THANK YOU STDC

There are many ways to express our gratitude and appreciation to others.
Some say it with words, some say it with cards and presents and this sweet lady decided to say it with cupcakes.

she has completed her practical training at this place,STDC and will be attending her graduation ceremony sometime this August.

she just wanted it simple . the message is simple, she wanted to thank them for giving her the opportunity . Made vanilla cupcakes with buttercream and fondant deco with the company's logo .

Thank you again for this order and wish you all the best in your new phase in life.

marble cheese brownies for sya's family

This is an order from sweet and bubbly Sya for her makan2 with her family.

Sya couldn't make it so her sister, Alisa as cheerful as her sister, came to pick this up.

Thank you so much for this order.

Received an smsm from sya:

" kak zue.kek k.zue 2 sdp gle2 pnye a.Yummy yg amt sgt! jat0h cinta tr0s."

Sya,

Terima kasih daun keladi,

kalau teringin, order lah lagi......:-)

my dotter's cuppies

The school had arranged a "Hari Bergotong Royong" for the students last Thursday and I had promised my daughter to make her cupcakes for her" keluarga angkat" and for her to "makan2" on the bus with her friends.

Though I wasn't feeling too good this past few days but I had to keep my promise. A promise is a promise, Once you make a promise, you must keep it. It is not meant to be broken.



Simple design only, with blue rosebud and 2D flowers on chocolate cuppies with ganache.

The program is to clean up the area at the "Perkampungan nelayan" in Kuala Kedah. A group of students will be given foster parents/families for the day where the students which will be divided into groups will be spending some time with them and had lunch the families.

I hope my daughter will learn something out of this program, the teamwork spirit, helping each other, PR, social courtesy, not taking things for granted , the beauty of giving, without hoping anything in return.

Happy Birthday B...

Happy Birthday B. and not C or D or E or whatever, it's B okay, B for....hubby? err..B for Baby?..... just guessing, only Yani knows the answer to that.It's for her Darling B.

She made a reservation for this set of birthday cuppies for her husband about a month ago. She specifically requested for the rosebud, love and Mc D swirl design. the theme colour is blue , ocean blue. Only a couple of days ago, she added white to it, so ocean blue and white on chocolate cuppies with ganache.

The day is finally here and I finally get to put a face to the name. I got to meet the mysterious B too!"B" is also here to collect the cake with the missus.They came over to pick up their cake in the afternoon.

"Salam kak zue. lunch nanti sy pegi pick up cupcakes. TQ..YANY

I received the sms this morning. By the time I received the sms, the cuppies were ready and I was relaxing, in fact, lounging in front of my house enjoying the morning breeze.

I just want to share my " easy like Monday morning" story and not " I hate Mondays" ( Garfield's ).

This morning was a complete contrast to what I experienced yesterday.

This time yesterday, ( Sunday morning), i was still shaking and my daughter , out of the blue ( she was playing games on her NDS, ) suddenly asked me"Kenapa Mama nangis dalam kereta tadi? ( Mama, why did u cry in the car this morning?) Yes, I cried, almost uncontrollably, but why?

I was on my way back from sending my eldest daughter to school and we, me and my youngest daughter, 5 year old Batrisyia were only a few hundred metres away from our house when all of a sudden there were many cars in front of us and they moved very slowly unlike the normal days. Strangely both lanes were packed with cars , moving rather snail like. This would only happen if there was an accident up ahead and I was right. As we moved closer to the scene, the car in front of me gave a signal to go to the left and I did the same and when we reached the scene where there were many people on the road, I knew that something was horribly wrong and boy was I in for a shock as I turned my head to the right to see what the commotion was. There he was, a boy still in his school uniform , white shirt and green trousers, probaly 16 or 17 years old , lying on the road and blood oozing out of his forehead. I was shaking and crying and I kept on saying to myself " Ya Allah Ya Tuhanku, selamatkanlah budak ini" all the way to my house. I don't know him , he's stranger but I guess the mother's instinct in me, is saying that he is someone's son, someone's brother and I was deeply saddened by the vision. As I made the U-turn at the traffic light, I saw an ambulance on my side of the road, getting ready to pick the boy up and by the time I reached my house which was only less than 5 minutes walk to the scene, I heard the ambulance siren wailing away and I hoped and prayed that they would make it in time and would be able to save the boy.

I drove with extra caution this morning and tried to erase yesterday's picture from my vision.

This morning was such a beautiful morning. My other half is coming home today. Kids were in school. There were only me and my youngest daughter at home and she was still in her dreamworld....zzzzzzz.....

I decided to do my chores before finishing off my cupcake deco. Swept all the dry leaves . Cleaned up the kitchen, no need to have breakfast because I was fasting. spent about half an hour on the ocean blue and white theme cupcakes and I was done.Still too early to prepare lunch.

I popped out to the shop for a while cos I've run out of the transparent box for these cupcakes. When I came back, I discovered that the fan was not moving. Blackout! It's going to be very hot inside the house and so I decided to sit outside, put my feet up, got a few Martha Stewart's Living Magazines on my lap and a couple of minutes later, it started to rain!

Beautiful! Perfect! What more did I want..? ..Two months ago I wouldn't be able to enjoy this moment, but today, here I was , in the comfort of my own lounge chair with magazines on home decor and cooking accompanied by the rain falling on my car ( now I don't need to wash it cos the rain had helped me with the job), listening and watching the water fell on the leaves....it was beautiful! Subhanallah. For a moment there, I forgot all the pain, all the frustration , all the despair....it's just me and nature.....

Three orders in a row, birthday cakes or cupcakes from devoted wives to their beloved hubbies.I am just glad to be able to be parts of their special moments with their families.

A pantun dua kerat to these birthday men:

Ayam berkokok di sawah padi,

Selamat Hari Jadi.....

thankx Yani for this order.

Later in the evening, while watching a movie, "P.S. I love You", a rather charming movie, received an sms from Yany:

"salam kak zue.Tq sb buat cupcakes yg sdap. Husband n kwn2 suka next time ble order lg."

Happy 44th birthday Ayah

"It's my husband's birthday today ( 25th July ) but he's not here. I am planning to get him a cake when he comes back tomorrow. are you available?. Can you make me one cake. What would you suggest?"

We, as wives, (or perhaps it's the female bones in our bodies) , are so thoughtful and caring, aren't we? We always remember birthdays, ours, hubby's, kids, our anniversaries, dental appointments, etc,etc,,.....but do our other half remember them too? Maybe some do, but the majority of them? I don't know and I don't want to make a general statement here., because some men, do remember these,some even go to great length to make their other half feel really special . Well.. it should work both ways, right....

So I suggested one of my other so called specialties, the plain bake cheesecake with blueberries.She wanted it simple, nothing fancy, just write," Happy Birthdy Ayah " will do.

Thank you Zu and wishing your hubby, Din, Happy 44th birthday. Can't change it the other way, it'd still be 44. If someone is 43, can stil change it to 34...:-)

love boat and smiley family

"My hubby is coming back this 25th and we would like to celebrate his birthday too. So what would you recommend?"

For someone new to Zue's Oven, I would recommend my none other than, the one and only , the scrumptious, the yummioreoeycheesilicous........

oreo chocolate cheesecake.
she ordered the " Bunny in a hole" carrot walnut cake earlier , plus the choc and vanilla " Welcome Back ( Kepulangan) " cuppies.



"Zue, can you make it " laut" theme, something related to shipping. "


so, one toy ship ( inspired by Debbie Brown ) coming right up....with, what goes with ship, if not the treasure chest, not filled with gold coins or other jewels but something much more valuable,. something which no amount of money , be it dollar, lire, ruppe, yen, or even the gold dinar ,can buy, L.O.V.E. .....love

Can't buy me love ( song by the Beatles)

A treasure chest filled with colourful hearts symbolising the abundance of love this lady and her three beautiful daughters have for the man in their life.Wanna know something? Actually this lady has two men in her life, ( what? is she having an affair, how could she?)



Let's make this story juicier, this other man lives with her, yup, you heard that from me, he lives there,24/7, be with her all the time except only when she has to go to work. she cooks for him and looks after him with TLC. what more does a man need?



Now, don't get me wrong, she's a nice lady and nice ladies don't go around having affairs, nice ladies are faithful, loyal, caring and doting. Enough about me...hihi...just playing around a bit)

He's the man responsible for bringing her into this world, the man who raised her from just a tiny baby ( were you Yus? ) to who she is now. He is none other than, her father.




yus told me that she didn't get to have any of the hearts I made for the previous order so I am making these especially for yus and her family.



But why these smiley faces...again?

It's just a continuation from her previous cuppies which had 2Ds smileys so this time I made it into 3D except this time they are complete with hair and head gear. Wait a minute, there were only three smileys before, how come there are four? now,just add one cool smiley in sunglasses. four ladies in this man's life, so...four smileys...

SMILE!

They are ready to be put on or beside the oreo choc cheesecake.
It's been fun making these cute thingy..actually I planned something else too, the smileys should be lounging on the beach with palm trees as the background but something came up.


Just want to share my almost frightening experience the other day. I went to pick up my daughter from her kindie and she came out looking gloomy unlike her usual cheerful going home face. I asked her what happened and the teacher came to tell me that she fell while playing, a boy fell on her or something but I noticed blood coming out from under her chin and I asked the teacher what this is all about? she looked surprised and then brought my daughter to the office to put some medicine while the other teacher showed me how it actually happened. I don't want to go into detail into what had happened because I was very upset. the cut under her chin was quite deep which according to the teacher and later, the private clinic's doctor, would require stitches and he recommended me to go the general hospital for he was unable to perform the thing.Stitches...oh no! not on my daughter....

off I went to HSB, emergency clinic, rather panicky but trying to maintain my composure, to drive carefully tho not slowly,thankfully it only required to be glued which according to them would leave lighter scar than stitches would, still, it's a scar.....
Had to wait close to three hours to settle everything, the waiting was horrible. we finally reached home around nine . I am glad that it was just a minor cut , and I am sure even if I were to go and pick her up earlier than usual, or if only I had picked her up first before picking up my eldest daughter from school, if it was fated to happen, it would. I am sure things happen for a reason .
She's a brave girl, my daughter, not even one drop of tears coming out from her, no whining, no crying, not even when the nurse injected her shoulder with a syringe. Mama is so proud of you Batrisyia.

Where was I? Sorry Yus, sidetrack a bit. Thank you for this order and the previous ones too.Wishing the man in your life, the love of your life, a Happy ? birthday . Age is just a number, it's just mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

would like to share her sms to me:
"thnx zue. My husband gave a thumb's up.great job. ni dah makan tinggal setengah kek je. bukan apa ,my hubby ni hard to pls when it comes to cheesecake. ths time, he asked for a second helping!bravo zue!
lupa nak sebut pasal deco tu, they're cute n lovely.reminds me of higley town heroes. nice job done there."

Zue! come down here! where r u going?
I'm on cloud 9! so happy with the comments.
This is what I'm hoping for whenever they eat my cakes and cheesecakes and cupcakes,the satisfaction, the enjoyment, the pleasure of indulging in these heaven on earth creations.Nothing pleases me more, nothing satisfies me more, nothing makes me happier than receiving these beautiiful, wonderful, sweet and encouraging comments like these.

thanks to you too Yus...

Welcome back.....Kepulangan cuppies

Till We meet again, to the land of kangaroos, cute koala bears, boomerangs and the phrase " Godday mate", Sydney Opera House. we are coming back to our Home Sweet Home, Malaysia after fnishing our studies.

Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.

A thotful sister in law wanted to surprise them with these Welcome Back" cupcakes with graduation teddies and also a baby teddy since they are coming home with a little princess to the delight of their families here

A basket of loves from everyone waiting anxiously to see them , especially their Gran, to see her granddaughter. I have made tiny black and white box with a white heart inside, then the blue beaded box with a "Will u Marry Me" message and for a change I made a basket instead. My first basket with lorra lorra loves...colourful lhearts...

baby teddy and her pair of booties

PApa and Mama Bear with their graduation cap.

Ready to be collected by my friend, Yus. She ordered another set just for her to "makan2" with her family. She wanted a simple design but to make sure that the cupcakes have her daughters' names on them and she specifically requested for the smileys which I made on the earlier cupcakes.Your wish is my command, dear.

the three yellow and cheery smileys and three chocolate cupcakes with Yus's daughters names: Nina, Nini and Niza.

Had a wonderful time with her yesterday when she came to collect the cuppies. I wasn't in any hurry to finish up other orders for that day, so we had the time to ourselves to talk and talk and talk and we really did talk, from one topic to another, from maids( me, ex-maids, now I am maidless ), to clothes, to beading and also her newfound passion, quilting. I showed her my unfinished beading work ( the needle is still attached to the clothes, mind you) , and a few finished ones and she showed me her first quilting job, made especially for her nephew or niece? Good luck wih your quilting dear

We talked and talked and didn't realised the time, it was time for her to go the airport . to see her brother and sis innlaw and their baby.

These cupcakes , a combination of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with buttercream deco and the other fondant deco

thank you so much Yus for this request. See you real soon. I am working on the next project soon.had somethin in mind already.....

Received an e-mail from Yus today,22nd July, she somehow encountered problems when she tried to post the comment in my blog and I'd love to share what she wrote in her e-mail here:

" The cuppies were a hit with all my in-laws members . Semua duk admire all the bears and the nicely decorated cuppies tu. Bila buka je box, tak dan2 terus kutip butir2 loves yg colourful tu terus telan, My MIL pun suka tgk.

Overall, I am happy that they love your creation.

Ttg my own cupcakes, the very next day, bukak fridge dah tinggal 5 biji je. Tanya anak2 sapa makan banyak ni, nina sheepishly said that, " sedap sangat...tak tahan.....".

I sent your blog address to my huband, dia balas and he also liked what he saw."

Thank you soooo much Yus for these kind and encouraging words. Really appreciate it I am so glad that everybody likes it.

similar set of chocolate cuppies

"Whenever you are free, please make me a set of cupcakes similar to the one you made for my daughter last year. She didn't get the chance to taste it because she gave them to her teacher", a doting father's request to me a couple of days ago. Since I was making a few sets of chocolate cupcakes I decided to make a set for him too and that's why you will notice that some of the drawings are somewhat similar to the one I posted earlier. I like the two birds with the rose buds at their beak so much that I decided to draw them on this set too.





I only add the "faces" at the bottom. Thanx En.Din. His missus came over to collect the cuppies.We chatted about this and that, about shopping kids' clothes for raya, about cookies and stuff. When she mentioned about going to Kelantan because their "budu" stock has finished, I looked inside my larder to see if I still have a few bottles and it's just her "rezeki" cos I did have a few more and I gave her one bottle , hope that will last till her next trip to Kelantan.

Friendship and Love and Elmo

When I first received the telephone call, I thot I heard "Friendship and Love and "Ilmu". so I started looking for images to reperesent these theme. For Ilmu or knowledge, I thought of books, universities, scrolls, graduations, etc, until I received an sms from the caller, specifically requesting the flavour, the quantity and the theme. It was then I realised and found out that it was not "Ilmu" but "Elmo"...funny huh.....

From now on, I guess all orders must either be thru sms or e-mails, ie in black and white, to avoid confusions like this one.


And they are to be individually packed.

The friendship and love theme. I hope I got it right.

thanx Najwa for this order. Hope you and your friends enjoyed the cupcakes.

Preparation for the "kepulangan" cuppies

Just like the bears in Goldilocks story, papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.

Papa Bear with yellow ribbon,

Mama Bear with gold necklace

and Baby Bear with her bib,

neatly tied at the back....

basket with marble effect, a combination of violet and pink colour, later to be filled with these colourful hearts

Smileys for the other set of cuppies, a special request. things I can do, I will do....

serupa tapi tak sama

i've always wanted to make this gift box cake but didn't get the opportunity until last wednesday when my friend was asking me for suggestions for an engagement cake or her brother. A few suggestions were thrown and I showed her my photos when she finally said, I want exactly like this one, even the colour. It was the gift box fondant cake!



I also wanted to write" Will U Marry Me" because the guy is asking the girl her hand in marriage.it's a wedding proposal but how and where should I write those4 magical words?

This is where the idea to make this cute tiny little box with the note inside came about.

I even have my blogspot written at the bottom of the box...:-)

similar but not the same.

this is the box referred to by my friend

and


and this is the one I made for her.

Received an sms from her after the engagement ceremony and this is what she has to say,

"Alhamdulillah.adik I dah selamat bertunang. Semua dok bising suruh buka box kecil tu.so cute. will u marry me?semua puji kek u. thanks"

Thanks to you too Muna for trusting me with this cake for that special occasion. ALhamdulilah everything went well.

Received another sms from my friend today,21st July:

"thanks to you too.Not only nice cake but delicious too ( this is what my brother told me) keep up d good work"

Thanks Muna for the sweet comment.Appreciate it.

one for me and one for my sis

" Are you going anywhere this weekend, I'd like to order two blueberry cheesecake, one for me and one for my sister". Earlier I had a request for blue berry cheesetart, one for her and one for MIL . If everyone is like these two thoughtful people, the world would be a better place....

Thanx Nani for these cheesecake, been a great supporter of Zue's Oven. Still remember Doraemon's sister, Dorami? She's the one! she's responsible for introducing me to Dorami , not that I am complaining, Got to watch more of those channels on Astro, 613, 615. She also ordered Power Puff Girls cake and cupcakes earlier this year for her other daughter . A really hardworking lady, she's like choc fudge biscuit, " now you see her, now you don't ( sekejap ada, sekejap takde)

So, choc fudge lady, thanx so much for your support...

one for me and one for MIL

one set of these blueberry cheesetart for me and the other set for my MIL...a thotful daughter in law.

I finally got to meet her in person, the person who sent her heart in the black and white box early this month for her hubby's surprise birthday cupcakes.

She's Hani, as sweet as honey..she has a three month old baby and I'm sure the baby is as cute as both the parents are. Hani and Acubik, a beautiful couple.



When she told me that she left her three month old baby here in Alor Star with her mum, i told her my story with my first baby.It was the year 1995, I got this job which requires me to do the training in Bukit Mertajam for three months before they opened up the branch in Alor Star and so off I went to Bukit Mertajam, leaving my hubby in Alor Star and our daughter under his mother's care. came back once a week and it was a really beautiful moment everytime I came to take her for the weekend from my mother in law.
But when my daughter was to turn six months old, I travelled daily from Alor Star to Bukit Mertajam. Why? Because they said that when a baby is six months old, she would begin to recognise her mother and if I didn't see her everyday, she might not recognise me and I didn't want that to happen so that was the sacrifice I had to make. Waking up very early in the morning to take the 7 o'clock bus cos the journey took me about one hour and I was the first, well ,maybe one of the first to punch out to catch the earliest bus back to Alor Star to see my babies, small baby and BIG baby....

I was just sharing my experience with Hani. Now my little baby is all grown to be a big and tall ( much bigger and taller than her Mama), fourteen year old girl.

So nice meeting you Hani , hope you will enjoy the blueberry cheesetart with your family and hope you will have a beautiful moment with your hubby and baby this weekend.

boxes again?....

Zue's Oven is at it again....looks like me and boxes are inseparable, like music and lyrics, like bee and honey, everytime we go shopping, especially at I*EA, hubby would say, oh look! Mama's favourite section, whenever we reach the boxes and storage section. what can I say, I'm a s*cker for boxes.

What have we here, Oh look! There's something inside. something red, a heart shape and it has a note.
And the note says, " Will U Marry Me?"

Everybody say....aaaaaaaaw.......

how sweet, how romantic....

I wonder who the lucky gal is.

congtratz Aqil

made this blueberry cheesecake with " congratz Aqil" for a friend whose son is leaving for his matriculation in KL for his preparation to further his studies later in Australia.

Congratz to both parents too Nani and Tahir.

This is what all parents would have wanted for their kids, to excel in their studies but to me even if they don't, we still love them for who they are, not judged by their academic achievement solely.
They are special in their own ways.

Srikandi Utara Gathering

Made this especially for the occasion. 12th July 2009 is the date for Back to School programme, in JB, at our old school and since some of us couldn't make it for the progamme, we planned our own small gathering. Actually they , those who stayed in Penang made the arrangement and i decided to join them too, just to meet up , catching up and reminiscing.



I did take a few photos using my digital camera but due to technical error, I am unable to post them here. It was a good and heartwarming gathering, a few of them are from the 70s batch! My batch, only two turned up including me! All that didn't matter, what matters was that we met and chatted and exchanged cards and we felt the bonding. i even met my former matron! the lady in charge of the sickbay. I recognised her the minute I saw her face. she's actually the sister to the host, Kak Ijah. It had been so long. I remember her as someone very strict but she's actually very nice. Alhamdulillah I didn't get sick when I was at my school so didn't get to spend my time at the sickbay.

One of the rare times that I went to see her was when I cut my hand. It was a hot afternoon and I was cutting an apple using a knife, a very sharp knife cos I had only just sharpen it. I wanted to slice the apple but instead I sliced my right hand, the area between the jari ibu and jari telunjuk. Imagine the blood flowing because it was in the afternoon, so much blood came out.
Fortunately it left no scar, just memories,

Kak Ijah, thank you for your hospitality, for the nice laksa johor and all those other dishes served on the table. Adib, and all the kakak2 , thanks for making this happen. and Deeb, for showing me the way cos I was not familiar at all with Bertam area. Thanks Kak Zorro for leading me all the way to the Bertam tol on the way back cos me and my sense of directions, let's just say that it's very bad.....

Nice meeting all of you ladies, Kak Orchid, Kak Chik, Kak Normah, Lilly, Deeb, Kak Fida, Kak Zorro, Kak Ijah and I am sorry if don't write all the names here but it was really wonderful meeting everyone .