A 2-tier Wedding Cake

It has been a busy week with lotsa feasting and celebration, grandma's birthday at New Majestic Hotel on Tue, buffet at Ikoi Japanese Restaurant on Wed, dinner with principal on Thu and lunch at Island Cafe on Fri.

Took leave on Fri to bake a 2-tier cake ordered by P for her best friend's solemnisation at Beaufort Sentosa on Sat. It was a fruitful day, morning I was at the agency's for radio recording for an upcoming ad tomorrow, followed by lunch w G, went to Uniqlo to get some Heat Tech long sleeve for an upcoming trip and then went to the supermart to get the flour, sugar, etc. and embarked on my baking! The baking and decorating only finished at 5am and luckily the delivery was at 3pm so I managed to catch some good sleep. :)

2 more weeks and I will get to meet my 'lil godson (the last I held him was when he was only a month old)...can't wait! Then it will be CNY, FIL's birthday, a trip to UK, KS' birthday, mom's birthday, my birthday, brother's solemnisation...it's only the 2nd week of Jan and it feels like it's going to be a busy year ahead already!!

Have a good week!

An early Christmas pressie

The first weekend after many weeks that I finally can sit down and relax and blog. :) The simple joy of stoning or watching our all-time favourite drama - ER. I wonder who still watches ER besides us. We are at the final season of it and whenever I spoke about it among my friends, no one follows it anymore. Not religiously like us. Somehow we grew attached to the characters, after close to 15 seasons of it.

Anyway, a month back, a colleague, S, ordered a birthday cake for his wifey's 30th birthday. No real must-haves or requests and he totally left it to me to decide what goes to the cake, all he gave was a budget. He was really sweet, always knew that I wanted to start a cake business someday and decided in his own little way of supporting me by giving me my first cake order. I can't thank him enough for his faith in me and his generosity. Thanks S!

This morning I went to a wholesaler to stock up on some packaging and cake supplies. I love wholesalers like this where I can spend at least half an hour or so going up and down the aisles checking out every item. Luckily the hub has his usual DVD and electronic shops to keep him entertained while I indulge myself. :)

After that I went to Daiso for a walk, always love to check out the interesting things they have. Realised that Christmas decorations are up on the shelves. Of all the festivals in a year, Christmas is my favourite! I love the atmosphere, the wet/cold weather, the spirit of giving and sharing and the start of my self-declared annual retreat cum clearing leave period.

Ribbons!!! Took some time-off 2 Fridays ago and went to my favourite ribbon wholesaler at Arab Street. Always come out of the shop with more ribbons than I ever need in this lifetime! Every girl needs her retail therapy and this is mine! ;)

If you are wondering what the subject is all about. Well....I bought another camera...hmm ya *guilty look* yes another camera. I bought the Canon Ixus 100 last year because I needed a point-and-shoot that is small enough to carry in my bag but soon realised that it was too basic for me sooooo I bought the Lumix LX5 in white. :) Talking about cameras, my first camera was given by my sis and brother-in-law on my 21st birthday, it was a Fuji film camera. For the record, the cameras I owned/still owning are:

1. Fuji film camera (can't remember the model anymore)
2. Olympus mju 300
3. Panasonic Lumix FZ7
4. Canon 450D
5. Canon Ixus 100
6. Canon 7D
7. Panasonic Lumix LX5
   

That's all for now. I shall leave you with a picture of little Jeston. :)

You know that you need a break...

when your body breaks down...it has been a super tiring past few weeks so far. Sleeping at 4-5am and waking up at 8ish with 3-4 hours of sleep a couple of times and working 7 days a week is not doing it for me...I am most of time physically tired but mentally active trying to remember the outstanding things to do. Sleeping late and not having sufficient rest has given me a sore throat, cough, running nose and backache. Most of all, I have lost my sense of taste. :( I love to eat and losing my sense of taste...Hmm... :( Haa I think I am getting old...I used to be able to do a million things and still be fine. Trying to turn in earlier today so that I can get back to work tomorrow so shall keep this post as short as possible. Let the pictures do the talking. :)

Some 2 weeks ago, Thea messaged me and asked if I can do the same cupcakes I made for Lena for her colleague's birthday. I was super excited and smiling from ear to ear!! I have cake orders this month and in Jan next year but this was THE first order. Seriously, I have never sold cakes in my life, I have always baked for family and friends...though it has always been my dream to one day sell my bakes. I had to manage her expectations and kept telling her this is the first order and I really hope it taste ok. Decorations aside, I was really concerned about how the cupcakes taste and the texture and everything. I have done this recipe many times but putting buttercream on it was the first.

I waited all day for Thea to message me on how it turned out and I am happy to hear that everyone likes the cuppies. Comments were "nice and spongy" and "nice and yummy" and I am glad that the first order was successful. :) Thanks Thea for being my first customer and making this little faraway dream of mine comes true.

If you would like to order these, leave a message and I will get back to you. :)

On the way out on Saturday evening, we saw these on the bright blue sky...kites! There is a huge kite flying community here...look at the number of kites!

Anyway we decided to hit town on Saturday since it has been months from when we last went. Orchard Road if you haven't been there in recent months has changed so much, so much more colourful with new buildings, new shops and new facade everywhere. The latest addition is Knightsbridge.

Went to the wholesaler recently and stocked up on my Pocky supply!! :)

Have a good week...I hope I get well enough tomorrow to go to work.

You know you are addicted to baking when...

Yesterday I attended the weddings of 2 uni friends who coincidentally got married on the same day and in the same hotel, one was a lunch or the other a dinner. I baked a wedding cake for W (xx) and M (nini). The line on the cake came from their wedding invite. :) A and I remembered the time when we went on a holiday together with xx before he got together with nini and he was looking around for sea shells at the beach to make a gift for nini. That was 8 years ago. xx has always been and will always remain as a wonderful friend of ours. Being the only one with a car during our uni days, xx has brought us to many places, shared many fun (and scary) moments together. xx and nini will be leaving for Hong Kong tomorrow, xx has found a job there and will be relocated there for a few years. Congrats xx and nini and see you soon in HK. :)

Continuation from my title... You know you are addicted to baking when you feel moody without baking for a week! Last weekend I felt the urge to bake something and I adapted the basic butter cupcakes and added chocolate chips to it and got chocolate chip cupcakes for brekkie. :)

And I have gone on a cook book spreeee...bought magazines and books. :)

Before I go, here's my new mug! A Canon lens mug. :)

Have a great week ahead!

We have done it

For those who have been waiting to see the creation of our cakes for the sugar paste class, here it is. :) We will start with my creation which is this 3-tier blue cake with tulip patterns which I love to bits. It takes a lot of effort to cut out the tulip pattern 1 by 1 and painstakingly stick them on 1 by 1. It takes a lot of patience as the pieces are rather delicate and thin so 1 piece may be broken into a few pieces and you have to join them back together and making sure it looks so well joined together that no one can see. :)

Every cake is different and it represents our individual's style. Each has its own unique flavour and charm. Our instructor asked at the end of the class whether we have ever imagined creating cakes like this and our answers were "no". I guess the class helps us understand the different techniques of playing with fondant and the only limitation is our imagination. I kinda am missing the Sat classes and the sticking of the tulips for my final test. Oh well, time to do something about that imaginary cake shop that I have always dream about.

Proudly holding my certificate. :)


Tracy's cake


Salimah's cake

Salimah created this cake with a story in mind. The groom is supposed to climb up to the top step-by-step and I really mean step-by-step, you can see the staircase that she has created for the groom to reach the top with the ring. :)

Ruth's cake

Love the pretty arrangement on Ruth's cake - the beautiful base with the roses, the nice tiara at the top of the cake and the butterflies!

Till the next update, happy new year to my Malay friends and to the rest, happy hols and long weekend. :)

The 100th Post

As I was about to click on start a new post, I noticed that the last post was no. 99 which means this is my 100th post, not many by blogging standards. I recalled the time when I first started this blog with my first post about 2.5 years ago. How time flies! I hope my baking has improved over time from basic butter and chiffon cakes to chocolate and fondant cakes today. Nowhere near retail standards but I do hope one day I can sell my baking and bring smiles, joy and little surprises to people who receive or eat them. :)

Anyway last Thu I baked a small batch of butter cupcakes for my colleague's birthday. If time permits, I prefer handmade gifts for birthdays, be it cards, cakes, etc. I love receiving handmade gifts too. I am glad Lena likes them and was very touched when she saw them. That priceless look makes all the work worth it. :)

Here's my 4th lesson's creation. The cake wasn't very well covered because the aircon was turned on at home when I was covering it. New thing learned! Never cover your cakes in an aircon environment. =|

This coming week will the last and final lesson at BIY as well as the test day! We are required to do a 3-tier cake before we will be awarded our PME diploma module 1 - sugar paste technique. I am looking forward to it, seeing everyone's creation especially Salimah's! :)

Thanks for dropping by! Have a good week!

A Restful Weekend

I finally had a pretty restful weekend. Besides catching up with my colleagues on Fri evening, sugar paste class on Sat, we celebrated Jeston's 3rd birthday on Sat, brekkie with the in-laws on Sun morning and some shopping in the afternoon. In addition to that I slept at 11pm on Sat till 9ish on Sun, it's a luxury to be able to sleep at 11pm these days having leaving office at 10pm and dinnering at close to 11pm. All in all, it was a great weekend! :) How was yours?

Some overdue pictures from my sugar paste class 2 Sat ago. We made a fruit basket and had a lot of fun making the fruits in different shapes and sizes. I love how my purple blanket turned out. The kiddish purplish floral blanket reminds of how a little girl's blankie looks like.

I brought the cake for my dad's birthday and put my colourful candles from Bangkok to good use.

Little Jeston seems to be enjoying the cake. I would like to think that he's a discerning food connoisseur. ;)

Pictures from the 3rd class. How time flies! We will be into our 4th class this weekend and finishing it on the 4th Sep with a test. Pass the test then we get the diploma! I haven't thought of what to do yet for the finals! Minimum 2-tier cake...any suggestions anyone?

This is from our very sweet classmate, Salimah, who made the "glue" for us with this thoughtful nail polish container that allows us to easily brush it on our fondant and stick our decorations together.

3 things that made me smile:

1. Jeston who turns 3 this Thu, was so glued to this particular page in the iPad toy story app that he repeated it at least 5 times to us on Sat. It was so funny thinking back and never failed to put a smile on our faces.
2. The little surprise "glue" that Salimah made for us.
3. A great weekend so far.