Monday, March 30, 2009

Pink and purple....and everything nice

"Salam Zaitgha, nak bertanyakan pasal cupcakes, bole order lagi tak untuk this Saturday?"....came an sms sometime last Tuesday. Took awhile for me to answer as I was looking forward to go the 2nd Makcik Blogger gathering in Shah Alam. After some time management thinking, i replied the sms with " Insyaallah boleh, tapi kena collect at 9 .00 am on Saturday as i have an earlier engagement after 12"...the replied was an ok and the sender proceeded with the details of her request....tup tup on Thursday morning, another sms came in from her....she had already banked in the payment. She asked if the cuppies could be collected on Friday night instead as she just found out that the occasion was on Saturday morning at 10.00 am. The cuppies were for her niece aqiqah in Tampin. I agreed as it would be better for me to bake the cheesecake and fruits tartlets for makcik bloggers do on Saturday morning. God works in His mysterious way. The cuppies were collected near Komuter Station at about 9.00 pm that last Friday night.
Come Saturday morning, i woke up at 7 and started with the base of the tartlets, while its in the oven i mixed the cheesecake batter, easy peasy with the help of food processor he he.....base baked, put the cheesecake in the oven and prepare the tartlets custard and cut the fruit.
At 1.30 Zay fetched me and of we went to Shah Alam, with hand drawn map from Kay's email as the printer refused to function for me haissshhh.......the traffic was good but due to my poor drawing we ended up coming from the opposite of the actual route given ha ha ha....a few missed and turned, we arrived Kay's home....Kak Ezza had done the run up of the event here...Just to say that i enjoyed the time surrounded by all the makcik bloggers and of course the food....so enjoy the pictures....
Former Miss World??
Love this picture, all were so santai....the 2 pictures above i took from Zay's FB, thanks mam...
Our president and Cahya




the glorious food




the cuppies for the aqiqah..

sms received from the customer when i was at Kay's place
"Salam, just to say that your cuppies are so great, so yummy and very2 nice designs. Everyone just love the cuppies"

Monday, March 23, 2009

What we did last weekend....

School holiday was just over. All back to routine since yesterday. Pity the boys, the dad didn't get to take leave to just lepak or bring them anywhere. So its PSP, PS2 and PC through and through the whole week until Friday. Ohhh wait......i think they went cycling around the Taman once kot. So on Friday, just after the boys came back from Friday prayers, i told them the whole gang was going to KL. As usual, all of us arrived at my sis's place clad in the same baju that we had on at home. ...ha ha ha i didn't realize none of the boys changed including yours truly....adoi lah....

I planned to cook spaghetti and packed all the vege , but lo and behold i left the spaghetti home. The nephew went to buy 2 packets of the pasta....as usual lah my boys enjoyed the hot fried spaghetti and to my surprised so were the nephew and nieces.....then fetched dear hubby from office as his office is just 10 minutes drive from my sis's house....while in KL i got a call from a courier company saying their guy was in front of my house, told them i collect the package the next day from their office.....was back home in Seremban around 10.00 pm that night.

Woke up quite late on Saturday morning, had very late breakfast at 10.00 am, packed brunch for the boys as they were still in lala land ....picked up the package...turned out to be my new business cards....i ordered them online...nice tak??..... a bit girlish to me but reflecting my products well i think.....
While coming home from the courier office i saw the scene as in the pictures below....isn't it dangerous?? and i thought these scenes could only be in Indonesia or India....told hubby not to be too near as the chair might slipped to our already very old car he he....


Still in the 'guilty' mode towards the children, we decided to bring them to watch a movie...only "Race to Witch Mountain" was suitable and only the midnight show was available. At 9.00 pm we went to get the tickets, had satay for late dinner and watched the movie, were home almost at 2.00 am....the boys went straight to bed as bowling was planned for next day activity. Sunday, again breakfast was at 10.00, we went bowling ....been awhile since we last bowled as family ....my hands and knees ached after 2 frames he he....


Had lunch at 2.00 pm and lepakking at home after that. Later in the evening both hubby and i were pleasantly surprised when the big boy told us that he had started blogging. His latest entry was a review about the movie. Being bias, we thought he did a good job on the blog....feel free to read his views here...

Thursday, March 19, 2009

One to Kuching and one to Kuantan....

There were 29 emails to - fro between me and Fyda, and when she saw my final cake for Wilton course 2, she decided to have similar looking cake for her engagement in Kuantan this coming weekend. She wanted chocolate moist for the cake. I delivered the cake to her yesterday morning and I hope she and the cake have arrived safely in Kuantan by this time.

Anonymous said...

hai..
really want to say thankz cz make my engagement day perfect..
your cake really sweet n cute.
it so yummy too..
anyway thank ya..

P/s, feedback from Kuantan left at my biz blog


Two weeks ago, my MIL neighbor's daughter came to the house asking me to make 'hantaran' cake. She specifically requested for 'kek keras' because they would bring the cake all the way to Kuching for the brother's wedding. I was a bit apprehensive when she asked for purple as it is not my favorite color. But as business people always has this phrase "Customers always right"...and after completing the cake i think the purple colored deco cake was not bad he he...

The main reason i went to do the Wilton courses was to be qualified to be their instructor, a long way to go but i hope i realised this 'want' one day. I was surprised that i enjoyed learning and making the flowers now....hope many more orders asking for royal icing flowers like these.....Both cakes were covered with fondant, the flowers and the weaves were made from royal icing.....

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Just wanna share.....

Someone text me asking how my kitchen looks like...pardon the 'bersepah' because if i took the pictures when the area was in spic and span condition, i dont think it will have a feeling of heavily used 'kitchen' he he....

Wet kitchen corner, where i do my daily cooking of all the 4 meals and ++(snack and etc)....
Baking corner, my old faithful mixer which i got from Sogo and oven where i bought from a shop across Sogo, which both are almost 10 years old...

Hand mixer is 10 years old ++ too, i got it at Sogo. (Those days, Sogo and my office was a walking distance....)

I got to bake 800 plain choc moist cupcakes for wedding favors. The wedding is tomorrow, but the customer wanted the cuppies yesterday(Friday). I delivered the cuppies last night after maghrib. I used 78 A size eggs, 4kg of Blue Key selfraising flour, 5.5kg castor sugar, 3.2kg cocoa powder, 3.25 kg buttercup and i got about 830 cupcakes. My youngest boy brought 15 pieces of teh cuppies to his Maulud celebration at his agama school.

I started baking at 9.00 pm on Thursday night in one batch (5 recipes), completed around 1.00 am in the morning. On Friday, i started around 11.00 am and completed about 5.00 pm(8 recipes). The boys assisted in the packing and my eldest boy did the taping of the casings very fast(thank you Abang). I did a few projects like this before with my old oven and mixer, it took me like 3 - 4 days to complete. And the electric bill was so high, i decided to get a bigger but gas oven. The RM was a bit from dearest hubby(thanks a million), mostly from the proceeds of earlier cakes sales, i got the mixer first and later the oven and. Now i wonder when would the MPV coming????( ha ha ha ...to my Anon readers, dont la comment saying 'tulah org melayu biz nyer ntah apa2 berangan yg lebih , I am only joking on the MPV ya....) The end product

It started here;

The eggs were washed even scrubbed he he....
The huge mixer, can bathe a toddler in this ha ha ha ....
The chocolate moist cake batter..... The ice cream scoop i used....


The aluminium foils cup lined with paper cups .....
The newly acquired oven ....

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The cake that was never meant to be collected.......

This is not an angry posting, because i am not. Its started when i received an sms just after 11.00 in the morning, asking if i could make a carrot walnut cake to be collected after 6.00 pm. At first i hesitated to say yes, but thinking that all the ingredients were available in the kitchen, i said ok but i emphasised on the after 6.00 as one of my boy is in evening school. I told the customer that the collection place was the KTM Station, and due to her late in replying, i thought she agreed. But later she asked if the venue could be in Seremban 2. Though its a bit far , i said ok....tup tup...i received a call at 5.30 saying he was already at the agreed place and asked if i could leave the house . I said i could only leave the house after 6.10 and would be there around 6.30. Then the sms came saying they would collect the cake at the house, and for me to sms my home address. I did, then i waited and waited....just before 9.00 pm i sms and said " I assume that you wont come to collect the cake"...no reply. At 9.10 pm i had to go out and as i was just arriving my destination, an sms came saying , "on the way now, and said i had to go to Seremban 2. I replied i couldnt go to Sban2 and i said KTM station at 10.30 pm would be ok for me....and the replied said" its very late , can i cancel?....i just replied "ok...not meant to be then..thank you."
So, what you all make on this story? I was disappointed not to make the sale but i was not angry...Moral of the story was, we planned but only with God's will, thing would happen....just a bit 'terkilan' that my day was a bit upside down because of this order....lesson learnt, i should not accept a last minute order coz if thing didn't fall as planned....i would ended up with a not nice feeling inside....and of course a small loss of the cake but a gain to the nearby neighbors he he...... I hope all of you have a nice day....
The Carrot Walnut Cake with cream cheese frosting

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Happy Birthday Zulfarhan.....

My 2nd boy is 13th today. He didnt want cake, he asked me to bake pizza instead. Only baked the pizza for dinner as we had a wedding to attend to at noon. The man of the house was busy trimming the trees in front of the house. We had the pizza for dinner, i made a kg of pizza dough. Made mini pizzas(pizzettes) and 2 X-Large. So Angah, Happy Birthday to you...we love you and pray that you will have many many more birthdays and everything goes well for you....



Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Thank you and a few orders....

Thank you to all for the birthday wishes and i am so blessed having family who fully supported all my doings and friends, old and new who always so encouraging. Birthdays in my home have always been a simple affairs. What i had last Sunday was just that except for the cake cutting he he.......since coincidently i had to make and deco a cake for the Wilton Course 2 class...
On Monday i did this cupcakes. Did these under 'duress' as there was no water supply at home. I wanted to do the Liverpool logo but time was not at my side as i had to deliver the cake by noon. I got the shaped of the ball wrong too....its supposed to be pentagon i/o hexagon he he...sorry to my dear customer

On Wednesday i delivered a set (25 pieces) of choc moist cup cakes and a carrot walnut cake to one sweet pregnant lady in front of the KTM station. I used my newly acquired skills to make flowers and did the flowers straight on the cuppies. I practiced my lines too. The flowers were for the ladies and the checked were for the gents. Carrot cake deco was simple....i didnt have the heart to color the cream cheese topping too much as it would change the taste of the topping.I used to eat this style of vege at one fish head curry restaurant i used to frequent in KL. I got the taste this time but the garlic was a bit over 'garing'....now i know how to make this vege after many times experimenting he he......

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Another year older.......

I was supposed to bake an 8 in cake on Friday night but i just too lazy. No one ordered the cake but without one, i would be wasting my money. On Saturday morning, after gathering all the necessary tools, i went to have breakfast with hubby. then i realised i needed to use the ATM machine. Saw the time, it was 9.40 so i said to hubby plenty of time, and we went to the bank.....my phone rang, the Amore e-Bake lady called asking me not to worry about the cake....Sunday is ok she said, i smsed her that i didnt have a cake while having my breakfast earlier.... quickly used the ATM and i was in front of Amore 5 minutes before 10.00 . I was doing Wilton Cake Decorating Course 2 from yesterday until 1.00 p.m today. I learned to make many very sweet flowers but i still struggled making the famous Wilton roses.....Finished yesterday class at 1.00 pm but had to wait for hubby to fetch me until almost 3 as my 2nd boy was having a co-curriculum activity in his school. The stomach was doing 'Sweet Child of mine' when my big boy called saying they were in front of the store. We discovered new place for lunch. After the late lunch, we left for home. The student kits for Course 2 consists of 2 oblong molds and i used that to bake my cake. The cakes came out quite nice and i made a sandwich of butter cream and iced the cakes.
This morning hubby and i went to have breakfast in town in separate cars. I did the 2nd part of course 2 and finished about 1.00 pm again. And i think my graduation cake looked very nice. Hubby smsed asking me to go to Ju*co for a late birthday lunch. We ate steamboat. Then, went home and put a Happy Birthday on the graduation cake. It was also my birthday cake he he.... the kids insisted i cut the cake, but before that they gave me the presents....nothing fancy but i love them all. The abang and the father gave me a purse, the second boy gave me a musical birthday card and the youngest boy gave me a key chain. I cut the cake....chatted for awhile and took a long nap.....i woke up with a big smile and i felt so blessed.....

So enjoy the pictures and Kak Ezza, nanti i buat tag tuh ya...