Mum's Birthday 2011

We did a big-do for mum's birthday on the 17th of Sept. It's our first time organizing such a big party for her. She was away in US and came back just a day before her birthday. I decided that I wanted to make her birthday cake and starting planning a couple of months before, but it was so stressful! I've made cakes for so many of my cell members and close friends and thought that if it's for my mum, it has to be extra special.

But the problem was, previously when I made those cakes, my mum was always around to supervise and guide me. This time I was on my own as I wanted to surprise her.

So a week before, I still had no solid plan on what cake I would make her. Then decided I'd just go ahead with one of my initial plan of making her a sponge cake filled with strawberries and cream. But.. I've never made a sponge cake before!

Mum was due to return on Friday morning, so I planned to make the sponge cake on Wednesday after work, then fill and ice the cake on Thursday and then hide the cake away in my cousins house for her to be surprised by it on Saturday at the party.

So on Wednesday evening, I started on the sponge cake. I remember mum telling me not to stir the mixture too much because you need the air for the cake. So when I put in the oil, I didn't stir it in enough and it sank to the bottom of the tin. I tried very gently to stir the mixture while still in the tin but unfortunately when the cake came out from the oven, the bottom of it was not so good. That wasn't the only issue, the cake was not high enough! The plan was to make 3 layers of cake but I only could cut 2 layers of this cake and had to throw away one of it.

So I took half day off on Thursday to make another sponge cake because the cake needed to be cooled before I could assemble them.

Then came the slicing on the cake.. I couldn't for the life of me find both the slicers that my mum owned. I looked in all the cupboards and drawers so finally resolved to slicing the cake with a huge knife. Needless to say, the layers didn't come out even but hopefully no one noticed it when they were eating the cake.

Finally when I was done with the cake, I found the slicer! Doesn't that just always happen? It was right at the back of on of the drawers that I must have opened easily 5 times to look for earlier.

I bought loads of strawberries for the filling and topping.

1st layer 

2nd layer 

All 3 layers assembled together.

Also bought mandarin oranges, grapes, peaches, kiwis for the topping.

Voila! 

Mum was so surprised when I showed her the cake on Friday morning. Was not able to keep it in my cousins house because it turned out to be too big. She kept asking me 'Are you sure you made it?' and J had to confirm that it was me who made it. She was so proud of me.

Thankfully the 12" square cake was more than enough to feed all 70 guests. Some of which were just standing around the table where I was cutting the cake to be served to the guests and helping themselves over and over.

I was truly proud of myself. Mum taught me well. All those years of helping her in the kitchen cutting butter, breaking eggs, separating eggs, whisking cream, folding in flour did not come to waste. 

Macaroons anyone?

I finally went for my Macaroon class on the 24th Sept. The voucher expired a couple of months back but the person teaching the class was nice enough to extend the due date for me as we both had a miscommunication on my earlier set date for the class which caused me to miss the class. The new date fell on J's birthday but I decided to still go for it, didn't want to take the risk in case he doesn't organize another class. 

The class was small, only 3 students plus 1 teacher. So we paired up and I was paired with the teacher as the other 2 students were a mother-daughter duo.

I decided to make a strawberry flavored macaroons and the other duo a coffee flavored macaroons. We also made 2 different fillings - chocolate mint and salted butter caramel. 

The process of making the macaroon is simple enough however the trick is to finding the right heat for your oven. My macaroon batch were the first to go in the oven and they turned out well however the 2nd batch of the coffee macaroons cracked as the oven was too hot. I now need to find the right heat for my oven at home to bake my macaroons so that they will come out perfect and not cracked up.

I was not very keen on the fillings that I learnt though, felt that there was too much going on.

Strawberry macaroons + Mint Chocolate fillings = too many flavors blended together

Plus the fillings turned out too watery and I had to put the macaroons in the fridge. This kinda changed the texture and flavor of it a little.

I'm going to try making my mum's recipe for the ganache filling and google up some other cool recipes for fillings.

Will distribute out that batch if it turns out well. 

Stay big or move small?

So I''ve been hunting for my 'pot' for sometime now and there's a possible one around the corner. It's not as big or attractive and doesn't have a lot of flowers compared to the one I currently have. Many have their reservations as well, but I'm pretty comfortable at the sight of this pot.

Although small, it has already bloomed to a certain level and there's still much room for more growth. And who knows, with the right amount of sun, water, TLC and prayer.. it could flourish into a beautiful garden. 

Am going to continue seeking for clarity if this is the right 'pot'.

Image taken from here

Bathing a 3-month old

Babies.. They are such a precious gift from God..

Went to vist my newest niece last week..

She's 3 months old now and it had a been a good 1.5 months since I last saw her. Oh my how she had grown and look at the amount of hair on her head!

She's such a chubby lil marshmallow that I couldn't get enough of her.

Snap snap snap!!

Showered her with kisses.. lots of em! Check out those cheeks!

Then it came time for her bath.. and my cousin's like "Go and bathe her la". My reply "But I've not bathe a baby this young before". Mind you she's only like 3 months. Still a fragile little being. Then my cousin's like "It's so easy la, put her in the tub.. wet her with water.. put the soap... voila!"

So I took her to the bathroom and my cousin showed me where all her bathing stuff were and I figured 'ok lar.. since he's going to be standing there with me, I can do this'. Then... he walks out of the bathroom leaving me with baby Judea and her oldest brother who was such a darling to help.

So scrub-a-dub-dub, few kicks in the tub (I really think this one is going to be a good swimmer) and a few minutes later she's done. All fresh and smelling like Johnsons & Johnsons. Wiped her down and changed her.

Now thought to myself, that wasn't too bad. I mean I've bathe many of my nephew and nieces before, tons of them but none this young. And I enjoyed every moment of it. Am so looking forward to her next bath!

I love my cousins for having such confidence in m.

Naledi Thophego

I've sent many people off at the airport, many of whom I know are going back to their home for good or migrating to a different country. But 1st September 2011 marked the hardest and most emotional send off ever!

I sent her off.

Her name's Naledi Thophego. A Botswana scholarship student who was in Malaysia for 4.5 years, then she graduated and it was time for her to head back to her homeland.

I remember times when we used to talk about her possibly settling down in Malaysia, and trying to convince ourselves that God's call for her was to be in our land. The perfect situation was for her to marry a Malaysian man. And after time, we realised that that was not happening and God affirmed over and over again especially months before she left that her calling was to go back to Africa and beyond to serve.

The entire 2011, I hardly spent as much time with her as I did in previous years, also because I knew she was leaving. I should have spent more time with her but work got the better of me and left me with hardly any time. When realization drew nearer that she's actually going to leave, it was a hard truth to swallow.

I cried so much weeks leading to her farewell and at times would just not want to think about it because it hurt too much.

The day she left, i teared a bit at the airport and stayed at the back watching as she said her goodbyes and hugged everyone. But when it was my turn, sigh what a waterfall.

The ride back was the toughest. I usually have her in my car when we send people off and we would drive back together. But this time, she was not in the car.

Thank God the peeps in my car didn't ask much and carried on with their conversations even though they knew I was just crying like a baby, couldn't help it, couldn't stop it.

But I'm thankful for the assurance that it was not our last goodbyes, and that I'll see her again. At least I know the next I'd see is for my 'big' day.

These past 3 years have been a time of building an awesome bond with a sister-in-Christ. She's someone that I knew I could count on no matter what even if it's just to cheer me up, listen to my dramas and whining or to just cover me in prayer. I can't help tearing even now as I'm typing this as it really brings back all the memories together with her. There have been so many students that have come and gone and that I've also developed a relationship with, but this was extra special.

Planning

I love planning and organizing events. It's one of my passion.

Coming up, I have three birthday parties to plan, back-to-back, or which two are a very big deal. All three parties are going to be held at my house and the earliest one is coming up next Saturday.

I'm still scouting for the perfect caterers because I want to have different cuisine for all three parties. Caterers are now just so expensive, but I don't blame them, with the inflation of food prices I guess it's just a circle we have to go through. For a nice good buffet line, it'll cost easily between RM13-20 per pax.

Then there's the task of coming up with the guest list and calling everyone up to invite them, to get them to rsvp, then to send them a reminder a week before the event. Once the guest list is prepared about 90%, I need to figure out how much food to cater. If I have 70 people coming, it's not advisable to order for 70 because that would just be too much food. But the right number has to be catered because you don't want to have less food as well because that just would just be unacceptable. So usually I break my list down to adults and children and then order about 20% less of the confirmed adults coming.

It's best to book the caterers about a month or two before the event, especially when the date is near a festive season. It's safer to book and then cancel if you found a better caterer or alternative then to end up with no caterer at all.

Sometimes if there are side dishes that are being prepared, then the amount would reduce because not everyone would take a portion of each dish, and we'll just end up having too much leftovers.

With a large group of people coming, there's a need for tables and chairs to be setup in the porch. I'm also looking into putting a canopy up in case it rains, plus it'll add a warm touch to the house.

Paraffin Wax Treatment

I bought this promo from Groupon sometime back and went for it last Monday as it's expiring soon. It's been sometime since my last manipedi session and my cuticles felt like it was overdue for a treatment.

This promo included a paraffin treatment for both hands and legs but somehow I only got it for the leg, hmm feel slightly cheated now.

After they've cleaned my cuticles, scrubbed and moisturized your feet, they then put some on hot paraffin wax.I liked the hot sensation on my feet.

They covered my feet with clingwrap and then with these booties and left it for about a good 30 minutes. It's supposed to whitened and moisturize my feet and has some vitamin benefits too.

The whole mani pedi session took about 2 hours cos there was only one manicurist to tend to me. So after sitting in the chair for about 2 hours, I was kinda glad that I didn't have the wax treatment for my hands too, cos that would have easily taken up another half hour.

The clutz that I am, went and ate banana leaf rice with curry using my fingers and now I have my left hand in pink shades and my right in gold shades.