What an experience!

Guess what, my three year old car broke down yesterday after lunch. The engine couldn’t be started. Long story to this, all thanks to dear Elisa. Yesterday was her last day here, so we decided to go out for a farewell lunch. Initially I didn’t have to drive my car, as there were other people who could drive, but due to convenience (as my car was parked behind and was unblocked), I agreed to drive everyone there. Had a porridge (which Elisa treated) and was sweating profusely non stop after we finished. Boy, it was a really hot day. I rushed to my car to turn on the engine so that everyone could enjoy the air conditioner soon after they get into the car. As I was trying to start, Elisa was screaming from behind, insisting that she wanted to drive. Then chuukkk. I stared at the steering. I tried again, and checked if the gear was at the right place, but nothing happened. The engine could not start at all! Elisa thought I was joking, and she was like huh..really ah??
Poor people and they had to wait with me under the hot sun for the rescuers to come. Dad came and took out the battery to be replaced with a new one. The car is fine now, but my wallet is getting lighter. :-(
Sigh, what an experience. Thank God that I wasn’t alone when that happened though.

Enough of tarts

Enough of tarts, here are the cupcakes. These chocolate chip cupcakes were made for little cousins last week, together with the blueberry tartlets. I tried to decorate them as fan-cia-ble as possible, with lots of colourful smarties and marshmallows, but seemed like the results didn’t really turn out the way I wanted.
First is this ‘supposed to be’ piggy head cupcake. Covered in strawberry cream with pink marshmallow ears, chocolate chips as the eyes and blueberry lining for the lips, I honestly did not think they look like pigs at all. Instead, they looked more like a cartoon character in a cartoon called something and something. Couldn’t remember the name anymore, but it was about a mouse who tried to conquer the world with his doffy and skinny pal who was the stupid one.

Next is this ‘supposed to be’ mouse head cupcake but ended up looking more like a green pig!! :-S. Pigs like mice, mice like pigs. Gosh, something must be wrong with my senses, hehe. This cupcake is covered in kiwi cream with green marshmallow ears, flowery marshmallow nose and a green pair of smarties eyes.

The third is fairly simple. Covered with smarties, I must admit this is the easiest way to attract a 2 year old boy. :-)

The fourth design is the uncle head cupcake. The marshmallows were supposed to be the moustache. The top miniature cakes are plain chocolate cakes with one smartie full stop each.

Like the third, the fifth is also fairly simple. With a smiley marshmallow and accompanying flowers, this is the second easiest way to attract a 5 year old girl.

Altogether they were presented like this to my dear cousins:
Both sisters got one each too.

I don’t really know if they like them (hope they do), but I do know my two sisters loved them! Think I’m going to get everyone fattened up soon…hehehe, well, no worries, it won’t long till the day I’ll be gone.

The latest cake I baked was these oreo cheesecakes in cups, ordered by an auntie for sale in her shop recently last Tuesday. Hehe, was trying to reduce costs to fit my budget so they ended up looking pretty dull with the least deco. Well, nevertheless, they do look very oreo-ish, don’t they? Think she’ll make a profit out of them, coz her selling price is RM5 sth which is almost RM2 more expensive than mine!

Tart-LETs of Love

Morning, managed to upload previous photos last night after the war in laws series, hehe....here they are:

These blueberry almond tartlets were made for my cousins last week. Na-na loves blueberry so i managed to make a few for them and family before i left for the KL trip. Like how i normally presented them....with almonds and hearts.

Still blueberry almond tarts...this time it's tart instead of tartlet. I changed the deco a bit, instead of the big piece of almond in the middle as previously, i used flake almonds and decorated them with some stars and hearts. As you can see, there are only 5 pieces of them. Guess who ate the most? (You'll find the answer as you scroll down)

The strawberry tartlets....I mentioned this in the previous blog and here they are. Made 25 pieces, 8 eaten by June alone, 1 each by mom and dad, 2 by Kimmie, 2 by me, 5 by friends and 6 by cousins. June claimed that these are the best tartlets among all.......guess it's true since she finished like 8 in a day? Then again, don't know which is true anymore since she always finished nearly all tarts..regardless of blueberry, durian, fruits, etc etc.

I used a combination of strawberry cream cheese and butter almond mixture to give a marble effect. Can't really see the effect here since they were covered by the strawberries.

Durian tartlets..these are my cousins' favourite. Made them last week just before i left for KL. Passed a container to grandma, but she insisted of not storing them in the fridge, so they went bad at the end of the day and cousins didn't get to eat them. Such a waste....and they were my last piece of durian from Sipitang.

Hard Day

Phew...i finally made some strawberry tartlets before the strawberries go off. Think they look very pretty in red cases and red strawberries....managed to make enough for little son son and na na too... :-). Will upload the pics and pose them tomorrow.

I finished my oreo cheesecakes in cups order as well, 9 cups in less than an hour. Delivered them on the way to work this morning, and collected my RM35. Hmm...speaking about money, just remembered that lotsa people still owe me some $$$$$ from previous cake orders. Must chase, otherwise i'll go bancrupt soon. More bancrupt after returning from KL.

Had a very hard day today. Was scolded by a client coz his site was not approved. I'm beginning to hate my job, not only am i bored with the way people do things here, i have to achieve the impossible!

Here's a pic of a jelly (combination coconut milk and colourful fruits) which i made last last week:

Just received another order from an ex colleague few hours ago. This time it's mango cheesecake with mango topping for her 8 year birthday boy on Friday.

Think i can really earn some pocket money from baking only......

Company trip to KL

Just came back from the company’s trip to KL last night. Left on last Thursday morning to arrive KL at noontime. Met up with some friends and did some shopping over the four days. Though tiring, I have to admit that it was quite an enjoying trip after all. It was always nice to meet up with people whom you have not seen for a long long time. My ‘Ge Ge’ was one of these people, so I’m really glad that this trip has been maximized to catch and update things with them.
Clocked into work during lunch just now. Had a good rest this morning after the tiring trip, though I was awaken by a message from my work assistant who reasoned that she wasn’t feeling well enough to go to work today, followed by my dear personal assistant’s msg. An auntie called today, and wanted to order half a kilo of oreo cheesecake, for RM35. Am doubting if this price is reasonable for me. RM 70 for a kilo cake sounds ok enough, but half a kilo doesn’t really sound that ‘worth it’ to me, firstly because, the more ingredients you buy, the cheaper price you can get and secondly, it’s not very time effective to make only half a batch which still requires the same amount of baking time as the 1kg batch. Nevertheless, I’m planning to use a different recipe that looks more worth it for a RM35 cake. I think this is fairer for both parties, because butter and cream cheese are very expensive nowadays.
Do you know strawberries are very cheap in KL? I bought one box for only RM6.50! Am going to make some real strawberry tarts with them.
It’s time to start planning my big day from this week onwards!

Another Cross-shaped Cake (Combination of different cheesecakes with lotsa hearts)

Here's my cousin's 21st birthday cake which i made last Sunday. Combination of three different cheesecakes (mango, strawberry and blueberry) and the middle part is carrot cake! All covered with strawberry jam and strawberry yogurt cream cheese. Can you spot that someone in front of the cake...?? That's Na Na, my five year old cousin. The chubby little girl was trying to do some funny faces all night long (see the below pic) and Son-Son was imitating her.... :-S

I had a very busy and exhausting weekend. Was working straight for more than 24 hours, to meet the following orders:
1. 4kg carrot cake with cream cheese
2. 4kg cabbage cake with cream cheese
3. 3kg cheesecake (combination of different types) with strawberry yogurt cream cheese in a shape of a cross with lotsa hearts
4. Colourful jellies (I made like 7 plates of different types and colours!)
5. Trifles (So called only)
6. Durian tarts.
Can’t believe I had actually made them all especially the carrot cake. 4kg meant 1 kg of grated carrots, all grated with my own skinny hands. No wonder I’m thinner. Everyone was so shocked (I think they didn’t expect everything to be so ‘perfect’), remarking that I should open up a shop, and settle in KK. Auntie was smarter….she wanted to be my business partner in Brisbane. Hehe, I told them, I’ll soon be committed to baking business once I’ve gotten my chartered status, which means I could then work as a freelance environment consultant/engineer at home. Good planning huh?
Mom told me that everyone in the church was fighting to grab a piece of my carrot and cabbage cakes. An uncle (a friend of my parents) took like four pieces, coz he liked them very much, especially the cabbage cake. Everyone seems to fancy this cake. When they were told it is cabbage cake..their first reaction was 'yuck' but after taking the first bite…they would go like..yumm, nice oh and soon addicted to it. Believe it or not, my aunties were fighting over the cake last night. Very kiasu..if you see how they actually helped themselves to a container in the kitchen and cut a big piece of cake to bring home.
Hehe, was glad that my skill has improved greatly despite of certain stuff which were made first time (like the colourful jellies and trifles).
I also found out that my little cousin, son-son likes cakes and pastries very much! He was sooo cute last night and was guarding the birthday cake all the time with his saliva dripping all over..hehe. Will bake some goodies for him these days.

I took some nice photos of the goodies i made...will post them this week once i've uploaded.