Quick overview :)

Assalamualaikum..

I've been on the run for these past few days. I promised myself to write a new post today, under whatever circumstances that I might be in. So, let's just start off with my dear friend's wedding on last Saturday :



*Bed and hubby, may both of you are blessed with lots of love and.. err.. kids ;P*

As soon after the wedding ceremony plus endless model-like photo shoots, we dropped by Echah's house and eventually had a private batch's meeting betul-betul depan rumah. Hehehe.. 10 years of friends.. Time had flown by so fast :(

We reached KL later that night and had our teh tarik session in ABC Ampang and continued our conversation up till the wee hours in the morning. Barely none of us had enough sleep but since time spent is so limited and priceless, gossiping and 'patching up empty holes' were a MUST!


Still, nobody could actually believed that Bed has finallY married ;P


The next day, me and Suraya went to OU. I finally had my own copy of Peggy Porcshen's Pretty Party Cakes. I was totally thrilled :) We later savoured some BR ice-creams and hats off to the counter guy who had been so patient with me - I'm lousy at selecting - every flavour looked superbly nice and luscious.

I rambang mata so easily.
Yup.
Even if it's regarding ice-cream.
Or should I say especially regarding food.
Cakes, ice-creams, donuts.
Frappes and ice-blended.
I can't even pick one out of three..
Gheee.. ;P

Went back to Seremban, my family and I had our late lunch - steamboat.
Hot and steamy. YUM.

LR : Youngest, younger, me.

Ayah and mak :)

Monday was my I-don't-care-I-want-to-sleep day :)

I didn't sleep all day long lah.
I just slept a few extra more hours je :P

We made these on Tuesday. Cream cheese with chocolate chips pound cake :

Before bake [My sister asked, perlu ke gambar ni? :P]

After baked. Lucky only both of us were in the house :)

My sister went back Penang later that night.Together with loaves of cakes as demanded :) I, on the other hand, had to make these for today's jamuan Hari Raya as souvenirs for VVIPs together with 300 cupcakes and 18 chilled mango puddings :

-5 flower pots-

side view - (h) 9cm (l) 6cm bottom 8cm top

Purple colour, just how I like it :)

They were flower pots- cake and sugarpaste version.
A lot had mistaken them for the real ones :P
Kenapa bagi cenderahati pasu bunga pulak?
Hikhikhik.

Ok, it's time to clear up my kitchen.
Next order will be more chocolate cakes ^_^
I promise I won't bore you with more choc cake pixs :P

I need to try harder ;)

mini-sized cupcakes
standard size cupcakes for 'hantaran'
another round of fancy cupcakes
these also
12" chocolate moist cake coated with ganache

I was asked a question during a recent interview with the New Straits Times,
" What makes you(myself) venture into this baking industry?"

I replied,
" Why people keep on asking me this kind of question? Isn't that obvious? Everybody has their own particular interest isn't it?"

Gulp!
That answer stuck somewhere along the throat.

I gave my best shot,
" From my early childhood's time, I've figured out that baking is one of the thing that fascinates me. You add and mix 4 to 5 ingredients together and within some period of time, you get to savour your own cakes or cookies. When people complimented your products, you feel good about yourself. Inside your heart, something whispers and tells you, this is exciting. This whole trial and taste cycle is just fantastic. I want to do this all my life. And that's how the rest of the history started."

Fuh.. Berbelit lidah.

*I just made that up*

During my school days, I figured out that Physics had excite me the most. Those equations. Those experiments. I thought I might be able to become a good physicist one day.

But things started to fall apart. During my university days, Physics were defined as sakit kepala, sakit mata (experiment), pening, I-kill-that-profs' night time ambition and list goes on. I know this is not what I want to put myself into once I started my career later in life. Kudos to all physicists out there who had managed to cope with the stress ;) [ I don't really hate my profs ;P]

As a 19 year-old (during that time), I made a huge turning point of my life. Dad was not really on my side and I almost gave up upon convincing him to trust my decision that quitting university was the best for me. He was afraid that I might somehow suffer from inferiority complex. I might not berdiri sama tinggi, duduk sama rendah with my fellow friends. Yeah, I still feel that way, ayah.

But that's got nothing to do with not pursuing my goals. I know. My goals at this very moment are not as clearer as I would like to picture them. But I have so many dreams. That alone will accompany me through any obstacles, I hope (and I pray hard too).

So here I am, trying harder to satisfy my heart's desire. I always wanted to come up with the best. For the time being, these are some of my homemade baked products. ( I meant to place them down here, but nevermind). More pictures will be uploaded soon.

*Finally my page warna-warni sikit :)*

My huge crush ^_^

He has the most amazing pair of eyes. Innocent and inviting. So pure and full of lives. The moment he entered the room leave me dumb-founded. I quickly offered him a glass of drink, in hoping that I can cover up the feeling of awkwardness. He smiled and gently refused. "Dah ambil dah tadi, terima kasih."

Gosh. He was so sweet.

He politely took some food for his brother. With a pleasant shyness, I asked him his name. He answered, Aslam. What a great name that goes perfectly well with his good-mannered behaviour. With a flash of his drop-dead boyish grin, he left the room, leaving me and my precious cousin went totally ga-ga over him.

Over some great food, I watched him with great admiration. He was very patient with his brother. To know the fact that he is the son of the neighbourhood's imam makes my heart blooms. I can't deny that I had a huge crush on him.

As fate brought it, it's time for his family to say goodbye. He came to us and kindly shook our hands. I definitely wished for a more 'moment like this' :)

He finally left. I started to smile alone as my cousin praised him off. Good. I have an approval without having to ask for one. When I'm finally landed on the real world, I realized that only one thing's lacking.

He's only seven :P
The world is not fair, right?

He's going to be a very fine gentleman.
A great brother.
A fantastic son.
At least, that's one of my hopes since I'm definitely can't wait that long for him to grow up.

My crush has just gone in the wind~

True blessing ;)

It's not just another Sunday..

It's a day where I was :
hugged and kissed by my dearest niece, cousins, and aunt;
complimented endlessly for my ehem, cakes (what else? hehe);
overwhelmed by true support and lengthy advices from my satu kapla cousins;
mingling with people who wore lots of bling-blings (dush!);
laughing my heart out;
savouring the BEST soto in the world;
and
rewarded handsomely for my long hours of working. Alhamdulillah ;)

Teasing. Grinning. Smiling.
I wished all my siblings could have been here together.
Things could have been so much better.

And I did all that while suffering from constipation [1 hari je, normal for others but not for me] ;P
Uncomfortable. True.
But all the other nicer feelings covered up the uneasiness :)
I was having so much fun today.

Sometimes, we might have amiss things that are just so important to us, in any way possible.
Family is a great treasure.
I thanked God today for all the love and care showered.
And more in the years to come, hopefully.

Perfect close-knit family = Priceless.

Sorry for my bad vocab. I'm too drowsy to write, but I want my feelings to be jotted down while the warmth is still there.

Thanks again, God.
This is one very fine, true blessing :)

Happier tomorrow please~

I have a very strange feeling. I've done with my customers' orders and I'm dead tired. Knackered. Exhausted. My back is killing me. My legs are limping. My eyelids are as heavy as my ceramic piggy-bank. The comfortable firmness of my mattress and pillows doesn't seem to help me to sleep. Do I need someone to sing me lullaby?

It's almost 4 a.m. Lord. Something must have been terribly wrong somewhere.

I must have said something I didn't meant to say.
Or I must have keep mum for something that I have to say.

I lost for words.
My mind can't be working properly at this wee hour.
I think I have made quite an amount of stupid decisions these few days.
I think I may have considered sinful to some people who have misunderstood me.

I'm a very complex person.
Somehow, sometimes I can't even explain myself.
And yes, I do have problems starting off conversations.
For those whose hearts I've been accidentally scratched, please accept my humblest apology.
I hate this I-think-I've-made-a-mistake feeling.


If this is a kind of punishment, it's still ok if I deprive for sleep, but God please, remind me to behave well tomorrow. I lost my temper easily these days. It's a big day for me. I don't want to ruin it.

Gosh.
I really need my old me.

Motive + action ?

I'm trying to find some inner strengths. As strangely as it may sound like, my bums weigh surprisingly triple from the existing ones today. I wonder why.

I scarcely do any household chores. I read the newspapers and heartlessly flipped through pages of a new magazine my dad bought. [I can't seem to remember a thing, oh, no, wait, I remembered Fabregas slammed Wenger for Arsenal's lack of experienced players :P ]

And I have an incalculable amount of works that needed to be done. Everything is just not in place and nope, I'm not having PMS.

* I am definitely not going to die this soon, I hope*

I neither could find my nike's green t-shirt that had these so-called motivational words embossed on it :
THE ROAD IS LONG
SO WHAT?

I istighfared seven times in hoping that I can extricate myself from this ntah ape-ape feeling. Then I remembered this one proverb:

You never will be the person you can be if pressure,
tension and discipline are taken out of your life.
James G. Bilkey

Right. I guessed I just have to slap myself shamelessly for being so helpless and let my feeling to take control over my not-so-sane mind.

KJ, I'll write about 'the tag thing' right after I'm done with my customers' orders :)

I think I just have to drag my bum!

Isn't everyone born unique?

I am very new to blogging.
As more comments and readers can be invaluable, one can't help but to write good stuffs in hoping that readers may, at least, satisfy with how their precious time is well spent.
But I am guilelessly admit that I am ignoramus about getting more responders for my blog.
Oh heck.
I don't even know how to modify it's unattractiveness at the first place myself.
I guess I am better in the kitchen :P

But that doesn't stop my real intention of writing.
I wanted my voices to be heard.
I wanted my views to be reviewed.
I wanted my opinions to be well-noticed.
I wanted to conquer the world of bloggers! [ that's wholly exaggerated ;)]

The thought of ingratiating through writing blogs can be tiring.
I have no idea what do readers expect from a blog.
So, as a solution-finder myself, I think it will be best for me to search/read through 'recommended' good blogs.

And these are what I found:

1. The way of writing is more or less the same ( can I say the format?).
2. The content is more or less the same.
3. The theme is more or less the same.
4. The choice of words is more or less the same.
5. The reviews of movies/books/shopping malls/weather are more or less the same.

Or in short, some of these bloggers were actually imitating each other.
Please.
Even toddlers can tell that they're not accidental.
But for those bloggers of transcendent uniqueness, well done!
We're born with different traits, don't we?
Or is it the natural way of how we actually think or brought up or cultured?

"I will get more attention if I write as how he/she writes"
"I will be noticed if I place this/that inside my blog just like how he/she did"
"I am in a a state of total irresolute. Nevermind. I can copy his/her topic."

I don't know what will you think about this. But I do know now that I will continue writing as long as I feel like to. Name it personal or informative or B.O.R.I.N.G., I will be happy as long as I don't have to be someone I am not. Period.

The sun won't always shine after the rain~

Being not productive and passive are self-destructing..
Being not able to differentiate between right and wrong is frustrating..
Being not able to make a decision is worst than devastating..

So in which state that I am in right now?

Let's see.. urm.. I guess I'm in all three.. Gosh! This is SO not good..

I used to work 8 to 12 hours everyday while on my feet for the past 6 months. It was not an easy stuff. I've dealt with the 220C heat from the oven, the backache from lifting up 25kilos' packs of flour almost everyday, the -24C walk-in freezer's I'll-lose-my-nerves temperature whenever boxes of semi-ready products needed to be stored, hundreds of buns, cakes, pastries and pies to work with, plus the ever-annoying attitudes of some hey-missy-u-don't-know-who-u-are-dealing-with-here colleagues; I knew I had picked hell to live while on earth.

The 6 months went by, I lost a total of 7 kilos in weight (a surprise outcome I didn't know I would achieve), and I think my torturous days had finally gone in the wind.

I am DEAD wrong.

I thought all I want in life now is living happily and hustle-free with my parents right here in my hometown. I enjoy the carefree feeling. I feel like I am finally rewarded with something that I've longed for ages. I've been living independently for the past 10 years plus, and I thought, hey, why on earth not, I deserve a piece of mind, a calmer and peaceful place to live in. I hate big cities. Or so I thought.

7 days went by from the day I declared my 'official' holiday.
I know the whole situation of this so-called carefree living is doing me no good.
I'm gaining weight.
I speak to myself in front of the mirror.
I laugh alone while doing my 'morning business'.
I can even memorize some of the TV's movies' lines ( you can tell that I've been watching the same movies time and time again, 'thanks' to astro!)
And I called my cats ala sayang sayang..
Euww.. please tell me my brain is still working..
I know this is just another doom's day for me.

The only thing that makes my day brighter was trying out new recipes and tasted them out. Haha.

Which on the other hand isn't very good either since I keep on having the creamy chocolate ganache as a luxurious spread for my bread, day and night. By what I mean luxurious is whenever I sandwiched 2 slices of bread together, the ganache will overflow and whenever I ate them, it will definitely smeared my mouth. I couldn't help it. It tasted so good. [ I was supposed to keep the fudge for my aunt's cake this Saturday, but I made extra (double!), you know, just in case my sweet tooth craving attacked ;) ]

I made some chicken sausage rolls as well yesterday and I successfully had my teeth dug onto them as breakfast this morning ( and errr.. some also as my supper's last night, I think..)

And I'm thinking about making some cheese tarts in the next few hours.

See.. This whole try&taste thing drives me nuts. Last night before I went to bed, I stick a post-it note on the dining table, asking my mom to bring a loaf of chocolate cake that I've made to her office. And I was so glad that she did.

What do I got to do now?

I have another piles of recipes that I'm eager to try out.
That means another cycle of oh-NO-to-whom-will-I-give-them-to-but-I-LOVE-to-try-them-out.
I know my parents probably would LOVED to see no more baked products on the table this time around, at least for the moment.

I don't really care about the gain-weight thing actually.
I can even eat a horse without hesitation.

I just hate to make decision.

I have several job offers ( which require me to go back to the city),
I have to decide whether to further my study or start working.

I know it will all up to me..
I wished this all decision-making situation is as easier as how I choose a recipe and try it out.

I think if I can picture the end-result, as how I made the analogy of baking a cake, I wouldn't have to sound so helpless as I am now.

I hate being a grown-up.
And I hate cities.

Let's just make some cheese tarts instead.
And perhaps some fudgy-wudgy double chocolate brownies.
Shoot.. I forgot.
I've run out of cocoa powder.
Nevermind.
Let's see if we can substitute that with white chocolate chunks.

To all food lovers, you have my heartiest condolences ;)

Time for my brain.

Assalamualaikum..

I spent last 48 hours with attending rumah terbuka of my parents' friends. Sangat muhibbah. I made 2 batches of moist butter cake for some mini cupcakes and that 'some' mini cupcakes turned out to be like 200 plus in quantities. With some colourful buttercream frostings on top, they made me feel like I-will-commit-a-sin-if-I-eat-this. But I ate them anyway. In fact, I ate like 2 dozens of them and I had a very smooth bowel movement this morning, if you got I mean :) The rest of the cupcakes were boxed as buah tangan for the rumah terbuka organizers. Since they were nicely ribboned, some guests even joked our gift as hantaran. Haha.. It's not that funny, folks. I'm too young to get married.

I'm only about to turn 22.
Next month.
Way too young for a lifelong commitment ;)

The rest of the hours (minus some 12 hours plus for sleeping and playing with my 5 3-weeks-old adorable kittens) were spent with my favourite old hobby : reading. Nope. I'm not going to summarize any book. I didn't do any 'heavy' book-shopping lately except for 1 cheesecake book I fell in love with while I was at the Times' Pavilion last week. I did virtual reading. I read a lot of blogs, newspaper articles, journals, more proverbs and list goes on. Consider yourself lucky when you manage to find very good reading materials in the net. I know, they're A LOT. But when you can find something that really moves and flicks every neuron inside your brain, it gets very addictive. As an avid reader, it's a pleasure when you can read something informative and fits your heart's content.

I'm not trying to say that I'm a smart person since I read and read and read. Reading will only make you smart when the correct informations from the excerpts were carefully selected, truly digested and implemented when necessary.

Sometimes I can read a novel, praise it off and forget the name of the author. Sometimes I can spent my monthly allowance for 'good, heavy' books but ended up reading them half way.
Sometimes I can feel very down and negative and even retarded when the world was not on my side though I have like a dozen of self-help or self-improvement books, not to mention those power of positive thinking/sub-conscious mind thing bla bla bla.
Most of the time I can even started off a conversation and sounded like a complete jerk ( this was base on a true story!).

See.. I am not 'that' smart.
I'm just plain and simple just like everybody else. Reading can be frustrating too, sometimes, when things that you wished to apply can't be done at the right time or when things that you expect to see were not fully delivered. But I definitely not going to blame the hobby ;) It's worth the value of the money and time spent. It's an investment for my brain's sake. Hahaha.

So today, I am truly greatful for all these globalization things that had do me good in flourishing my passion in reading, in a much more simpler and economy-friendly way. Haha. And let's not forget to be thankful too for the ability to read and think that God had given us. Pick good materials to read on. Jokes aside, you and me have to keep abreast with the world around us. We're not growing any younger ;)

It's good, it's good, it's good!

Assalamualaikum..

I spent most of my time today doing good things, I supposed. After a little backache of sweeping the whole house in the morning(I've only started to work my butt off today, and it's not that my house is humongous, it's because the height of the broom is not really in a suitable proportion to mine), cooking lunch for dad ( sawi putih masak lemak + sambal gesek + grilled ikan cencaru marinated with black pepper sauce), sending mom's clothes for dry cleaning, went to the post office to drop some letters off, printing out my graduation pictures and successfully baked 2 loaves of succulent, delicious moist chocolate cakes ( a new recipe, I came across it last night, and yes, I'm going to gain some more weight if I keep this hobby going, haha) , I thought I could have had some rest in the evening.

But I can only proposed ;) After posting some advertisements and put a little effort on creating my label's logo ( not good at it, at all..), I received some more orders for weddings in November. Alhamdulillah.. So I started to choose recipes, flipping through dozens of pages of wedding cakes' designs, sketched some, write down a to-do-list and saved them all in my Google docs. The moment I was about to take my bath, my mom came home and I discussed the day off. After a few minutes, my phone rang and the door bell rang too ( I was that busy ar? hehe) They were my neighbours, invited us over for open house for the weekend. Good. Prospects. More business proposals ;)

My parents left afterward for 'jalan raya'. I was watching Oprah and decided, yes, I will take my bath as soon as the show is over.. You know it's not true. My phone rang again and it was my mom calling to inform another close family's friends are on their way to my house. I know that I have to postpone my bath (again!), soak some meehoon, skinned some garlics, sliced a few stalks of sawi and boil the water. Fill up the kuih raye and hide up my big jar of Cadbury's. Haha. But the kids found them afterward, of course, they are good at it (hide & seek, remember?). Nevermind loh...hikhik..

The family left at around 11.30pm. Ok. I really SHOULD take my bath NOW. But something distract my good intention off. I checked my mails and came across my friend's flickr's page. He was soooo GOOOD with almost all of the pictures taken and I am impressed! I really do. The pictures were stunningly beautiful and I couldn't help myself from viewing them with opened jaw! :) (Mind you, he has about 500+ pictures). His parents must have been proud of him. You can view his wonderful pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/musanorazmi (Hope you don't mind, Musa). I guaranteed that you'll soon be in awe too.

Ok. It's time to take my bath. Hee.. I know, it's late. It's already 2.32 am. My dad would have scolded me if he is still awake. Moral of the story, don't procrastinate my friend. You can never expect what's coming up next. Lucky for me it was only a matter of taking a bath :P

Are you willing to sacrifice?

I just watched a very heart-touching movie : Helen, the baby fox.. I know.. I know.. the title sounded funny but the movie was not.. Japanese are so good at this, making up movies with very much good values. Though some were not, but this is by far a very good one.. I was about to cry but then my dad was right behind me, reading the newspapers, so I just tried to think of something else to prevent my tears from flowing down..hehe.. but I couldn't.. nothing can distract a woman from crying.. when she feels like to, she'll cry.. hahaha.

OK..It's a story about a boy named Sullivan who had saved and took care of an injured baby fox (of course, it's Helen). Helen had severe brain injury that caused her for not being able to see and hear.. Sullivan's father, who happened to be a veterinarian, said that Helen should be put to sleep.But Sullivan declined and insisted to take care of the fox. Without hesitation, he claimed himself as Helen's mother. Mind you, Sullivan was only about 6 years old. He had great hopes that Helen will recover and started to hold to his dreams that one day they'll be able to see the flowers in the summer, skateboarding, and cycling together.

At the end of the story, of course, Helen died.. But she died while both of them are realizing their dream.. It wasn't summer yet, but Sullivan had pluck dozens of flowers and arranged them around Helen.. It was so touching on how Sullivan, at that very young age, embracing all hurdles to make sure that Helen can live longer and happier to her very last day. And it was remarkable that Sullivan never complains and whines about how difficult it could have been, taking care of a deaf and dumb cub..

Are we capable of doing the same thing? I know, this is just a movie. A make-up story. It probably could have been a true story though. Maybe.. But the point that matters is, are we willing to sacrifice? If, one day, we are given a dumb, deaf and retarded child by God, if, again, do we have the courage to do the same? Can we look at the brighter side and keep on living our lives to the fullest? Can we stay positive and overcome any challenges? Can we?

Oho.. I don't want to get too emotional about this.. Or maybe because the fact that I have dozens of cats and I love them so much, make me feel like this.. I don't know.. But I do know that after I watched this movie, I honoured all the good mums in the world. I respect all dedicated fathers around the globe. It's not easy to sacrifice everything for your loved ones but parents can do that easily. I will always love you, mak and ayah :) You know I do..

How on earth should i start off?

My house had been a complete mess ever since my brother got married last July.. inside and outside.. huh.. I know.. it's been quite a long time.. everybody had been busy.. I've had only managed to clear some things up starting this morning..I really feel like doing a total makeover, paint my house with brighter colours such as red and purple, get rid of all those spare tyres and preppy clothes, buy more cabinets, sell those old newspapers, recycle anything that appear as recyclable.. hah.. the list goes on.. but I don't know from where should I start.. haha.

I received several cake orders today.. alhamdulillah.. God had been great.. this is the time to shine.. why should I wait any longer? 1 2-tiers wedding cake in November, 1 for my mum's friend, another 2 cakes for my beloved aunt next week (she had ordered earlier), some chocolate cakes samples that needed to be done by this month for February's wedding.. sometimes I do wonder if I have the heart to say no to my loyal customers' orders once I further my study? or do I have to start this business now itself? or do I really capable of doing this business part-timely while coping with my studies? everything seems to happen at the same time.. confusion.. confusion..

oh and hey, I bet you will see more of these in the future.. I'm a part time writer and poet (no, I don't have to confess anything, I'm just not jiwang in 'that' way).. I just happened to love proverbs and such.. they require serious thinking.. it's an accidentally nice hobby afterall :)

If I don't grab the chance and seize the opportunity,
If I don't stay focus and lose my patience,
If I don't set the goal and embrace the challenges,
If I don't fight the war and injured myself,
If I don't stand tall after I fall,
If I can't put myself at the top,
Don't call me by my name,
Munirah means bright,
Radiant,
Brilliant,
And luminous.
I will stick to my dreams..

p/s : this was the cake I made for my niece on her 3rd birthday.. dark chocolate mousse cake. yummy!

A calm sea won't make a skillfull sailor

Some hurdles, I've jumped over them,
Some living parasites, I've killed them,
Some luck, I've appreciated them,
Some love, thank u God, I've savoured them.

Welcome to my blog. I wished that I could have started this one off sooner. But time seems to envy me. It's been a long windy road. I've finished my tertiary studies. Now I am a holder of 2 diplomas and 1 advanced diploma. What do I got to do with those? Heee.. I still feel like a learner.. I think I'll continue my studies further up, hopefully.

Anyway, Selamat Hari Raya everyone.. Hope that everybody was having a fantastic one :)

I made the cake shown, our special Raya treat : luscious black forest cheesecake.. best tau :)