How did the day kick off for you?
We started the day with roti canai breakfast at the mamak shop down the road. Maira's friend Az stayed overnight, so it was four of us girls.
Today was report card pick-up day. The girls status quo je. Maira got second place just like last year and Misha, fifth. Have to say Alhamdulillah, they did quite ok but of course there's always room for improvement.
Met Misha's class teacher for first time today. After we finished talking bout her progress etc, the teacher said to me, "Misha punya bapa dah meninggal ye? Dia ada cakap..". I said, "oh ye ke dia cakap?". She said, "saya baca profile dia, so saya tanya and dia bagitau". You know masa tu my tears dah hampir tumpah already. I didn't say anything anymore and extended my arms to salam. My tears dah menitik at this time and she salam me back smiling while I dah tak tentu arah and made my way through the maze of the school.
Errrr... you saw it in the profile, you still had to ask her? Entahlah... I don't know why I was so sad... I guess it's been awhile since someone asked about his death. Maybe I didn't quite understand why the teacher had to ask my child something she had already known through her profile, buat apa nak tanya lagi? I was thinking about how my child had reacted to her teacher's question at that time. Was she sad... was she affected that day?
Maybe its just me over-reacting, my erratic hormones taking over my brain at this time of the month. I tak marah dah la with the teacher... I know death is a very tricky subject... sometimes one wants to ask about it but don't know how, sometimes one wants to show they care but the words come out all wrongly... many a times pulak, timing lari... I understand completely.
Oh ya... it's Father's day tomorrow. We are not doing anything, I guess. Did think about taking the girls to visit their daddy's grave but I'm on red, so tak jadilah... we'll do our do'a from here as always...
I did bake a Father's day cake for the Fernandez family... a soccer theme that would be perfect if only I knew how to make those figurines... nevertheless I hope they like them...
Anyways, yesterday also had sedikit kesedihan berlaku. Macam ni ceritanya...peeps at the office ordered a cake last minute so I baked a choc cake, the same recipe I've always used... the same recipe which got puji-pujian (give chance, ah..) as it was the simplest one that I could think of. But three things I did differently on this cake: 1. used cake flour instead of regular wheat flour (recipe calls for cake flour but have always used wheat flour). 2. Used top and bottom heat for oven (have always used only bottom heat but recently went for a cake class and the instructor said to use top and bottom heat) 3. used Wilton's bake-even strips for first time, supposedly to make cakes bake evenly and leveled, without high-rise.
The batter was perfect and smooth... I was giving salawat to Prophet Muhammad PBUH all the while during cake preparation as always... hoping the cake would turn out nice to be enjoyed by those who are actually paying me to bake for them.
But the end product was not as expected... it was errrr... not exactly how it should turn out. It lacked the moistness. Two people commented it was a bit dry... I was so embarrased and sedih... bukan sedih coz' of the comments but sedih coz my hasil tak menjadi... sedih wo... (by the way, I returned the money paid for the cake, sebab I tak puas hati and wouldn't be able to sleep thinking I got paid for something I myself am not happy with... the office admin wouldn't accept it but I looked straight in her eye and told her to take it, I think dia takut tengok mata I yang terbeliak tu and after 5 minutes she finally took it haha)
I really did not know what went wrong. I take it as Murphy's Law. But I was still sedih... rasa cam tak mo dah bake for sale... emotional betul. SMSed my cake wizard Wiz, who is now my cake shrink haha. She wrote me an email, memberikan kata-kata semangat, complete with two choc cake recipes to try... thanks, dear... you're a sweetheart!!
To ubatkan hati sendiri, I was singing this line from Ms Cyrus' The Climb:
16 comments:
Hugs*
MHB,
Salams. I'm no cake expert, but looking the yr pics, the cake nampak ok lah. Dry sikit-sikit tu biasa lah. Even those cakes from establish bakeries pun at times are nothing to shout about.
Keep on baking ok. Hope you'll have a great weekend :) Enjoy...
mhb,
i was also @ school collecting report card...aduh sakit telinga tak terkata dengar comments on yusof....yg got the brains , but all he can think of is trying to become mr polular in school....and he's sitting upsr and jsle this yr!! and yes, sometimes manusia ni tak sensitive....err i sue to be like tt too, tactless! nowadays, i dont utter anything if am not sure of the other party's response!
cake baking experience...yes, once i made this vanilla cuppies using the usual recipe...but for some reason, it tasted a bit pahit, could it be too much vanilla, or the selfraising fl...i discarded the entire batch of 50! and made fresh ones....i know how you feel...but whiz yg pemurah sgt tu punya choc cake recipe and carrot cake recipe...are out of the world...tu pun ada manusia yg entahlh dtg from which planet, i dah bagi recipe, still wants to order the cakes fr me(she's a baker jugak, dia takut i bagi salah recipe kot!!), i dont understd this type of pple....and of course i txtd whizlah mengadu!!!!i suppose tt is part and parcel of this baking world!
gurl... we're still learning. we'll get there in time (this applies to the incidents you've described up there).
hugs and kisses
Hmm I had the same problem when I first use the bake even strip. The cakes lansung tak masak on the sides! Had to prolong the baking time making it too dry.
So I bake another cake but this time only circle the strip in the mid height of the pan.
This time it works quite okay
And my oven (Zanussi) when used Top & Down heat the temperature can only be up to 140 C.
Guess I got to go the basic baking class first ..
MHB larling, when I was a kid, I was immuned to questions like "Eh, ayah awak kahwin lain eh?" or "Ayah awak ada datang tengok awak tak?" from my teachers. How do you think I must have felt at that time?;-) But that surely has made me a sensitive and tactful adult, no? So, nay'mind lah horrr??? *wink wink
Hello dear,
It's understandable how affected you were with the incident with the teacher. It was the time of the month, and I guess more so because of Father's Day Celebration and all, etc.
Maybe the teacher was genuinely showing her concern and wanted to know more about the family, but as you said - it all came out not right...
Hope you're feeling okay now, sis.
Take care :)
(((((((BIG HUGS)))))))
* Hey, keep on baking, okay? You can always go back to the recipe you normally used before this, and of course Wiz's ;)
Wiz – thanks, dear… you’re a sweetheart as always…
HUGS (terbayang your figurine bears hugging me ;-)
Kay -- Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, I’m gonna keep on baking!! ;-) Sekali gagal tak bermakna gagal selama-lamanya kan?? Hehe
KG – your kids go to A*ni also kan? I tak nampak you (obviously I know how you look like from your blog) I thought you dah beranak ke… ;-)
Looking back I think I was ter-over emotional la with the teacher tu hehe… I bet she must be wondering apakebende yang dia cakap salah!
I like doing cupcakes compared to cakes coz at least there’ll be some leftovers yang I can try. Cake susah sikit, though in that particular cake that I baked tu, I did try the top part which I cut off to level it (pakai Wilton’s bake-even pun tak even gak) and it tasted quite nice actually.
Sebenarnya kan, I tak rasa langsung cake yg depa potong kat opis tu sbb at that time bila dengar comment “cake you nampak dry je” hati terus luluh hahaha…memang emotional tak tentu pasal!!
D – thanks dear for holding my hand ;-) and for being my shrink in the personal life department haha… if I had to pay you for every whine, you’d be rich, woman!! ;-)
Niza – hello my baking friend!! Thanks for the tip… I will try baking (for own consumption) using your tips on the top bottom heat and temp. My oven is Zanussi too and I used 170C when I bake using top and bottom heat!! Manalah tak dry, ye? Maybe I’ll just stick to bottom heat.
See you next month at Wiz’ class!! (awak dah terrer la can make Beetle car cake bagai!!) You’re my inspiration!! ;-)
Ms Hart – nak kena getu tol cikgu-cikgi you too!! Grrr … I guess as a mom I just wanted to protect my child. And yalah, like you did, rasanya one day my kids too will become immuned to those sensitive questions… it’ll be their fact of life.
“You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life” (ingat tak Facts of Life theme song??)
Wanshana – yelah, I admit I was overly sensitive. Kekadang I feel like giving myself a tight slap on the face for being so ntah apa-apa!! Hmmm… heheh
I’m feeling ok now… thanks for trying to understand.
((((((HUGS)))))))
MHB --> i guess semua bakers pon akan alami situation ini...
DayBab pon pernah alami nye.... buat cupcakes and i don't like the end result. Tido malam sampai mimpi...
pastu bila ingat depa bayar cupcakes yang DayBab sendiri tak puas hati.. lebih baik jangan!
terus, esok pagi... buat balik yang baru... Alhamdulilah, semua nya ok..
MHB... jangan lerr emo sangat. take it easy!!
daybab -- cake susah sket nak rasa end result dia unless you potong cake, kan??
ok la.. tak mo emo dah dah hehe... nanti cepat tua!! haha
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