Sharing Session and the Hantaran Project

Last week, a good old friend offered to have a sharing session for us to exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences with regards to the pillow bags and range of handbag cakes and shoes. The best part is she and another friend were willing to travel to KL. I immediately jumped at the suggestion and the day was set for a Wednesday.

But on the day she confirmed that she had booked the bus tickets, another new friend called to say that she would like to give me the pleasure of making the cakes as well as the bridal gifts (hantaran) for her daughter's engagement on the Friday of the same week.  This was NO ordinary invitation (for reasons I cannot reveal here); it was a great privilege for me to recieve this order and yet it was also daunting at the same time. The expectations and standards were high.

                                                             Arm of the Samurai Sifu


As usual, I said 'yes' then panicked . This is because in theory I had only one day to do a total of 9 different of  'gifts'. But that seems to be the trend with my orders.... Thus the mission began.... and the challenges.....

On Tuesday night, after whipping up 6 batches of the butter cake needed for the sharing session, the electrical sockets in the kitchen suddenly played up on me... all the equipment in the kitchen could not be used as the electrical system was tripping all the time.... Tried as we may, changing the fuse in the plug; changing the plugs itself, even the electrical sockets in the living room tripped on us.... At last, desperate and frustrated, I make the omnious decision to carry the oven to the shop to bake the cakes and that was at 1.30 in the morning. My poor children and hubby kindly obliged and accompanied me to the shop. We ended up baking till dawn-- 5 a.m.

At nine Wednesday morning, picked up my friends and went to the Bake With Yen and bought all that we needed. Official sharing session started after lunch until 1.30 in the morning... But boy did the three of us had fun... We kneaded and kneaded the fondant (after a while, my adopted brother was roped in to help the ladies with the kneading), carved the cakes into pillows -- a story in itself (husband was roped in for this part), had a brainstorming session on how to create different effects of the dented look on the pillows... After lots of trials and errors, the three of us sat back and laughed--- coz the tools were all staring in our faces and we had been imagining and cracking our heads how this and that effect was created..... Soon the pillow cakes were on their way. The youngest of  us (not me) was designated to complete the cake.

The 2 'older' ones proceeded with the handbag cakes.... to cut a long story very very short.... we ended up with a completed clutch bag, a crocodile skin Prada Bag (with no handles yet), one shoe and a mini mini bag.....

And because all the projects were carved from actual cakes and not from polystyrene foam, we decided to give away the white clutch together with a scarf to the bride (whose mother ordered the hantaran gifts) as a surprise gift.

My friends left on Thurday afternoon with loads of stuff... some are left with me for delivery later.... happy and satisfied at the achievements made.... Thank you .....


Then my REAL nightmare began.... by the time I got back (just my luck,the whole of KL was jammed with traffic that day), it was already five..... the baking of cakes and the kneading of fondant continues throughout the night till the next morning.... I literally fell asleep while cutting the ribbons and worst still, while beating chocolate into the cheese cake batter (needless to say, some batter ended up on my apron en route to the floor) -- my hands were moving but my eyes were closed.... woke up to a loud exclaimation of 'MAMA!!!!!!!!!'.....

Thanks to the Grace of God, the pick up time was postphoned a few times that day...... HE was just giving me more time to complete my task.... at 4 Friday afternoon, EVERYTHING was actually completed......

 I must also covey my thanks to Nomie who had graciously agreed to do the Lapis Sarawak Cakes for this project... poor Nomie... she must gotten my panic bug coz when she delivered the cakes; she was short of one... She panicked when I reminded her there was another one...... finally she 'negotiated' for a slightly less complicated design and I agreed.... My eternal thanks to Nomie for having delivered her promises.

When we presented this cake to the bride, she went 'Oh My GOD!!!!! Its so BEAUTIFUL!!!! Thank you... Thank you so much...' Later that evening, my friend called, "Ainee.... FANTASTIC!!! Thank You Very Much'

Those words ALWAYS make my day and was it worth the sleepless nights.... YES.... Thank you Yong and Nana.

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