Happy 1st birthday Zue's Oven

Zue's Oven is 1!

It all began with a kind remark from a friend and his wife, a cafe owner who would like to have my oreo chocolate cheesecake for their cafe. That was overwhelming. I've only just made this cheesecake for the first time and it tasted truly irresistable and getting that compliment meant a lot to an amateur like me., although baking was not new to me. I had been baking since my student days, trial and error here and there, followed the recipe strictly from the book. When I first created Zue's Oven, I had never never attended any proper hands on classes for baking and yet the passion in me just waiting to be unleashed.

Brought the cheesecake to the office ( then ), and my colleagues loved it. Before this, I have always baked cheesecake, chocolate cake or biskut batik and brought them to the office but somehow i finally agreed to take some orders from them.

It was this date , June 22nd last year that I delivered my very first oreo chocolate cheesecake. It was the start of Zue's Oven's existence and I didn't look back since....from oreo choc cheesecake to plain bake cheesecake, my sister's version of chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, cupcakes , a few cookies and recently i took a liking to brownies and started exploring a few types of brownies recipes like brownies with walnut, double chocolate brownies, luxury brownies and marble cheese brownies and fortunately they all turned out beautifully and yummuliciously and instantly became a hit with whoever tasted them., just like the oreo chocolate cheesecake did.

From just a thing to keep me occupied, I had gotten to like it even more. I look forward to the moment that I would be spending my time in my kitchen with my mixer and spatulas, with butter ,sugar and flour until they became these "heaven on earth" creations to be enjoyed by those who favour them, those who would be willing to indulge in these sweet, chocolatey, cheesy, chewy, gooey, sticky and messy not to mention nutty and carroty ( can be naughty too! )cakes and cupcakes.

From plain baked cakes and cupcakes, came a request for decorated cakes or rather the desire to create something not just good and yummy to eat but equally beautiful to look at .The opportunity came when hubby dearest requested me to bake him 100 cuppies for his office ( i think I have written about this earlier ) . that was the beginning of my cupcake decorating. Actually I have been admiring some of the works and creations of the bakers out there in the cyber world and i had been intrigued and mesmerised by the beautiful and intricate creations that really inspired me.

Fasting month and raya kept me busy with orders and friends persuaded me to go online. "Why don't you put your cakes on the net so that it will be easier for us to see what you have done." I wish it was that easy. I had been toying on the ideas for ages because, you see, I am not a really IT savvy gal, infact this modern technology scared me. I was afraid of pushing the wrong button . Somehow I gave it a try and cekmekzue blog was created on 29th January this year. It wasn't that difficult once you have created the blog but how do I go from there, what should I do? How to post the photos and the entries and add all those gadgets. even the name " cekmekzue"was the spur of the moment idea . Somehow that didn't go as smoothly as I had expected., and so I had to create another blog and this time it was called cekmekzue-zue. like they said, and the rest is history.

The desire to create not just flowers piped out of nozzles using buttercream, my way or the youtube way, got the better of me, I wanted more.I came across Wilton's blog and found out that they were organising courses for cake deco. Little did I knew that such things existed,silly me..of course, there are many courses out there and many good teachers who are willing to share their knowledge and expertise for a little price., of course, nothing comes free. In between baking and my own version of cake deco, I did attend a few demo classes organised by the local baking product suppliers but I was not satisfied because I didn't get to do them myself.Of course, my first buttercream roses was made by looking at the youtube!

So thanks to my sponsor, my hubby of course, I registered for that Wilton course and was I glad that Idid because from the course, not only that I learned the right techniques to do cake deco but I got the chance to meet up with other fellow bakers ( a few were already established and in fact I had been going into their blogs and admiring their work from afar , not forgetting my fellow schoolmate Mama Lea who had been my "sifu" over the phone).

I wanted more. I was still hungry for more knowledge. I wanted to do what others could.Never have I felt so passionate about anything before and I guess like my sister once said, " i guess you have found your true calling, zue". So set a date with kak jun of cupcakekasih and learned how to make the fondant figurines and of course the fun time with my fellow srikandis at mama lea's class.

thank you so much to those that I have learned from and a very big, huge, gigantic warm thank you and much appreciations to all those who have ordered from Zue's Oven,who have continuously supporting my passion , from office colleagues to neighbours, to strangers who later become friends. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than seeing the excited and happy faces when they come to collect their cakes and all the sweet and positive comments not just from them but also from fellow bakers who always give me words of encouragement .It's been a great year and I hope I will be able to continue doing what I enjoy most and at the same time bringing a smile to others with my creations.

Of course, there won't be Zue's Oven without the support of my other half and kids who are always by my side 24/7.Love you guys heaps.......more than words can say....