala tak aper lah.......

At last.......an update....

When i decided to quit from the corporate world a few years ago, i did it because of my boys. They being looked after by my in laws and i felt it was time for me to lighten their burden as they were also looking after their other grand children and still do until now. Honestly, i was always felt guilty during those times. They never complained though. So, when i started staying home, i felt restless especially when the boys were in school. I would be pacing the empty house and i thank God for the Internet. Browsing the Net, i started trying new recipes and enjoying the pictures of beautifully decorated cakes and cupcakes. I also started a blog to show off my baking products, and alhamdullillah 80% of my sales now came from the blog. I opened this blog just to share the day in and day out of my routine especially in the kitchen and received nice words and some said hello in the comment space. I had since met many wonderful bloggers in person especially the so called 'Makcik Bloggers' and a few others.

Pak Zawi is also a fellow blogger whom i had been wanting to meet for so long but always the time was not on my side. One of his children is staying in Enstek which is quite near to Seremban, still i did not get to meet him. But last month when he wrote in one of his posting that he would be in Shah Alam for awhile to care for his young grandson, i took the opportunity to meet him. I killed 2 birds with one stone that day by meeting him for lunch and attended a Deepavali open house invitation in the evening. The lunch was sponsored by Pak Zawi's friend Mr. Chia, who generously invited us along when he saw my comment to meet Pak Zawi. I managed to bake choc chips cookies for Pak Zawi and Mr.Chia packed as in the picture.
We were enjoying the ayam kampung lunch, picture courtesy of Mr. Chia and the wife was the one who took it hence the empty chair. Pak Zawi was seaten facing my hubby, moi, my 2nd boy and the youngest in black...

Pak Zawi was kind enough to paint me his version of beautiful tulips now hanging on the wall of my living room. I love the bright colors he used. I feel it would be better if the painting was framed...which i would do so soon.....Thank you Pak for making time to meet us though it was such a short meeting and for the lovely painting.....
After blogspot, i was invited to join Facebook. I cannot remember who invited me. I saw many users of Facebook use it as a tool to find old friends, especially those in high school or colleges. What i appreciate most about Facebook was most of the members were using actualy names. I tried to locate my old class mates of whom i last saw was in 1982 after SPM results, but was quite disappointed. The reason was i forgot the correct spelling of their names he he...btw, my old school was no longer at its place. One 'canggih' shopping complex stand menacingly to my eyes when i passed by the road. Always make me sad and so far i only went to 'that' shopping complex once.....so sedey la.....But one day i saw a new message in the inbox of my Facebook....i was so estatic because the message was from someone who was my classmate when i was in Standard 5 up until Form 5.....ha ha ha.....telling me of a re-union organized by another friend....then the jejak kasih bermula until we met in person at Cyberview Lodge.We were all 'anak2 Yayasan Selangor' whom after the Penilaian Darjah 5 were given scholarships, stayed in one of the Yayasan hostel in KL and went to B*GS. Apparently Malays student were the minority in that school. This group represented 3 classes when we were in Form 5. If i was not mistaken, only 9 - 11 malay students out of the 40++ in my class...Oh we worked hard in that school to compete with the best of the chinese and Indians....i personally value my time in the school, and i am sure the rest of the group feel the same way and the experince made us a resilient lot.....

Lastly, i did an image changed on the day before my youngest boy turned 11. I dont know why that particular date, but i was very thankful to my older sister, who accompanied me to get the tudung and to the guy who man one of the many tudung stalls in Ampang Park. He was so understandably kind in showing me the many ways to wear the tudung and said soothing words to the awkward nervous me on that day. Many of my Facebook friends list had seen me with the new image.

With all these happenings, i still churned something from the oven in my kitchen.....enjoy the pictures....
Hantaran in KL
A wedding cake in Seremban....but i was not pleased with the outcome...

Cupcakes for lunch do in TKC dining hall
Tartlets to Sban 2

The long overdue posting........

Baby of the house birthday on 1st Nov...
Uploaded the pictures long ago but really I was suffering the "M" sickness at the largest scale.... When asked if he wanted a party for his 11th birthday, he said no....he only wanted to eat Chicken Chop in Co*y C*or*er Ampang Park. Hmmm good enough. so we went on Saturday a day before his actual birth date. But on Sunday i just baked a choc cake and cooked my signature rendang cili api to mark the occassion and the grand ma made pulut kuning to give to next door neighbors. Honestly, he is the easiest boy out of my 3 boys to take care of so far even when he was inside me for the 9 months...Alhamdullillah.....

At 9 months old
At 11 years old