Project 200 : The day

Majlis Doa Selamat and aqiqah at my in-law's house. 

Baby Nazmi and Papa.

Project 200 : Day 05 - Pipe it

On Day 05, I bake another batch of cupcake early in the morning. It took me one hour to mix and bake around 50pcs of cupcake. Day 05 is the last day for preparation because the next day is THE day. I cant decide whether to top the cupcakes with chocolate ganache or buttercream frosting, so I made both.

I pipe the buttercream frosting in circle on top of the cupcake and I fill the void in the middle with chocolate ganache. I purposely made the ganache a bit bitter to balance the sweet buttercream frosting. The first batch of the frosting came out great. The second one...well...I could actually feel the sugar granules. It doesnt fully dissolved and I was only informed after I've pipe over 100pcs cupcakes *sigh*.

I stop half way and went to my office for a farewell makan-makan. I brought 25 extra cupcakes and cookies for my colleagues. I hope they liked it. I always made extra for everybody in the house.

That night, my mom and the kids helped me to pack 200 goodie bags. Then I sent them to my in-law's house. Phew. The end of five intensive baking days. The end of Project 200. Or should I call it Project 200+200?

Project 200 : Day 04 - Mix and bake the lost recipe

On Day 04, I mix and bake over 200pcs of moist chocolate cupcake. I cant find my recipe book so I meditated for a few hours in a very dark, silent room (yeah, right), trying my best to recall the exact measurement for all ingredients (which I actually did in about two minutes). I dont want to google for a new recipe because it might not turned out as what I've expected. It might be dry. Or not as chocolate-y as my signature [cup]cake. Other recipe might require a mixer while mine doesnt.

One thing about my recipe is it went through a few experiments - on temperature, different cooking time (for steam/waterbath or oven-bake), type of tray (silicone or aluminum), size of the cup (2oz, 4oz, etc) or tray (if I wanted to bake the whole cake) and the measurement for each ingredient (dont make me start on this) - before I ended up with the right taste and texture of the cake. Well, at least right for me.

For the first batch, I only mix half of the measurement and bake a few pieces just to make sure that I am on the right track. I was right. and for the next 5 batches, they turned out great. 

Project 200 : Day 02 & 03 - Mix and bake

On Day 02 and 03, I mixed and baked over 200pcs huge chocolate chip cookies in between diaper changing, feeding the baby and picking up kids from the school. So far, everything  went according to the plan (the plan was - to complete baking 200 cookies on Day 03). 

Project 200 : Day 01 - Buy, sift and roast

Project 200 is a baking project for a Majlis Doa Selamat and my son's aqiqah which was held at my in-law's house. I planned to bake 200pcs chocolate chip cookies and 200pcs moist chocolate cupcakes for the guests. 

On Day 01, I picked up my cousin Cuna at her house and went to the bakery supplies shop. It would be difficult for me to do it alone since I need to buy 10kg of flour, 10kg of sugars (castor, brown, icing), A LOT of butter, a few kg of cocoa powder, chocolate chips, almond slivers and other ingredients - with a 2 months old baby in a sling. We manage to do it in less than one hour because I need to pick up the kids from school and she needs to pick her dad up at the LRT station.

In the evening, after the kids went to their sekolah agama, I went out with my mom (and of course, baby Nazmi) to search for cookie bags and goodie bags for the guests. At night, after the kids went to bed, I sifted all flour and cocoa powder, and roasted almond slivers. The whole process ended at 3am.

Nabil Art Class : Printmaking 02

Nabil learned about printmaking last week (this post). The art teacher told the student to lay their artwork outside and let it dry under the sun. After a while, when Nabil went out to collect his dried masterpiece, it went missing. So he need to produce another one over the weekend.

We produce another pattern using cookie cutters. We have cookie cutter in many other interesting shapes but for this project, symmetry shape is the best. I pressed the cutter halfway inside the potato and Nabil carved out the area outside the cutter.

 Then, I carved a hole in the middle of each flower to make it nicer :p

Watch and learn

Baby Nazmi loves watching me perform my solat.

Nabil & Nazmi watching cartoon

Best of friend.

Evening tea

I made some wantans today. 

Nabil & Nazmi

Always together.

Nabil Art Class : Printmaking

Yesterday, Nabil learn about printmaking art in his art class. I didnt prepare the the banana leaf stalk and potato ahead of time because they will be browned overnight.

I made these while they were having breakfast yesterday morning. Luckily we have a lot of wood carving tools in the house, to carve the potato. First, I did a very simple pattern in 3 minutes. Then Nabil asked me whether I can do a CAR. Of course :)

Banana leaf stalk. I gave him extra so he can distribute them to his friends. In case someone forgot to bring it to the school or didnt manage to find a banana tree the day before.

Tunic and blouse - RM20 each

Related post (here).

@ the beach chic tunic. It is actually a beach wear, but you can wear it on top of an inner and pair it with jeans or a skirt. Be creative!! It is so cute. It fits size S to slightly L.

This blouse was bought in London. The top part is knitted which make it looks uber cool. I am sure if I steam-ironed the bottom part before taking this photo, it will look much better :) Fits size M.

Clearing my wardrobe - Beach tunic RM20

I am now busy clearing out our wardrobe. We have TOO MUCH clothes.

I just started with mine. I will keep some of them. This evening, I plan to invite my teenager neighbours to grab some cool blouses and dresses (above) and the rest will go to charity. 

I found a few new clothes as well and I decided to sell them. This is one of it. I only have TWO of them. So, first come, first serve. You can wear it on top of an inner and pair it with jeans or a skirt. It is so cute. It fits size S to slightly L.

Stay tune for more.

APRIL 2013

It is APRIL already.

You know my birthday is on 30 April.

You can give me books, cheap handbag or hijab.

And you can start looking for gifts for Teacher's Day & Mother's Day in May, and Father's Day in June. I know some people opposed the idea of celebrating these Days and said we have to show our love & appreciation to them everyday. Trust me, I did that. I am a good daughter ;p BUT I need a special day, an occasion, to give them the extra special presents.