Day in day out ....

Ozzie in actions........

2011-05-24T00:42:00.000+08:00

In the laundry basket

on the stool

at the edge of my bed

in the laundry machine

Olly Murs - Thinking Of Me ...Selingan for today.

2010-10-28T08:52:00.001+08:00

I want to be a TV

2010-10-26T14:25:00.001+08:00

this picture is from google image

I Want To Be A TV

ESSAY FROM A CHILD

A teacher from Primary School asks her students to write an essay about what
they would like God to do for them...

At the end of the day while marking the essays, she read one that made her very
emotional.

Her husband, that had just walked in saw her crying and asked her:
- What happened?

She answered - Read this. Its one of my students essays.

Oh God, tonight I ask you something very special:

Make me into a television.

I want to take its place. Live like the TV in my house. Have my own special
place, and have my family around ME.

To be taken seriously when I talk....

I want to be the Center of attention and be heard without interruptions or
questions.

I want to receive the same special care that the TV receives when it is not
working.

Have the company of my dad when he arrives home from work, even when he is
tired.

And I want my mom to want me when she is sad and upset, instead of ignoring
me... and... I want my brothers to fight to be with me... I want to feel that
family just leaves everything aside, every now and then, just to spend some
time with me.

And last but not least make it that I can make them all happy and entertain
them...

God I dont ask you for much... I just want to live like every TV.

At that moment the husband said: - My God, poor kid. What horrible parents!

She looked up at him and said: That essay is our son!!!

So true isnt it?

The reasons i hardly blogging these days..........

2010-10-23T02:36:00.000+08:00

I am in love with this 2 young guys......

2010-07-06T00:49:00.006+08:00

Its July already..........

2010-07-04T11:20:00.000+08:00

New addition in the house called Ozzy .

Hi all.......half year of 2010 gone.....time really flies. Been neglecting this blog for awhile, no particular reason actually. April has always been a strange doldrums month for me as 12 April was my dear other half's birthday. Nothing special done to celebrate the date but he knew all of us in the house was grateful to Allah that hes with us.
Then on the 25th April was the 3rd year of my dad passing.....this year that week was tough on me as I kept on thinking about him and worst that the hubby was away for the whole week made me felt so vulnerable. I put a brave front when the boys were around but in the room i just felt like going under the blanket and slept away the blues....Came May and with everything in sight was highlighting the Mothers' Day, the thought of my late mum made me feel a bit lost. However, the visit by the youngest sibling of mine from Selama Perak brought laughter into my house when we reminisced old times and shared tales of children and spouses(openly he he ) .... and oh ya...my older sisters, with families left for Makkah on 28th May and orders for my sweetlittlethings products, kept me busy , therefore May and June just swooshed by and today is already 4th of July.

Being awhile since i last share my kitchen products i.e dishes cooked....

Cili api ketam and nenas Cili api daging and kentang

Tempeh goreng
Kerang rebus
Kicap cili to eat with kerang
Taugeh tumis kicap

Laksa before the gravy
Laksa with the gravy
fish curry

Enjoy this picture now and i will be back soon......

Happy Birthday dear......

2010-04-12T20:56:00.004+08:00

and thank you Allah.....

No special celebration as usual though today is hubby's birthday. However, I feel so blessed to be the mother of his children, the friend he can count on and I pray that Allah will continue His blessing to all of us, family and friends....... The couple
The caused of our joy and sorrow...

The contented pets of the house....
P/s, No party to celebrate the birthday, just pulut kuning with sambal ikan bilis for dinner......

Update from last year posting just wanna share......

2010-04-05T17:22:00.007+08:00

This was my posting dated somewhere in March last year. I mentioned about dreaming for an MPV, after acquiring the big oven and mixer for my sweetlittlethings products....

And alhamdullillah with Allah's willing we manage to get this ( the picture )...Now delivering bulk orders are not difficult anymore, we are able to even bring all 3 boys along....but just letting u all know that its not only from my baking ya that we were able to get this, its a combination of my other half hard work and a little bit of my contribution.....so thats the update of my last year vision.......

Bila la ada masa nak duduk diam2 to update this blog....

2010-04-03T08:13:00.004+08:00

So much to tell so little time.......between 3 boys to chauffeur around with 2 taking major exams this year, baking and socializing......my time is reduced to just updating short notes on the Facebook....aishhhh

Someone shared this with me and i like it very much.........

2010-03-04T11:43:00.001+08:00

Heart of Gratitude!!!

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"

The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."

Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have.. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.

When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.

The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling…

And even more beautiful is, knowing that you are the reason behind it!!!

Enjoy your day with a heart of gratitude.

The new kid on the block and order received.....

2010-01-27T16:11:00.000+08:00

I tried to pick him up from the ground, he ran under the car. I looked around for dear hubby but didn't see him nearby. I heard a slow meow....he was at my feet looking up to me...i tried to pick him up again, he ran under the car again.....I gave up on him and left to look for dear hubby to go home. I was at the market and this tiny kitten running around my legs but i had problem when i wanted to pick him up. The moment i saw my hubby driving toward me, i heard the small meow again....he was staring at me, i bent down to pick him up he just curled himself in my palm and i brought him into the car. The rest is history...we called him Hitam @ Blackie. He is so playful and so 'manja' even hubby will take time to layan him before going to work early morning. He used to sleep with me but i think he got tired being kick down to floor by hubby as he liked to sleep at the edge of the bed. Now he favorite sleeping place is under our coffee table in the living room.

He like to do this before going to sleep

Watching chickens outside the house.

Hes favorite past time.
Hes favorite sleeping position.
A few days after di 'pungut', sleeping on my bed.

Here the pictures of a few order i received.

Anniversary cupcakes, orange cupcakes with choc ganache topping and sugar paste flowers and alphabets.
Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream for birthday do.
Vanilla cupcakes with sugarpaste flower for 'merisik'.

Birthday cake for Mamat, 11 year old.

Carrot cake with cream cheese topping for makan2.

3 year old girl birthday cake. orange cake sandwiching blueberry filling.

Engagement hantaran, thank u Murni semoga kekal hingga ke jinjang pelamin.
Choc moist cupcakes for wedding favors

Drying the sugarpaste flowers for 2 tier wedding cake.

Top level orange cake with blueberry filling.

Lower level cake was choc moist cake with blueberry filling
The assembled wedding cake for a snapshot before delivering it to Sikamat.

For future new mums

2010-01-13T13:34:00.002+08:00

The folded bengkung is called Bengkung Silang (RM50.00)
The rolled bengkung is called Bengkung Jawa (RM40.00)
Prices including postage.

The Jawa Bengkung is 8 meters long.....

Feel free to contact me at this number 012-323 8894 or email me at zaitgha@gmail.com.

Barut and bedung baby.....

2010-01-07T12:06:00.000+08:00

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

2009-12-29T21:28:00.001+08:00

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....

Iklan/Advertisement

2009-12-23T07:55:00.003+08:00

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.......

2009-12-07T14:05:00.010+08:00

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....

2009-12-03T13:06:00.005+08:00

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....

2009-11-24T10:13:00.017+08:00

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........

2009-11-02T08:30:00.005+08:00

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

Lucky me......

2009-11-01T16:43:00.002+08:00

When i first saw him more than 20 years ago, i was warned to stay away from him. I chose to ignore that warn and fate has it i ended up marrying him ha ha ha......Saw him first time with a group of friends, and by the time i talked to him the first time, his hair was longer than mine. I knew he cooked but only knew he cooked quite good a few months before i left for home from the States. He in fact introduced me to cabbage curry, never eaten that before i met him.

Why lucky?....When we got our first son, we never really discussed how to tackle the daily house chores as both of us were working. We had a wonderful baby sitter at that time. We send our first boy to her in the morning, and fetch him home mostly around 6 - 7 pm daily, depending on the traffic on the notorious Jalan Genting Kelang that time....if we felt like eating out, we would have our dinner first, then fetch the boy. If we wanted to eat at home, after fetching the boy, we would stopped at one of the many shops near our place along Jalan Gombak and bought the necessary to cook for dinner. Most of the time, i would do the cooking, and he would play with the son. Or he would cook and i would be the one layanin the boys. I heard so many ladies complained about the hubbies just sat on a sofa reading newspapers when they had to cook and took care of the children at the same time. So, dear hubby is quite at ease in the kitchen or take care of the boys. On and off when the mood strike, he would volunteer to cook for the whole family. And he cooked this wonderful nasi lemak and the eggs sambal from the many eggs that we got on one weekend last month from a few weddings that we went to. He cooks a lot actually but i just dont have the picture except for these ones......Enjoy the pictures ......

My style of cooking......

2009-10-14T14:54:00.006+08:00

I had an interesting short chat with a blogger at gmail chat yesterday. After the normal salam and hi....the topic went to food...he said maggi mee is not good to eat. I agreed with him because i am not a fan of instant mee or any instant food. Even if i was craving of cokodok ikan bilis, i wont be making from Adabi instant mix....of course to all working mothers, these instant mix/spices are a God send after a tiring day in the office. I am not saying they are bad or anything of the sort....its just not authentic to my anak tekak....

anyway....the next topic was the use of Pak Ajinomoto in cooking. I never bought a packet of Ajinomoto before and i surely will never buy one in future. To me if all the spices and ingredients are enough in one recipe, it doesn't need the Pak Aji to make it taste better. Both my parents never approved of Pak Aji in the cooking at home and i continued that way when i have a family of my own. But really we have no choice if we ate out kan?? He suggested to replace Pak Aji with sugar...i am ok with that but i use sugar in certain dishes only, even that i use brown sugar. As for salt, i use fine salt only to fry fishes, tempeh and vegetables, but coarse salt in everything else. My fishes would only be fried crispy except for meaty fishes like tenggiri or bawal.

Here i am sharing recipes for my masak lemak coz someone in the Facebook asked me for the recipe and also my sambal belacan.

Crispy fried mackerel/kembung

Lemak cili api daging with potato.
The recipe;

500gm beef ( best use batang pinang) - cut bite size crossing the grains
200gm coconut milk
1 piece asam keping
one lemon grass - lightly bash the bulb
10-15 small bird eye chillies* ( more if you want it hotter)
an inch of tumeric*
*pounded or blend together
2 - 3 potatoes -quartered

Wash the beef, put it the deep pot, throw in the pounded chili and tumeric and the lemon grass. Let the water dry a bit, if the beef still not soft add a bit more water ...then put in the coconut milk, let it boil, put the potatoes and asam keping in and let it boil till the potatoes softened. Put some coarse salt to taste and do stir frequently to avoid the coconut milk become 'curdled' (separated?? any better word for this?).

Lemak chili api tenggiri with bittergout.

500 gm tenggiri
200gm coconut milk
1 piece asam keping
Half of big bittergout - sliced thickly(abt half cm ) and soak in salted water
10-15 small bird eye chillies* ( more if you want it hotter)
an inch of tumeric*
*pounded or blended together

Wash the fish, put it in a deep pot, throw in the pounded chili and tumeric. Let the water dry a bit, then put in the coconut milk, let it boil, put the sliced bittergout and asam keping in and let it boil again. Put some coarse salt to taste and do stir frequently.

My kangkung belacan

My mix vege
My lala in hot oyster sauce.

My fried bihun with secret ingredient..the minced touchu
Simple tumis french beans
Sambal belacan
2-3 red chillies
5 - 10 bird eyes chillies
1 inch roasted shrimp paste
salt to taste
juice from one lime
Pounded all coarsely except the juice. Add in the juice and serve.

All of the dishes were cooked without the Ajinomoto.

Weddings, open houses and etc.......

2009-10-12T15:34:00.011+08:00

Purple was never my color, so when anyone requested for my cakes to be decorated in purple, it would be a bit of a struggle for me to let my creative juices flow ha ha ha...macam la creative sangat. So for requested purple silver, i came up with these deco, the blue was actually another shade of purple but looked blue in the pictures. These cupcakes travelled to Pasir Mas 2 weeks ago.

Combination of purple and pink on white was requested which i found a bit easier to come up with...the flowers roses roses, rolled and petaled, i cant remember the name of the yellow flower. These cuppies went to Kajang.Then, on two Saturday ago, we started our journey to Johol for dear hubby's cousin wedding. The rain was so heavy during the solomnised ceremony. Picture was taken by my youngest boy.

From Johol, we drove down to Senawang which actually quite near to our house, for my cousin daughter's wedding. The newlyweds were distributing the wedding cake to the guest.In the middle of last week, Wednesday to be exact, i baked 700 pieces cute little cupcakes for wedding favors. The cakes were collected by the bride herself on Thursday night. Selamat Pengantin Baru to Maz semoga kekal ke anak cucu.
Since the heavy baking was done by Thursday, i was looking forward to spend time with my 3 rascals and the father. We were invited to a Raya do in Tanjung Malim and in KL on Saturday. So we left for TM late morning that Saturday, and we were in TM until about 2.30 and stopped by Sungai Buaya to see an old friend. Chatted and had nice Laksa Johor (moi) and Carbonara Spagetthi (the boys), we left for KL at almost 5 o'clock. Lepakking in KL(Cheras) until 7.
We reached Seremban at 8pm, rushed for shower and went to another open house hosted by a young neighbors just infront of my house. Yak for awhile and went to bed so early. I was told that i started snoring at 10.30 that night ha ha ha.....that was way too early for me....must be too exhausted.

Because of the early night, i woke up at 6 am on Sunday morning. I did some cleaning up in the kitchen, and was suprised that hubby was up too. So we decided to have breakfast at the stall near Seremban Hospital. It was almost full, we had to share the table with another couple. Both of us had nasi lemak. I actually wanted to eat the kuih that they had, but all were finished by the time we reached the stall. Most of the patrons ate curry mee there but to me the mee is not up to my standard he he.....then we decided to check out some clearing sale in a shop in Seremban Parade. Poor us, by the time we arrived the shop, there were not much things left. Then we just went around the ground floor of the complex enjoying the Coloring and Drawing contest held there.

I like this girl's work. See his face expression.
Saw this boy almost crying face and yet still vigorously did his coloring. Apparently the siblings were enjoying McD meals and of course he wanted to have some too...i heard the mother/grandmother was 'pujuking' and best was when he started coloring the face looked quite calm but the moment he saw the mum, he started grimacing.....but he was so cute....

Belated Raya story....

2009-09-28T12:23:00.003+08:00

Ramadhan was gone in a jiffy and Syawal swooshed to the 9th day today. Last night bade goodbye to hubby at the door as he got into the cab to KLIA. He would be in Kuching and Bintulu until Friday. Been awhile since he went outstation longer than 2 nights....the kids missed his wake up kisses this morning. His habit since the big boy was born...he would wake up, had his shower, said his prayers then made his round to the boys' rooms and kissed them on the heads.....aahhhh.... i am getting sentimental since Raya mood is still lingering. However, normal routine started today as i send the boys to school in the morning...

Our Raya this year was as routine as pass Rayas....the boys decided not to get new Baju Melayu so they wore the old ones with jeans to Masjid Negeri ....rugged weiii.....as for me, in spite of not making any cookies Raya sample, i did received a few orders of the cookies and cupcakes...alhamdullillah and fruit tartlets seemed to be the hot item on sale since Ramadhan...Saturday before Raya, i still delivered Raya cookies, cakes and cupcakes. I only started cooking my signature Beef Rendang Chili Api with Long Beans at midnight....by the time the rendang was cooked and packed in a few microwave containers, it was already 3 am......

As usual, Raya morning, hubby and the boys would go to Masjid Negeri in town for Eid prayer. I would bring all the cookies, cakes and rendang to my parents in law's house across the big road near mine. There i would prepare the food for morning Raya breakfast. This was the routine for the last 17 years since i got married. My in laws always sort of reminded my hubby that the routine would be different if my mum was still around. Anyway, since my kampung is in KL, the traveling time to KL from Seremban with no jam would be a breeze especially on Raya holidays. So, I really had no complain on this arrangement. Hubby with only his 2 siblings as compared to 8 of mine.
After the makan2 , the bermaaf2an and the duit Raya session in Seremban we went home for a while to give Raya food to our Chinese neighbors. They have been good neighbors and would have something for us every Raya since we shifted in this Taman. This year one neighbor gave a basket full of fruits and the other one gave us Raya hamper. We gave them 1 lemang and 1 bekas of chicken rendang and 1 bekas of cookies. Then we left for KL. As usual, our way to KL was a breeze but the opposite way of the highway was badly jammed up. We heard on air that the jam was until after Senawang and mind you it started from just after Nilai R and R......

We congregated at my younger brother's apartment in Ampang after the visits to my dad and mum resting places. There we had our makan2 again with all the lemangs, 3 - 4 types of rendang and KFC chicken too......Then we adjourned to my older sister's house and lepakking there until after dinner. We only headed home Seremban at almost 9 o'clock.

On 2nd day, my brothers and sisters, decided to have lunch at my house. Special request from my youngest brother for me to cook daging lomak cili api. He saw one of my buka puasa dishes in the earlier posting. Him being married someone from the north missed our style cooking he he....so i cooked that, cabbage with squid, deep fried red snapper in light soy sauce but unfortunately i forgot to snap picture of the food served on that day. Then as usual we yakked and yakked and remisnisced old times.

3rd day, we were back in KL visiting my hubby's people in Gombak. 4th day, we went to Kuala Pilah for Raya lunch at my sisters. 5th day, we visited uncles and aunties around Seremban area. I also managed to bake 2 types of cookies as my Raya cookies were finished on the 2nd day. On Friday, hubby and the youngest boy went up to Cameron Highland for a brief family vacation with his cousins and sister. My 2 older boys decided to keep me accompanied at home as i had committed orders of fruit tartlets. And rezeki from Him was aplenty, a blogger friend also requested a set of hantaran cupcakes for Saturday. My dear friend, the 2 boys and i went down to Melaka on Saturday to deliver the cupcakes and to ber-Hari Raya with the Harts.....Late evening, hubby and the baby boy came home. Apparently, hubby was suffering from a tooth ache due to a crack teeth and had to extract the teeth in Cameron Highland....oh oh...what a vacation...I got him a whipped potato from KFC and later at supper he took a bowl of rice porridge....pity him.....and yesterday Sunday, hubby packed for his Kucing - Bintulu trip and we went Raya to a friend house in Seremban 2. Then back home, lepakking and nagging the kids to prepare for school today.......

A bit long and late about our Raya story but hey....Syawal is one month kan?....Selamat Hari Raya to all of you...

Selamat Hari Raya

2009-09-18T07:01:00.003+08:00

To the Muslim visitors, Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir Batin.

The phone call and dangerous thing to do if you were fasting......

2009-09-07T05:30:00.005+08:00

Woke up by a phone call from my 2nd round slumber land at 9.30 am on Friday morning. When i looked at the caller ID, my heart beat faster. "Ahhhh...at last" told myself.....a bit excited but at the same time struggled to steady my voice from sounded groggy ha ha ha.....afraid ter-sound sexy pulak pasal terbangun tido tuh. " Naper tak update blog?" the caller's asked. Adoi lah....if the caller was near me, i might go berserk ha ha ha.....I was waiting for the call or at least an sms from the caller for the past few months and that was the question i got...hisssshhhh...sensing a warm feeling in my ears, i counted till 10, just to calm my self down...so friend sorry if you could feel a bit of my sarcasm in my tone/words that morning, but i was just a bit p**sed off with your "elegant silent" he he....you learned that trait from our beloved former PM very well. Apology my friend, i just could not help it but I was really glad you called........

I should had a lot to blog about as a lot of things happened to me in the month of August, like the birthday of my eldest boy( 1001 apology ya Abang and hope you understand why the lack of enthusiasm abt your 16th birthday, i will make it up to you soon ), thank God being the eldest and my closest confidante, he understood. August also was the month i started being a wife to a man 17 years ago. It was also in August that i joined the corporate world in 1990 and ended my service a few years ago which was in August too. Many more to write about but the mood was just not there. Reason being 3 of my siblings were in and out of the hospitals last month, my 2 brothers and a sister.
I was still ok when the brothers were admitted almost at the same time, but when one of them was re-admitted and followed by my sister near collapsed after breakfast in one of the shop near her house and was "ambulanced" to Ampang Hospital, i just felt so down. My sister had been taking medication for hypertension but after a bout of high fever, her blood pressure was so low she almost fainted. It was a good thing that her college going son was with her, she was not alone as everyone else was in the office. Though on medication , she was never hospitalized as far as i remember except of course when she delivered her only son. I send a teasing SMS to her that morning. When it was not replied after half and hour, i was curious. Just about i was to call her, the son called me crying and told me that the mum was in the ER. I froze for awhile. Then i picked myself up, send my boys to my in laws and called a friend to give me a ride to KTM station. I took the train to KL on that day...it was 5 years ago i last took a train ride. Alhamdullillah she is ok now, it was suspected the dreaded H1N1, but until today, we never get the test results...Whatever it is I am thankful that my sister is recovering well and so are the brothers.....

Fasting month order....Choc Moist Cupcakes with strawberry. This time it was quite tough for me to remember not to lick the choc ganache from my fingers ha ha ha....

Selamat Berbuka everyone...............

What a classic....

2009-08-20T17:13:00.009+08:00

see the back ground dancers he he....i sang this song with a band on a fren's birthday once upon a time ha ha ha....

What a song...

I was given a nick name of 'Katun Berjoget' because of this song .......maklang mid betul tak??

All ended well ...... so i thought

2009-08-16T15:04:00.000+08:00

My younger brother was discharged from HUKM last week, and now hes in the border of Thailand - Cambodia, getting goods for his Bundle businesses. So, hes doing just fine, Alhamdullillah....those who are into Bundle goodies, you can visit his store in Chow Kit and Danau Kota. If you need direction, feel free to contact me.

However, the older brother though he was discharged a day after the other brother from Ampang P**te*i , he was re-admitted 2 days ago. I pray he would be ok in a few days and would be able to start the Ramadhan with the family this coming Saturday. Since my dad passed on, this brother is our strenght and our point of reference.

I had one interesting order of cupcakes this week. Handed over the cuppies to the customers on Friday evening infront of KTM station. I just love to see her face expression when she saw the decorated cuppies. I really hope they enjoy looking and eating these cupcakes. When i was told of the theme, and send a few pictures of cupcakes for reference, i wondered if i could come up with the deco. So, i browsed the net but i didnt find the how to.....so i figured out myself he he...weather its the right way of doing it or not i am quite happy with the outcome.
This is chocolate cheesecake with chocolate ganache for engagement hantaran(gift).

Made local savory kuih karipap for tea last week.

The boys' favorite dish, Shrimp in serai sauce.

One of hubby favorite dish, Lemak Cili Api Telur itik with pucuk ubi and belimbing buluh......

Trying to be positive part 2 ......

2009-08-10T06:40:00.002+08:00

Apology as the sound of the title is a bit down. But thats how i am feeling from Saturday until now. The main reason for this was that 2 of my brothers were in hospital since that day, my coughing still persist and i vomited a few times yesterday. No worry, i went to see the doctor again, my 2nd time in 2 weeks. What making it worst is that Indah Water is doing their upgrading work around my area and the water supply is cut from 5 am until 6 pm everyday, even on weekends. From the board the work is expected to be completed only at the end of the year......haiiissssh what a stressful thoughts.

However, I am still thankful with the rezqi blessed by the Almighty, and it had been so long since i shared our dinner/lunch dishes here, below were our last night dinner. I only started cooking after 6 pm when the water supply came and only after washing all the dirty plates accumulated from the morning....yikesss. Simple dishes though.

French bean 'goreng bodo' ha ha ha.....bcoz its so simple.

Sambal belacan for the deep fried bawal goreng...
Ikan bilis and kentang berlado..............
Chocolate moist cake for my grandniece 3rd birthday in Cheras. FYI, i have 3 beautiful grand daughters.

A mix of orange and vanilla cupcakes for Lynn in Wangsa Maju.

Trying to be positive......

2009-08-06T11:29:00.003+08:00

I have been a bit under the weather since before my last posting. The stuffed nose and the coughing still persist, making me feel so uncomfortable being in an open area. People stare when i cough and saw my red nose. The kids were down last week but they are ok now...alhamdullillah. The weather is not helping. Though there was a heavy rain yesterday, still a thick haze covers Seremban until now.

Saw the news the other night where stock of sugar was running low. Its a common thing happens when Ramadhan is just around the corner. I am not surprised if the price will go up soon. My home consumption of sugar is quite minimum, the 2kg will last us almost a month. But i was wondering about those making our local kuih to cari makan.....

then reading the updates on H1N1 increasing death number.....

Last 2 weeks my next door neigbor's house was broken into in a broad daylight. When i think about how they ransacked the house while i was in my bedroom, groggy from the cough syrup and my boys were having their afternoon nap, it brought me a shiver .......

Beside taking all the precautions on the health hazards and the house security, the other options for people like us are only tawakkal and doas so that no untoward mishaps happen to our love ones......

As for the pictures,
Cheer up orange cupcakes with choc ganache topping ordered by a guy to a friend in PD. I thought it was sweet of him to do that.

A simple football field deco with MU edible images and fruit tartlets for a birthday party also in PD. Doing these at least stopped me from being stress up for a while ......

Travelling cakes....

2009-07-28T04:19:00.000+08:00

Latest update: Just as i was beginning to relax from heavy baking activities last few days, all my 3 boys started falling ill. First to go down was the youngest but now recovering, and the 2 abangs follow suit. Fever, cough and stuff noses....but thank God they are not whiners....i just monitor their temperature and ensure that the medicines are taken on time...

Since i started taking orders slightly more than a year ago, very often the orders came from outside Seremban. Most outstation orders were from KL, which is my hometown albeit the reason i took the orders. Most of the times, i did not charge for delivery fees but if there was no errands for me to do in KL on that particular delivery date, the fees was very mimimal. And if the order was above RM500.00, the delivery fees is waived.
My cakes have travelled the farthest to Kota Kinabalu, Kuantan and Kota Bharu and quite regularly to Melaka, Port Dickson and of course KL and towns around Seremban. To the Ks cities , the customer collected the cakes either in Seremban or KL, then the cakes travelled with them. The nearer towns, i would deliver the cakes personally. I would try to get the boys to tag along.

2000 pcs choc moist cupcakes for wedding favors were delivered to Port Dickson.

These 2 sets of engagement hantaran travelled to Melaka.
This simple mum and son edible image birthday cake was delivered to Tmn Ampangan Seremban.

The earlier posted pastel hantaran set traveled to Johor and Blue on white was delivered to KL....

Pastel engagement gifts of cupcakes....and a finding

2009-07-19T21:25:00.004+08:00

This week was a quite week for me as I only had one order to complete. The young lady said she would collect the engagement hantaran cupcakes on Friday, at first we agreed at noon but later i changed it to evening after office hour. Her first emailed came in with an attachment of a picture. She said she wanted something similar but with smaller flowers....i said ok....on Tuesday i made the tiny roses, blue, yellow and pink....which are not my favorite but i told myself...customer always right...i was quite apprehensive on how the hantaran would look like because they didn't look at all attractive standing individually with toothpicks on the white styrofoam.
However, after i assembled the flowers and put on the green leaves, they looked really sweet and i was quite please with the outcome. Delivered the cupcakes to the customer in Senawang on Friday and really glad to know that she liked them very much.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, i remembered that i was supposed to collect ribbons for my next project next week. The first time i went to the shop, it only had 2 rolls of the color that i wanted. He asked me to come back a few days later but i totally forgotten about it. However, when i went to the shop on Tuesday at 5.00 pm, it was already closed. As i passed by the shop next door, suddenly my eyes caught at the sight of a tea cup which made me entered the shop. But there was only one cup there....a girl came to me asking me something in Chinese(this happen to me all the time), i laughed and asked her if they have a few more of the same tea cup. I told her i want at least 6 preferably with the saucers. She came back smiling and i gave her my widest smile too....the cups have different size of flowers on the side, black and a bit of brownish tint....

Just a rambling.....

2009-07-14T23:24:00.009+08:00

Last Saturday morning started well enough . Baked the carrot cake, fruit cake and bases for fruit tartlets the night before. Started to decorate the hantaran cake after Suboh and the fondant was so co-operative, it was over in less than 2 hours. After rolling out the fondant and covered the cake, the fondant was so smooth it didn't need much 'stroking' with the smoother. Then i did the ultaraman kenek cake....the mum asked me to write that...so cute. I took a rest for awhile then packed the cakes and tartlet bases and the fruits to be delivered to Setiawangsa in the evening. But before that, i had a 'khenduri' to attend to at my cousin's house in near Ulu Yam.
We left for KL just after 12.00 pm, dropped the cakes and all at my sisters'. Both my sisters went to the kenduri with us. Met most of the relatives whom we last saw was during last Hari Raya. Assisted the cousins cutting some watermelons. Wanted to check missed calls or sms on the handphone, but the phone was missing. I asked my boy to call my number but the phone was already dead.....haissssshhhh....dalam handbag pun hilang....my heart sank a bit when thinking about how to contact the customer who ordered the cakes.....putting up a cheery face, i continued mingling with the people as i didnt want my to feel bad about my lost. Deep down in my heart i was wondering how i was to deliver the cakes and the tartlets as i couldnt contact the customer. We went back to my sisters' place and assembled the tartlets....looked up the old emails from the customer for her phone number and thank God the numbers were in one of the old emails. Quickly i called her and got the direction to the place where i was supposed to deliver the cakes. Felt so relieved the moments i handed over the cakes and the fruit tarts....

Soft blue on white hantaran for a wedding .......
For a 3 year old boy...

Birthday of a sister and an aunt

Fruit tartlets....

A simple hantaran for a wedding
A minimalist deco for a guy birthday...
Orange butter cupcakes before make up...

Report card day and a pencil case......

2009-07-09T13:38:00.005+08:00

I just had a report card day with my eldest son's teacher just now. I had done it with my 2 younger boys' teachers last week. My Angah did worst than the first test but my Baby did so bad, i felt like whacking him with the report card. As usual my eldest, did alright, not excellent but he improved so much from the first test. On the way home, my mind wondered to when i was the boys age. No parents - teacher meeting like this was done. If there was my dad being a policeman would not be able to make it and my mum being illiterate herself would not be comfortable going to the school. I never had any tuition. But my siblings and i had to arrange our school bags on the dining table so that when my dad came home, he would scrutinized our exercise books and initialed the last page siap tulis the date. Some of my teachers would ask about it but a few who had taught my older siblings would know. The only times the teachers would see my parents would be on 'Hari Penyampaian Hadiah' which was once a year or if i did so badly in the exams. If not, the saying of No news is good news was being faithfully observed he he.....
What i noticed lacking nowadays were the lackadaisical attitude from most teachers( pls ya.. not all). They do not know how to get the children interested in the subjects that they are teaching. Hence, the mushrooming of tuition centers everywhere. The last enthusiastic group of teachers that i met was when the boys were in nursery. During my school days, the teaching in school plus the homeworks given were enough for most student to excel during the exams. At times, i really wish i can afford a private school for my boys. However, no point pondering so much about this, i just try to do the best for the boys.

Talking about the boys, my eldest is a fussy one, just like the father. To get a pencil case for him also can be very challenging. Until i remember my blogger friend Ummi65. Visit her here for more beautiful works that she had done. I requested from her on Monday and i received the case on Tuesday.....what a service! Thanks Ummi, I love it, he likes it....he said kalau yg nih dah rosak, he wants all Black punya he he......

Paint ball anyone??.....

2009-07-06T18:36:00.004+08:00

On last 2 Saturday, hubby's office had a paint ball competition amongst the staff. However, a few people couldnt make it, they got the staff's children to join. Hence, my 2nd boy was in one of the team. His team won the competition but the father's team didnt make it to the final. Since i was not there, lets the picture tell the story.....
Strategizing......
The team to be reckoned with.....
With the winning cups....
Proudly sitting on his desk now
The father goofing around....not sure before or after the games....

Go fly kite......

2009-07-02T14:36:00.006+08:00

Last Friday, the moment my youngest entered the car when i fetched him at school, after the 'cepu mas' question(kita makan apa hari ni Ma?)...the conversation went something like this....

Baby: Ma...u tau buat kite tak?
Me: Whatt???
Baby: Alaa....layang2...
Me: I know la kite tu layang2...hmmm(now what?)
Me: Naper?
Baby: Kawan Baby pandai buat layang2...
Me: How u know?
Baby: Dia cakap
Me: Yer ker?? lawa tak? so dia buat layang2 bagus lah
Baby: Baby nak buat jugak tapi tak tau...mama pandai buat tak?
Me: Tau but esok mama ada nak buat cake...Sunday bole?( was thinking to let this slip by or get the father to tackle this request)
Baby: Ok...Sunday ya Ma...he smiled until I felt like pinching his deep dimple.

The same night,
Me: Your son asked me to make kite for him...
HB: Buat lah...
The respond made my ears hot...i just left it like that....

Saturday evening, i was asked when i was going to get the 'lidi' for the kite...i was annoyed as i was on my feet the whole day, i abruptly told him to wait until the next day....feeling guilty but i needed to finish baking.

Sunday afternoon after lunch, while cleaning up the kitchen he asked again. I got him to get a piece of paper and a pencil and showed him how to construct the kite....told him to get started by washing 1 or 2 'lidi penyapu'....20 mins later he came into the kitchen with the 'muka kesian' i didnt have the heart to send him away although the kitchen was still a mess. I made the kite while he just stared at my hands working. When it was completed, he was so excited, I felt a lump in my throat. With my kitchen tshirt and Asoh pants, we went out on the street to fly the kite....surprisingly the kite went up but the 'tali' stucked to the TNB cable ha ha ha....Suddenly i remember a park in Sban 2 where many people play kites there. I changed and the HB asked where i was going....told him about the park and he was game to go, when my 2nd boy saw us getting into the car, he hopped in too.
When Baby saw the nice kites selling at that park, he asked me to carry his mum's masterpiece ha ha ha...yet he tried hard to fly the kite after i taught him how to do it...the kite went up but due to the 'lidi', it didn't stay up very long....HB bought one kite for him and he was beaming when the kite went up so high in the sky. I left my masterpiece under a tree. Like us, i saw most of the parents had to fly the kite first then only gave the end of the string to the children. As i was commented about that i saw a young couple struggling to fly their kite and the son was crying away....I went to them and showed them how its done, they told me that was their first kite flying......said to myself ...Gosh..and i scolded my boys for not knowing how to do that earlier he he...sorry boys...
what touched me at the end of the kite flying session, Baby suddenly remembered my masterpiece and he went around the field looking for it. He came to me with a very sad face telling me he couldn't find the kite...told him someone might had dumped it in the dustbin and told him it was ok....We had ice-cream after that and headed home....

Terror tak i???.....

Baby with my masterpiece.... After he got the hang of the art of flying a kite
Angah in action

Stressed!!....

2009-06-28T12:15:00.009+08:00

Last Monday i was telling myself that my kitchen would be very quite last week. The only confirmed order was wedding favors for a few hundreds of assorted muffins to be delivered on Saturday. Then later that evening an sms came inquiring about my cheese blueberry tartlets, the girl wanted them on Saturday and to be delivered to Kuala Pilah and i told her I was not free to deliver. She changed the delivery to Friday. I said ok. She paid me online just an hour later after the sms. Alhamdullillah.....
Tuesday, a call came in asking if i could make a birthday cake for Saturday do. I said only a simple deco cake and she had to collect the cake from my house. On Wed night she and the daughter came to the house to talk more about the cake. I was very nervous as from the discussion, the party was going to be a grand one. I told her that i couldnt spend too long on the deco, simple sweet deco suitable for a 3 years old was ok, and she agree. I was relief but she added with 150 pcs of fruit tarts. After she left that night i was doing mental scheduling for my baking and slept soundly as i felt God is very generous to me.....
However, on Friday after making the tartlets dough and pressed it in the individual molds, the tap went dry. Holy...sh*t...my plan went into the drain....after fetching the boys from school, baked the tartlets and delivered them to Kuala Pilah in the evening. I went with a friend and there we found one kopitiam serving nasi campur and i had a mean assam pedas kepala tenggiri....
Coming home from KP, the tap was still dry. I was worried, but i didn't panic. The water only came around 8 in the evening. I baked the 3 kg cake, while waiting i made the fruit tartlets dough and pressed. For 150 pcs i had to make 2 recipes of the dough. By the time i baked the tartlets bases, the time was already showing 2.00 am. I went to sleep as i knew that i was going to be on my feet the whole of next day. True enough....i woke up, send my hubby and angah to KTM station at 7.00 am and i started to deco the cake, i am not good at butter cream deco, this simple pink deco took me more than 2 hours to finish....then made the custard for the tartlets. Had brunch with my youngest boy. Started to cut the fruits for the tartlets, assembled them and sms the customer once done. After they left with the cake and tartlets, i took half hour rest. And i forgot to take the picture of the tartlets..btw, i had too many pictures of it anyway...

Then i started baking the muffins, packed them and only leave Seremban to Klang at almost 6.00 in the evening and that too i forgot to take the pictures he he.....

This and that......

2009-06-24T18:56:00.003+08:00

This entry is long overdue. Before i started typing the story, i saw the message on the lost siblings. I did an entry for that and i had no mood to continue with this one after that. I kept on checking the email for the latest status and this morning(24June), i heard the children were safe. I was so happy.
I usually wake up around 5.30 in the morning, send hubby to the bus terminal at 6.00, came back, wake the boys up and send them to school at 7.00. Depending on the mood or the condition of the house, i would either start doing the housework or i continue my slumber he he....and this morning i slept and woke up again at 9.00....first thing i did was on the lappy, had a shower then checked the email. Saw the good news, updated the previous entry and went out to Seremban town for breakfast. For a very odd reason, after the breakfast i went to this shop along Singapore Street ( not sure whats the new name)....and wallaa i saw these gems in between the dusty plain white dinner wares....after some bargaining, i was a happy gurl carrying a box into my car.

This fried behoon was our dinner on the Father's Day evening. Requested by the father.

Birthday cupcakes collected by the Raeff's mum on Friday evening with the muffins, Banana Choc Chips and Strawberry Jam Muffins...Now its the in thing to have edible images on the cupcakes or cake.

Delivered this Choc Crumble cheese cake to Putrajaya with the books below. Putrajaya is surely a quite place on weekend.

Help to find these missing children..........Found

2009-06-23T14:04:00.008+08:00

Update: Alhamdullillah...anak2 ini telah di jumpai. I dont have the details but i am just relief everything is fine. Thank you all.....and thank you God.

Nadia Natasha 8 tahun dan Ahmad Zakry 10 tahun, telah hilang dari rumah di Sri Putramas, Jalan Kuching, KL pada 22 Jun 2009. Kali terakhir dilihat pada jam 7malam 22 Jun. Sebarang info sila hubungi Puan Miza di 013-345 5661. Terima kasih.

Nadia Natasha 8 yrs and Ahmad Zakry 10 yrs were missing since 22nd June 2009, last saw at Sri Putramas, Jalan Kuching, KL at 7pm. Please call Puan Miza at 013-345 5661 if you have any information. Thank you.

p/o
Semoga anak2 ini selamat dan kembali ke pangkuan ayah dan ibu mereka....

My Angah....a guitarist in the making??

2009-06-19T23:57:00.005+08:00

My hubby gave his old guitar to my 2nd boy. The guitar is more than 20 years old. So far the enthusiasm is still there so whenever he feels bored or nothing to watch on tv, he will strums quietly in his room or shows off a little that he know to me.....anyone can guess what song he was playing?? First to give right answer will get nice cheese cupcakes the next time we meet .....enjoy the clip

What happened on last weekend of school holidays...

2009-06-15T12:50:00.009+08:00

The house feels so quite. All the 3 boys are in school. Last Wednesday hubby bought a few working shirts in Sogo but when he came back he just noticed how shiny one of the shirt was. He decided to change it and i told him to do it on Friday as i was so wanted to go the Sogo area after Mrs. N's posting of Jalan2 Masjid India here.

In spite of one cupcakes order for hantaran due on Friday, I told hubby i would fetch him from work and we would go to Sogo after that. So, early Friday morning after sending hubby to the bus stand, i baked the chocolate cupcakes. I let them cooled off half an hour later while i blogs hopping. When the boys woke up, went to have breakfast of roti canai and tose. Came home and started to deco the cuppies. Put on the fondant top on all 25 as ordered. The cut offs flowers were done the night before, so were the hearts. As the clock showed 12.45 pm, took a break by sending the boys to the mosque for their Friday prayers...they could cyle, but it was a hot day. Furthermore, i love the cendol selling in front of the masjid. I dropped them off and my Angah bought the cendol and i went home. Continued to decorate the cupcakes, and just finished when my Angah called saying they were done. The Abang wanted to walk home but i told them i would fetch them.
The customer collected the cupcakes at 3.30 pm beside Giant behind my house and the boys and i left for KL right after that. I took my time driving along the Sban - KL highway as hubby only finish at 5.30. Still, we arrived his office a good half hour earlier we just yakked and waited for him in the car. Hubby drove to Sogo as hes more familiar with the roads around his office to avoid Friday evening notorious traffic. I remembered from one article about shopping is best done with a full stomach, i told the whole gang to have early dinner at Insaf then shopped. The place was half full and we ate beriani rice and chicken for the boys, i ate beef with hubby. Then i shopped at Jakel as the boys and hubby went to Sogo. I had not bought material for baju kurung for so long, i really have lost touch in choosing the nice ones. Hope i made a right choice he he...then i went to Sogo's supermarket to get ingredients for my tartlets demo class on Saturday morning. I got strawberry, oranges, kiwi, tuna and a few others, and waited around there for the boys to finish shopping with the father.

Saturday morning, woke up at 4.00 am, baked the tartlet bases and cupcakes for a birthday do. While waiting for the cuppies to bake, i cut the edible images of so cute Hanna. When the cuppies cool down, decorated them with the images. As i was cleaning up the mess and getting ready to go to Amore for the class, my sister and the husband came from Pilah. They made me late going and i felt so guilty toward the participants of the demo session. 1001 apology to you all.
Below are the pictures of the demo session at Amore-eBake in Oakland Seremban 2( i copied from Amore blogspot here). But i did need their hands to finish the bases of tartlets or else the session would take the whole day. I enjoyed sharing the knowledge with them and they were a very inquisitive lot. They asked a lot of questions which i find it enlightening. It was quite an interactive session. I have to thank the owner of Amore, the kind and gracious lady Puan Nur Adriana for inviting me to do the demo in her shop. I hope i will do this again soon.

After the demo, with Puan Nur assistance, i had to assemble an order of 2 boxes of fruit tartlets which i needed to send together with the birthday cuppies to Paroi Jaya at 3.00 pm. Thanks again Nur and after that off i went home, collected the cuppies and with hubby we went to look for the house. The cuppies and tartlets were handed over in a heavy rain. Went home after that, took a shower and had a 15 minutes nap. Woke up and paid a visit to my hubby's aunt and uncle who just safely home from the Holy Land for an Ummrah. At 6.45pm, we rushed to Kolej Mara to fetch my niece who attended a seminar for PMR students. She stayed with us that night and i send her back to the Kolej at 7.30 am on Sunday. Her parents fetch her home later in the evening. It was a leisure Sunday all the way after that.

Something to share.......

2009-06-10T16:42:00.001+08:00

The guy in the picture is my older brother. Since my dad passing, this brother is the one who sort of 'looking' after us the rest of the siblings. I had not seen him and his family for so long, i had dream about him a few weeks ago. Been wanting to go for a visit since, but i only managed to see him and family in Bkt Beruntung last Sunday. I was shocked to see that he had lost so much weight. He is having problem with a back ache from a slip disc. I almost cried when i saw him, didn't know that i missed him that much.
When we reached the house, my sisters from Kg Pandan were already there with my niece and her 3 daughters, the youngest is only 4 months old. I was very glad i made this trip. While sitting down quitely at the passenger side on the way home in the evening, my mind went to one day in the 70s, just before my late dad was transferred back to Kuala Lumpur from Kota Bharu. I was maybe 10 years old and this brother of mine maybe in form 1, he came home after maghrib after playing soccer. He was laughing when he entered the house and whammmm...he got a loud spanking from my dad for being home late. I may not agree with my dad's way of disciplining us when we were kids, but now when i saw young boys and girls loitering around shopping complexes, or at the side of the road at night or late evenings, i just wonder if parents nowadays are so lack in making sure the kids' safety. I maybe wrong, but with so many children being raped, kidnapped and others, maybe my dad's way was right after all....

Enough of a very serious topic, before the trip to Bkt Beruntung on Sunday, this cute cuppies set was send to someone near Senawang on Thursday.
This white with red hearts topping on 1kg butter cake, was collected infront of KTM station on Friday.

The green decorated cupcakes and plain ones in plastic were send to Chabau in Melaka on Saturday. I made a huge mistake on this order and i hope i could make it up to the person soon. Please accept my sincere apology. I am going to discountinue accepting large order for this plastic casing at its very difficult to handle. Lastly, this set was delivered to Tampin on Saturday night. Green seems to be the popular theme color this time.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that......

2009-06-03T20:22:00.006+08:00

Last week on Thursday evening, i was on the MRR2 driving to hubby's office to deliver the lovely fruit tartlets. Then hanged out at one of the mamak shop with my boys while waiting for hubby to finish work at 5.45 pm. Had teh tarik while the boys ate roti canai and my eldest had rice as he had not taken his lunch after he finished school.When hubby came to the shop, he had his teh and we left for Jalan Raja Laut to deliver blueberry cheesecake and chocolate moist cake. We got stuck in the after office traffic and hubby was swearing under his breath he he....

Then we went to Kajang to deliver this Wedding gift and tried the new highway "LEKAS" to go back to Seremban. However, the highway ended at Mantin and we used the old road to Seremban from Mantin. On the way, we found a nice Tom Yam Restaurant and had our dinner there. On Friday, i baked 1 set of cupcakes and 2 big cakes. The cupcakes were send to Senawang on Saturday morning as an engagement gift.

After coming home from Senawang, i did Liverpool cake. The cake was collected quite late in the evening.
Then I covered this cake with cream fondant and arranged the sugarpaste flowers on top. Delivered the cake to Panchor for an engagement gift also.

I rested awhile after coming home from Panchor and then i baked 4 big cakes. Started to decorate and stack this 3 tier cake from 8 until almost 12.00 am. Delivered this cake for a wedding reception in Lukut, Port Dickson on Sunday morning. Decorated this butter cake with butter cream and sugar paste flowers on Sunday morning after Suboh. After coming home from PD, woke the boys up and we headed to Kuala Lumpur. Handed over the cake near the Ampang Tesco then we headed to Karak Highway to go to Cherating.

We were in Cherating until yesterday evening. I didnt do much for this trip. Hubby and the children did the packing and i did mine only on Sunday morning itself. I just lazed around in the hotel room, while hubby entertained the boys at the pool, at the beach and around the resorts area for whatever activities that the boys did. So thankful to dear hubby for being so wonderful....Isnt God is Great??

Cendol oh cendol.....

2009-05-24T15:51:00.004+08:00

I posted my first posting here in June 2007. This blog is almost 2 years old. However, this posting is nothing to do with the blog anniversary, just that after reading my son's latest entry here, i tried to remember what was my maiden entry about . Of course its about food, i just couldn't remember what. My dad and my mum were a very good cooks. A bit about my dad here. His was the steam white pomfret, sambal ikan bilis garing and a few others and mum with everything else. And us being young, none of us like to be in the kitchen, but dad and mum being an old school parents, made sure we started in the kitchen early.....its turned out that all my siblings are reasonably good cooks now, girls or boys....As much as we enjoyed home cooked meal , my dad and mum loved to drive around KL city and nearby states, just to eat nice satay along Peel Road, chicken rice in PJ Oldtown, ikan bakar in Serkam Malacca and etc..etc and of course the ever famous chendol and rojak mamak. I remembered going to Melawati area, along now MRR2, beside a nursery, there was a nice place to have cendol and mamak rojak in a hot day such as today. The stall was under a huge tree. I wonder wheres the mamak now.

Just now, we had cendol and rojak at one corner shop in Seremban town, and so far i feel that place has the best cendol . We were so surprised to see how packed the place was and we had to wait for a good 10 minutes for an empty table. I remember when we first discovered this place not too long ago, the mamak was staring to the wall blankly and the workers were trying hard to stay awake after serving cendol to us. Now business is thriving for him, he could only waved politely to us(if not he would come and chit chat with us )....

Searching for good cendol brought us to Sg Gadut one day. I passed that place once, but it was closed. I read and saw how crowded the place was when i blog hopped a few months ago. I asked dear hubby to go there and hoping we would have nice cendol......but how disappointed i was. Before tasting the cendol , i was already turned off when it came in with 'ketulan' air batu not shaved ice. And when i took a sip, i told myself how on earth would people queuing to eat that cendol, and hubby with his broad smile replied to me. They gave free refills maa.....in short all you can eat cendol ....ha ha ha....so that was i think the first and the last of me going for cendol there.....
The cendol and rojak i had just now.....yummmmehhh
My only order for this week, from a gentleman for his girlfriend's birthday.....

Wedding, wedding and wedding......

2009-05-16T22:51:00.005+08:00

I finished baking wedding favors at 5.00 pm just now. The wedding is tomorrow. All 1000 pieces of the cupcakes in its individual casing. Its vanilla butter cakes.Yesterday, a fellow blogger whose kampung is in Kuala Pilah collected her orders of fondant cupcakes and cake for the brother's wedding hantaran. She wanted the most requested cake which is chocolate moist cake. When i received her email with 2 pictures of cakes attached as samples, at first i thought to decline her request. At first glance, i knew the bakers of the cakes. They are so good in their craft, i felt like a minnow whenever i made my silence visit to their websites. But, as a good friend told me rezeki jangan di tolak, bala jangan dicari, and for a challenge, i accepted the order. I just hope shes not disappointed with the outcomes.

My Mother's Day Sunday....woossshhh

2009-05-11T11:54:00.004+08:00

My oven would start working overtime usually on Thursdays. Many people nowadays having their kenduri feast on Saturdays and Sundays would be time to cleaning up and resting before resuming work on Monday. I think thats the good thing about 5 days-week working as compared to a few years ago when it was 5 and 1/2 day. Last Thursday, i started baking cupcakes for a 'berzanji' near my mum in law's place. Halfway through, the electricity was out and my cupcakes were 'terbantat'.....resumed 3 hours later and due to the kelam kabutness, i forgot to snap pictures of the berzanji cakes. The tartlets was made on Friday morning. Then, i baked and decorated hantaran cup cakes which i called "Pink fantasy III" as it was the 3rd time i deco similar pink ribbons roses. While waiting for the hantaran cupcakes to be collected on Friday noon, i baked choc moist cake for aqiqah function, 2 birthday cakes and 20 pieces of cupcakes for birthday which both occasion were on Saturday. Send the choc moist on Friday evening, and the birthday cakes with edible images of 2 very cute brother and sister on Saturday afternoon in Senawang after attended a wedding at the MPS Hall in Seremban town.
I made simple Mother's Day cuppies and one fondant cake for hantaran in the evening. At 7.30 Sunday morning, i delivered the cupcakes, and went to Gombak KL with the hantaran cake for my hubby's cousin nikah ceremony. The ceremony was held in Bentong at noon....under the scorching sun. Because of the heat, my family and i did not really enjoy the food. We felt we were eating in the sauna he he.....We drove straight back to Seremban from Bentong, and reached home sweet home just after 4.00. Had a very long nap, almost near the maghrib time...Remembering that the kitchen ration was almost empty, we headed to Gi*nt in Senawang for groceries shopping. Back in the house just after 9.00 pm, i felt so exhausted despite the long nap earlier. Thats how my Mother's Day Sunday flew by.....i hope most of you had a better mother's day with the love ones, but hey...i am not complaining coz the kids and the father, have a way of making me feel i have a mother's day almost everyday, Day in day out......so now enjoy the pictures.....

the simple deco of choc moist cake
Pink fantasy III, its was orange butter cake
Fruit tartlets

Birthday cakes and cuppies....cute kids they are....flavors of the cakes were , choc choc chips, orange cake ( i termimpi2 abt the kids, coz byk sgt trimming the edible pictures he he.....)

Mother's Day cupcakes send to Paroi Jaya

The hantaran cake

To all mothers......

2009-05-09T20:04:00.001+08:00

Happy Mothers' Day / Selamat Hari Ibu to all mothers........

Cakes - the stories behind them.....

2009-05-03T20:42:00.007+08:00

I received an email asking to do a heart shaped hantaran for an engagement for a cousin. This was the third order from the same young lady. She attached a picture of what she had in mind or maybe the cousin's(?).....when i saw the picture, i told her the design was simple to follow but i prefer not to make an exact duplicate fearing of some bakers who would scream on the net when they 'think' that someone copied their masterpiece...and i did not fancy the colors combination of the cake in the picture. I believe that colors combination is important in cake decorating as it can make a simple decorated cake looks beautiful and pretty. This is my personal feeling on cake decoration, and i am not against elaborated designed cakes, purely customer choice. When i shared with her my personal preferences, the girl left the deco to me but insisted on the red swirls and also to have the names on the cake. She was happy with the cake but told me if there were tiny green leaves at the side of the red swirls, the cake would be more 'berseri'.... (told her i take a note on that)....this cake was delivered to KL last Thursday evening.
For this pink and cream fondant cake too, i received the order through the email. This was also and engagement gift. And 2 pictures were attached with the email. She said something similar but no roses flowers. When i got the flowers from the shop, i could only see the daisies and the white small flowers in the box. Apparently the roses were neatly hiding behind the sponge in the box. Not to waste, i decided to just use them and praying hard she wont be upset. I delivered this cake on Friday evening, did not get to meet her as she was not at home. When i received her sms saying, "Cake tuh cantik sangat, terima kasih Puan Zaiton' ....i was relief....2 things would always stuck to my head on this order was, she was the first customer who called me Puan and 2ndly, we never got to talk even over the phone......however my sincere thank for the order and semoga pertunangan berkekalan hingga ke jinjang pelamin. That goes to Awie and Ida too.

Pink fantasy II i called this cupcakes as this is the 2nd time i made similar design. These cuppies were send to Putrajaya on Saturday morning. They were for a birthday bash for a group of beautiful ladies whom all hit the fabulous 40 this year....The names on the cuppies are edible and so if anyone interested to have something like this, you have to give me at least 2 weeks notice( customized edible print)...

The last and not least, i made this 2 roman tier cake for my Wilton 3 course later that Saturday evening. After coming home from Putrajaya, i iced the cakes thinly with buttercream, painstakingly looked everywhere for the tools and things to bring to the class and at 1.45 pm, i was at the Amore for the course. Though i had planned of a different design of cake before, but i was so tired, i decided a simple deco would be enough. I had never done this kind of tier cake before and i was very happy with the result. Its rather simple but i managed to cover the cake very fast and yet the fondant was very smooth.
Finish the course just after 6.30, i went home so tired but i was very happy. I enjoyed every minutes i spend on each cake and hope i would be making more pretty cakes ahead.

What a Monday and a trip to Nilai and Bangi on Sunday.....

2009-04-27T08:14:00.007+08:00

It was a hot Monday morning. Since being a full time staying home mum in August 2007, i seldom had blue Monday mornings he he....However, yesterday was not only blue, it was one of those days when everything seemed to work against me. Planning to get some baking stuff from Amore, my 2nd boy and i headed to Oakland, Seremban 2(not in the US ok...) to have breakfast. While driving, suddenly the radio went dead....oooo sh*t i said out loud...lucky the boy had the earphone on ....... then i saw the clock were very dim. I tapped the boy and said the car battery was going to die on us soon....afraid if i turned off the engine i wouldn't be able to start the car, i told him to pack the breakfast. I shifted the gear to 'parked' and waited for him. He came back after about 10 minutes, and i could not move the gear at all. Then we had the packed breakfast in the shop and walked to Amore.....The Amore owner, Nor, called the nearby workshop to change the battery and she was so kind to borrow me the RM as i am not in the habit of carrying so much RM in my purse.
While waiting, my handphone battery went dead....aiya ya.....the time was almost 12 and Nor asked me to drive her car to send my son home as he had to go to school. He is in the afternoon session. I drove her Avanza home, and after dropping off my boy, i went to the nearest ATM machine at the Gi*nt, but the machine was Out of Service, went to nearby Petronas, the machine was down too and drove further and again down......i got the RM on my 4th attempts at different machines. I drove back to Oakland and saw my car at the same spot, not send to Amore as agreed. Called the shop, i was told that it was not the battery, its the alternator, it cost a bomb and must be ordered from KL. The earliest it could be fixed was the next day....adoooiiii....Called my niece to fetch me and she came with my FIL. Both of them were not familiar with the area, i had to walk about 2km to meet them.....I was so dead tired, the dinner was at the nearest Tom Yam shop....
Compared to Monday, Sunday was nice. Woke up in the morning, had breakfast of not so nice nasi lemak with hubby. (At that time siap berangan nak buka gerai nasi lemak pulak he he). Didn't pack any food for the kids, as we planned to have early lunch in Bangi, after sending a wedding cake and cupcakes in Nilai. We left for Nilai at 10.30 and was there so early. The bride mum insisted we stayed for the makan but the caterer was not ready. We stayed on for the makan, but felt so out of place as we were not 'properly' dressed for the occasion. After the pengantin came and sat on the dais, we left for Bangi. I went to a bakery shop there, but the boys and the father decided to buy a little rabbit. My eldest son's account of the trip is here. Then we lepakked in San Francisco Pizza and ate, Brushetta with mushroom and white sauce and nachos....yummehhh....
The wabbit...........
The empty plates and glasses and basket......
The cake and the cupcakes ( apology as the pics were so blur....nice rossettes from nozzle wilton recommended by ChiQueCakes)
The beautiful dais
The handsome couple.....

Fruit tartlets to KL and good news??......

2009-04-24T06:40:00.007+08:00

These fruits tartlets was ordered by a pretty girl who requested a basketweave fondant cake from me for her engagement, the cake is here. As usual, i would make the best out of the trip, beside fetching dear hubby from the office, i did a tour to USJ for some business deal. So, now cupcakes bakers in Seremban can have nice and secure boxes for the little cakes. Edible image for children cakes also available. Feel free to browse here , for details.

I have also agreed with the owner of Amore-eBake to teach a few things there. Hopefully, in June and the first one would be a few types of tartlets. So, anyone interested please shoot me an email or contact Amore directly. Hope to see one or two of you there soon....

Baked Cheese and macaroni recipe and future projects.....

2009-04-21T16:57:00.006+08:00

Since last Saturday, i am in the 'making flowers mode'. It for future projects and the flowers need to be nicely dried....some of the flowers are so tini-tiny, I wonder where does my patience come from as i used to have a bad temper before. Now, this kind of thing is therapeutic to me. I have yet to yell at the boys since...amazing ya...wait for my completed project in a coming week......A few requests i received for my baked macaroni and cheese from my last entry. So here goes the recipe....please note that this is not an exact science , therefore the ingredients can be tailored to your own taste bud....this recipe is just for your guide....Remember 'Chef At Home' words ' Best recipe is no recipe ' .....

I used,

300 gms macaroni- boiled aldente
300 gms mince beef - (Ramly)
5 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 yellow big onion - chopped
1 can La Doria - water
1 small can tomato paste ( a few brand available at Giant) - water
1 tbs dried oregano ( you can get this cheaper in bakery shop)
1 tbs coarse blackpepper
1 small carrot - diced
1/4 small head of cauliflower - diced
1 bell pepper - diced
1/2 of small head of brocolli - diced
1 can of button mushroom - sliced
4 tbs olive oil
salt to taste
100gms shredded cheddar cheese
200gms shredded mozzarella

Pour the oil in the lightly preheated pot, put in chopped onion and garlic(olive oil is easily burn, so you do not need to heat it up). Stir until fragrance, abt 2- 3 minutes. Add in the minced beef, stir for a few minutes then pour in the tomato and tomato paste, fill up the 2 cans with water and add the water in, mash the tomato with potato masher or mash it with fork before putting the tomato in the pot. Let it simmer for a few minutes, put all the vegetables in...let it simmer until it become a thick sauce and add in the macaroni, stir well and add in the oregano, black pepper and coarse salt to taste. Stir and off the fire. Let it cool for abt 10 minutes, then spread the macaroni mixture in a casserole dish evenly, mine was 9x12in. Top the mixture with the cheeses, and bake in a preheated oven of 200C for 15 - 20 or until the cheese melted and brown a bit and look so gorgeous you cant stand to just stare at them in the oven.....buttttt plssssss be careful the glass dish will be so hot and so are the cheeses.......Enjoy but dont burnt your tounge...

p/s

Without the pasta, beef and the vege, this sauce is also yummy for the pizza....

Birthday lunch at home and a birthday cake to Fahmi in Sban 2....

2009-04-14T15:25:00.002+08:00

As cakes are common sight in my kitchen, before i bake one for anyone birthday in the house, i have no choice but to ask what cake they prefer to eat. As for my 2nd boy's birthday which we had pizza to celebrate the occasion, the father said no cakes too for his. But when asked what to have for lunch, he said whatever....haisssshhh.....
We are not the type who goes all out for birthdays, but as the only gal in the house, i like to have something different to mark the special day. I decided a baked macaroni and cheese should be a nice change for lunch on Sunday. 12th April was my hubby birth date. Mind you, it was 12 x 9in casserole dish that i used, but the entire thing gone in a jiffy. I also made garlic bread to go with this but i forgot to take the picture.

On Monday, I delivered this simple Choc Butter Cake with chocolate ganache topping and the Sponge Bob edible image to Seremban 2 for an 8 year old boy's birthday. The chocolate ganache was so beautiful, my heart ached when i pasted the image on top. Now i know how to get the ganache shiny or matte.

RayBan sunglasses and simple decorated cakes .....

2009-04-12T13:04:00.000+08:00

I was a bit surprised when my sister told me she had started blogging. I know she reads Tun M, Rocky, mine and most blogs on my blogroll, but i never thought she would start a blog of her own. I read her maiden posting about RayBan sunglasses, they are my favorite. Being a faithful wearer of that brand since started using sun glasses. See her takes here

Me and my Ray Ban...taken this picture quite a long time ago....i was stuck in the bad jam going home from office on one of those working Saturdays ....got bored and self snapped the picture...

The cakes above were chocolate moist and Vanilla Buttercake, simple deco requested by someone who ate a wedding cake i made because she loves the butter icing. I hope she likes the cakes too .....
This mix flavor set was for someone at Time Building along Jalan Tun Razak, she requested for cupcakes awhile ago but gotta canceled as the supposedly working trip to Nilai was postponed.

This set was ordered by a wedding planner in Wangsa Maju, KL. She told me she heard good feedbacks on my cakes and wanted some to taste.

The box for the cupcakes.

Theres always a first time for everything.......

2009-04-06T03:40:00.001+08:00

When i closed the dates of 1st - 4th April in Dec last year, the order was for only 1000 pieces of muffin/cupcakes for the wedding on the 5th, last Sunday. Then after the first Makcik Blogger do in Concord, i received a request from one of the blogger for birthday cuppies and a cake for her daughter in one of the boarding school here in Seremban. So i thought i could not accept more request for these dates. However, a few weeks ago, the girl who asked for the wedding favors, requested if i could make a 2 level stacked chocolate cake....whattttt?? First of all , i have yet to make stacked cake....and i wonder if could do it. After browsing the net, reading a book and some guide and encouragement from a fellow baker in Penang, i said yes to the request.

I was a nervous wreck though a few days before starting to bake last week. What with that time of the month and the moods swung left and right, i only started baking on Friday morning with the many breaks of being a driver to the kids and hubby .....I stopped baking the favors just before Maghrib and baked the birthday and wedding cakes after that. Then continued with the favors again. Only had less than 2 hours of sleep. Started to stack and deco the cakes and birthday cupcakes after Suboh on Saturday morning. In spite of dup...dap...dup...dap while stacking the cakes, i was quite please with the outcome. A simple chocolate moist cake with ganache and a set of cupcakes of the same flavor for the birthday girl. Hubby and I send them just after 11.00 am. Then I continued baking the favors until 4.00 pm, my husband and I arrived Kuang almost at 7.00 pm to deliver the favors and the cake. We were late as the highway was jammed due to an accident just after the Seremban R&R. I met the girl for the first time and her new husband. They are a very good looking young couple and the husband was very kind to show us the nearest way out to Tasik Puteri, as we were going to visit a cousin who had just gave birth.

One thing i must say , i am very thankful to have a very understanding boys and husband as they were the ones who assisted me with the packing and boxing the cupcakes. I feel so blessed and alhamdullillah .....i hope the newly wed and their guests enjoyed the cakes and the birthday girl too....we were back in Seremban just before midnight and i slept like a log till Sunday morning. I planned to see the Talentime with my dear friend Zay on Sunday but the timing for the 2 shows were just out.....one was at 11 am and the other one was at 6.45 pm.

The 2 stacked cakes..........

The birthday cupcakes and 1 kg choc cake

The messy table and favors all over the place he he....

Pink and purple....and everything nice

2009-03-30T22:19:00.010+08:00

"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"

What we did last weekend....

2009-03-23T20:32:00.008+08:00

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...

One to Kuching and one to Kuantan....

2009-03-19T15:37:00.004+08:00

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.....

Just wanna share.....

2009-03-14T14:40:00.017+08:00

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 ....

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

2009-03-10T22:52:00.004+08:00

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

Happy Birthday Zulfarhan.....

2009-03-08T23:04:00.006+08:00

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....

Thank you and a few orders....

2009-03-04T12:19:00.010+08:00

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......

Another year older.......

2009-03-01T16:21:00.008+08:00

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...

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

2009-02-21T15:00:00.014+08:00

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 ......

2009-02-13T11:38:00.008+08:00

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?

2009-02-06T06:54:00.003+08:00

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......

2009-02-01T21:57:00.014+08:00

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.

Colors, colors and colors everywhere......

2009-01-27T08:21:00.006+08:00

Its started on Friday morning. I baked carrot walnut cupcakes. The theme requested was gold. Quite popular color theme. The lady requested this via sms and phone calls only. The cuppies were for the sister's wedding. I started dressing up the cuppies after settling the boys' need like fetching the youngest from school, served him and the angah lunch and angah went at 1.00 for Friday prayers and to school after that. The lady came and collected the cuppies at 4.

After the gold theme, i made up the pastels colors butter cream hantaran. The cuppies were carrot walnut so i only did the baking once on Friday. This order was from PD and was collected at 7 pm due horrendous traffic jam in Seremban town that evening. The promised time was 6.

On Saturday morning after the Suboh, i baked vanilla cup cakes. I received the call for this order on Thursday morning. The deco and color were left at my whims and fancies, and i titled this set as Pink fantasy ha ha ha....my boys asked me why and i told them there were no real flowers which look like these. I walked 3 houses away about 9 am to deliver this set. She is my neighbor. This set was going to travel to Shah Alam.
Later that Saturday evening, the layering of this agar-agar was made. Its a bit time consuming but i just love the color. This agar-agar was requested by Kak Ezza together with the below hantaran cupcakes and a box of cupcakes with simple deco for makan2 after her daughter's engagement ceremony.

Saturday night, i baked vanilla and choc cuppies for the hantaran set and makan2. I am a minimalist in many ways and thats reflects in my cake deco too. Less is more to me .This last set was sent to Taman nearby my house on Sunday morning before going to Klang to deliver Kak Ezza's order. This set was requested by Kay, for makan2. Then off my husband and i to Klang. We made it at sharp 11 o'clock as the traffic was good. Chatted for awhile with Kak Ezzah and best of all we were the first to eat the food for her kenduri. I was segan to take picture of the food, dah lah first to makan nak ambik2 gambar pulak. She cooked a mean gulai cili padi salted fish with nenas, the kurma daging was really fantastic, kerabu kacang botol was superb, i saw ayam masak merah but i didnt taste it, fried ikan masin and the sambal belacan made my ears red ha ha ha.......love it Kak Ezza, a few kenduri food which i took second helpings dengan tak malunyer he he...
We made our move just after lunch as she was getting busy with other guests and all. We went to an old friend's place near Klang town. He was my hubby house mate when we were in the States. And as usual when old friends met, we lost time just yakking and yakking about things going on with our life, the kiddos, the work, the politic and the raising cost of living. Not to miss was the reminiscing of old times. When i looked up at the time on the handphone, it was just after 3.00 pm and they were supposed to leave for Muar for a kenduri ha ha ha. We made our way out but between getting into the car and saying goodbyes it took another half hour by the time we were on the road, it was almost 4.00.
We decided to go to Ikea, lama tak ronda he he....for a day before Chinese New Year, the place was quite crowded. Did some window shopping and left for Penang Village in Taman Tun for prawn mee. The hubby was so like craving for that dishes. I ate the mee curry and we had same drink of the Kalamansi thingy. We headed for Seremban shortly and was home sweet home an hour later, almost 8.00 pm .....and lo and behold...after a shower my legs started wobbling and i just felt so tired, i konged out on the bed before the head hit the pillows ha ha ha......When i woke up it was 6.00 am Monday morning and its Chinese New Year.

Rantings or ramblings??........

2009-01-22T07:28:00.003+08:00

Yesterday morning while driving my 2 boys to school, i heard on the news that the sugar price will increase after the Chinese New Year. Heart dropped on the floor for awhile. It is not my house consumption that i worry about as we are very low sugar users, it is my little home bakery business which would be badly affected. Only in my last posting , someone mentioned that my pricing is very low, and that was not the first time. I thought about increasing the price a little after last Hari Raya, but i didn't. However, with this incoming increase of sugar price i really had no choice unless i do the baking for charity.....enough about that...i had a pleasant teh tarik session with my big boy yesterday evening. He shared what just happened during the supposedly trial debate. He was not very keen to participate but when the topic was "Same gender marriage should be allowed", he just walked out. And I support his action there as i think that was not an appropriate topic for a school debate. He also told me thats he is coping well with the new subjects such as Physics, Chemistry and Additional Maths. He must be having his father's brain he he.....i pray he will continue to enjoy his school years.

Some dinner dishes we had a few days ago.....

Telur itik masak lomak cili api with belimbing buluh.
Sambal ikan bilis with terung
Sotong goreng tepung

Gold theme and chocolate moist cupcakes again....

2009-01-16T23:33:00.004+08:00

I received a call for this gold theme hantaran request last month, when i spend a few days of the holidays with my siblings in PD. After talking briefly on the phone i asked the girl to follow up through email with details of her request. The next day she smsed me saying she did mail me but no reply .....ha ha ha....a bit impatient weren't we? But , i understand as she wanted to make sure i would accept her request. Told her, no net acces at the place i stayed in but i already slotted her request, so it was as good as done. She also requested to put the cuppies in the nice case and me being very bad at this hantaran case, i went to a few shops selling craft thingies for wedding and all copied design on the shelf he he....it was selling at RM30.00 in the shop and mine i just sold RM20.00 for it.

Closed shot in the car under the tree while waiting for a pick up at Tesco, Sban 2. I tak shop pun .....
This is the best spot to put a box of cuppies in the car for delivery. On the floor at the front passenger.The birthday cuppies was an adhoc request, since the hantaran was chocolate cuppies too i accepted the last minute request as i only need to bake extra cup cakes. Her request was simple deco for a birthday guy. The deco was done using thin royal icing.

Brownie....

2009-01-16T00:08:00.003+08:00

Two Sunday ago, after my lunch guests left, a young couple came to my house. They were my prospective customers who wanted to discuss their wedding package. While discussing their requirements i served them fruit and blueberry tartlet and some muffins. I was happy to see them enjoying the sweet treats. Suddenly the guy asking if i made brownie and of course i said yes. So he ordered one just for makan-makan and to make it at my convenience ...nice customer ya...I made the brownie for them yesterday. I used the recipe from one of the many recipes books that i have. Lightly topped with chocolate ganache. A cut brownie
In a box
Ready to be collected

Too many idiots on our streets.....

2009-01-14T00:48:00.000+08:00

This morning i saw a car did a U-turn on the one way road and drove against the traffic to avoid a road block by the police i just felt sick to the stomach thinking of what might happened. And then, as I stopped at the red light, i saw a motorcyclist with 2 toddlers and the wife across the road. The older kid sitting in front the father, and the younger one was in between the dad and the mum standing up. The kids had no helmets but the parents had them on. I just feel like screaming obscenities to the couple...how stupid can the parents be... Later in the afternoon, as i was making a U-turn, i stopped to check the incoming car from the traffic light, out of nowhere, came this Wira on the outer lane and the driver had to slam the brake so hard to avoid going under a long trailer. I just watched with amazement how little that guy value his life. He was so shaken, the car engine went dead and still not moving even after i reached the parking lot at the complex near by.

Enough about roaming idiots on our roads, just to share our menu for today. I fried rice for lunch today. i used birds eye chillies as the boys like it hot. I just pounded one red chillies with about 2o birds eye chillies with 3 red onions, 1 garlic, a bit of shrimp paste and coarse salt. Then i heated up 3 table spoons of oil, fried the anchovies till crispy and set aside. In the same oil, i fried the pounded ingredients until fragrance, put the rice in and mix well....then i broke an egg in, mixed it well....i threw in the fried anchovies, mixed and turned off the fire and lunch was served......my 2nd boy finished half and the youngest one the other half...i ended up eating bread ha ha ha....my eldest came in late in the evening, so he ate the curry puff i made for tea using ready made puff pastry.

Do what we can and give what we can....to the children of Gaza

2009-01-09T13:54:00.004+08:00

I just do not know what else to say, just please do what we can and give what we can.

"I ask from you Ya Kareem. I seek from you Ya Rahim, have mercy on these innocents.Help them Ya Allah, help them Ya Rahman..... "

I copied this from kak Teh

"Mercy Malaysia has, on 30th December 2008, formed an Emergency Response Assessment Team to face the humanitarian crisis in Gaza strip. The team has been promptly dispatched to Egypt led by President, Datuk Dr. Jemilah Mahmood and Exco Member Norazam Ab. Samah.

The air strike and ground offensive on Gaza - as reported by AlJazeera - have killed more than 700 Palestinians, 219 of which are children. More than 3000 have been wounded.

Therefore, Mercy Malaysia appeals to generous Malaysians to send it cash donations. Contributions will support Mercy Malaysia to procure emergency surgical kits, medicines and hospital equipments to help the hospitals in Gaza.

Cheque is to be made payable to “MERCY MALAYSIA” and addressed to Mercy Malaysia, Level 2, Podium Block, City Point, Kompleks Dayabumi, Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin, 50050 Kuala Lumpur.
Cash donations can be made via on-line transmission or deposit at CIMB Bank Account No: 1424-000-6561053.
Donation form can be downloaded from here.
Further enquiries are to be directed to +603-22733999 or info@mercy.org.my

Let us make a difference by whatever little we have. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your generosity."

Al Fatehah.

Pleasant Sunday but hectic and painful Monday ........

2009-01-04T20:51:00.007+08:00

On Sunday i hosted a late lunch do for a fellow blogger and baking enthusiast Boxhousestudio when she and the family came down to Seremban to send the oldest son to one of the boarding school near here. I served a simple dish of rendang cili api kerang, my version of spices fried chicken and fried cabbage 'bodo'(named by dear hubby ). The cold drinks were tropical juice mix with soda water . I only got 1 pitcher of that and i mixed mango cordial with soda water when the juice finished. After lunch we had Starbuck coffee from my coffee maker to go with banana choc chips muffins, blueberry crumble tartlets and pandan muffins(courtesy from my guest). She ordered fruit tartlets for the son, and i assembled the tartlets with her help and i used fresh peach, strawberry and kiwi. What i loved so much about this lunch do was how the boys so enjoyed the simple food that i served. I felt guilty not serving something more elaborate. They left for the boarding school just before 5 .00 pm . Thanks Boxhouses and i hope you ' tak serik' to come over again.

Spices fried chicken
Rendang chili api kerang(cockles)

Fruit tartlets
Monday morning i woke up with a very bad pain on my left back just below the shoulder blade. The pain was so bad if felt like i was getting a fever. Still gotta send the kids to school. But since the children are all familiar with the routine , I only need to do that. Thank God....but as my Angah was just started Form One, i needed to be with him for awhile and worst that hes in evening school. While sitting under the big mushroom in front of his classroom building before the students went into the classroom i wondered why theres a need for the classrooms to have curtains for the windows. The materials were torn apart and it looked so untidy . Later i found out that no school fees to be paid as yet , i left the school. Went home , had a short nap hoping the nagging pain would go away but it did not. I could not slept a wink, so i worked on decorations of wedding favors containers for my month end project. I keep all the ribbons and tools for this kind of work in this nice basket given by a fellow blogger the darling ms.hart. Thank you dear , just what i needed and the other things too.

Request from London to Bangi.......

2009-01-02T13:07:00.006+08:00

I delivered the cupcakes and muffins to Bangi for kak Teh yesterday. When she left words in my earlier posting comment box about ordering the cupcakes i was very excited at the same time nervous. Her request was simple, to have her nieces and nephews name on the cupcakes. I started baking the cakes at 7 in the morning, followed by the muffins. Topping of chocolate ganache i made the night before because it needed to be set for at least 5-6 hours. I made it while watching the Hindi movie, Bobby during the advertisement. By 10.00 am, the cuppies and muffins were packed in the boxes. We went up to Bangi to deliver the goods and we went to a shop selling baking stuff near the area. Got my baking ration and was back home at 2.30 pm.

And this morning, when having breakfast with my 2 younger boys, the conversation went like this
Mama: You know last week i send the cake to Pd sorang coz none of you nak temankan i...order tu dari Moscow.
Baby: Moscow tu kat mana Ma?
Mama: kat Russia
Mama: And semalam i went to Bangi dengan Ayah, order tu i dapat from London...
Baby: Uuyooo....mama nyer cupcakes go internationalllllll.......

The Angah couldn't be bothered as his nasi lemak was more important than talking about my cupcakes he he.....he went to get a second helping of nasi lemak.....then off we went to the schools to get their exercise and activity books.....