My Maternity Break and Hari Raya Choc Chip Cookies

Maternity Break

Wow! My last update was almost a month ago. I've been working at a slower pace for the past month, due to my advanced pregnancy condition. The past 2 weeks have been quite busy at GG Home Biz. As I am finishing remnants of orders before I go on my 2 months maternity break. I am very sorry to all my patrons for not being able to take your orders from 1st May til 30th June. Business will resume as usual on the 1st of July 2012. However, I am still contactable during my break if you want to book/reserve dates for cake orders for the month of July onwards.

My due date is on the 20th May. However, during my last checkup my doc have advised me to take things easy as my little bun in the oven looks ready to pop anytime now! :)

Hari Raya Choc Chip Cookies

Watchout for my latest updates on FB, I guess I will be taking orders for cakes until mid July after my 2 months sabbatical, then I will have to stop again until Hari Raya to make way for my annual choc chip cookies production. However, it's all still in planning stage. I haven't finalized my plans yet, but will do so during my confinement break and will let you all know ya! And yes... you may start placing your orders for our Raya choc chip cookies. The price is RM25 per bottle of 400gms. Self pickup only. I would also like to state here that I don't give out samples. You will have to purchase your samples at the price above. Sorry ya!

Alritey, I hope to write again very soon, I hope! I wish you all a wonderful month of May, thank you for supporting GG Home Biz. Take care and stay safe!

Warmest Wishes,

GG

Ultraman Novelty Birthday Cake ordered by Puan Izume of Puncak Alam

Princess Carriage Birthday Cake ordered by Puan Fara

Fara also ordered this Snow White themed Princess Carriage Cake for her 1 year old niece. It was a choc moist cake with buttercream frosting. I understand that the family planned to celebrate little Mia's birthday on the same day of the majlis cukur jambul. Mia is so lucky to have such a nice aunt to order this special birthday cake! I hope that Fara and Mia loved the cake and Mia had a lovely celebration. Thank you Fara for the double order!

Cukur Jambul Cake ordered by Puan Fara

This is a one of a kind custom ordered cake. Fara ordered this cake for her son's majlis cukur jambul. The theme was turquoise and shocking pink. The base was rainbow cake, filled with Italian Buttercream, the outer frosting was American crusting buttercream. I made the figurine of a sleeping baby as the topper and decorated around the side of the cake with baby themes.

Fondant Birthday Cake with Corporate Logo ordered by En. Najmi Zainuddin

My brother Najmi and friends ordered this choc moist birthday cake to celebrate their boss' birthday.

Rainbow Cake ordered by Pn Nik Azida of Ukay Perdana

Rainbow cake ordered by Gda of Ukay Perdana. Buttery rainbow cake with Italian Buttercream. Gda ordered this simple rainbow cake just for "makan-makan". Thanks for the order Gda!

Black Chanel Handbag Cake ordered by Cousin Alang Zarina

 

Wow! 2nd Chanel handbag cake in one week! Remember the white version that I made for Kaklang's surprise party a few days ago? She loved it so much, she ordered a black version to thank her colleagues for holding her a surprise birthday celebration at the office.

Since this handbag cake is black, I informed her in advance that I could only find silver chains for the handle, therefore the logo will be silver too. The original black bag comes with gold chains and logo. For the base, Kaklang requested for choc moist cake. Since it was a short notice order, I decided to used storebought gumpaste flowers instead of handmade like I did for the white version.

 

Rolling out the black fondant was a whole new experience for me. White was straightforward and easy, took slightly over 3 hours to finish decorating it. I took close to 6 hours to decorate the black version. Before this I've only done small black pieces of fondant, never a whole batch. Wow, it was quite a challenge, I think I grew a bit of arm muscle rolling it out. Used up a whole bottle of black colouring too! It's alright, next time I'll know what to expect. The other challenge was to make sure not to get black stains on the white covered board. I did it in a different style this time, to give it a slightly different twist.

Sent an MMS of the cake to Kaklang after it was completed. I'm happy she loved this one too. She replied that this time it'd be her friends who won't want the cake cut! Thank you for the order Kaklang, hope you had a great party at work!

Red Velvet Mini Cuppies for Teacher Nas

These mini RV cuppies were ordered by my son Imran's kindy teacher Miss Nas. Imran couldn't sleep last night (he had a long 3 hour nap in the late afternoon), so he kept me company while I baked the cuppies. Since he wanted to help make the cuppies for his teacher, I let him sift the flour, he did for 2 seconds and gave up. "Beratlah mama, penat tangan Imran.", he complained. Typical Imran... :)

White Chanel Handbag Cake for Glam Cousin Alang Zarina

Ahhhh... My dream cake... I've always wanted to do this cake but, no one ever orders it. So when my niece Zulaikha gave a tip that her Maklang adores Chanel, the Chanel Handbag Cake quickly came to mind. 50 is a huge milestone birthday, so the occasion is just right! Yayyyyy!

 My glam cousin Alang Zarina (or Kaklang as I call her) turned 50 yesterday. She doesn't look her age I tell you, you wouldn't believe she has grown up sons! As we were growing up, my two younger sisters and I would often get clothes and accessories from Kaklang. She had always been the stylish one in the family, and we kinda looked up to her as our fashion idol.

This time I wanted to do a different type of cake, so I tried a new recipe, Banana Yoghurt Cake. It's moist and light but firm enough to be the base for this fondant cake. I remembered that in Giuliana and Bill, they had a banana wedding cake, filled with peanut butter. Thought it would taste nice with my Banana Yoghurt Cake, and it did!

I planned to bake the cake on Friday evening, but was exhausted after a long day of decorating the Dora and Carriage cakes back to back. Luckily the party was set the next day in the evening after Maghrib at my Aunts' Maktam and Indok's house, our usual family gathering haunt. It was Saturday, so I had a whole day to do it slowly. Baked two 10" x 8" cakes at noon, left them on the rack to cool while I went hunting for the accessories at the nearby shops. The cakes were cooled by the time I got home. With bibik's help, finished decorating the cake in a jiffy. I enjoyed every moment decorating it, had dreamed of doing it since I first laid eyes on it a couple of years ago.

When the cake was brought out, the look on my cousin's face was priceless. Kaklang was so funny, after a few rounds of singing the birthday song, she still wouldn't cut the cake. "Sayangnya nak potong!", she said. Everyone said I should've done a mock cake instead, so she could keep it forever! Then came several rounds of group photos with the birthday girl and her cake, rasa macam orang kahwin pulak... After an hour of taking pictures and staring at her cake, Kaklang finally cut it. We thought we'd never get to taste the cake... haha! I am very happy that Kaklang love her glam cake, I enjoyed making it too. Happy birthday Kaklang, you have lived a large chunk of life, and I have enjoyed being around you for the chunk that I have known you out of your 50 years!

Here's the birthday girl (with her black Chanel handbag), with my mom and my three sporting aunts. From left, Makcik, Indok, Mak, Kaklang and Maktam. All of them orang kuat in the Manaf Clan and main figures in my life (there are others too, missing in the picture). Without them there wouldn't be surprise parties, monthly family feasts and outings. Now that we have all grown up, they've turned their attentions to our little ones. Spoiling them with treats and gifts, as they had done when we were young! How I envy the children now... ;p

Princess Carriage Cake for Puan Diana of AU2

 

This cake came next, after Ina's Dora cake. It was a coincident to have two 3D cake orders back to back today. Nevertheless, since I was free, I took the order to fill my free time. At least it'll be more productive I thought. Diana confirmed the order right after Ina's order came. She had been liaising bout ordering a "princessy" cake for the past couple of days, I wasn't sure if the order would really come. When it came (and it was kinda last minute), the thing that came into mind was, my lazy Friday was about to turn into frenzy Friday... jeng jeng jeng...

This cake was butter cake, frosted/decorated with buttercream. Baked it together with the Dora cake last night, decorated it today afternoon to meet Pn Diana's pickup time in the evening.

 

I was running late, had visitors coming in and out the house that day, hubby Sham was off too, so he had contractors over to repair the roof. At the same time we had a special guest, Sham's old ITM friend dropped by because he was in the neighbourhood. Then Ina came to pickup her Dora cake, would love to chat longer but I had to finish Diana's cake soon. As expected Diana had to wait some 10 mins for me to do the finishing touches, she arrived just as I was beginning to do the writing. Diana came with the birthday girl, the cutest little pumpkin Emma! Too bad I didn't get to take a snap of her, she was a bit camera shy. She's soooo CUTE! They were going to celebrate Emma's birthday tonight because her grandparents are going travelling tomorrow, hence the rush.

Princess Emma, you're so lucky to have such a doting mum. Trust you had a lovely little party. Hope you'll stay as cute as you are the next time I see you. Gerrrammmm Aunty tengok Emma! Diana, it was nice doing business you again, sorry sangat-sangat you had to wait ya.

 

Dora 3D Cake for Pn Azlina Mohd Kamin of Ukay Perdana

 

My old friend from Seremban days, Ina texted me on Wednesday to order a Dora 3D Cake for any day pickup. She ordered this cake to appease her younger 5 yr old daughter Zulaikha, who had been asking for it since December for her birthday. Unfortunately I was battling with morning sickness at that time, so her parents stalled the celebration until now. Kesian Zulaikha!

The cake was Choc Moist Cake, frosted/decorated with buttercream.

I had taken leave for today, because I had planned to prepare for a wedding fair I wished to participate. But at the last minute it was cancelled. With a free day on my hands, I took Ina's order. Baked the cake last night (Thursday), started decorating it this morning. Cake was done at the promised time, 2pm. Ina came to pickup the cake after work. Well as expected, Zulaikha was surprised when she saw the cake, more unexpectedly, her brother Irfan was the one raving about the cake! Kids are so funny!

Hope Zulaikha had a nice little birthday celebration. Happy belated birthday Princess!

Dora Custom Edible Image Cake for Puan Aini of Taman Melawati

 

Puan Aini is a new customer. She confirmed her order a week ago, for a choc moist cake with custom printed Dora edible image for her daughter's birthday celebration at the kindie. It was so easy to deal with Aini, as I prefer early and prompt confirmation. Also, she's familiar with the neighbourhood as she stays in the nearby Taman Melawati.

 I met up with her and her mum at Petronas to pass the cake, we chatted a bit, mainly bout cake decorating coz she too loves to bake. But due time constraints, she's not able to pursue this hobby. I hope she does, it's so fulfilling and a method (for me-lah) to relieve stress. It's nice to once in a while bump into people who has the same interest as me. Lovely to meet you Aini, hope we'll meet again!

Ironman Birthday Cake for Mrs Wong of PJ

I loooooove the outcome of this cake! This is my first time doing such background setting on a cake. But the creme de la creme of course is the Ironman figurine. Ahhh...I have to say that I am very proud of this "little" fella. He's only 11cm tall, but it took me 7 whole hours to "sculpt" gumpaste and turn it into IRONMAN.

When I started the project, little did I know that it would take me that long to finish. I expected it to take appoximately 3-4 hours only. Fortunately it was Saturday, and the weather had been nice and warm, just nice for figurine making. I hate playing with gumpaste on a humid day, it would take longer to dry and the limbs could just drop off anytime! So I took my own sweet time to finish it, at the same time enjoying some "me" time alone in the kitchen with the fan blowing and mugs of ice water always on standby. My sister came over that day, she said, she ate, she slept and woke, I was still in the kitchen doing it. Haha! When you're doing something that you enjoy, you don't even realize how fast the time flies.

This was Chai Ping's 2nd order from GG Home Biz. She last ordered in October a Thomas 3D cake for her younger son Wei Wen. This time round, was for her elder son Eu-Wen who had turned 9. The young man chose Ironman to be the theme of his birthday cake.

I had been pretty nervous about the whole project, usually I'll have my children's toys as reference when I do figurines. Since I couldn't find a single Ironman toy in any of Imran's toy chest, I was down to my last option - to google and print Ironman's images from all angles.

 

With the figurine done, I frosted the 11" (L size) choc moist cake the next morning. Had so much fun playing with colours, fashioned the cake to look like earth with a strip of fire going across it. I placed Ironman in the middle of the strip as if he's ready to take off to fight the baddies.

I finished the cake by 11.30am, had promised to meet Chai Ping in Bangsar at 12.30pm. Armed with my Garmin GPS (I'm not very familiar with Bangsar area, you see), with bibik holding the cake box, shoo-ed the kids into the car and off we went! Chai Ping came soon after we arrived, had a little chat with her. She's really friendly and pleasant to talk to. I do hope that Eu-Wen had a great birthday celebration. I received a text from Chai Ping later that evening which said,"Hi GG! Quick update: the mothers were amazed at how intricate the Ironman figurine was! Your choc moist always lovely & the buttercream smelled sooooo good. Thanks!". I was giddy with happiness for a couple days after, still am! 

It had been a good and productive weekend for me. I felt that my efforts were well paid off, as both my customers that weekend were appreciative of my works. Thank you Chai Ping for the order, it was really nice to see you. Til we meet again!

Pearly Pink Hantaran Nikah Cake for Puan Norhayati of Setiawangsa