What i had been up to last week.....

Aaahhhhh.......alhamdullillah, i had completed another big task on my own but of course with the support of my boys, the young and the old . This time the old boy a.k.a the hubby assisted me a lot as the boys were in school during the days. He helped me on Friday night even to the extend that he went to 7 - 11 at midnight to get masking tape to really ensure the boxes i used were secured enough to hold hundreds of wedding favors.
This customer of mine called me in Sept last year and confirmed her order for the favors in Oct. She paid me 80% of the total amount by Dec. She requested for hantaran sets for both side boy/girl later and paid me in full for the 2 sets. After that, she requested for a wedding cake and paid me right after i told her on price. How i wish more people are like her. With prompt payments like this, it made things easier for me to plan . I would get the non edible things first like cake boards and boxes, the casing, the ribbons etc etc etc....And true enough, it was a smooth sailing for me preparing for her request and mind you she added birthday cake and cupcakes for the family birthdays only last week for last Thursday celebration. Also helped that i had invested on huge mixer after my first project..
Birthday cuppies for cousin's wife.
Birthday cake for MIL
Her 'rezeki' to have these gorgeous strawberries with melted choc drizzled on top on the cheesecake for her hantaran to hubby.
Choc Crumble cheesecake with layers of strawberry jam and melted chocolat under the generously sprinkled sliced almonds.
Vanilla cupcakes with cream butter cream rosettes with white ribbon rolled sugar paste.

Wedding cake of 3 kg++ butter cake with butter cream topping and gum paste flowers.


the wedding favors


One box at the back, 2 big boxes on the back seat of my tiny car...you think i should get a bigger car??

p/s
feedback from the customer, a thank u email from her

Just wanna say a really big thanks to u & family for the wonderful cakes & cupcakes..
Sume mmg yummy sgt2…
Insyallah in future will order from u again…
Ur cakes/cupcakes mmg juz nice.. tak manis sgt.. but tak tawar la off course..
Nicely done.. congrats to u..

Little assistant with a big help ......

After my last big project here, i have 2 weeks of leisure. Another big one will be next week. I hope i would be more efficient as i will be really on my own, the boys will be at school. The last job was a bit easier as the boys helped me with the packing as they were in the house for the Chinese New Year holidays. My sisters in KL and the brother in Selama came to the house on the Monday of the CNY. He is the youngest in the family, he eldest are twins, a girl and a boy, then a girl(angah in the picture) , a boy and the last addition is a baby boy. I was really happy to see them as i missed them during the Raya Haji. There was another story behind this visit too, funny one though....will share with you in future posting ( kalau teringat lah).

In spite of heavy cooking i had to do when they were in the house, i was very thankful to Angah and my sis(yg terpotong gambar tuh) as they were the ones finishing the putting on the " Terima Kasih" stickers and the small purple flowers on the favors boxes. The girl insisted to finish doing the 1000 boxes before they left for KL on the same day ha ha ha.....'Angah, Mak Teh is still grateful and thankful for Mak Lang and your assistance'. I completed only slightly more than 200 pieces at that time he he
So, now with no little girl's assistance, i gotta stick these tiny ribbons and the 'Terima Kasih' stickers on my own...and again at this moment of typing, i only completed 300 pieces.....alamakkkkk
Quite awhile that i didn't share the dishes we had at home, i remembered Wanshana did ask how i fried my Kobis goreng bodoh here. So, Mam Wanshana, the very simple one....this time i used french beans instead of cabbage....

You need,
a few slices of ginger
slices of 2 small garlics
slices of 2 small red onions
slices of 1 red chili
a bit of dried anchovy(ikan bilis) / dried shrimp
(since i did sambal udang i used anchovy this time, but with the cabbage i used the dried shrimp)
the beans u can slice them like i did last night or just roughly chopped each to an inch cuts.

Wash the beans and throw the water but let it be in a bowl ( a bit of water left with the beans will help the dish not to get too dry)....Heat 2 tablespoon of oil. Throw in everything except the beans, fry until fragrance, put in a pinch of salt, stir and put in the beans and stir and stir and stir, with high flame i just fried it less than a few minutes as i like my vegetable crunchy not mushy....off the fire and serve with hot rice, and last night i made shrimp sambal which I think i had the recipe in the earlier post.

Michael Jackson's inspired?

She called me many months ago asking if i could do agar-agar rainbow. Never heard of it, asked around and i learned agar-agar magic instead. The agar-agar was supposed to be her wedding favors, she wanted something "lain dari yang lain", but the deal was never materialised. And i thought i would lose her as a customer, maybe not my 'rezeki', i told myself. A few days later, she mailed me if i could do a fondant hantaran cake and told me she wanted the cake ala2 Maya Karin's wedding cake. Alamak, i said to myself.....i never saw 'the' wedding cake. I browsed the net and it was 3 tiers cake, with small black flowers at the side and one big black flower ribbon on top. Of course, for my customer 1 cake was enough as it was for the hantaran(gift). Told her ok and she paid me well in advanced. Then started the hunt for flower ribbon, i dont want those typical flower ribbon selling at the wedding thingy shops. I even asked my former staff to make for me but i didnt have the time to go to her place to collect it. No worry Siti, i still want it, do keep it nicely away from the dust.
I found this particular one in different color only 2 weeks ago, when i was getting the box for Kak Ezza daughter's hantaran. Asked the girl if i could have it in black and she said yup...i was very happy when i chose the ribbon. And that cost me RM19.00 you. And so yesterday, i baked the cake at noon, started working on it after 3.00 after my youngest left for his mengaji school. I was so engrossed with it as the ready made fondant i got was not very cooperative. I didn't hear the handphone ringing at all. ...Apology Zai, i felt really bad as she was calling from in front of my house and after she called the house phone.......
I delivered the cake to Taman Tungku Khursiah before i went to fetch my Angah from school. When my sister saw the cake she called it "Michael Jackson cake" ha ha ha...the cake was chocolote moist.

Bz as a bee......

Its started here. Her first order was orange theme wedding gifts for a friend. Followed with a few other orders then the big one. She request for wedding favors for her wedding on last 31st Jan. 1000 pieces, 3 tier wedding cakes and cupcakes, wedding gifts(hantaran) and 500 wedding favors for the groom side on 1st Feb. Its an experience and only the good management of time habit which i acquired during my work in the bank, i managed to complete this project on time.
I started baking on Wednesday. A bit scary but i just love the challenge. A lot of things i learned during these few days and hopefully if there was a next big one, I would enjoy it more. The boys were wonderful as they assisted me in the packing. No grumbles this time and i so enjoyed the conversation i had with them during this time. Yeahh....it was tiring but it was also so fullfilling as i made the RM doing something i love. So enjoy the pictures as they paint a thousand words he he.....
The packaging



The made up cakes, only 100 of these
Ready to be packed
Packed cuppies
To be delivered
Hantaran

First tier wedding cake, butter cake 1 kg, 7 in
Second tier wedding cake, choc moist 2 kg 10 in
Lowest tier cuppies
Still managed to send this to Bandar Tasik Selatan on Saturday night as she asked for previous design gold theme. The flavor was vanilla.
The last one was to an Uncle. Send this at 9 am on Sunday as a suprised.