Winx Inspired Novelty Birthday Cake ordered by Pn Siti Hasnah of Shah Alam

My last decorative cake order, before Hari Raya Aidilfitri. I am stopping for a while so I can concentrate on making Hari Raya Choc Chip cookies and Kek Buah Kukus. To my patrons, not to worry, I'll be back doing decorative cakes again one week after raya. In fact I am foreseeing a very busy end of year, as half of my slots in Nov and Dec have been booked for the wedding season. I sincerely hope to be able to accommodate all of you, but there are only so much orders that I can take, so start booking your dates now ya!

 

Siti is a returning customer who ordered a Princess Carriage cake for her daughter's birthday last year. This year I had the pleasure to do Aina's birthday cake again. I was glad to be told by Aina's dad that she and her kindy friends had enjoyed the carriage cake so much that they (Siti and hubby) decided to order from GG Home Biz again this year.

 The theme chosen for Aina's cake this year is "Winx Fairy". This is quite a challenge for me, as for me fairy figurines are more daunting than superhero ones. Nevertheless, with some ideas provided by Siti, I gave my best to make the figurine as fairy-like as possible. Of course, without the fairy face mould I could never achieve the exact look of a Winx girl. Think I've gotta surf for fairy mould suppliers-lah sooner or later... An order for fairies does not come by often, and these moulds can be quite expensive. In fact this had only been the 3rd "fairy themed" cake I've made so far. So when an order like this comes, I can only promise to make them look as fairy-like as possible, if not exactly.

 A customer like Siti is very easy to work with, other than sending pictures as reference, the rest were really up to me. It's always exciting when a customer believes in you and gives you the freedom to be creative.

 Siti ordered a rainbow cake as the base, baked it early this morning right after sahur. Started working with the fondant at noon and finished exactly at 5pm. The figurine had been made 2 days earlier. Learning from past experiences, always give ample time for cake orders with figurines. Even then, I had to engage the help of superbibik and sis Elin so that I can finish before the promised pickup time.

 

 Siti came with her husband and cute little Aina who got all excited after she saw the cake. I understand that the cake is for Aina's birthday celebration at school tomorrow. I truly hope that Aina will have an unforgettable 5th birthday celebration. It was lovely to meet this young family (didn't get to meet Siti last year, for some reason), I do hope that Siti will continue to patronize GG Home Biz, as it's been pleasure baking for her. :)

A message received from Siti the next day which made my Monday blues dissapear: "The cake was marvelous. My daughter and her friends loved it very much. Tq!".  :)

Trifle Puddings ordered by Kak Long from Bank Pembangunan

 50 Trifle pudding in individual cups. Ditempah khas oleh Kak Long Nizam from Bank Pembangunan untuk majlis menyambut puasa di pejabat. RM2.50 per cup, min order 20 cups. Price is subject to changes.

Chocolate Fudge Birthday Cake ordered by Teacher Nas of Sitis Montessori School

Dora 3D Cake ordered by Pn Siti Ednah

Soccer Themed Birthday Cuppies ordered by Pn Julia Mohamed of Kansas City, USA

Novelty Handbag Cake ordered by Pn Julia Mohamed of Kansas City, USA

I am typing this while waiting for a customer to come collect her cake. After a loooong afternoon decorating the Dora cake, I needed an outlet to wind down. So with a cup of hot Nescafe and a leftover red velvet cupcake by my side, I decided to chill down by doing one of my favourite pastimes, writing here!

I find that having a new baby and running a part time home biz can be quite challenging without a good support system. I'm very thankful that I am able to indulge in my passion, anytime I wish to, as I know superbibik will always be there to look after the baby when I do. At the moment, my sister Elin and parents, and sometimes my aunt, Makcik are also in and out to helpout. So I never had to worry about not finishing my orders on time etc...

 

I received this order from one of my oldest bff, Julia about a couple of days ago. She'd earlier ordered a set of soccer themed cupcakes for her son. She added this order as a gift for her SIL, Jamilah who'd been a great help to her husband and her. Coincidently it's also Milah's birthday today. On the pretext of asking Milah to come pickup Haziq's cuppies, Julia planned to surprise her with the cake, which she did.

Since it's a last minute order, I did the whole cake in a day, a feat that I have never attempted before! Wah... felt quite proud of myself when I completed it. Of course, I wouldn't have done it if my sister Elin didn't help with the cuppies. The cake inside was red velvet, with buttercream filling and covered with fondant. Julia supplied a sample picture as reference, she isn't fussy about the details, which makes the project all the more easier.

I think the gesture was very thoughtful of Julia and hubby, and they're very lucky too, to have such a nice sister like Milah. It's always nice to have a family that you can fall back on, even when you're half a world away. I hope Milah had a birthday as lovely as she is. It was truly a pleasure to meet her. Happy Birthday Milah!

Cream Puffs with Custard Filling

Latest product at GG Home Biz. Cream puffs, filled with creamy smooth custard. Makes a lovely dessert for parties, kenduris and buah tangan. Just RM25 for 30 medium sized pieces. Price is subject to changes.

Transformers (Edible Image) Rainbow Cake with Italian Buttercream ordered by Pn Shida Razak of Taman Sri Gombak

I generally dislike buttercream cakes. But this cake is an exception. Rainbow Cake has a rich, dense and buttery texture that makes it potently addictive, well, for me-lah. :) And its Italian Buttercream is just the perfect match. Rich, fragrant and less sweet. The combination is a match made in heaven!

A childhood friend, Shida ordered this rainbow cake for her son's birthday. She initially requested the cake for Saturday, but I've already commited to Dila to do Canisha's butterfly fairy cake. So the date of pickup was shifted to Sunday. Saturday was quite a busy day at my house, as my front neighbour Pakcik Osman was having majlis cukur jambul for his granddaughter and he had tents set up connected to our house, and I've another set of order for steamed caramel and bread butter puddings that same evening.

I started baking the 6 layer cakes late Saturday night. Started working on the buttercream the next morning. Shida came around in the afternoon to pickup the cake, she came with her mom to my delight.

Cik Zah was my babysitter during my primary years in the mid 80's. Her late husband Pakcik Razak was a kind, gentle man. I had many happy memories growing up under their care. I remember that my sister Ain and I used to sleepover at her house on pasar malam nights, learned how to ride the bicycle without trainer wheels from Shida's younger brother Najib (the funny thing was, at the time Najib didn't even know how to ride a bike! He used to hold our bikes so we could have balance before letting go with a push and plenty of cheering, so cute...), from Cik Zah's children we learned to eat maggi laksa mixed with a bit of rice, but what I remember most is Cik Zah's ikan masak kicap and kuih samprit, and how she'll make them often as she knew how much I enjoy them. Now that I think of it, I do miss our younger days "transitting" at the police barracks... Ahhh... The good old days...

 

Back to the cake, Shida told me that Iwan loved his Transformer's themed cake so much that he kept guard beside it. Whenever his mom cuts it, he will remind her not to cut the face of Bumble Bee. He's so cute! It was a coincidence too that I chose Bumble Bee image for this cake. Apparently this was his favourite Autobot. Happy Birthday little Iwan! Enjoy your wonder years while you can (hehe...). May Allah bless you always!

Butterfly Fairy Birthday Cake ordered by Pn Faradila of Taman Melawati

Dila is the cousin of a good friend of mine. She's also a returning customer. Last year, Dila ordered a candyland themed birthday cake for her little princess, Canisha. This year's theme was butterfly fairy party.

As the previous year, Dila advised the theme and left the decoration part to me. This is quite a straightforward design, to carve a butterfly shaped cake and frost according to the theme colour. The doll was a serendipity find, went to a baker's supplier and found it chucked out of sight underneath other cake toppers. I thouht the size and hair colour was just nice for Canisha's cake and the rest was history.

Baked the strawberry flavoured butter cakes a day early, decorated it the next morning on the date of pickup. Canisha came with her daddy to collect her cake, what a friendly little girl! Twas a pleasure to meet the birthday girl.

 

Received great response for the cake, an sms from Dila, "Hi kak g..thanks a lot for the yummilicious cake! Dila happy sgt all the guests like it.. sume kata sedap n licin ptg tu jgk hehe..sume tanya tempah mana n dila dah promote fb kak g.". Alhamdulillah! It is a great motivation when a customer appreciates your work. Thank you Dila for commissioning this cake to GG Home Biz, hope to hear from you again next year. I wonder what will be the theme for Princess Canisha then?... hmmm...

Elegant Rose Fondant Engagement Cake ordered by Ms Shalia of Jln Ipoh

To cut a long story short, my sister Elin passed me this unusual order for a fondant engagement cake, which was ordered by a young woman named Shalia. Shalia was getting engaged on Saturday the 7th of July. This cake was for her engagement function, not as hantaran. As this cake was meant to be served to her guests, she requested for a large cake. As for the colour theme, we were forwarded with a picture of her engagement kebaya. After some discussions on the cake design, all of us settled for a cake design by Cupcakes Confetti. Elin rang Anita for her permission to copy the design, who was kind enough to give us some tips and advice too. Thank you Anita and Anissa for being such great sports and mentors.

The 14" cake was vanilla butter cake, with buttercream filling and covered with fondant. The gumpaste roses were of different design from my handmade usual roses. It took us 2 days to do this much of flowers due to the size of the cake. We made grey and white pebbles as borders at the foot of the cake and finished it with a big silver ribbon.

It was quite late when the cake was finished, Shalia arrived at 11pm as promised. It was lovely to meet her, what a pleasant young lady! Selamat bertunang Shalia dan pasangan!

Transformers Birthday Cake with Edible Image ordered by Pn. Linda Aris of Klang

I received a call on the 4th, from Kak Linda to order this birthday cake. It was quite a surprise, as I knew Kak Linda from my UiTM days and I was told that my cousin Nani who recommended GG Home Biz to her is a colleague of Kak Linda's. What a small world!

This is an 8" vanilla Victorian Sponge, with buttercream deco and edible image. 

GG Home Biz July - August 2012 Newsletter

Hello GG Home Biz friends!

I am back! Am writing this post on my aunt's computer, while waiting for the afternoon traffic to pass. I wish there are more than 24 hours a day! Can't seem to steal some time to update GG Home Biz blog and fb profile. Little Iddin has been "punishing" his mama every night. He's 50 days old to date, but still hasn't changed his sleeping habit. My sister says he's jetlagged, sleeping all day long and up most of the night. I'm getting a bit worried now, since I will have to go back to work pretty soon.

Since the last 2 weeks of my confinement period, I have begun baking again (wink!) to my mother's dismay. Couldn't help myself, I had assistants by the way. Made 2 Thomas themed cakes, a set of girly birthday cuppies, and some muffins, cream puffs and caramel puddings for Iddin's kenduri Aqeqah and potong jambul.

This is officially my first week to resume biz as usual. I'm fully booked for the week though, been getting bookings from customers almost every other day. Alhamdulillah... I'm thankful that my patrons are still supportive even after my on and off hiatus the past year. Unlike some women, being pregnant is not something that I "enjoy". My mother calls me "lembik", which really is true! I hope this will be my last one, tiga aje cukup! :)

This is a busy week (2nd - 8th July) at GG Home Biz. Last night I made mini RV cuppies for my brother Najmi's office, caramel puddings for mom's religious class celebration, next will be Aunty Yati's steamed fruitcakes, Julia's long distance order (from Kansas City) for her son's birthday "soccer themed" cuppies, Dila's special butterfly cake order for her daughter's birthday party, Shida's "Transformer themed" rainbow birthday cake and finally a fondant reception cake for my sis Elin's friend. All these to be done within this week. How nice if I can continue to take orders freely like now, as I am still on maternity leave. I will have to limit my baking once I start working, to only one cake order per week. With a new baby, it would be too overwhelming to take more orders. Therefore, if you have an order in mind, do quickly book your slot in my schedule!

A reminder, GG Home Biz will not be taking cake orders during the whole of Ramadhan until the 8th day of Syawal. I will be busy baking my annual chocolate chip cookies and steamed fruitcakes for Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Kindly sms or pm me to place your order, please inform your date of pickup too.

I will post my recent cake pictures soon, hopefully by next week. Haha! It's not a promise though... ;p Until then, take care ya, and to all my Muslim friends, Selamat Berpuasa, semoga ibadah kita semua diberkati Allah.

Warmest Wishes,
GG