Devastated

Fagor STILL has not contacted me back. All just because of one silly tiny piece of detector that needs to be ordered from Spain OMG I swear I won’t ever buy stuff under Fagor (in this case, De Dietrich) ever again what’s with their service being this bad. And I HAVE contacted them several times AND scolded them several times as well. *CRIES*

It’s April.

My finals start next week.

By the first week of May, if I still can’t do anything about the oven, I may have to shut down this ‘online business’. Will have to explain to customers with pending orders as well. I feel so bad but I wish people would understand my real situation of not being able to just buy a new oven, yet.

I’m sad

So yes. First week of May, we’ll see. Insha Allah.

Til’ then.

Bad News :(

1) April is here which means I will be sitting for my final exam, very very soon.

2) I still don’t have an oven at the moment (yes, I just want to cry right now, but what can I do…)

Which leads to. . . . .

Conclusion: I still won’t be able to take orders until further notice. I’m terribly sorry for this. It’s not like I have a choice, really. Baking has always been just something I do part-time. My main focus is still on studying. I have stated that if I need to finish assignments or I’m having exams, etc, I won’t be able to take orders.

And this semester has been a really tough one so far, third semester of my second year degree, yes, it’s tough.

So I hope those who have placed their orders to pretty please bear with me. Many apologies for this inconvenience. Sigh

I’m still alive, just in case anyone’s wondering. I will be back when I’m ready to get back on the baking track!

Thank you for understanding

I Miss Baking.

My old oven can’t be used anymore :’(

As for De Dietrich, hmph. They still haven’t replied which really bugs a really huge part of me. This proves that if you pay a high price for something, you don’t always get what you pay.

I will probably get a new oven. Maybe in 1 or 2 weeeks. I don’t know. I really miss baking. I really miss my love-hate dating moments with my macarons. Sigh.

When I see macaron pictures, I get so high with jealousy.

In the meantime, I am just reminding that:

1. I will get back to those who have made orders once I get an oven.
2. I will not be taking any orders somewhere between late May and early June – I’ve an order for a customer’s wedding, so I’m scared I won’t be able to keep up.

Sorry for all the inconvenience caused

And macarons, until we meet again.

Farhanah.

Meeting Kitchen Guardian :D

So.

My brother’s birthday is on 23rd March. But SPM results will be out by the 21st. So I decided to throw him a little surprise birthday party last night because well, it was Saturday night – I figured that would be the best time to gather his friends and what not. It was nothing big, just a few friends and birthday cakes and 5 balloons, whatever I could afford with my savings -,-

Moving on.

So, yes, with that little party, I thought that it would be the perfect excuse to finally taste one of Kitchen Guardian’s cakes! I wanted to order Devil’s Food Chocolate cake but my mum was already making a chocolate cake so I decided to have a slightly different cake and… I decided to order her Red Velvet cake!

And it was so delicious I wanted to cry. I even had the cake as breakfast today :’|

Quoting my mum; “Wow. This cake is awesome. Incredibly fluffy!”

Quoting myself and my mum this morning: “Ya Allah. Makin lama makin sedap!” (rough translation: OMG, it tastes even better now)

Okay. I am starting to sound obsessed. I should stop now. The pictures will take over from now.

There. Chocolate cake by mama and Red Velvet cake by Kitchen Guardian!

But… WAIT!

We haven’t reached the masterpiece.

No we haven’t.

But we will. Soon. Very soon. Like now kind of soon.

Kak Yani (Kitchen Guardian) and I!

I feel sad.

Because I slept so late. Woke up at 6am. Went for college club trip. Stuck in the jam going to the Curve. Walked super fast at the Curve. Went back home. Filled macarons for Kak Wa (customer from Kuantan! Yeaay, finally met her too!), took a super quick shower, went to deliver the macarons, then went to Kelana Jaya LRT to pick up the red velvet and so there I was, looking as messy as messy can be. So sad. . .

But just had to post this picture. Mua ha ha.

So happy to meet two great people yesterday, Kak Yani and Kak Wa. Thank you very much :’)

Oh. Just to avoid misunderstanding - No, I am not taking orders, yet. Might be able to start baking again soon but not now. I made the macarons for Kak Wa a day before my oven was cruelly taken away. So… Yeah, I’m not lying about the not having oven at the moment, okay!

So sorry for the inconvenience.

Well, yes, that’s all for now. Just had chocolate lava cake for supper. I’m bloated with cakes today. So happy that I’m getting fat too (obviously not).

Until next time!

PS: Sorry if I sound like an obsessive fan here but really, one who likes to bake (and eat) would be a bit crazy not to go goo-goo ga-ga over Kitchen Guardian’s blog. Hah!

A Short Break

I am so sad to say that I will not be taking orders or be posting anything for a while because;

1) My major assignments are due soon
2) I have a few tests coming up
3) My oven is being repaired (!)

I’m very sorry to those who placed their orders last night and today because I really can’t do anything as my oven can’t be used at the moment. Thanks to the ever so efficient Fagor.

I will, however, let everyone know when I’m back and ready to get the business rolling once again. It might not be that long, probably 2-3 weeks? (Oh. That’s long for me……. WHY!!)

But okay, here are some pictures before I, well, leave this blog for a while;

Pavlova, delivered from Shah Alam to KLCC! I hope it turned out okay. Thank you Nadhrah for the order.

Lastly, here is the chocolate lava cake which I successfully baked after my fourth try (sad, I know)

They may not be the best pictures in the world but the recipe deserves a 5-star. I want to share the recipe but uhh, I’m a but too lazy to write it all down but it’s so easy to make that if I have my oven right now, I would bake it again, no more reason to buy overpriced chocolate lava cakes outside. I can eat it straight from the oven, fresh and super delicious, especially (and most importantly) with good baking chocolate :’)

Right. Okay, I guess that’s all for now.

Very sorry again for not being able to take orders for now. Hopefully I’ll be back soon. Wish me luck

Farhanah.

More, Nothing Else.

Just finished making a pavlova for tomorrow’s order. I need to deliver it to KLCC by 11am. Busy day tonight and tomorrow! Just realized I hadn’t posted anything for quite a while so here are just a few pictures of what I’ve been making (:

My blue coloring powder was somewhat spoiled because of what, I don’t know. I think some water got inside the tube and spoiled the whole thing so now I need more blue coloring powder. The blue wasn’t that strong in the last two pictures because I had to use gel coloring. Yes, somehow gel coloring is not that strong for Italian method macarons

I am happy to say that I got myself a new food processor which will cut down my macaron preparation time by quite a lot. Been using just a simple blender to grind my almond powder + icing sugar and I really hate the process. The most tedious of all if I could say so. So with a new and bigger food processor, hopefully it’ll take less time for me to make them!

Moving on.  I am not taking orders for the next 2 weeks or so, Have to focus on my assignments for a while. They keep building up and piling up without fail. I will miss baking and also updating my blog but oh well, studies always have to come first huh.

OH. I tried another chocolate lava cake recipe and they turned out good! I didn’t take any proper pictures but they are so easy to make (and so sinfully delicious to eat) that I will probably start making them everyday and make myself even fatter than I am now -.-

But ignoring that, yes, I shall post pictures of the cakes if I make them again.

Well. Until next time. For now, hello assignments.

Farhanah.

Sugar High

Nothing much to update here! So far this week, I’ve only managed to finish 3 macaron orders and 1 pavlova order. Will start making macarons again tomorrow because I don’t have class on Thursday so better get everything settled before Friday comes. Yes, just one day off from classes. But that’s more than good enough!

As usual, here are some pictures. Nothing new here because they are just macarons and pavlova all over again. Sigh. I’m sorry, I just still can’t find the time to try something new. Sobs.

Small pavlova (:

sorry for the picture quality.

The two last pictures show the macarons ordered by a customer for a surprise delivery to her friend. It’s wrapped with bubble wrap and all because they had to be posted. And in case you’re wondering, the last row of the macarons is my attempt to write; “∞ xo’s”. But since I don’t have stencil paper for the infinity symbol and the apostrophe sign, I had to draw it according to my “creativity” so, yeah, there you go.

I’m very frustrated with PosLaju though. Posting from Shah Alam to Subang takes them one whole day, seriously? I sent the macarons super early in the morning and yet they told me I had to pay for the macarons to reach Subang on the same day? Ridiculous. And don’t even get me started on how they have wasted my time when they gave me the wrong information when I checked my parcel’s status online

Sigh.

Oh anyway. I am all booked from May! Received an order asking for 500 macarons. A bit nervous about this but I’m accepting the challenge especially since I most probably will have a new oven by then, insya Allah. Let’s just hope for the best.

I think that’s all for now. Nothing else to talk about So until then!

Farhanah.

 

Weekend Pavlova

I don’t know what else to put as title, so there you go.

I am so sad to inform that my laptop was attacked by a virus or viruses, I don’t know so I had to reformat my dear laptop and quite a lot of my stuff which I didn’t back up was lost. Including my “food pictures”. So sad. Luckily I’ve uploaded almost all of them to Facebook already

But moving on. For this weekend, I made a pavlova for a customer who lives just one house in front of me, amazing! I delivered the pavlova by foot just now, yeay! Here are some pictures;

I actually made the meringue the night before I had to deliver it but in the morning, I found out that it was attacked by ants, like, a whole planet of them so I had to force myself to wake up earlier than planned to make another one. Sobs. Hopefully it turned out okay.

But anyway, I think I need to make a few changes to my pavlova. As from now, my pavlova will all have two layers and you can choose from two sizes – small or large. Single-layer pavlova will only be available upon request. Price and everything are on the Details page – you can click on it somewhere on this page, above, right, left, it depends on the WordPress theme I’m using.

Yes! So there you go.

Anyway, my friend ordered a heart shaped macaron from me for her assignment project or something. I haven’t really mastered to art of making heart shaped macarons yet so here’s what I managed to make for her;

Well, I would like to think that I have improved from the last time I made them. At least now I know when I pipe the batter, I have to pipe a bit more to make it thick. Or something, I’m bad at explaining so I’ll leave it to that.

Oh and, I tried to make Chocolate Lava Cake today but it became Chocolate Un-Lava Cake instead because there wasn’t any lava, they only turned out to be mini chocolate cakes but luckily they taste good anyway. But I am still craving for a good chocolatey chocolate lava cake, help! Will try again soon and this time, I will bake them for a shorter time. Hopefully that will solve the problem.

Wish me luck.

Farhanah.

Two Colors in One (:

So.. I finally managed to gather enough courage for these;

Yes, before this I was scared to even just try to make “two colored” macarons like this. I’m glad they turned out okay (;

PS: I am so disappointed with De Dietrich’s customer service. I still can’t use my oven until now despite making a report and ordering for a new spare part since last year. Such bad service. I’d be more than glad to just stick with Zanussi next time. *sigh*

Farhanah.

Experiment Gone (Slightly) Bad

Finally, a decent brown coloring powder. Well, it didn’t exactly produce the shade of brown I had in mind but it’ll have to do. My method of producing brown shells before this was a bit tedious so I much prefer using only one type of coloring powder for brown shells from now on

Anyway, I saw a blog post from someone the other day who made white stripes over her green macarons. I wanted to make stripes on my macarons as well except for I’m not brave enough (yet) to separate even the smallest amount of my batter for the stripes. But today, I took one tiny teaspoon of my egg white + sugar syrup batter but only after I have put the brown coloring powder to do a little experiment.

I also put some sprinkles just to see if they would ruin the macarons or not. Because I tried sprinkling chocolate rice some time ago – they went bad.

Here are a few pictures;

Yes, yes, I know. The stripes turned out wrong! Since the batter was already in brown, I decided to just add another type of brown coloring and there you go. Some weird shade of brown/gold, I don’t know.

And lookie, the sprinkles did not ruin the macarons, yeay! So maybe I can experiment more with them. As for the last row, don’t ask me about them. I tried being creative but as usual, failed attempt on that ! Will try to experiment more, maybe make something like this;

from; http://trissalicious.com

A lot of macaron makers have done this ‘design’ already, including Nathalie for her chocolate caramel macarons. So, yeah, I guess I’ll have to keep up with all of them because I am like so far behind

What can I do! I have been super busy with college stuff. Plus, I plan to study abroad end of this year for my third year, so I need to triple the amount of work for my studies. Super nervous and scared and worried Wish me luck.

Perhaps more experiment can be done once this semester is over, which is in April. Until then!

Farhanah.