PRA babies birthdays

Rama-rama

mama, look! a butterfly!
where?

there!go get abang to bring my camera, hurry! before it flies away!

this is one rare moment, a moment not to bemissed. this sight must be captured, rare to actually find such a beautiful butterfly in our small garden. we do have them occasionally but never this close up.....we could actually touch it if we wanted to but dare not to for fear of scaring it away. birds chirping , is a common sound, we sometimes have birds accidentally flew inside our house
its going to open its wing, come on, open up, we want to see your beautiful wings

auw....so beautiful.....so magnifiique, so gorgeous, so.......

please...please...pretty please, we waited and waited but it refused to open its wing, A little bit more, please,,,,,,........when it did, i wasn't fast enough to capture that beautiful sight. the butterfly was much faster and swifter than me!it only opened its wings for a brisk second. We waited, both Batrisyia and I, and waited but still , no open wings....

this is one of the best shots , the closest shot I took and after a while, it flew away and away andnot coming back. but i do hope that it will come back again and I hope the next time I will get to capture it with its wings wide open for us to see and admirethe beautiful pattern on them.

black, white and red for mama dearest

What would you do to make your mother or someone special to you, happy, would you go the extra mile, the great length to make something special for her special day? Well, everyday should be special but one day in the year is her birthday and people would normally block that date in their calendars or diaries as a reminder that someone special is celebrating his or her birthday that particular day.

April 20th is this Mama's 50th birthday and her daughter is in Perlis, but that didn't stop the daughter from wishing her mama the birthday wishes and thus making her mother smile. she found me thru myblog and started e-mailing me. Her wishes was simple but meaningful, to surprise her mum with chocolate cuppies with simple deco using flowers and hearts using three colours, red, black and white and to deliver them to her mum's office on the said date.

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Everything was agreed and confirmed via e-mail and by around 11.30 am I was on the 9th floor of that building and asked for this lady at the reception.

Mission accomplished.The mama looked surprised but happy , apparently she had just spoken with her daughter over the phone but wasn't suspecting anything, the daughter thanked me for having delivered the cuppies, I was happy too for being able to make someone's wish come true. What wonders these cute little cakes can do to us.

Thank you Yana for trusting me with these little birthday cupcakes for that special someone in your life.to Puan Zaidah, happy 50th birthday and many happy returns.

Marble cheese brownies for makan2

This oreo is ordered by my Srikandi junior, Liza who wanted to 'makan2' with her family. Received this testimonial from her via sms:

Salam K.zu dear..Yr cake...yummy yummy! Sdp sgt. keep it up!!
Thank you thank you. I had a great time yesterday , had lunch with a few friends, things that I seldom do, whether when I was working or after I had stopped working. I would normally went back during lunch time, to prepare lunch for my kids and therefore didn't really have the opportunity to go out with my colleagues but things are different now.

i have no punch card to clock in and out, no rushing early in the morning or during the one hour lunch break or taking ELs if my kids got sick, no applying for AL for raya or for whatever reason, I am on leave 24/7 , 365 days of the year, that was the good news, the not so good news is I cannot take MC if I were to fall ill, I would still have to continue what I am doing now, no EPF, no SOCSO, no company trip, no nothing but I have everything, everything that money cannot buy.

I have the time, time with my kids, time with my family, time to do what I like, when I like to do them, with who I like to do them with, where I want to go, the time to see my kids grow for they grow up very fast and before you know it, your kids have outgrown you. The baju kurungs and kebayas which you carefully and neatly placed aside for her to wear when she grows to be a lady, a teenager, remain in the box because she cannot fit in them for she is twice or maybe thrice bigger than me, and she's only fifteen!

He still hasn't grown a moustache or has a deeper voice but , he is no longer the baby of the house who threw tantrum in Langkawi when he was a small kid and he has the privilege of being the youngest for eight years before the next baby comes along.

the baby is a baby no more, now a fast growing six year old who can skillfully rollerblading in the house, achieved first prize for 'lari dalam guni' during the interschool competition in the district of Kota Star recently and will be representing the district some time net month maybe, who sing to the tune of Barbie over the laptop, who plays the PSP or DS skillfully.

Alhamdulillah, I can see all these now, in between yelling and screaming if the room is not tidy, if the clothes are thrown all over the place and I hope to see much more and hopefully with less screaming and yelling. I guess, thats part of being a family, you share everything, laughter and tears, happiness and sadness, neatness and untidiness and these are made possible because I am at home 24/7, this coming month end would mark my first anniversary of being a stayhome mum and because of this too, I can do what I enjoy doing, baking and cake decorating and am able to meet my friends' last minute orders or request for MCBsor BCTs, or whatever. This MCB is for Linda and Juin, my ex-colleague and also the people I shared my lunch with yesterday and not forgetting Tini and Dell too.....

Therefore, thank you all, thank you everyone for supporting what I am doing now, for making my staying at home worthwhile.

BASIC CUPCAKE DECO SESSION

Basic cupcake Deco Session

Scheduled on : 23rd April 2010/Friday
please refer the previous entry for detail.

Please e-mail me for reservation.
thank you

vanilla cuppies and MCB

putih itu menawan, disulami dengan warna merah berbentuk hati di tengah2, sesejuk

seputih salju, jiwa tenang dan damai melihatnya... diikat pula dengan riben sedondon, walaupun 'design' ini teramatlah 'simple'nya tetapi amat bermakna

hadiah dari seorang kawan untuk sahabatnya, dipesan pula oleh seorang kawan juga, dan yang datang mengambilnya, emak kepada kawannya, jadilah mereka berkawan-kawan.....:-)Terma kasih daun keladi Naimah dan emaknya serta kawannya, tak lupa untuk gulai udang dan rebung hari tu.....hmmmm sedap sungguh.....

kalau kek cawan ( Anybody watched cerekarama "Hantu kek" last Saturday? ) perasa vanila tersebut dari seorang kawan kepada kawan yang lain, MCB ini pula dari seorang menantu kepada mertuanya.Kata CT, untuk makan2 je.

Walau untuk apa jua suasana atau ketika, setiap pemberian itu adalah istimewa, seistimewa orang yang memberi. Kalau kita dapat membahagiakan sesorang dengan pemberian kita, itu lebih bermakna dari menerima, tapi menerima juga menyeronokkan kerana itu menunjukkan kita dihargai dan disayangi., asal sahaja setiap pemberian itu adalah ikhlas, dengan tidak mengharapkan apa-apa balasan. Hanya sekadar ucapan 'terima kasih' sudah mencukupi...


Terima kasih CT di atas sokongan yang berterusan.

Beautiful Blogger Award from SPC

I am speechless! loss for words. I guess I am not a good recipient of awards. I had received an award before but I didnt get to do the things requested of me to do and for that I apologise.

However, having received another award from my fellow baker, Sweet Princess Cuppies, I guess I do owe her to do something about it.

First thing Im going to do is to thank her , Nojie from SP, from the bottom of my heart for her thoughtfulness, This may not be an oscar or the emmy or grammy award but having been selected is joyful enough.

now, comes the difficult part, to choose 15 people...... everybody is wonderful and fascinating in their own ways .......to be continued....

ATTENTION! ACHTUNG! PERHATIAN! Basic cupcake deco...

BASIC CUPCAKES DECO SESSION FOR BEGINNERS:



pengumuman, pengumuman,

ibu-ibu, bapak-bapak,

bilang aku, tolong aku,

siapa yang mahu aku,...

bantu aku deco cupcakes!



just part of the song that I quite like to listen to by an Indonesian group, about this guy not being able to find a girlfriend.quite catchy phrases and melodies.



back to the real topic, to all cake lovers, baking enthusiast, cake artist to be or wannabe, here's the time! the time that some of you ( who had been asking me via sms, e-mails, shoutbox, sorry, it took quite a while for me to come up with this announcement))and anybody out there had been waiting for, who wish to come over to my little kitchen and oven, to spend a few hours of your precious time mixing, sifting, whisking, creaming, baking, glazing and decorating little fairy cakes or cupcakes with both buttercream and fondant deco, using all the utensils and gadgets at Zues Oven.



InsyaAllah, my first cupcke deco session will be held as follows:



Date/Day: 16th April 2010/Friday

Time: from 10 am to 3 pm ( or until complete)

Venue:Zues Oven, Taman Stadium, Alor Star

Fee: RM180





Worry not, Insyaallah, lunch will be provided.


ATTENTION!
What do you need to bring?



Nothing! All will be provided! Unless of course, if you want to bring your own aprons or kitchen towels, you are most welcome to do that, otherwise....lenggang kangkong!



Just remember to bring yourself and a learning spirit and an open heart. Leave all your worries or problems behind for a couple of hours and insyaAllah we'll have some fun indulging ourselves in the world of sugar, flour and buttercream with spatulas, mixers and all that jazz.....

baking and cake decorating could be as therapeutic and as relaxing as going to the spas or having a good massage for some people and since this is a session for beginners, I really do hope that I can share some , if not a little baking and cake deco knowledge of mine.



What would you be taking home with you?

12 beautifully and creatively decorated cupcakes by you and only you

with designs that can suit most occasions using buttercream and fondant deco too.

A newly acquired skill of how to bake vanilla cupcakes from scratch
and a few tips plus bonus recipe for chocolate cupcakes and ganache.


For reservation and more detail, feel free to call, sms or e-mail me.

What are you waiting for? grab that phone or start clicking the keyboard of your laptop or computers and reserve a seat! Thank you and have a nice day!

my first Manchester United cuppies

Zico, Zidane, Paulo Rossi, Schilaci, and many more, I don't really know the current football players names cos I am not much of a football person. I am more familiar with those names for they were famous during my student days. Despite not liking football much, I ended up watching the World cup 1990 ( if I'm not mistaken ) and my favourite team was Italy.... simply because their players were....ehemmm....gorgeous!

I would watch snookers ( Jimmy White) and tennis more, and that time, the championship titles were held by Stephen Hendry and Stefi Graff respectively and for the men, I think it was Agassi or was it Goran . I used to remember all their names but not now tho', those days, I even got myself a pair of Nike snickers and Head tennis racket, yup, I played tennis or more like learning how to play tennis cos the racket itself was more or less the same size as me! I had to hold the racket with both hands for the swing. I like to play snookers though, despite the table being only a few feet lower than me. I thought it was just like playing carrom where you tried to put in the balls using the other ball but using long stick instead. It was much harder than carom of course but I still enjoyed it though . one game that I liked the most was bowling, we would go bowling almost every weeekend.These were some of the things that we did during our free time in between studying, watching movies, sight-seeing, strawberries picking, baking cheesecakes, sometimes, making trifles, many times, and so many other things too....memories, beautiful, sweet, memories......

back to this Manchester United cuppies. Earlier hubby dearest said that his friend wanted Transformers, as suggested by hubby dearest but when I was getting ready to prepare the deco, ( I had baked the carrot walnut cuppies ), I asked him again to double check since this was for a 12 year old and I thought transformers might not really be 'it'' for Aiman , I asked him if his friend's son likes football, so he said that his son likes Hijau Kuning team or the Red Devil, so Red Devil it is. I have never done it before, have always been waiting for the opportunity and it finally came knocking, only that it came knocking at about 9 pm! I started googling the logo on the net and sketched it in my sketch book and started making the logo using the fondant. the easiest for me would be to draw straight on the fondant itself and I think my drawing looks much better on the fondant than on the paper! The idea on making the red jersey with Aiman's name and age came the next morning and I managed to complete everything by 12 noon as promised, with the brownies being decorated while Mr Din was waiting for it outside. Well... he came half an hour early:-) I had baked the brownies the previous day and only left to be decorated.

Manchester United logo, drawn by me, first time ever, hope Muhammad Amirul Aiman is happy with his birthday cuppies. Happy 12th birthday, all the best in your coming UPSR, dear. thank you Din and missus for your continuous trust in me for your kids birthday cakes and cupcakes.

I am going to miss his celoteh....di sawancara.

Riuh pagi di era, tidak akan riuh lagi atau mungkin tak seriuh sebelum ini. I only found out about the sad news last nite and having seen the full news on "Melodi" a few minutes ago, I just couldn't hold back my tears. I didn't know him personally but I always tuned in to that station in my car every morning when I send my kids to school, to hear his celoteh in the sawancara with his partner, Pak Nil.It's hilarious and I always find me smiling to myself, gelak sorang2 dalam kereta. His lawak selamba is bearable and sincere and I'm going to miss 'that'. I remembered him saying something about leaving the station during the Final Gelanggang Raja Lawak, and didn't know that he would really be 'leaving' it and leaving us all.Takziah to his family.

Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat keatas roh Allahyarham Din Beramboi dan menempatkan beliau bersama orang2 yang beriman dan beramal soleh. Al-Fatihah.

Variety is the spice of life

why did I say that? well, indeed it is, it would be dull and boring if there is only one type of cake in this www, whole wide world, imagine eating just butter cake ( as an example only) , i like butter cake and perhaps some people out there wouldn't mind eating just one kind of cake only ), butter cake for birthdays, butter cake for anniversaries, butter cake for weddings, thanks to the creativity of all the chefs everywhere, all these lovely and scrumptious cakes and desserts were invented and thus left us spoilt for choices.
Chocolate fudge mousse, a friend introduced this to me and I fell in love with it instantly, just like the oreo chocolate cheesecake, love at first bite, dunno whether najah felt the same way when she ordered this but this was her comment,
"Kzue, coklat mousse akak sedapla. tq2"

and then this brownies:- brownies with walnut, which i took the recipe from the net and the taste was great, eat it plain or with icing sugar dusted on top or with ganache, it taste heavenly, very chocolatey and dunno about gooey but it is nutty too with walnut as the name suggested." tinggal satu ketul je untuk I makan, habis depa makan" was a comment from Mr Brownies man on the previous order, who collected this brownies with Manchester United cuppies ( in the next entry), seems that it's not just him who love this brownies, the whole family does, thank you Mr Din for these kind words.

along came marble cheese brownies, brownies base with cheese on top, just what chocolate and cheese lovers would like, me, no exception, I like chocolate cake and plain bake cheesecake, so MCB anytime for me...the first , already cut into 36 pieces, " Kak Zueeeeee.......nak ambik sebelum pukui dua boleh tak? what time was it? it's 10.30 am this morning and I was about to start on my blueberry cheesetarts for 6.30 pm pick up time, ." We're having a meeting and you are the first person that came to my mind", I am flattered with that 'ayat power'.I think i can handle that, so anpther MCB coming up! thank you Linda, juin for trusting my MCB for your 'sudden' meeting.
the second one was for Fairuz who ordered it a few days ago via sms, I had never met her, only received the sms enquring about the MCB and then straight away decided to order it. when I saw her this evening, found out that she worked at the same place as CT, Yani and Shikin. thank you Fairuz, hope you'd enjoy the MCB.

another wonderful dessert using cream cheese, a combination of dough pastry , creamcheese filling with blueberries, this blueberry cheesetarts is like m&m, they just melt in your mouth, so to speak, one is never enough, you just gotta have more, just like Nas who could eat them, how many Nas, eight in one go? No, I'm just exaggerating, what I am saying is, it's too delightful, too sinfully yummilicious and Nas ordered this so that she can enjoy them with her family this weekend. thank you Nas for your endless support.

thank you everyone who has ordered from me, who has been supporting my passion. Variety is what i have at Zue's Oven, you can have anything, well, not everything but something to please you and your loved ones and to spice up your lives.

Congratz Azim

my dearest friend's son, achieved all As for his SPM. Congratz from Aunty Zue and family

biskut batik, my all time favourite

Mek sure does love biskut batik, not her first order. Our family's fav too. Biskut batik or kek batik ni memang sedap dimakan, tasty, yummy, a combination of marie biscuits, milk,butter and chocolate....

Thank you Mek your continuous support.

chocolate and perfume..... and oreo chocolate cheesecake

certain places had certain effect on people. they brought back memories, happy, sad, joy and happiness, a feeling of loneliness, romanticness ( is there such words?). Venice, made me feel romantic, it's empty going to Venice(long long time ago ) without your loved ones. I am not going to talk about Venice, let's leave that place for the time being and talk about a place closer to home, Langkawi.Two words or two things I like about Langkawi ..

perfume , don't we ladies just love the smell of perfume, well... this mama especially, you name it.....Chloe, Chanel No.5, Dior Addict, Miss Dior, Romance, Loewe, Deep Red, Nina Ricci, 212, LouLou, Armani, Kenzo, and the list is endless........their bottles are nice too...... the other is: chocolate
Perfume and chocolate or chocolate and perfume in no particular order.If you were given a choice, which one would you choose between the two? I couldn't remember when or how I started my crave for chocolate, and I think I had written somewhere about my relationship with chocolate, in my drawer at the office ( then ), always have a stock of Kitkat or Kinder or Ritter Sport in the minifridge upstairs and a few downstairs and so the love for chocolate doesn't just stop there, chocolate cake, brownies, chocolate fudge mousse, chocolate eclair, and this one, oreo chocolate cheesecake( OCC ). Who ordered these OCC? .
CT who had just returned from her honeymoon in Langkawi ( that made me talk about Langkawi in the first place ) and I remembered my honeymoon in Langkawi too, errrr...15 years ago.....the small chalet, the beach, pantai Chenang, the..........

Anyway, the other OCC was for Yong, my Srikandi friend, who ordered it for their jamuan, a slight miscommunication with the sms and I only made one instead of two, because no mention of '2' in the sms, next time I need to clarify with my customers to avoid dissapointment on both parties.

thank yyou so much CT and Yong for your continuous support. appreciate it . Do enjoy the oreo chocolate cheesecake!

100 + 10 red, violet, peach and purple roses

they come in many colours, red, pink, yellow, white, etc..etc and they are such beautiful flowers with different colour having different meaning, which I wouldn't want to elaborate here for I am no flower expert, all I know is that they are beautiful to look at, nice to smell and it would melt my heart anytime . She requested a rose each for the cupcakes, 100 of them as gifts to their families and friends during her daughter's wedding.

beautiful bride with 'inai' drawn on her fingers when she came to collect the cuppies. I am sure she would look even prettier in her red sari and the bling bling ala Bollywood .

each cupcake was then placed in a cup with a dome lid and tied with a simple matching ribbon with s mall flower glued to the ribbon.

All I 'could say was "Thank You" Shanti , hope the ceremony was a joyous and beautiful one. wishing your daughter and her groom, happiness always.

colourful.....very colourful Power Puff Girls birthday cake

"Hai Zue! I ada hajat ni...."

it's my daughter's birthday today, but I want the cake for tomorrow. What can you do for a five year old girl. "
The easiest? the fastest? the least work to do for a less than 24 hour notice birthday cake?I had done PPG so many times before. Five year old? colourful !lots and lots of colours. Batrisyia had a PPG birthday cake for her fifth birthday last year.
Then she put her daughter on the line and came a sweet, angelic voice, " Hello Aunty!" For a five year old, she can talk, she asked me what I would make for her. (since Princess cake was out of the question). i suggested teddies for her and she agreed. then her mum took the phone back and asked me what I could do. that's when I suggested PPG and she agreed with me.
Edible image was out of the question. where would I get it in such a short notice. piping jelly colours on ganache? nope.....buttercream on top of the ganache, and then to draw on the buttercream? nope... then what?PPG figurines? Did I have the time? I didn't think so. the call came in just before 10 pm and it must be ready before 4.30 pm the next day.

five yellow stars for five year old gal

what other options did I have? I went ahead to bake the chocolate cake first while my head my flashing images of PPG or any other ideas that would come to mind.By midnite, the cake was ready, just let it cool and I would start on the deco the next morning.
Why didn't I just draw the girls, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup on a piece of white fondant, just like the one I did with BEN 10, started drawing and colouring. Once that was done, I started on the teddies since I had promised the birthday gal that there would be teddies, so I made a teddy each for the girls.

but why were there bees and ladybirds? because I did say or suggested to the mum, perhaps I would just make a simple bday cake, sort of garden theme with the birds and the bees, that was before we decided on PPG, so I thot I'd just put everything in.

what's with the colourful m&m? well... colours....plenty of colours and those colours were not enough I cut out the alphabets with coloured fondant too!meriah sungguh kek ini....

There you go, a colourful Power Puff Girls with teddies and yellow stars with m&m for top border , green and ellow buttercream grass for the base border with bees and ladybirds crawling all over, five of each too.

Here's wishing Nut Alyssya Sabrina, nice name, a Happy 5th Birthday, may you always be a joy and an angel to your mum and dad and sisters. thank you Miza for trusting me with your daughter's birthday cake.