MY Super Duper Fabulous Family

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family:

Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
-Jane Howard, English Novelist

When you are living aboard most of the time, you tend to miss out family event such as gathering during 'raya' (Eid ul-Fitr), wedding or Family Day, so whenever we get a chance we will try to meet up. I have such a big family (I have three brothers and three sisters and all with their own family so you do the math!) so it is not easy for everyone to meet up. But when we do meet up we created such a havoc with our gossiping, laughter and karaoke'ing. This month I had the chance to attend both family gathering; one is karaoke session with my sister, cousin and nieces (just us girls, the usual suspects according to my brother) and another one is a birthday party for my sister in law and niece. I had the chance to make them cakes and desserts during both gathering. This is also the time for me to get feedback and comments from them on my creation, they are very supportive in giving me motivation to continue with my dream. What can I say, through the good times and bad times, they are always by my side and good or bad they are my family :)

My sis, cousin & her daughter; our usual gang for Karaoke activity

My Blueberry Cheese Cake

My sister promoting the cake, hehehe..

Birthday cake for my sis-in-law and my niece

Cheese tart

Cake cutting ceremony

Two models promoting my cake, thank you girls! A big wedding cake from me when you gals get married :)

Mad about Bread & Pastries

I have to admit given a choice I'd prefer bread and pastries compared to cakes...maybe because I don't have a sweet tooth.

There is no denying that bread baking as with baking anything is a delicate process.

Bread baking involves so many things that first time bakers are often discouraged after a few failed attempts to turn out professional looking and tasting loaves. Before this, a few of my friends who had the experience in baking bread told me it is very tiring to make bread because you need to knead the bread. But when I attended the Bread Making Class last week, I find it not as complicated as I was told and it was very interesting...

My next mission is to learn as many pastry recipes as I can but for now I've been taking order for Apple Pie, Blueberry Cheese Tart and Chicken/Beef Puff.

Kopitiam Style Bread

Shanghai Cheese and the famous 'Mexican Bread ala Roti Boy'

Cheese Stick

Apple Pie

Blueberry Cheese and Fruit Tart

Err...MY Galley Artwork? Apa tu? How did you get that name?

This are some of the questions that people asked me when I mentioned my Company's name....
For those with Aviation experience they know the meaning of 'Galley' but for those who don't, here's the meaning according to Macmillan Dictionary :

 The kitchen on a boat or airplane

I spent most of my time when I was working as a Flight Stewardess aka Cabin Crew, Flight Attendant (it's all the same meaning but different names) in Galley preparing food and beverages for passenger. Hence, the name "Galley". And I consider what I'm baking, cooking and decorating as a work of art therefore this is my ''Artwork''. So there you are Ladies and Gentleman I hope this clarify your curiosity towards this name that I choose to represent me. However, if you still have doubt about this matter you can still ask me personally, I would happily explain it to you as long as you order my cakes, hehehehehe.....

My Logo designed by my nephew, luv it :)

My friend, the Make Up Artist

Anna and myself met while we were working with AirAsia for Hajj flights. From then on, we kind of 'click' though we have different personalities. We went through so many life changing situation and so many arguments and miscommunications but somehow we managed to keep in touch. Before I left Malaysia to be based in Jeddah, Anna was so busy with her Make Up classes. That was a few years ago, now she is quite an established make up artist. Anna is also one of my loyal customer, she was the first to order cupcakes from me when I first started this Cakes Business a few years ago. Now that I am back in business, we have made a pact together, for a limited time only...

FOR ORDER MORE THAN RM100 FROM MY GALLEY ARTWORK, YOU WILL GET 

A DISCOUNT VOUCHER FOR MAKE UP SERVICES OR MAKE UP CLASSES BY ANNA SHA 

Sound interesting? For more information on Anna's work and how to contact her, kindly log on to http://annashahana.blogspot.com.

Anna in full concentration!

Cupcakes with Vanilla & Chocolate flavor

Cupcakes for her daughter's birthday two years ago.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

'We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. 

The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day.' 

This 2011 I am very lucky to be celebrating New Year in my own country...although I'm only celebrating it with my love ones (no parties for me), it's enough for me to know that I'm safe in my own place and knowing that 2011 will bring more opportunities for me to realise my dreams, InsyaALLAH....

Towards the end of December we have received news that my hubby and me will be sent home for a long vacation...so we take the news as a positive ones and on 27th of December we are back in Malaysia. Took some time to adjust and starting our life back in Malaysia but Alhamdulillah this end of January we managed to secure a few orders for cakes. Like we Malays used to say 'rezeki ada dimana-mana kalau pandai cari' (your luck is everywhere if you know how to find it).

But before we leave, I managed to baked some Christmas Cake and Cupcakes for our friends in Jeddah.

Chocolate Moist Cake

Oreo Cupcakes

Black Forest Cake

LIVING ABROAD

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." –Jawaharlal Nehru

Hubby and me have been living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the past 4 years (on and off)...the things that we miss the most is local FOOD. You wish you can eat your favorite food where you can't find it in this new land. You want to come back and taste the food you really like the most. I am sure you have your favorite food at your origin country where you come from. My favorite food is Satay, the kind where the you can taste the spices on the skewered meat and the sauce, ohlalala...the delicious peanut sauce, I'm salivating already! And I miss the 24 hours Mamak Stall where you can hang out and eat roti canai anytime you want. 

Here, in my compound you have to take shuttle at 5pm and come back at 9.30pm if you want to go downtown. Supermarket in this compound is unreliable, you can't even get simple ingredients! Or if the weather is not too hot, you can walk about 20 minutes to outside supermarket and even that supermarket don't sell fresh chicken or fish! Malaysian Restaurant is non-existent in Jeddah however, there are Indonesian, Thailand and Philippines Restaurant. But still you crave that food from your own country...So what I usually did is too cook and improvise with whatever ingredient that we have....

Nasi Lemak (thanks to my housemate's friend who brought the ikan bilis fresh from Malaysia!)

Karipap Pusing

Ayam Percik

Chilli Crab

The Cupcakes Story

Time flies so fast and it's already December, looking forward to 2011...lots of project coming up for MY Galley Artwork next year, InsyaAllah! 

My first ever order was to make a birthday cupcakes for my sister's neighbour, I had no learning experience in making cupcakes but I tried my best! That was in 2008, at that time cupcakes was 'in'. After that, I took classes in Basic Cupcakes Decoration. My teacher was Kak Ayu of Loveliana Cakes, she teaches me have to decorate with fondant and from then on, I started taking more orders.

While no one is quite certain where cupcakes came from, it is known that they made an appearance in the United States sometime in the 19th Century. There are two theories on the origin of cupcakes, the name comes from the amount of ingredients used to make the cake for example; a cupful of flour, a cupful of butter, cupful of sugar, etc. The other theories is that these cakes were originally baked in cups, thus the name 'cupcakes'.

Cupcakes till now, is still popular in Malaysia. I always have orders for cupcakes every week. I guess because of the cute size and it's easier to eat, you don't need spoon or cut the cake to eat it.

My first Cupcakes order