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

Celebrities & Cakes

This time I am not going to write about my cakes, I want to write about Celebrities' Cakes. I luurrvveee to see their cakes! Very interesting...Here are some of the unique and bizarre cakes....

Dato' Siti's 9-tiers Cake decorated with 1,200 gold plated roses worth RM12,000!!

The 'Diva' Cake

 Spacecraft Wedding Cake for Our Malaysian Astronaut, Dato' Sheikh Muzaffar

Another 'Diva' Cakes

Mawi & Ikin's Wedding Cake with Arabian Nite Theme

Birthdays & Cakes

'Birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake.'

I think this was my 5th birthday party (please note the 70s style~very retro!) 

Love the color combination that I did on the birthday cake

Birthday party Arabic style! Take note off the 2.5 kgs Chocolate Moist Retro Cake that I did on the birthday cake!

The Balck Forest cake on my 35th birthday courtesy of my good friend, Saadiah

I remember when I was small, I celebrated my birthday every year. Being the youngest and very pampered in my family, I insisted on having a birthday cake custom made with design of my choice. It depends on my interest at the time, but one cake that I still remembered till today was my 'piano' chocolate cake. My Along ordered for me from KL. I stayed in small town, Tampin so I guess having a cake ordered all the way from KL was very glamourous! At that time, I dreamt of becoming a piano player, unfortunately my dream was shattered by my own piano teacher. She was so garang that she kicked me if I played the piano wrongly! Scarrreeeyyy! 

This year, I celebrated my birthday with my friends at Red Box Karaoke, The Curve. My friend, Saadiah bought me a Black Forest Cake. Being my birthday and all, I don't mind having a cake not made by my own hands. It's my birthday, gimme a break will ya? He..He...

My 2 Regular Customers

According to my baking teacher, if you want to market your product, you have to give free samples. So, I started to bake cakes and cupcakes for free samples. My first customers are these two housemates...Andy and Fahmy. Andy loves my 2-layer Vanilla and Strawberry Moist cake (she said this should be my signature cake) while Fahmy loves my Bluberry Cheese Cake. Well, different people different taste, some say my cakes are too ''filling'' and others just loves it...it's ok, they are entitled to their own opinion. However, my hubby, he likes the leftover (kerak) of the cake, hhmmm...I rest my case! And so, every month, Andy and Fahmy will order my cake, every month different flavour, I wonder what flavour will it be for next month?

Birthday cake for Fahmy (2-layered Vanilla & Strawberry Moist cake)

The cake I made for our Indonesian's friends Eid Fitri party-sample to market my cakes (it works!)

Oreo Chocolate Cheese Cake

Blueberry Cheese Cake (tu tangan Fahmy, tq Fahmy!)

Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha...

Happy Eid ul-Adha to all....may this holy occasion brings peace, joy and Allah's blessings.

Raya di perantauan...meriah jugak. As usual our house jadi tempat makan-makan but this time I got no time to make nasi impit, kuah kacang and so on because Alhamdulillah I have a few orders to make. So, yours truly buat rendang je, the rest pot-luck. 

Rendang Ayam

Makanan 'Pot Luck' : Mee Rebus, Lontong, Bubur Pulut Hitam, Serunding, Nasi Impit (terima kasih kawan-kawan)

Blueberry Cheese Cake-ordered by my regular customers :)

Chocolate Balls (delivered to the owner Malam Raya)

GOING SOLO...

Disebabkan partnerku yang selalu pegi oversea, yours truly buat kek sorang2...it's ok, I like to bake alone at least I have some peace...instead of listening to 'unwanted' sound. I also send some cupcakes and fancy cookies for sale at my nieces' school in Shah Alam. At the same time, I'm also working in DIGI as a Customer Service Consultant. But hubby and me still nak balik kerja di Jeddah, things are not going so well in Malaysia for us, too many 'chaos' plus I need the money to get my cake business going....

QUOTE OF THE DAY : 

Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

Cupcakes yang my cousin order for Rumah Amal Cahaya Tengku Ampuan Rahimah

 Blueberry Cheese Tart and Fruit Cocktail Tart

My Course at Wilton

In between my on and off time flying in Jeddah (that's the best thing about my employer ni boleh balik resign/long break kemudian datang balik a few months after that), I managed to attend classes at Wilton to learn new skill and techniques of cake decorating. Kelas dekat Seksyen 14, PJ so for a month once a week ulang aliklah dari Shah Alam pegi kelas. I enjoyed the classes and at the same time me and my friend (now ex-friend, I'm sad to announce that, hu..hu...) decided to form partnership and venture into cake business. I'm proud to say that we are doing quite well, every week ada order, alhamdulillah...errr, if you notice our cakes are mostly in pink color, that's my favourite color so if you want to order from me, please specify the color of your choice if not I will decorate it with pink!

How it all begins...

I started baking cupcakes in 2008, masa tu balik Malaysia lepas kejadian kena kelar dekat Dhaka, Bangladesh. Memang dah tak nak fly lagi dah! At that time, cupcakes tengah 'in'. So to prepare myself, I went for cupcake class in Puchong. We learned basic decoration technique, so this is some of the result of what I learned....Masa tu tak terfikir nak buat full time I have no confidence, just taking orders for some of my relatives and friends. Lagipun, I'm helping my sister with her boutique. I guess I lost my focus and not sure what to do.So I kind of forgotten about my cupcakes....

Hi uollss.....

Welcome to my blog...I have to admit I created this blog for business purposes (to advertise my businesslah). But at the same time I want to tell stories about my food. I believe that every food that we create (cooklah tu) and every cakes, pastries, desserts that we create there's a story behind it. (why, what, where, when ~ mcm kita buat esei kat sekolah dulu tu). 

As my friend Andy says 'it begins with the smell of food' and so my story begins....enjoy :)