Back in full speed!

Sorry sangat2 sebab tak sempat nak update blog. So many things have happened.. Dengan yang ambil PMR nya, dengan yang balik kampung sampai 5 bulan nya, dengan minor renovation to the house nya.. dengan mr hubby's policy : "No maid, no bake" nya.. Apa nak dikata.

Alhamdulillah, everything falls back in place in October. Juriah arrived on 9/10 and Nurin's exam finished on 11/10. Terus I accept orders you! Rasa rindu tak terkira dengar bunyi mixer yang bingit itu. Hehehe..

Anyways, this is a short post to say I'm baking again. I've actually accepted orders last month, but I didn't have the time to update my blog.

New flavors: Red Velvet, Oreo, Coffee (perfected), Rainbow (takla new kan? This is so last year,.. Iskandar dah nak celebrate again his birthday next month.)

New designs: Stack cakes, Castle cakes.

New Pictures: dah lama tak snap guna my dslr. Asyik guna phone aje, and terus upload to my personal facebook. Nanti I upload dalam Mama Chak's Recipe Facebook ya. Dah lama juga tak masukkan dalam flickr. Entah laku lagi ke tak account itu.. Note to self: check flickr account.

New pricing and Upgraded ingredients.. Don't worry, still affordable. Tersangat affordable. :-)

As you can see in my FYI box, sudah sendat for this weekend. But do text juga, sbb kadang2 boleh selit2 lagi for adhoc parties gitu. May not be able to answer phone calls.

Hari Isnin, hari lari2 sana sini beli ingredients.

Hari Selasa, hari tungkus lumus balut ice cream cones for the castle turrets.. and buat nama2..

Anyways, I would like to leave you with some pictures to feast your eyes..

Iskandar's Birthday

Yeah! Last year! Hik hik hik! I actually wanted to update my time slots here, and realised that I've not been blogging for a while. There's not even a post in March! Ceh! Just 2 posts this year? So, I decided to write something quick. But a post without pictures is pretty dull. And I am just tired (and plain lazy) to find good pictures. You know, the best picture that would show the best angles and all. So, I found Iskandar's birthday pictures that was supposed to be last year's post.. Hehehe.. Oh well! Better than nothing, eh? My only boy, my third child with two older sisters and two younger sisters, my jantung hati, my favourite boy (of course!), Mas Zahid Iskandar turned 4, 4th December 2010.

We did a celebration at his playschool, as well as at home since my mom's siblings were all gathered in KL for Azizul's (my cousin) wedding.

Nurin took care of the goody bags.. DIY paper bags made from envelopes. I love the content of the goody bag. I didn't spend much.. But in my budget (yang ciput itu), I managed to squeeze in a box of 12 color pencils (Thanks Mydin! Buy in bulk!), a coloring book (downloaded coloring pictures from the internet, and sent for photocopy. Thanks Nurin! Of course! Who else?) and all those sweet tooth stuffs..

Dania helped present the cake to the birthday boy that morning.

He wanted a cake rumah salji (his actual words) with santa clause! I think it was because he saw the house cake pan Nurin gave me for my birthday, which shows the many ways to decorate the house pan. I replaced with clown instead.. (honestly, tak de clown pun.. and he asked, mana orang? :-p)

Iskandar and I at his school..

And this was Iskandar's cake later that evening. We are party animals, indeed! The easiest design I could do was the clowns.. The challenge was to think which clown sits where and holds what.. :-) . I have more different angles actually taken with my phone. But, I accidentally erased all of the pics from my phone, when I intelligently tried to update my phone's software. All contacts were gone too! My cousin Azril, told me to stick to baking, and not do anymore IT stuffs!

I wanted to experiment on the interior design of the cakes. 1st, a rainbow cake. And the other one, a heart inside the cake. Ini Lady Myra yang suruh saya test. However, the heart shaped tak jadi! Nampak macam a lip shaped inside the cake, kan? My cousin, Zarina kata, aci aje tu.. ! :-) The challenge of the interior design of the cake is that I will not know how it looks like until I cut it! So, surprise ya dapat lips ke, heart ke..

For the rainbow, I purposely did pastel colors, because I knew very well that my relatives (especially yang dah ada cucu tu) are so afraid of food coloring. Takut benor nak makan strong colorful color cakes. I bet some of your relatives are like mine too. So, I would normally ask, mau pelangi terang, or mau pelangi lembut.. I've done a pelangi terang for a customer. Also informed her that I would like a picture of how it looks like in the inside, but I guess she is too busy to send the picture to show me.

And, did you notice that Iskandar's cakes were all about the weather. We had the snow house cake, the rainbow cake, and the label on his goody bag was a sunny day!

and oh! I won't be writing in another month, I think.. I'll be actively baking (which I'm not supposed to do), and managing my children. I would diligently post pictures in my facebook page. Senang gitu! Snap and upload. So, latest pictures banyak di situ ya.

Till then everyone! Take care!

Happy 58th & Happy Retirement

Wah! Sudah Februari! and I only made one post for Jan! Aduh! Alhamdulillah I tak letak 'posting stories in blog' as one of my Declaration of Excellence for 2011! Harus stress kalau tak buat! Alangkan 1 buku 1 bulan pun sungguh menyiksakan! Asal buka buku aje, mata pun layu.. kalau boleh baca 5 mukasurat pun dah besar tuah!

Tapi sesungguhnya, tersangat2 rindu nak tulis.. nak complain itu ini.. begitu begini.. cuma masa tak mengizinkan. Bila dah ada masa, dah tak ingat pula nak tulis apa.. LOL! Pelupakah sudah saya? Adakah kerana perkara2 itu tidak penting, maka saya lupa?.. mmm.. seperti harga susu Ideal sudah naik 40sen .. serbuk koko kegemaran saya sudah naik ke RM24 sekilo (masa saya mula membelinya 3 tahun lepas, harganya cuma RM16 sekilo), margin untung saya juga semakin kecil, kerana harga kos naik, tapi saya masih di harga lama (tidak pentingkah ini?), buttermilk asyik tiada stok aje, .. atau yang paling saya selalu lupa ialah merajuk dengan cik abang sayang (normal kah bagi orang yang dah 16 tahun kahwin - dah lupa dah yang sebenarnya saya berada dalam 'mode' merajuk?!) .. atau mungkin kerana, ada terlalu banyak perkara yang lebih penting dari berada di 'mode' merajuk, seperti, skru mata benam, meja gerudi lantai dan Maharaja Mikado Meiji; dan tulisan cina yang bermaksud tambah atau tolak! Tak macam dulu2.. harus aku merajuk seminggu! :-p.. and perasan tak saya menggunakan Bahasa Malaysia? LOL! Ini semua penangan anak-anak yang kurang penguasaan dalam Bahasa Malaysia.. Di rumah, pelbagai peribahasa saya gunakan supaya mereka tidak hairan mendengarnya. Antara yang berada di carta teratas ialah 'bagai itik pulang petang' dan 'memulangkan paku buah keras'! LOL! Dan saya perasan, perkataan yang menjadi kegemaran saya kebelakangan ini ialah 'baiklah' dan 'tidak perlu'!!!

TAPI... setiap pagi, saya jadi guru Bahasa Inggeris.. rasa macam jadi D0ra the Expl0rer pun ada! Iskandar lebih fasih berbahasa Melayu.. Boleh ketawa mendengar dia berceloteh.. macam tengok siri alih suara Doremon! Antaranya ialah 'Oh! Di sini rupanya!', dan 'Mama! Hebat tak saya?', apabila menunjukkan hasil ciptaan kapalterbangnya dari Lego. Jadi, di pagi hari, dalam perjalanan ke sekolah, saya akan memulakan perbualan dengan melihat alam sekitar. "Abang, look at the sky. The sky is blue. Can you see the sun? What is the color of the sun?". Lepas tu saya ketawa sendiri. Asal balik sekolah saja, topik perbualan harus berkisar kepada perkara2 yang dilihat dalam perjalanan pulang. Objektifnya ialah supaya dia menghabiskan air yang dibawa ke sekolah tadi. Jadi, asal jumpa hentian bas, atau pokok mati, saya akan kata, "Abang, look on your left. Dead tree! Drink water!". Dan dia pun menghirup air secepat mungkin.

Bila petang saja, saya jadi seperti pengusaha tadika, dengan menyediakan minum petang kepada mereka. Habis malas ialah roti bakar disapu kaya... macam kopitiam.. he he... Kalau rajin, buatlah donut ke, roti jala.. cewah! Lepas tu, harus saya paksa mereka main di luar rumah, Boleh lah saya cepat2 menghias kek yang dibakar di sebelah pagi tadi.

Banyak sungguh membebel hari ni..LOL! Cukuplah ya.. Saya sudahi dengan gambar kek yang dipinta oleh Intan! (alih bahasa pula ya.. sungguh skema rasanya hari ini..)

Intan is my friend since way back in Sri Aman days.. When she sent a message in my fb, I nearly fell off the chair! It was her dad's retirement and his 58th birthday.. She wanted all his favorite things on the cake, all 28 of them!! I took 2 weeks to complete the figurines. During the period, I had all the tools ready for me to work on the table at anytime I want. I would do them in between my baking, while waiting for abang to get ready for school or any time I have. It was my first time doing most of the items! I did the cat twice, oh no.. three times! The first one looked like a dog instead of a cat.. And my dad confirmed that my second one was a poodle! The front part of the Harley Davidson was done FOUR times!!! I broke the handle twice! The handle wouldn't stick to the rim the third time! And I had to come up with an alternative so that it would stick no matter what as it was already the last day!

I enjoyed doing this project. Most were copy-cats(and trying to figure out how they did it.. I definitely copied Kak Jun and Anita Jamal!), self study, and internet research.. It certainly brings out the creativity I thought I never had.. It made me think out of the box. And most of all, it was the encouragement from Intan that made me do this and believe in myself that I could do it. Perhaps it was labor of love that made this cake what it was.. I thank the Almighty for a friend like Intan.. whose positive words makes me a better cake artist. I miss you Intan! A lot! Jom gi PIBG meeting next month! (Alia and Nurin study in Sri Aman now. Alia is a year younger than Nurin. Believe it or not, I don't see Intan at school! LOL!) .. Here are some pics to end this month's post.. :-)

.

Happy 2011!!

I have been wanting to update my blog since, hmmm.. not sure when already. It has been ages since my last short post, right? And it took me some time to actually create a fan page in facebook.. Mainly because, I am a perfect-melancholy-wannabe.. I would want to read the terms and conditions of a fan page before I create one. And I finally did! I find it faster to update my work there.. as I do not have to write a lot.. duh! and people would know that I am still actively baking and decorating..

Mmm.. however, as mentioned in my previous post, I shall not be taking as many orders as I used to. This year, my kids go to four different schools! Nurin in Secondary School. Dania in Primary School. Favorite son, Iskandar in kindergarten. And Hannah in Playschool. It is Iskandar's and Hannah's first time to their new school... I was pretty emotional two weeks before school starts. I seriously feel that my kids grow up very fast. I just don't want to imagine the day Iskandar would feel shy to kiss and hug me in public. :-p

And, so my plan was to kiss and kiss and kiss and hug and hug and hug him many times in a day.. and I told Nurin to do the same, so that he can't live without our hugs and kisses! muahahaha! kejam tak? I know kejam! :-p

Hannah and Iskandar were pretty cool on their first day of school. I started sending Hannah the final week of 2010, so that I would not rush here and there on the first day of school this year. When I dropped her off that morning, she hurriedly entered the gate.. as if I was going to change my mind. Tak pusing2 belakang pun.. meluru aje..

As for Iskandar, I waited for their assembly and till he entered his classroom for the first period. Jenuh pesan kat dia... "Kalau cikgu panggil Mas Zahid.. tu nama abang tau... " :-p

He seemed able to adapt with the new environment where Malay is minority, compared to his previous playschool, where Malay was majority and the language used.

So, I was left alone with lil Jasmine with her new punk hairstyle. Tak tau la kenapa, her hair turned out to be 'cacak' after we shaved her! She's 8 mo now, and ada 2 gigi bawah baru tumbuh.. :-D

Alamak.. I'm sorry I bore you with my personal stories.. what's important are my cakes.. silly me!

Anyways.. I have new flavors yang I dah lama jual tapi tak berkesempatan nak cerita to everyone: oreo; red velvet; coffee mocha (coffee masih di tahap experimenting if it can be coffee cupcakes.. not sure if it is due to the cupcake casing or what, sometimes the cupcake liner lekang.. but as a whole cake - yes boleh [tapi, kawan I, Serina and Kartina, diorang tak kisah, cupcake liner lekang ke, apa ke.. they like it in the mini cupcake size.. taste and looks are subjective.. :-) .. don't forget!])

hmm.. nak kena update price list la pulak.. Leceh la my pricelist tu.. kena play around with the tables.. and then sat lagi I ter-merge lah.. apa lah.. :-p.. I will definitely update my price list to display the new flavors.. but not so soon ya.

I know everyone has only 24 hours in a day. And we all have loads to do.. And I am amazed with people and leaders who can accomplish a lot of things.. I feel so tiny compared to them. At this very moment, updating my price list with the new flavors are not in my to do list..

One thing about me, as a perfect-melancholy-wannabe, I love lists! Whatever I want to accomplish tomorrow, I shall write them down tonight. I find that lists are powerful, as I accomplish a lot more things if I write them down. and I love cancelling them off too! Rasa bangga tak terkira masa tu! Siap panggil anak2 to witness me cancelling my lists off!

isy.. asyik side track aje kan.. mengidam! lama tak blog! So, quick one now, just photos ya.. this time only... next time we story2 again,, xox