Monday, August 11, 2008

Yay!!! It's Monday!


This was the cake I made for my Saturday class. The wordings were a request from MC since she will be taking in this cake to her office.

The clouds - I find them really cute and this good idea is just on time for an up-coming order. You will get to see on Thursday or so.

The rainbow made out of star piping - 3 small rows of stars per rainbow colour really required a lot of time and patience! But enjoyed making them nonetheless.

Have a colourful Monday everyone!!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

What have you wished for?

Have you ever missed someone so much that you just wish that you will see him the very next second? And then just like the movie, the person you wish to see so much appears. Yes. Sounds so drama, but things like that can happen. I guess that's why they include such scenes in the movies! I am normally very oblivious to my surroundings especially when I am walking in the mall or driving. I just don't like making eye contact with passer-by or let the driver in the car driving beside me sees me looking at him/ her. But today while I drove out from TC, I was actually observant enough to spot MFG's car drove pass on the opposite side of the road. Haha... I must have been thinking of him too much. Sometimes little wishes do come true, if you wish hard enough. So guys, keep wishing.

But of course my wish won't come true if I wish to become the Queen, or wish for a million ringgit in my bank account overnight.

This weekend seemed so short and I felt that I have been extremely busy. I came home really late on Friday because I had to attend a dinner function. Saturday woke up puffy eye for reason unknown to me. I was then really busy on Saturday morning, had to get ready a frosted cake for my cake decoration class. The cake had later been transformed to the "Monday" cake.

The cake decoration class was ok and I am sure I had managed really well because the teacher decided to have my cake as the what-you-should-do sample cake at the end of the class. I had managed to fine tuned some of my technique and discover a few new cool stuff and method my my skill enhancing. I still hope we could do something more challenging. I suppose next class will be an interesting one. We will be piping roses - we kind of did a trial and I found my roses looking as though the petals were all going to fall apart. The class ended after 5pm, and I actually didn't get to go to the birthday party Shen had organized for her kids. Before I left the place, one of the students asked if I have a cake shop. After telling her not yet, she asked me when will I open one, and I actually told her "next year". Haha... finger crossed.

On Saturday night, we went to the cinema. Watched Mummy 3 and although it was entertaining, the story line was not so believable and a bit unorganized. I love seeing Asian actors/ actresses like Jet Lee and Michelle Yeoh on big screen, but they didn't seem as great as if they were to act in a Chinese movie. The effects of the movie was okay but some scenes were a bit too much lah.

My Sunday seemed extremely packed with activities. Woke up relatively early for a Sunday morning, at 9am, gave guinea pig a bath and I was out with MC to TC. She went for her baju kebaya fitting, which was bad because the baju didn't fit her at all. Then again, we both thought it was because she lost some weight when she got food poisoning last week. So, we would really like to see if they are able to "repair" the baju and we can determine whether it's worth paying so much or not. After that we had our lunch at Hometown Kopitiam. Made me miss the kopitiam I went in Singapore last week. And with that, missed MFG.

After shopping for guinea pig food (because she refuses to eat the food I just bought her last week, so got to get a different brand), we went for another round of food, this time for dessert. Not so nice.

I really had a lot to bake today, so we left TC quite early, and that was when one of my wishes was granted. Showed MC the location I am hoping to have The Tearoom and I think MC liked that location too. I really can't wait.

Very tired and I should be sleeping soon, but I still need to put up the final touch for the birthday cake for tomorrow's celebration.

Read my cake stories in the separate posts.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

While I was away...


8.30am, Tuesday: This was what I could see whenever I lifted my head, looking away from my so very not delicious breakfast. I wish I was at the beach. And the food was really bad. Should have eaten at the hotel, but I needed some fresh air. I didn't cope that well sleeping in the air-conditioned room the night before therefore was having very serious sinus. So we had decided that the best was to have breakfast outside at a non air-conditioned place. I felt much better being warm, but the road side Mamak food was really bad. Nevertheless, I wasn't sulking, it was after all great to be with MFG somewhere far away from KL. Who cared so much about food when the company was good right?

7.30pm Tuesday: When we were deciding on what to have for dinner, I suggested pork ribs since I had heard so much about it before I came. It's very difficult to get pork ribs back in KL, most of the restaurants only serve beef ribs, and I don't take beef. MFG said he knew this place near Chimes which serves tasty, juicy pork ribs. Yummy...

After deciding dinner venue, we also thought it was good to take a walk instead of hopping onto a cab. After all, we've missed going to gym for two days already. So we took a stroll from the hotel at Beach Road, passed Bugis then to Raffles Square. Breezy evening, comfortable sunset time, it was a really nice walk. Why wouldn't it be when you have someone you wanted to be with so much, walking just so close beside you?


And there we were! The BBQ ribs were really delicious! The BBQ sauce was tasty, the meat were soft and not dry. MFG said it was less juicy compared with what he remembered, but I was quite contented with the standard of the food. Much better than breakfast for sure! Besides, my stomach was too busy calming down some butterflies to notice any flaw in the food. Strangely how you still get butterflies in your stomach sometimes even though you have been with someone for quite a long time already.

Knowing me and my habit of needing to complete all my meals with desserts, MFG suggested not to order our desserts at the pork ribs place, but instead, we took a "tour" to Orchard Road and had our desserts over there.


9.00pm Tuesday: We took a cab this time to Ngee Ann City. This place was a heaven! All sorts of desserts with the aroma of coffee which could just put you to ecstasy. Haha...


MFG already knew what he wanted before we arrived at our destination. The Chocolate Mud Pie. Erm... okay, no it didn't look so much like a pie. There was a layer of chocolate at the bottom, with two layers of chocolate ice cream and topped with more chocolate bits and chocolate sauce. Very delicious, and MFG finished the whole thing on his own. Okay, I'd "tried" a bit of it. And here are highlights of some other interesting desserts.


This was called Chocolate Delice or something like that. A nougat parfait with a cute little chocolate cupcake with butterscotch cream.

So much bananas... A caramel banana cheesecake. Sounds delicious, but the taste was nothing so special I thought.

Rum and Raisins Truffle. The most delicious after MFG's choice. But still, not heavenly enough.

10.45pm late Tuesday night: I wish we can be in Singapore forever. I was actually very sleepy but hey, lets spend some more time out right? We decided to go to Clark Quay after desserts and we also might as well travel in one of the most convenient way over here - using the MRT. Only cost $1 to get there from Orchard Road to Clark Quay. Unlike the last time I came, now instead of slotting in the card, the single trip cards were also made of "touch and go" type. And to make sure that all passengers return the cards (because it's not the type where the machine will "eat up" the card at the end of journey) they charged a $1 extra for the card as deposits, refundable of course when you returned the card to the automatic ticket machine.

We walked the length of Clark Quay, very happening and the pubs and restaurants were quite crowded considering it was during the middle of the week and not weekends. It was breezy and serene when we were walking along the riverside, but despite the calming environment, my heart was still fluttering a lot.

I could still hear my heart pounding when we finally settled down for a drink, but it wasn't due to the alcohol. What alcohol? only 5%. "We do what Werks" was the slogan of this brewery we went to. This was a beer brewery with a shop front for people to drink. We ordered the sampler so we can try a few different flavours. Very interesting. The waitress placed our drinks on the menu card with the names of the individual flavour. That way, we knew which one we were sapling.

I realized that it is possible to have endless topics to talk about with this person and with this same person, you can also have nothing to talk about sometimes but still feel utterly comfortable with the lack of conversation and silence.

I wish I can stay out here all night with MFG, but I was really sleepy and we still had to wake up early the next morning. So better finished up the beers and headed back. We took the cab and the driver gave us a quick introduction to the routes where the night F1 will be taking place in Singapore soon. Cool!

9.30am early Wednesday morning: We checked out from the hotel early in the morning and there was no way we wanted to go back to the previous breakfast place. Trust MFG to lead the way. We had a very delicious and satisfying breakfast.


Breakfast was at this place which looked like an olden days coffee shop. It was like the Kopitiam or Old Town we have here in KL, but the food was better I thought. This was why I thought so...

The half boil eggs were just nice, and they were all prepared to perfection and very consistent with the cooking (what word do you use when making half boil eggs?). Anyways, you know what I mean, the eggs were not too cooked nor raw and all our eggs looked exactly the same "condition".
Look at the butter and kaya toast!!! I just love them. The bread was very crispy with huge chunks of butter, generous spread of rich (but not too sweet) kaya.

MFG holding the toast for my camera. See! we were still able to bite onto chunks of creamy butter which was not ruin or melted away with the bread. I thought this is how kaya and butter toasts should be.

4.30pm still on Wednesday: I was so drained. The weather was extremely hot and I was having one of my caffeine withdrawal syndrome. Can you imagine how delighted I was when I saw this sign?

Caramel Macchiato with extra caramel... nearly tempted to get one of these, but the big ones were $18 plus and the little pair were $19. Do I need to be so crazy over some Starbucks mugs? I'm on a tight budget here.

But I did buy something. It's for BIL.

Since we had to wait, I went window shopping with MFG. And the window shopping turned out to be some real shopping. MFG tried on some shirts - did I pass as a good company for shopping? How about my opinions, made sense to you?

Before we left the mall, he got himself three belts and a pair of black pants at G200 Blu. Even I got myself a pair of black pants too. The pants were on sale, from $59 to $29. I thought it was good value, and so much of having a tight budget!

I drove back from Singapore right up to Seremban. We were supposed to stop at Ayer Keroh, Jejantas Restaurant to have dinner, but I over shot. Whoops... So ended having nasi lemak at this place called Shalala Coffee. Not too bad lah the nasi lemak.

Finally, souvenirs. From TTB to MC. It's for luck. Cute or not?

From TTB to MFG. It's for health. Since MFG won't do handphone accessories, this is for the table display.
... and...

From MFG to TTB :). Never mind that it was not intentionally.

Happy Birthday BIL!!

Happy birthday BIL!

Sorry ah jie couldn't make it on time for your birthday celebration last night. Hope you like the cake more than the other "customers". May all your wishes come true.


Mango Cheesecake with Oreo base. This is my second time backing this cake. It was very well received the last time, I liked it a lot too. This is however a very light cheesecake instead of those with strong smell of cheese because half of the cake is Mascaporne cheese.

The bad thing about this cake is it's very soggy because of the fresh fruit. It's best that I avoid this if I want something with excellent presentation.

By the way, no one kept any cake for me! I only manage to save a piece for MFG.

Monday, August 4, 2008

The Baker will be away

From Monday to Wednesday.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Walnut Brownies


I was invited to a housewarming cum "farewell" party. I was supposed to go with my two entourage - non other than MC and BIL - but they both got food poisoning the night before. Suspected the food they had at Jogoya. Hmm... how unbelievable, they should not have such bad standard, hey, this is in Starhil and the meal is VERY expensive, at least to us middle income earners.

Anyways, I was planning to make some party chocolate cupcakes, but that requires a lot of preparation time and I didn't have time at all last week during the weekdays, and on Saturday (the day of the party) I had to attend the cake decoration class. So, decided to make the brownies which can be transported almost immediately straight out from the oven.

Baked these on Saturday morning...


Then off I went to my cake decor class at Desa Sri Hartmas. Stopped by at The Curve to get the ice cream to go with the brownies. By the time I arrived at the SC and Bernsy's house, it was like almost 7.30pm. I thought I was quite late because we were invited for 7pm onwards. When SC opened her door with a rather surprised look, I thought to myself, "oh no, don't tell me I got the wrong date"... Okay, it's only because I was early. Yeah, haha... I was the first to arrive!

Did a quick tour and nose around SC and Bernsy's newly renovated house, cool and very tastefully decorated. Minimalist concept which might be because they are moving out soon? And look at this innovative way of displaying the wedding portrait! Still in it's shrink wrapped, ready to be shipped soon again.


So, since Bernsy offered, I might as well company him for a drink before the crowd arrived. And since I was extremely hungry, I feasted on some delicious jam tart while waiting for the rest of the food to arrive. Hehe ...

The size of our drinks are according to our erm... body weights. Just joking! Of course it's according to one's ability towards drinking alcohol.

Later, the fruits arrived, followed by the noodle salad, and the roast chicken, and ayam percik and some more wine. By then we had some famous gym instructors - Carebear's Big Blue Bike and Shades - and lets see, those I knew were Wookie and Faz. Made a few enemies, I mean friends, through a few rounds of UNO games, and got myself new Facebook friends too.

Thanks for the hospitality SC, Bernsy, great food, great company. Definately had a lot of fun! Must catch up again before you guys leave.

Cake Decoration Method


I've enrolled for Course 1 of the Wilton Method for cake decorating and went for my first class yesterday. Hmm... It's very basic and quite slow for me in terms of the techniques for basic cake decoration. The benefit of attending that particular class was more of discovering new method in terms of tools and equipment of cake decoration.

This were what we got together with the first class. Not everything will be inclusive with the course fee. There are quite many things we need to buy, or should buy IF we want the cake decoration to be perfect.

If you do a lot of piping designs with nozzles, you will definitely want to have one of these! This is a great solution. I've been spending quite a lot of time cleaning up my nozzles after using. Imagine if butter icing got stuck in the nozzle for many days (weeks). So they must be cleaned up thoroughly and cleaning the really small area of these very small nozzles are really tough.


Spent a lot of money on the course and I was hoping to stop spending (spending big money I mean) for a while. But, there is this tool box which is really useful and more convenient and economical if I get them in one full package instead of loose items. I think lah, it's always like that when we go shopping - should we buy all in one go for the bulk purchase discount, or get them over time...

More cool stuff coming up!