Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Li-anne's 1st birthday


My step-granddaughter, Li-anne, recently celebrated her 1st birthday. In my opinion, she is the cutest baby in the whole wide world and I'm totally biased! I made Li-anne a special Princess Castle birthday cake.



My daughter, Laura, helped with decorating the cake. Laura had some good ideas with the placement of hearts on the steps leading up to the door as well as how to place the flowers and such.

Baby Li-anne figurine
Figurine of baby Li-anne on the cake.

Last weekend was totally crazy but filled with lots of laughter. So much I want to say but just do not know where to begin....

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Monday, October 12, 2009

Nightmare

I found out one of my cousins were opening a bakery so I asked her about it. An aunt of ours were also involved. Since it's family, it makes sense for me to be part of it. And so I dove myself into it, supervised the renovation, set up the place and finally it was opened. I trained two members of staff who would be doing the cake decorating.

The shop was opened with much anticipation. Good friends and family members attended the shop opening. Two doors away was a smaller bakery who asked for my advice from time to time.

After the shop opening, something felt different. I didn't feel welcome in the shop anymore. There was some whispering amongst the staff of the smaller bakery. They stopped every time I approached. What was going on?

Things came to a head when my aunt actually said "I'd never asked you to be involved, you know? You barged your way in and I didn't have the heart to tell you No" My world collapsed then. I had put my heart and soul into the place and it was going well. I had assumed to be included because I was family! My dream has just been shattered into a million pieces. As many pieces as my heart. So I packed my stuff to leave a biz I wasn't meant to be involved in. As I was packing, the decorator I trained came over to ask about making some seashells to be used for a sea themed cake. He noticed that if he used the existing mould to make the shells, he will not be able to get a pair of shells that fit. He needed to know what to do, especially when the customer was paying RM2,000 for the cake which isn't going to be a single-tier cake only. That's a freaking lot of money for a cake that size!! And this decorator whom my aunt will be retaining and not me is not experienced enough to handle something like that. I felt so dejected...

As I was walking pass the smaller bakery, I noticed something familiar. A big jar of sugar with vanilla pod inside. Looks like my jar, only the sugar was about to finish. This small bakery had nicked my jar and used up the sugar. I was livid! Gave the owner and her staff a piece of my mind.

"I have always given my all. Any time you needed guidance on cake decorating I've been most generous. Whatever knowledge I have, I'm imparted without holding back and this is what I get back?"

I couldn't hold it in anymore. I started to cry... Then I felt my pillow getting wet. Wait a minute! It's all a nightmare! OMG, it was so real I'd cried in my sleep!

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