Being True To Yourself, Let's Bake Congo Bars!

A 3 tier Victoria Sandwich Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream and fresh flowers

Assalamualaikum and hiya peeps...days after my last post I felt the pressure coming to me. Yeah, it is not easy to live up to your words. I have started embarking on the things that I wanted to do and the necessary preparations on the projects for 2015 and 2016.

One of the goals was to test ie to bake 27 best selected recipes in the next 12 months...I have embarked on that too, alhamdulillah, and I am gaining inches too haha! I am getting my mark registered soon...which means that I am working on my own logo as the name thekitchenguardian is too general to be registered...but Jane, please wait for me, I have yet to reply your email and those questionaires that you have sent me! So, we will see a new blog design etc etc etc after this, inshaallah.... 

A Hummingbird Cake

I have decided too that I will limit the number of classes this year. And to compensate I will take more orders...that have started! And the classes will not only focus on cakes and desserts this year. We will have a variety of classes, and I can't wait for that to happen! Think my outlook for what I wish to do this year is more structured. And planning is one very very important thing to do. With planning means knowing your customer base, their needs and your capabilities...this too will ensure that you stay ahead, inshaallah...

Macarons in Creme Brulee and Raspberry fillings for dulang hantaran

One of the things that I wanted to do this year was to spread kindness and influence people to do (more) good! The world should be a happy place to live, and I hate fighting and bitterness...which means that I have to forgive (a lot of) people....I also have to forgive myself for the mistakes that I have done....you can't forgive people if you can't forgive yourself first. You have to be true to yourself.... 

A Red Velvet cake for dulang hantaran

Spiritually I will start my mengaji ie iqra classes soon. For this I realise that I have to go back to basics...and learning to recite the surahs correctly and knowing the meanings of the verses in my solats. I have started to be in muslimah compliant outfit, and will soon cover all my aurat including wearing socks....

Yes it was tough trying to do all this, but I must admit I felt better, calmer and more serene. For at the end of the day I realise that I am but Allah's creature.....whatever happened must be by His will....

Enough said, now....I wish to share the Congo Bars recipe that I now bake (I tweaked my recipes a few times ya!) for orders..

Ingredients 

250g butter, I use President salted, soft

1 3/4 cups light brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 large eggs, weighing about 60g each

a pinch of salt

2 1/2 cups of self raising flour

1 cup callebaut 54% cocoa choc buttons

1 cup bittersweet ghirardelli choc buttons

extra imported store bought choc buttons to spread on the batter

Method 

Using a wooden laddle mix butter with sugar and vanilla until all the butter disappears in the sugar. Add eggs one by one. Mix and please do not cream the eggs. Add the sifted flours in 3 additions, fold them in and not stir the batter. Mix the choc buttons and spread in 12x12 tin. I usually top with more chocolate chips and bake in a preheated oven at 160C for about 18 minutes.

I have never used a mixer to mix my congo bars, and I have never done 2 recipes in a go. And I love them made this way and using this butter as they stay fresh and soft at room temperature even after 5 days.

Till the next post, bye bye!

xoxo, Yani 

  

TKG

A macaron tower made with my student, it was her first experience making macarons!

Hiya peeps! It has been more than two months since I last wrote here. I have been terribly busy....well all the home bakers have been busy! However, I must make some jottings here as 1.4.2014 came, and left us, that marked a one year anniversary since I threw my resignation letter. Time passed by without you even realising it, especially more so when you are doing what you love!

I should have done this sooner, actually! There has been ups and downs (when I lost my baking mojos, you wouldn't believe it), but I wouldn't go back to a full time job! In my current world now, there is so much love and hard working and very caring people!

I love baking and trying new recipes, but I also love meeting new people during my classes, and they are my students. I love it even more when they say that their sales that week increased when they introduced new cakes the recipes they learnt in my classes. I have somewhat left an impact on another person's life......

Looking back, I realised that I have worked even harder, working means heating the oven for some early bakes as early as 3 am or frosting and finishing cakes during those wee hours. When in full time job, I had my coffee while going through my emails at 9! Now, by 9 am my cakes would be ready for collection....

When I left things were very uncertain, I used up all my resources...after 4 months working on my own I replenished those resources, alhamdulillah....I am not afraid anymore... When I left I wanted freedom of time, now I wanted to give more....during classes I share tips and techniques, now I want to give away more funds for the needy, inshaallah....when you have more time, ie more time to think and ponder, you realise that happiness is when you make other people's lives better....I don't think so much about my material beings anymore....

Okay, until the next post, which I do not know when....but I have to go now, tonight is one of those rare nights that I didn't bake (well, I busted a tray of mini Chocolate Pavlovas...I call them my boyfriends as they are very temperamental with me !) I need to catch up with some sleep. The pavlovas I will make them tomorrow...good night , take care peeps!

p/s   Wait up for TKG (thekitchenguardian)'s press interview, due to be published soon, wink

Team Work Makes The Dream Work

Hi ya peeps! Except for the Kuala Lipis macaron tower drama, I had an awesome most demanding week, last week. There were lots to be done, but thank god for the support that I got form my ad hoc team members!

...first there was the wedding fondant cupcakes' team, Zulaikha and Nadia dropped by my studio to assist with topping the cupcakes and covering them with fondant. Zulaikha also helped made the sugar blossoms...

...then, at the very eleventh hour, we pulled our sleeves together, I mean Fadli, Farhanah, Yan, Afiq with my guidance assembled and put together a macaron tower...Yup the controversial tower that was not a confirmed order the day before I had to pull my resources to get it done.....and then, I almost flew, but for the snail traffic from Gombak toll all the way to Raub...and sped to Kuala Lipis.....only to arrive at 3 pm and was not greeted, let alone thanked by the bride. Delivery was never in the agenda as I had to assemble the ruffled wedding cake above, which all was settled at around 11.30 am. 

...anyway, as much as I told myself I had forgotten and forgiven the Lipis incident, I was disturbed by the whole thing, I lost my baking mojo.......lately, there has also been a series of orders confirmed with no deposit collected by me, and I was stood up. This customers did not turn up to collect their orders.

...hence, as much as I hated the idea of collecting monies upfront, think I have been forced to resort to this...and yes, I noticed that those customers who placed some deposit actually confirmed their orders before the delivery day...hmmmm..

Anyway, as I happily entertained my down feelings, I was shaken out of this when I learnt that one of my customers who recently got married had lumps all over her breasts, a swollen thyroid gland and her blood with traces of copper! With all this uncertainties for her, I can only count my blessings, right....

I'm still trying to pull myself together, but I realise that the daily orders are meant to meet my daily expenses, any forms of savings would be from projects such as classes, corporate orders or the likes...hence, life is what happens to you when you are busy making plans.....

Hence, pull up your socks, moan if you have to , but not for long, my friends....enjoy this video...

  

Bakers' Day Off!

Salam and hi! I am slowly getting into the grooves of working on my own now. Haven't got a routine yet as I still run like a headless chicken especially from Thursdays to Sundays! The days seem shorter and I found that I have more things to do! But, I love the idea that I don't have to brace the traffic anymore in the mornings.

...I also realise that I have to shower immediately when I got up in the morning....thus far I have been getting up at 4 am the earliest...otherwise, you 'll see me still in my pj bottom at noon! I still haven't gotten the hang with my orders...with messages not read, I'm sorry ladies, I hope to improve in this section, huhu.

I have not started doing any cookies, even though Ramadhan is just around the corner....I will take this easy so any cookies for sale will be based on what I bake. However, I will be taking orders for macarons and cakes for Eid!

I attend mengaji classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with Ustaz Habib in Masjid Taman TAR on Hadis and Kisah Nabi (pbuh) and Tafsir with Ustazah Fatma Azzahra in Surau Bukit Mulia on Thursdays....I will do anything to attend this classes, they are priceless...I felt as if I was reborn! Inside I am more serene....liberated....I can't describe the feeling....and after all this years i just couldn't wait for Ramadhan to arrive! Ustazah said Ramadhan is Madrasah...a school where you reclaim yourself, to do ibadah and forget the worldly just during this holy month....fasting is meant for you to feel the pain, to have less....

...when I thought back, I came a long way to go to this classes, went through quite a bit (don't want to tell you), but I feel really blessed to be able to do this now!

...to be honest, I only have one large order in Ramadhan, and I haven't a clue of how to survive this month...but I believe that things will fall in place, inshaallah!

...inshaallah I will move in into a new space sometime in the end of August, the house will be ready by then. I will have more classes from basic buttercream, fondant and hantaran cakes! ...can't wait! My wish is also to be able to fulfill more orders!

...and Monday is officially my off day, I have declared that! Last week I went to KLCC park...tomorrow i will follow Khadijah to register back in college and then we'll probably go to Bangsar... have a nice meal and I want to go to Dian Pelangi hehe....

...enjoy this song, my current favourite...most times this song will play in the background when I cranck my oven in the wee hours of the morning...

Have a productive healthy and blessed Ramadhan week ahead!

xoxo Yani thekitchenguardian

A Walk In The Park....

Salam and good morning! It will be my third day of retirement today.  Am I enjoying the 'freedom'...yeah I guess, but funny I thought I have been having this feeling all this while....I suppose this thought of me not going to work has been in me without me noticing it all along...what am I saying...whatever...it is already the wee hours of the morning....

  

My last day of work was Tuesday last week, however, I had to pop by to settle some personal matters with HR and close one matter the following day...I left office at around 3 that day.... that night I slept like a log, in fact I dozed off without even showering...felt like the world was lifted from me....and then, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday I spent my mornings as early as 5 am baking and frosting my cakes...oh wow! I could not remember baking so much....but I was darn happy!

...Sarah was supposed to come yesterday and we were supposed to start baking our cookies for Raya...but I told Sarah to join me for lunch in KLCC...we were not going to bake that day, and I really wanted to walk on KLCC park!....and that was what I did...felt so liberated, even though I was a wee bit disappointed with the whole park....it cpuld be nicer, prettier, more happening...well, except where the fountain was, the rest of the park was just so, so....really makes me want to go to Central Park New York asap!!

...some people in the office thought that I was bored and suggested that I return to work...no way...I don't think so...but I must admit that working at home all by myself made me felt a little lonely...been "whattsapping" Rina and spoke to Wiz to cut this loneliness, huhu!....and since it is only the third day me being at home, I haven't actually establish a routine yet...I went to my first "mengaji" class yesterday morning in Taman TAR and learnt about the prophet and a sunnah....the best feeling I felt after that. And since I really wanted to go to a "tafsir" class, think I will have to join my friends in the surau at Bukit Mulia, since the class in Taman TAR is held on Friday nights....

I baked quite a bit after I returned from my class, and I can thank Him more for the orders that come in, Alhamdulillah! I am still looking for my own space for baking, orders, studio and classes...but that have to be sorted latest after Eid, my tools and cake tins are piling and I couldn't even get a new oven and cooling racks and the space in this house is limited already, hehe....you know with 6 kids and all, bahaha....

Some people have asked for a class for Raya cakes, and I thought that we should stick to the basics like below...I will throw in a demo to bake a Victoria Sandwich Cake, since so many have been asking about the cake....so, I'll see you in Sugarflours Bangi on Saturday, ya! It will be a group hands-on, so I will not bake extra cakes from home, you will have to work out amongst yourselves during class, with my guidance...more interesting!  

...a lot of people have asked me for a Banana Walnut Cake recipe...my answer would be to try this...

Banana Bread

125g butter melted and cooled

125g sugar

2 large eggs

about 300g mashed bananas

175g plain four whisked or sifted with 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda and a pinch of salt

3 tbsp natural yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla

Mix the melted butter with sugar and vanilla till well incorporated, add eggs one at a time, add the mashed bananas. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions and last add the natural yoghurt. I also added about a handful of chopped walnuts into the batter. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 C.

As for the topping I use my favourite cream cheese topping and drizzled with salted caramel..

...yup...that was me at the park, got on the swing before we were chased by the guards at the park , hehe...I have always wanted to walk in the park....

Night peeps, gotta catch a few winks before finishing a few cakes to deliver in the morning..

xoxo Yani the kitchenguardian

...this is how I feel now, not having a withdrawal symptom from being away from work, but I am still adjusting to my new life...enjoy the song peeps!

Just Do It!

Assalamualaikum and good morning! I have just got up to do some baking. I have been doing this lately...got an early night to rise early to bake before I left for work. Easier...but having said that I have 2 more days to go to work, from 26.6, I will start my leave and officially 1.7.2013 I won't be a blue telco staff anymore.

Scared...of course, anxious? Definitely...but I am already at the bridge and I just have to cross over, no more turning back, no regrets..I just have to do it, make it work!

But, funny, when you decided on certain things, the world will move you towards that direction...and what's more intriguing is that, things were moving faster that I thought it would be...all towards the directions of the thoughts...the goals that I had..

I recently viewed a shoplot ....well, you see I wanted to just operate from home, but "kamalkamalia" had made me think big...you got a dream, go get it girl, she said! I paid a deposit for the unit to rent, but later the landlord wanted more...I could slog for it, but I thought I might as well cut on my overheads since I am new...I needed all the reserves!  

....thank god for friends like Razlyn, yesterday we viewed a house that sits on a cul de sac that belongs to her best friend, which lounge is accessible from a main road...actually it was a unit that we had eyes on when we first got married years ago...to rent or purchase...see the power of dreams and subconscious mind! I have settled for that, only thing is that I have to wait for the house to be vacant, repaired and painted in the colours I desire....so, Inshaallah I hope to move in sometime in July, or early August latest...can't wait! Never mind the fasting month, one can't wait for all to fall in place...it will be my own nest my own cake studio, baking and classes and cakes to go will be available from that cosy place!

psst...I tried a new fluffy buttercream recipe and added strawberry filling in this magnolia bakery style cuppies...oh they were so delicious!

...and orders, my! I must bersyukur and thank the Almighty, they have been pouring in, I need an assistant pronto!...and there have been talks on new business ventures as well...like me supplying to a few chains, inshaallah!

One of the things that I wanted to do when working on my own is going to mengaji...I will start my class on Thursday...I have been trying my best to do solat soon after time instead of delaying...I found that so soothing and calming!...so much so I have been baking and delivering my orders really in the nick of time and last minute, and the orders were ok! I don't fret and fear about my orders anymore! I don't collect any deposit, so it's cash on delivery, and I did not worry about non-payment except a wee bit, bagus kan! Just berserah!

...so that's it for now, with my wifi fixed at home, I hope to update this blog more often, and use my camera more...so tra for now, I really have to go and bake hehe good morning hope we all have a barakah week!

xoxo yani, thekitchenguardian...

Random Thoughts but Let's Go Places!

Hi ya you all! After almost a month in hiding, well sort of but done unintentionally, I wish to pen down some thoughts...a lot took place in a month period....thoughts change and new goals set!

...you know that apart from taking food pictures I love to capture moments...no not the wedding kind of moments but those moments that one cherish forever...I have tried doing that after I came back from my Zero to Pro workshop with Saiful Nang...but I really wanted to shoot newborns, babies, kids...my children! That opportunity came along when I was given a slot by KamaliaKamal of thephotolicious. She has a team of all ladies photographers under her belt and she had just given birth! Her baby (whom I have forgotten to ask what his name was) was our subject! I learnt about colour harmony, lighting and angles....the technicals In have learnt from SN's classes....and the result was.....tadaaaa

...this picture was not edited...well I never edit my pictures...and I was ecstatic with what I could do, sure there were only very very few shots that were ok. But, I also learnt more than photography...Kamalia forced me to think BIG, beyond what I could think I would be capable of! So, I have reset my goals and will execute them! Am I excited? Of course I am!! I am not revealing what next on my sleeve, but taking pictures of newborn will remain a hobby as for now...

Well, it was never my intention to travel outskirts and have my baking classes elsewhere than in Klang Valley. However, I was invited by a dear friend to fly to Kota Bharu to have my maiden class there. It was darn hot there I downed loads of water and didn't eat much, but hey...the market in Kota Bharu is untapped! The girls who came for the demo class were angels...and I learnt that if you think your life is hard, there are others whose lives are harder than yours. I encouraged the girls to go for it in the baking arena, offer more choices to the people of KB! And about Kota Bharu...I must say that despite the fact that there is no KLCC nor nice favourite grocery shops like Hock Choon there, I fell in love with the slow pace and simplicity of the life there....will definitely go there to have more classes!

...saw this on the plane...really got me thinking to go places!...and have more ovens and assistants.....

I had Nasi dagang for breakfast at Hover before my class on Friday.

Their satays were yumss!

This was taken at pasar Siti Khadijah...

...as the name says, most of the sellers were ladies wearing chunks of gold bracelets on both arms! ...Funny when I wanted to buy some jewellery, I was not entertained maybe because my purchase was a meagre one hehe ....the ladies were buying at least rm4k worth of jewellery at one time...whoaaaa!

...red torch ginger...

...take a look at my attempt at royal icing lace embroidery...

My first commission for macarons dusted in lustre powder, an order by Yong, and I loved this!

...hey, look at my handwriting, think it has improved, done this the old school way without using any nozzle...less washing for a maidless lass like me!

...and this the current cookie craze..Almond crunchy which is super duper easy to make...just mix 250g of Florentine mix with 500g roasted nuts, spread in a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake at 165C for about 20 minutes. Cut them while they are still hot and leave them to cool before storing away in cookie jars!

...and why I paste this video here.....I never thought that anyone would care that I leave this organisation, but one of the senior management this morning was shocked to find out that I have a few days left..."we will miss you for you have been so patient assisting us with your legal opinions and drafting and amending contracts in accordance with our tempo!" ...haha yeah all work needs to be done yesterday with this peeps...I shall miss this lot, too!....and immediately this song into my head..why oh why I don't know.....but it reminded me of my last few days in uni when my future was really not certain...it's different now

...for now I just have to focus and make this baking adventure a success, fullstop!

tra, xoxo yani thekitchenguardian

A New Journey Begins....

Good morning peeps! Sorry for the very long silence...I have been very busy in the office and of course in the kitchen. My growing up kids also are demanding more attention....thank god for hubs who does the kids ferrying to extra classes and the laundry still! I take care of the kitchen and cleaning of the house. Even then, hubs organised my baking stuffs last weekend!

I have been trying new recipes, however, have not had the time to put them here. And, since I will be my own boss from 1.7.2013, I have rolled out a few new projects to keep me busy when I don't have a full time employment and to refill my pockets, haha..

....so, I have started a series of baking classes at several baking studios such as at the Dessert Table, KelasKek.com and Sugarflours.....all classes are on Saturdays till the end of May. I will rest in June to plan and prepare for orders in July since Ramadhan is starting on 7.7.2013 and classes will continue in September after Eidul Fitri, inshaallah!

...from the classes that I conducted so far, I have had fun sharing what I know and meeting new beautiful people. They came from everywhere, near and afar (Terennganu, Seremban and Brunei) and my youngest student was Mariam who's only 15...she knew what she wanted to do after her formal education and I salute her for this! So, here's the schedule for the upcoming classes:

11.5.2013 - Sweet and savoury Tarts and crumbles - Kelaskek.com, Puchong

18.5.2013 - Rainbow Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Macarons - The Dessert Table, Mutiara Damansara

19.5.2013 - Premium Choccolate Cakes - The Dessert Table, Mutiara Damansara

25.5.2013 - Rainbow Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Macarons - Sugarflours, Bangi

....and I have started using my dslr again after I fell in love with the candidness of my smarphone camera, hehe....and I hope to oblige more cake orders after this....have a brilliant polling week ahead peeps!

xoxo yani thekitchenguradian