About The Baker

My photo
Kepala Batas, Penang, Malaysia
Just me, my girl, my spatula & my beat-up old Lumix. It's my happy face, and this is my happy place.

UPDATES

Assalamualaikum & Hello everyone!

It has been a hectic few months for me, so forgive me for not updating much on this blog. Truth is, it's easier to make updates via Facebook and a lot of customers reach me through FB too. The picture albums there are more organized, so head over there for much easier viewing of my previous work, OK.


Now, I've never mentioned it here, but I can also provide special dietary cakes and cupcakes. So if you're in Penang and looking for something vegan (eggless & dairy-free) or gluten-free (no flour) or sugarless/sugar-free, do shoot me an email and we'll talk.

Deliveries to Penang Island and surrounding areas is still available, but due to rising costs, I'll have to increase the delivery charge. You would understand, right? The fuel, time, energy, not to mention, vehicle maintenance, and the worst of all, traffic jams - they can just zap you dry :)

Hugs & kisses to all my loyal customers. Love you guys lots!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

LITTLE PENANG JULY 2009

Hi all! Alhamdulillah, my debut cupcakes at the July 2009 Little Penang Market yesterday was a success! Lots of people dropped by my stall and were impressed. Worked real hard and stayed up all night to finish up and managed to bake a little over a hundred cuppies with different flavours.

This is my first time selling my cupcakes openly (well, save for that one time I sold some at my husband's school for canteen day) so I experienced several hiccups. But I won't mention those here coz this is a happy place (maybe in the other blog) and it's all part of the learning process, and I was indeed VERY happy with the outcome and the whole experience. Everything is paid off & very well worth it in the end.



And here are the photos of the cuppies... all selling for RM3.50 per cuppy, RM12 for 4 per box, and RM18 per six cuppies (free cute cupcake box!)



I call these my tribute to MJ cuppies - King of Pop. Chocolate underneath, vanilla on top, chocolate buttercream with a hint of cream cheese and black & white sprinkles. Initially I want to make a double swirl of vanilla & chocolate buttercream, but I accidently used up all the white vanilla and mixed it with blue coloring for the other cuppies. Hmm, couldn't think that straight in the middle of the night :p


Here's the close-up



And the cross section. I think my experimental chocolate and vanilla in a cupcake works, although the chocolate is more dense than the fluffy vanilla.


Coco-nutty. Corny name, right? I should have thought of a better name. But it has a fantastic taste. Simple vanilla cake with coconut flakes inside (should have put some coconut milk/santan inside the batter!), a frosting of italian buttercream meringue with more coconut flakes on top. I personally don't like traditional kuih with nyior (or nyioq here in penang, haha) but this? I like.


Little Black Dress? Why the name? Well, pretty obvious right? The wardrobe staple with pearls. Bittersweet moist chocolate cake with chocolate ganache adorned with silver dragees (well, they look like pearls to me!)


Peaches! Initially I want to make a combination of peaches and cream, but I settled for a buttercream flavoured with grated lemon & lemon juice instead. Something sweet and sour, perfect combo! Oh, I added chopped peach slices inside the batter too, but what puzzled me was the paper liners seemed to be peeling off from the cake! Hmm, this means I should opt for souffle cups next time for a better hold.


These are berry nice indeed, but also berry kecut like sayur and doesn't look like strawberries anymore! Haha, under the hot weather, my buttercream didn't hold the fruit that well, but they look so gorgeous the night before. I threw in a couple of chopped strawberries inside the cake batter too and dipped the fruits in jam before adorning the cakes. There are no such things as sweet strawberries here in Malaysia.


Ah, my pride and joy. Vanilla Sky. Double vanilla in the batter and frosting.


Another pride and joy. I named these Meet Joe Black. Reason being the centre-filled peanut butter. Frosting is chocolate cream cheese buttercream. The only grouse about these cuppies is the chocolate frosting was not dark enough for my liking because I ran out of chocolate emulco. Oh, and I also forgot to take the picture of the placard with the name. Doink!



Peach and strawberry cupcakes with the colourful sprinkels. These cuppies were a hit with the kiddies! Most of the kids would point to these ones when asked which one they want. I think the sprinkles were just irresistible. These smaller cuppies were sold for RM2.50. Cheap hor!

One of the largest batch of cupcakes were kiwi cupcakes or in it's kiwi language, Aroha Keke, meaning 'love cake'. Thanks Zara for suggesting the smashing name ;)


However, I've forgotten to take a picture of the whole batch with the placard. Double doink! This cuppy is superbly superlicious. Some kiwi fruits in the batter and some kiwi jam on the frosting.


My best friend and trusted assistant, Zara with Husam, the cheese cake man. Husam is sort of a mini celebrity in our organization (I think!), a really successful and visionary young man. Forgot to take pics of his frozen mini cheese cake, but head over to his blog to know more OK.


This guy was selling bottled fruit juice which were selling like (ironically) hot cakes! Not fair, with a baby as cute as that, he definitely got the customer's attention. Again, forgot to take a closer look at his brand of juice (there was a huge banner in front of the stall, doink!)


Tired but happy faces! Can you tell that I didn't sleep all night? Surprisingly I was very energetic during but I should have given out my card more to the customers, even to those who just came to look.

But like I said, it's all part of the learning process. Many asked a lot of questions, whether I do deliveries (YES!), whether I do themed cupcakes (we'll see what we can do to surprise you!) but the funniest question is 'Where is your bakery?'. I just had to laugh out loud and answer, 'Erm, kedai saya berada di alam lain." (Hah, alam lain? Alam barzakh ke apa? Haha) meaning my bakery is simply just 'out of this world', haha as if.

But when I showed them my name card and my bakery blog, some who had never heard of an online home bakery were truly impressed. The Yang Di-pertua of Dewan Perniagaan Melayu Malaysia Pulau Pinang, who is the head of the business organization I'm linked with (DPMPP for short) with this entourage came by in the evening and gave positive feedback on my effort. He took one box of six cupcakes, gave RM50 and told me to keep the change. I almost pengsan there and then! He insisted, and told me to at least, give the money to charity if I can't accept it (what else can you do or say when people say that, right?) Flabbergasted, man.

He told me to "go for it". *Speechless*

To all who came to give me moral support, and those who bought cuppies, a big, huge THANK YOU. I will taking orders for those who are interested, and I'll keep my progress and other updates posted on this blog from time to time.

How to reach me? Here's my card ;)



8 comments:

  1. i just might be ordering soon, you do delivery to penang island kan?

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  2. cek, boleh sajaaaa. for you, no extra charge for petrol & toll. kelantanese call this gghori, discount for the 1st customer of the day :D

    you can email me your requests yah, and we'll talk abt the price and all, insya-allah

    ReplyDelete
  3. looks yummy!!! sigh ... I am in KL!!!

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  4. hi 'that pisses me off'! or do you have a better name that i should call you? hmm the fact that you live so far away, does that pisses you off? haha, we'll see. if i'm heading my way up to kl, i'll make an announcement k.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Anne,

    Thanks so much for dropping by. It amazes me for one who just started baking and selling you have leaped so high to sell and expose your cupcakes at an event of such. Honestly, I haven't done so Anne, still under a blanket on my messy bed in my comfort zone biting my fingernails. I am sure they have a name for this kind of phobia. Anyway all the best to you like that man who gave you the 50rgt and waited not for his change said "go for it"

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  6. hi wiz, thnks so much for your encouragement. i do realize that i still have a lot to learn. my skills are zero compared to you & the other professional bakers. we all have our fears, this thing is just a platform & a huge push for me to finally do something with my hobby. i can't keep feeding ppl free cupcakes all the time (which i've been doing all these while) - kena balik modal balik lah! haha

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  7. anne, i salute u for doing this! maybe to u its nothing exceptional, but to me it is. not everyone with talent would be willing to take things to the next step; buat business sendiri, betol-betol punya business. u get my drift lah. this is really a huge thing. congrats to u and alhamdulillah for the courage and strength that God sends your way! and may you be blessed with many many orders! ;D

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  8. nina! (haha, can u guess i watched too much 'imagination movers?)

    thnks for the salute *salutes back* insya allah your time will come soon!

    ReplyDelete

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