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.. :-)

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Teruja

Haha... topicnya teruja... Sbb memang banyak yang mengujakan.. It all started with Emilya and Faizal's wedding.. Dah la hantaran masa depa tunang dulu, I buat for both sides.. So, this time around Emilya requested for a square fondant cake as the hantaran nikah.. (ceritanya sungguh lawak.. sbb tema warnanya bertukar di saat2 akhir dari peach ke merah putih..).. and Faizal requested a mix and match with white and silver theme.. (he actually changed his mind from mini cuppies, to fondant and at last had to agree to mix and match sbb dah last minute sangat2).. but I do remember that kalau mix and match macam lebih kurang ngan hantaran masa tunang.. So, since he left everything to me, I made him a stacked mix and match hantaran.. Nak tergelak sbnrnya sbb, I kinda decided on this at the last minute too (that was while I was decorating their 600 door gifts with E&F initials.. I'm glad to know that both bride and groom were happy with their cakes.. And due to this project, Nurin made me promise not to accept orders for more than 250 doorgifts. The next day, Shaza texted to order 700 cuppies... Sungguh teruja gue! Sorry ya Shaza that I had to turn you down. And the next three days pulak Ija called and kinda 'ayat' me to do 250 for the 31st and another 250 on the 1st... Sabar je lah Ija... I guess that is my update for now.. I've to rush for my gynae's apptm.. Baru 4.5 mths now.. but I feel so 6 mths already.. Till then everyone.. Thanks for still having faith in me despite the fact that I have not been updating my blog..

and oh.. the one in the box tu is a 5 mini cupcakes for the groom's side..

Kisah Aliya...

Ingat Aliya? Refresh memory here.. Sebenarnya Aliya tak serah diri macam tu aja... Asalnya, she ordered a hantaran fondant as a gift for her BFF - Emey Shafina. She came to collect the cake with Emey, but Emey had to go somewhere else after that. So, she had to wait for Bahri to fetch her after Friday prayers. It was like God sent! She helped me cut the cake board for Izu's hantaran, fold boxes and even babysat Hannah! Then I got her to call Bahri asking him to fetch her after work.. I lah ayat dia... sian Bahri kerja kat Jalan Sultan Ismail kena datang amik Aliya lunch time.. dah tu bukan pegi mana pun.. lepak kat ofis Bahri aje.. KAH KAH KAH! My hidden agenda! So, Bahri agreed. Macam2 Aliya buat... dan macam2 benda terjadi in 1 day. I am grateful that Aliya is cool with the 'mishap'. She is one cool girl! She is also cool with the lunch spread at my house. Truly! Having lunch at my house is not like lunch at any typical Malaysian household.. Betul...

Back to Aliya's story... After lunch, we started with Shaza's doorgift.. I am truly impressed with Aliya.. That was the first time she held a spatula! And to spread buttercream on a cupcake is not as simple as it looks.. My words to her: Takpe.. yang mana tak jadi tu, nanti I touch up.. Anyways, Shaza and Yuzi came over after that and Aliya helped packed the doorgifts! After all was done, we had Juriah prepare us tea.. the tea leaves brought all the way from her home town at Jawa Tengah! She had to boil it first.. Truly organic! And Aliya named it teh ganja... asyik hooked on it aje.. We had some packed for her to serve Bahri..

Aliya dear... I shall remember that day forever! Thank you so so much for your help! xoxo

Asyik cerita pasal kejadian hari itu saja.. lupa nak cerita pasal kek ni.. Kek hantaran ni Aliya nak special.. tak nak bunga2an biasa yang I selalu beli tu.. So, I got someone to do the flowers for me.. If you want to have this kind of roses, it is RM5 per piece.. Up to you, nak berapa pcs.. Aliya nak penuh kek.. Around 17 pcs kot I guna.. (tu la - upload lambat lagi... kan dah tak ingat). I tak pandai buat bunga ni.. Masa nak letakkan dia atas kek, punya la takut! They are so heavy and so the pretty!

A white and silver wedding

The original order was just cake and cupcakes.. Agak pening jugak pada asalnya... sebab I liased with Shahrin.. and bukan Shahrin nak kawin.. He ordered for his friend, Noraidah... So, I ingat Noraidah la nak kawin... Anyways... on the day Noraidah's brother collected the cakes, I pun sms Noraidah to congratulate dia and enjoy her honeymoon. Rupa2nya bukan dia yang kawin.. LOL.. Cousin dia yang kawin..

The theme was white and silver... Honestly, macam kawan baik silver, gold, susahnya hati I when Noraidah sent me samples of fondant cake yang dia nak.. Ada one picca yang dia hantar tu, sebijik dengan gambar yang Shaza hantar. So, I pun tunjuk la gambar hantaran Shaza, and she agreed with some changes to the color scheme, of course.

To the bride and groom, semoga sampai ke syurga

Cake kampung?

When Zubaidah requested a fondant cake for her wedding, I was more than delighted to do so even when I knew pretty well that I would not sleep that night. She is a good friend of mine and I am honoured to be part of her big day... But the challenge was, "Shaz, aku tak nak cake kampung".. Doinks!... Define Kampung please! She didn't answer me.. So, my aim was to make a non-kampung cake.. and when I showed the cake to Zubaidah, she was SOOOOO happy... and I was SOOOO happy too! I passed with flying colors! Cake pekan kah ini? To Zubaidah, Congratulations darling!

All the way from Sao Paolo, Brazil

Kak Nisa ordered this for her MIL birthday which fell on the 15th of March.. Zubir had them delivered to Temerloh the same day, before noon.. I understand Zubir had a great time at Temerloh too... *wink* Kak Nisa had a list of things she wanted to give to her MIL.. (lucky MIL!), like roses, Ferero Roche and a card, which I helped her get them with reasonable service charge. Thanks much Kak Nisa for this project... and more projects in the future.. *wink*

White Fondant with Pink Flowers

This is a fondant cake for an engagement gift (if not mistaken).Photos taken end of November.. Terlambat upload.. (as usual).This is priced at RM 135. Flavour: Fruit