Carrot Cake for Iftar

Last week we had Iftar at my sister in law's in Ampang. We brought pecal for the berbuka. My niece it seems was hopeful that I'd brought along a carrot cake, which of course I did not ! ha ha ha.... lain kali kalau nak cakap daa...

So when we had another family Iftar at my brother-in-law's last Saturday... of course I brought a cake for her!  I got a fan.  I don't mind really making the cake. It gives me an excuse to practise on some new designs. But someone commented that it  looked like a hantaran cake. Here it is....

This coming Saturday is going to be our turn to host the Iftar. But we've decided to berbuka at Puteri Restaurant and then come back home for the Isyak and Terawih. Since it is also my hubby's birthday, looks like there should be cake for the more'. Takkan nak buat carrot cake lagi. I'm thinking of making vanilla butter cupcakes....

Cakes and Cupcakes updates

Taste always speaks for itself.  One of my colleagues ordered the cupcakes below for customer meeting.  From these I received two orders.  Alhamdulillah, rezeki..

However, from these too, I realized that I must,
1. expand my creative designing repertoire
2. expand my color collections

Haha, but these are lovely soft colors, well liked by my clients and potential clients anyway....

The carrot cake orders,

for a surprise birthday, the young lady is as lovely as her name.

Old friends, new stories ............

Just before Ramadhan, my friends from college had a reunion at another friends house.  This friend of us, is always generous with us using her house as meeting place.  Her hubby is normally away at his shooting club during weekends, so we had the house all to ourselves.  This time, we had it after lunch, so its kind of hi-tea for us, pot luck. 

Our juniors were there too, but since there were a number of us whom we've not met for sometime, we practically stayed in the kitchen (where the food is actually !!!) most of the time.  Two of our very very old friend whom we actually met during our 1st semester only, came.  But even spending time then for just one semester, kept our friendship on and on for all these years.  They're just as crazy as ever, we were laughing and laughing all the time.

Oh, we did go to the living room to join our juniors to take pictures... then it was back to the kitchen for more talk and incredible stories.  Some were stories and experiences that were so mind bongling that we couldn't believe that its all true...  There was the first wedding night experiences, yeah!  Good thing, we were able to sit through it all with lots and lots of sense of humour.... 

Here's my dear friend, Ta Daaa !

Yes, she is still sexy (seksa she would say) AND she cooks too... Bakes wonderful cakes, like me! ehem ehem... she also makes malay kueh, something I don't. I didn't take a picture of the apple-cheese sandwich cake that she made for her potluck (forgot la!), but I did take pictures of the carrot cupcakes that I made for the get-together.  Which by the way, she forgot to taste ! Too busy chit-chating away and beguilling us with tales of her escapades !

And then, just before we were all going home for the evening (the juniors went back a little earlier than we did.. adik-adik kan, kene tidor awal sikit lah), our friend, one that we've not met for so so long, one that we know for just one semester but one who is a friend for a life time, dgn selambanya ...told us that she is having an affair !! Ternganga jap.. btw, she is single and besides consensual. My friend is an adult who knows what's right, what's wrong.  And as responsible adults, we all take responsibility for our actions and ultimately live with the outcome of our decisions. Who am I to judge?  Everyone has a right to their happiness.

PS: I edited this post today (14/3/2011) and took out some sensitive stories that I had unwittingly wrote without thinking at that time of writing this particular post. I was also quite open because nobody, practically nobody reads this blog dulu. Now that Í'm using this blog more to promote my cakes and cupcakes, hopefully I might have more visitors lah! If I hurt some people with my direct words (I'm a sagittarius, what do you expect?), I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart.

Ramadhan Al Mubarak

Its now 6th day of Ramadhan already.....  Daughter no 2 came back from Sri Iskandar last Friday afternoon, went back this morning, on the new electric train, KL-Ipoh ETS. RM30.00 per pax as compared to RM12.00 per pax for regular train! But trip is 1.55 hsr as compared to the 3 hrs on the regular train.

The ETS,

Came back alone though.  Sister at OBS won't be coming back till perhaps a week before Raya.  I think this is the longest ever that she'd been away from home... but I know she is enjoying herself immersely over at OBS. Doesn't have a driving license yet but have now driven a speed boat.

She is so lucky to be doing what she loves.
I just wished that she'd keep to a sail boat instead !

A visit to Kuching, Sarawak

Kuching Day and Night

Went for a short visit to Kuching last 24th July, 2010... just over the weekend trip. Three days is NOT enough. So much to see and experience. It was just hubby and me. 

Where we stayed, the Merdeka Palace.

We went for the river cruise on the day we arrived i.e on a Saturday, At RM60.00 per adult, its a good way to be introduced to Kuching. The trip was about 2 hours or so, with refreshments and traditional show thrown in.

After the cruise, we walk a bit along the waterfront (below) while we waited for hubby's cousin to pick us up.  They took us for a seafood dinner at what seems to be a very popular place called the TopSpot !

On Sunday, we went to the Cultural Village at Santubong, which is about an hour away from Kuching. Hubby had arranged with the tour company to pick us up and take us there. The van that came was horrible, if you're going there, make sure to insist on a good transportation. Otherwise, it was a really worthwhile trip to take. Entrance fee is RM100.00 per adult. All the dwellings shown were actual life size.  A real eye opener for me....

The Santubong Mountain in the background of the Sarawak Cultural Village

The tour starts here....

Pepper plant outside a Chinese Farm House and the Malay House

 The Tall Melanau House and the Orang Ulu House

The Penan Dwelling, for simple nomadic indigenouls people

The Iban Long House (Common Area), and their enemies' skulls

The Bidayuh Long House and a Bidayuh Family Room

The Cultural Village trip will take about half a day. There's also a cultural show at their Auditorium. It's quite well equipped as this is home to the World's Forest Music Festival.

After the village tour and culture show was over, we went for lunch. On the way back, our driver was kind enough to take us to a popular 'kek lapis' Sarawak and the ikan terubuk masin & telur ikan terubuk masin. The roe can go up to RM400 a kilo during low season, wah... much like caviar.

Kek Lapis : Testers for you try

The Ikan Terubuk masin and Telur Ikan Terubuk masin

On our last day, hubby had to work... well it was a business trip for him anyway. So I actually had the whole Monday to myself.  Morning after breakfast and after hubby had left for his visit, I went to the market to look for Midin, a type of 'pucuk paku' but of course I got a few other things as well. After my trip to the market, I went for a visit to the museum which happened to be just next to the hotel. After checking out and placing my bags with the concierge... I went for souvenir shopping to the shops near the waterfront. 

My market trip goodies...

,

The museum, there's actually four next to each other (4th one across the road!). I visited two of them. Not bad actually, I find them very interesting.

My walkabout to the waterfront to look at and for souvenirs, I passed by a cathedral, the post office with its lovely old colonial columns...

The rows of shophouses, houses shop after shop selling antiques, masks, souvenirs, pepper sauces, laksa mixes, blow pipes etc. Along the corridors are petty traders selling kek lapis, Sarawak gambir and more souvenirs.

And before I know it, its time to go... 

But I leave with lovely memories of Kuching. May one day I get to visit this place again.