The Picnic

18 September 2010

not sure how the ? snuck in.....grrr

doing a little promotional posing

In order to boost last minute donations before my campaign deadline, I hosted a blue and white water themed picnic. The plan was to have some fun out in the sun with friends... and to redeem my missing childhood memory of water balloon fights!

I was going to put together the video clips taken on the day, but I think I prefer sleep. I thought I really should update and post this up before my campaign ends and everyone forgets about it. So here's a glimpse of what happened on the day.

busy busy busy

poser andy and the donation jar

Despite the crappy weather on the day and the fact that it was the day that everyone was getting married (thus a lot of friends couldn't make it), we still went ahead just to get it over and done with. I had my picnic! and we raised $430 from optional cash donations on the day!

annie's great action shot! i was drenched and happy :)

Because I didn't have much expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by the turn out. I know, they were all asians, we all look the same in the photos with our black hair and yellow skin. Was nice to meet some new faces.

I love how Annie finally let loose after I "accidentally" hit her with a rebounding bomb. I'm not sure why most of the guests were afraid of water and the light sprinkles of rain... it's just WATER!!!!!!! Still, I'm happy people even showed up as they said they would. There was way too much food prepared, both Jess and I got a bit carried away and a lot of the food was left over but gladly doggy bagged home by hungry attendees.

andy's the biggest poser

Special thanks to my mother who talentedly filled and tied all 100+ water balloons and helped with all the nitty gritties of frying spring rolls, decorating my tarts, and cleaning the mess I made after I left in a mad rush! Also, Jess the expert sandwhich maker for making 60 gourmet sandwhiches delivered in style! ... and thanks to Annie for being in charge of drinks lol... and ofcourse inviting half of the guests on the day and giving up her birthday (sorta) to support the cause. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! ..... I seem to be saying a lot of thank yous these days... thanks to the boys who helped out with lugging things around, thank you all for helping me spread the word about my mission.

Although it was an EXTREMELY disorganised event (organisers ahem*...were nearly an hour late lol... and didn't find a spot to settle... and didn't prepare the games properly and just wing-ed it....) I realised it takes a lot to be the host and caterer and events coordinator all in one! But I think I probably had the most fun at the end, just running around and actually got to enjoy the picnic after most of the people I didn't know had left. It was a great little afternoon to be out and about, if only it wasn't so cold. Still I'm glad it didn't rain out, but I really didn't care if it did, it's just water, would've fitted the theme perfectly :)

And a few more pics to finish off...... (I need to go sleep now)

being chased by wet annie who really wanted to stay dry :P

artistic taping

look! i even bought blue plates and cups! but seriously, what's wrong with asians all standing around?!

boys playing ball

 paul's chucking pose

 study group team minus sue :(

annie put me on the spot to make a speech... 

and after half of the people left due to sprinkling from the heavens... we did a little cam-whoring :) can you spot the retard?!......... sorry kwing, this one was a bad one of you but i dont look decent in the other ones...

Exhausting effort. Wouldn't want to do it again without proper planning and help!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! ALL WHO SHOWED UP ON THE DAY!

Getting ripped off

Man... I feel totally ripped off by the strong aussie dollar......!!!!!!!!!!!

like TOTALLY!!

Since my first big donation upload, the economy went down a bit below $0.91, then it came back up again after the election... to a bit over $0.91. More than one person told me it wouldn't get much higher, if lucky maybe 92cents... so I uploaded another big chunk of the remaining donations to my US based charity:water campaign site... who would've known..... a few days later $0.955!!!!!!! 


I'm still upset.....
:(((((((


US$90 to go.. 7 days left, is someone going to top it up?! 


meanwhile, i still have to write a post about the picnic thing that happened over the weekend....there's just a big heap of photos to go through... but keep posted :P

I'm not sure what's going to happen after 7 days, I still have a few cake orders to clear, can't wait!!!!!!

Billy is sweet

15 September 2010

Billy wrote me an email informing me to take a day off baking as he would bring in some cakes and treats for his belated birthday in support of my campaign. A very thoughtful thing to do... for someone who really appreciates bake-free days :P

We still managed to raise $33.65 from only asking a nominal $1 donation. Natalie bought some cakes on behalf of the office for a meeting in the boardroom to help with consumption.



Happy belated birthday and Thank you Billy Byrne!

Grant's Birthday

I've been seriously behind on my posting... but at least now the numbers have been updated, look! I've doubled my second goal already... and argh! there's only 10 days to go >>>

Okay, back to this post...
13 September 2010

After tasting the mocha cupcakes I made, Grant came over to my desk and asked if I could make a mocha cake for his upcoming birthday. I immediately marked it on my baking calender. On the night of baking, I procrastinated a bit and didn't start in the kitchen until quite late. Having already made the mocha cupcakes before I thought making it into a big cake shouldn't be a problem, except it was, kind of.... the cake crowned and cracked a bit on top, but was nothing some coffee buttercream couldn't fix. I did a simple design with thin layers of melted dark chocolate "plates" and some cocoa dusting, the texture of the cake was moist as it had a lot of almond meal in the batter.

I used to be against buttercreams (some say and thinks it's fake cream), it's the  fat content of butter that turns me off a little, but I have since discovered how butter is made (if you beat fresh cream long enough it turns into butter!!!!) so it's essentially all the same thing, so now I think buttercream can taste pretty nice... especially in the opera cake and this cake :) The coffee aroma was really strong, the birthday boy said he can't resist the smell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANT!

Meanwhile, Sathiya also ordered a random cake to treat the office... okay, maybe it wasn't random, the excuse was to celebrate the approval of his wive's visa to Australia!!!!! I said I wasn't going to take on anymore cake orders due to exhaustion/lack of sleep... unless it was something easy for work. He pretty much let me decide what to make and I baked it with Grant's cake to feed the hungry crowd.

I made my favourite mixed berry yoghurt cake with lemon cream cheese.. it looks darker than it actually is in the photo. Great response for the cakes.

Thanks Sathiya for supporting the campaign :)

My favourite family

the humble hazelnut torte with chocolate shavings

Remember Elise the Superstar? The girl I met once at a friend's wedding. Through this campaign, I've also met her extended family and I really wanted to make a special mention about her family coz they're cool and have not only been extremely supportive but also understanding of my status in regards to personal health, monitoring my blog closely (I felt they actually cared *tears of joy*)...

the Jamieson family

Anyway, Elise's visiting mother ordered a Hazelnut Torte for their family dinner. I have never made one before, so I did some research and a practice run a week before to test it out. The difference between a cake and a torte is that a torte is made from more nut to flour ratio-wise as compared to a cake :) great to know as I wasn't sure if a torte was suppose to be thin or tall - I guess it doesn't matter! I food processed the roasted hazelnuts myself which was interesting leaving some nuts in shape for texture.

cake taking centre stage

When I met Elise's mum and sister on the cake pickup day, it was quite weird to be honest as I waited at the corner of the street as they approached me, total strangers, like a drug deal. We exchanged hand-shakes and it was like meeting a fan, Leanne looked real excited and said how wonderful her family thinks of my campaign blah blah blah. I handed over the cake in a box and I told her how great I thought her family was :))))))

look she even took a cross section for me!

She not only donated US$50 for the cake on my campaign page, she also handed me $30 for baking ingredients on the day..... I guess wonderful people raise wonderful kids, I realised where Elise had gotten her generosity from.

And here's an email Leanne wrote me which I don't think I got a chance to reply yet (oops!) but this post has been long due...

Hello Amy

It was lovely to meet you on Friday. Thank you for your patience with us, we didn't park in the most convenient place.

The cake was lovely and enjoyed by everyone. We had it with a dollop of Creme Friache - very nice. There are some photos floating around somewhere which I'm sure you will see some time. The cake looked lovely as the table centrepiece and tasted great too. It finished off a night of great company, great food and good wine.

Congratulations on the whole project. You can feel really proud of your charity work. We are all so pleased to have been a small part of it. Well done.

Cheers

Leanne

THANK YOU Leanne, it was a pleasure for me to bake for your family despite my complaints about not getting enough sleep etc... I get really energised when I feel people actually care about the cause, so I was excited to bake this cake although Elise repeatedly asked whether I could handle the load :))) I had fun and learnt something about tortes!

I'd also like to say thanks to Amanda - Elise's aunty here again as I didn't take photos of the carrot banana cake that I baked for her daughter's birthday... She sent me a photo of the half eaten cake but I'm not very tech savvy and have no idea how to download the photo from my mobile...

The Boss's Birthday

10 September 2010

the boss's autograph

It was Bruce's birthday on Friday. He had commissioned me to cater for the occasion in support of my campaign a month ago but forgot about it and asked me again last week... busy man that one... so I had to remind him that he had already done that and actually wrote it down on a piece of paper with his autograph, luckily I took a photo for evidence.

the line up

Anyway, I had to ensure to cater enough for the whole office which stressed me out a little, unsurprisingly I didn't get much sleep. Originally I planned to bake the opera cake as the "main" cake, except I think I'm a bit over the opera cake having made it twice already... I did a tiramisu cake instead and a couple of cakes I've made previously and had confident they wouldn't fail at 1am in the morning, that would of been a stressful nightmare...

tiramisu cake

So lined up in the board room ready for Friday staff morning tea was the caramel cashew topped brownie cake, everyone's favourite carrot cake with lemon cream cheese (which disappeared real fast), cheesecake with strawberry and mango passionfruit sauce and the pink strawberry lamingtons. I've never made lamingtons from scratch before, but since coming across it on the internet I've been itching to make it and finally got the opportunity to :)))

It was a big turn out at morning tea, we haven't had so many people show up (come down from level 3) for a while now. Good to know, people love their cake!

Unfortunately, Bruce was late for his own birthday being stuck at a meeting, no photos of the birthday boy... He arrived after half of his cakes were gone...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOSS!

strawberry lamingtons made at 1 in the morning..

heidi nomnom nom nom

a line-up!

---------------------------------------------------
Okay, here it is Sushma, recipe for the brownie cake FINALLY.... sorry for the two month delay...
Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan's - Baking
unfortunately the photo is a bit yellow due to the lighting...

gooey caramel ... dangerous!

for the cake
1 cup Plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
115g unsalted butter
300g bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped
3 large eggs
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

for the topping
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2/3 cup thickened cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup salted peanuts (or any nuts you like)

preparation
preheat oven 180degrees
butter 8 inch round springform mould (I just used a silicon mould butter and lined)

• whisk flour, baking soda and salt together.
• heat in small saucepan chocolate and butter until just melted, remove from heat
• in a large bowl whisk eggs and sugars together until well blended. whisk in corn syrup, followed by the vanilla.
• whisk in the melted butter and chocolate, still working with the whisk gently stir in dry ingredients mixing only until incorporated. you will have a thick, smooth, shiny batter. pour the batter into the pan and jiggle the pan a bit to even out the batter.
• bake the cake for 40-45minutes until skewer inserted in the centre comes out almost clean (okay to have some moist crumbs clinging to the skewer)
• transfer pan to a rack and cool cake for 15 minutes, then run a blunt knife between the cake and the pan and remove it, cool cake to room temperature.
• to make the topping: put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan over med-high heat. heat without stirring until the caramel turns deep amber colour, 5 to 10 minutes. Don't be timid about the colour, if it's too pale it won't have much taste. lower the heat a bit the caramel will bubble and spatter, add the cream and butter. when the spatters "calms down" a bit, stir to dissolve any lumps. Stir in the nuts and pour the caramel and nuts onto the cake before serving. You've probably got more caramel than you need, but you want to get all the nuts on the cake. spoon the nuts out of the hot caramel and onto the cake. spoon enough caramel to cover all the nuts.

I see the end of the tunnel...

First of all sorry to my loyal fans of this campaign/blog... I've been caught up, you know going out on the weekends, catching up on a few movies, sleeping a little more than usual, and still clearing cake orders... but haven't had the energy to update this blog yet, there are a few posts lined up... be patient :)

Anyway, I just wanted to quickly announce and remind everyone.. coz I haven't been very organised (nor had the actual time to do this), some may be confused about the "cost of attendance" since changes have been made in response to the unresponsiveness ... about the PICNIC that's coming up this SATURDAY!

I'm really not too fussed about it anymore, it came a bit too quickly, stressing over not having time to bake/cook/make water bombs is just too stressing, so it's going to be a casual day out, a picnic coz I like them and water bombs coz they can be cool. Invite anyone you wish, but I'd like to know numbers to cater for. Donations are now optional, but it's still a charity event, I would be pissed off if everyone takes advantage of the free food. But if you have nothing better to do on the day I hope to see you there, I just want everyone to have some fun, some cake, some sun, chuck a few water bombs around or at each other or at annie, eat some more cake and help spread the word about the global water crisis, if you can, it'll make you feel fuzzy.

There'll be an anonymous donation jar for anyone who wishes to donate on the day.
Let me know before Friday, whenever, actually I don't care.

That's all from me, for now.
Be fuzzy.

x. amy

Goal # 2 - a piece of cake!

Just a quick one..... I think I've already reached my second goal! (not deducting ingredient expenditure ofcourse). I haven't been monitoring closely everyday like I was with my first goal... but I knew when I started Goal #2 that it would be reached without too much trouble with the cake orders I had lined up. But most of the donations this time came from baking outside of my office.

Just adding the numbers up quickly but there's too many coins to count, I'll have to do a proper count over the weekend... but today was a massive muffin day which made a big difference :)
I'll write more detailed posts and post up pretty photos about the support outside of work when I get some sleep first!

Update - The amount raised is now up to date! (the exchange rate seems better after the election!) I've indeed reached my 2nd goal.. a few advance cake order payments for upcoming cakes, but still, good achievement... and powering on!!!!!!! THANK YOU FOR BEING APART OF THIS JOURNEY!

Meanwhile, I think spitting out my muffin in front of me (a little too dramatic maybe?) and making the comments you made is mega rude. YOU probably wouldn't be reading this, but I still need an outlet so I'm going to write it anyway. If you want to eat muffin break muffins or ultra sugary muffins with thick frosting, go buy it elsewhere. I am not customizing my muffin to suit your taste buds, it may be a truthful criticism I'm happy to accept but rudeness is not tolerated. Some people don't seem to remember the reason why I'm sacrificing sleep, time and giving up my birthday and probably a nice holiday as well. I'm not baking for myself nor for people who are just taking advantage of the whole charity campaign and the honesty system! It's really not worth my effort donating all ingredients and barely recovering the costs to go towards building wells - I might as well donate directly as some have mentioned. So why am I still baking? I'm baking for the people I like and who actually genuinely support my campaign. Seriously, if you don't like what I bake, if you can't afford the price I set for my cakes ($2.70!!!) it's pretty easy just DON'T EAT IT!. Go downstairs and pay $4 for something you'd like. Don't say you'll eat it coz you're hungry when you've already cringed and said how awful or "not to standards" it tastes. I'm not sure who's doing who a favour here, the cake eater or the baker?! I never intended to make cakes inedible and spit-out quality, but if you really want a refund go take it out of the box that's cool. I really think those ingredients I have invested for that particular muffin was wasted on you, something that was intended for the mud drinking kids.


I wish I could swear here..... but I guess I need to keep this family rated lol.... but no, I was not happy today with one particular rude person. That is all. I don't stay angry for too long, I'm over it. It's all part of the experience :)

It's not easy to please everyone's palette with the same batch of muffins!

Update - I've become a caaaaaalmer person today hence the massive crossing out of last night's rant. It's difficult to like some people, but I'm getting more out of this whole experience than I had anticipated, which is great :) It is just one person out of the many positive responses I get, I'm not going to stress over the details.

Muffin Day @ ABTSRA

pretty labels :)

So the anticipated muffin day at a-bank-that-shall-remain-anonymous (ABTSRA) for privacy reasons (!?) finally rolled out successfully after a couple of months of procrastination/strategic planning. Well, it's where Duncan works, and he's the guy who approached me out of no-where, sent me an email saying he'd like to help with expanding my baking to his office of potentially 500+ staff and beyond which made me real excited when I was first starting out and secretly hoped I would be able to do that.

We met up over some bubble tea a while ago along with his sister Michelle who was also offering her baking talents. I was overwhelmed with the enthusiasm they showed... anyway, it kind of dragged on as Duncan didn't want to clash my campaign with other fund raising events at his office nor the $1 muffin promotion week at Woolies... so it wasn't until last week we finally did another massive muffin day (post muffin day at QLD Treasury).

sorting out the muffins - I see organised list!

midnight shot of the muffin factory half products

The purpose is really to spread awareness about the cause, offering people the chance to give. I understand although most people enjoy muffins, there are still a large population who don't like muffins and prefer cakes. Unfortunately, I'm pretty much over baking with the lack of sleep and as mentioned in a previous post I have burnt out physically already :(( So muffins were the only thing I can offer, that wouldn't be too much trouble to transport (but it did take some muscle and will power, power that Ducan never thought he had)... He carried about 55 muffins in one heavy duty bag I gave him on the bus to work! and stuck on labels for me as well. Judging by the photos he took, it was a pretty systematically organised procedure - excel file tables and all!!! (geez, if only I was as organised as these number people!)

I didn't intend to take on such a big order again but Duncan got a bit too excited and kept accepting new orders post cut-off day! I was really exhausted by the time I was done, and although Duncan offered to send his sister over to help out, it was really not going to make much of a difference having two people in the kitchen for muffins. But thanks for the persistent offerings for physical support!

BIG mixing bowl! - night shots are fugly!!

I delivered the muffins in the morning to Duncan's place, as I didn't want to keep everyone up all night, and he took over from there, raising $210+ including extra donations. I guess everything's more sensitive with banks so he wanted me to omit the bank's name... Duncan will be uploading the donations directly on my campaign site soon.

Also, I made a few muffins for NG House just around the corner and dropped them off on the way to work. It was Duncan's colleague Julie's connection... after I dropped off the muffins, I received a text from Ronald asking whether they could get more muffins as his colleagues were "raving about them"... I told him he'll have to wait till next week when I do my regular muffin days... So I accidently obtained more orders, and I think NG house might be full of accountants that are really into muffins....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, everyone mentioned in this post as well as everyone at ABTSRA! who donated towards my campaign for helping out the cause! and Duncan especially for initiating to help out! (thanking Nancy for spreading the word for me too!.. it's like a crazy domino's effect!!!!)

Happy Spring!

deep fried yumness

Okay, I know, it's already one week in to spring now, so this post is a little late...I have neglected this blog coz I've been enjoying my bake-free days for real, doing NOTHING! yay~

To celebrate the arrival of spring, I bought in more spring rolls to work last Wednesday, double the amount from last time as people have been asking for more since. Again, the spring rolls were kindly sponsored/donated by our family friend.

the usual suspects

Meanwhile, mum has stopped feeding the birds in the backyard after I told her it's illegal and in fact doing harm to their way of life. Like a few staff at work, they have relied on me bringing in morning tea for the last two months and now get disappointed when there's nothing offered... and I quote "So, we're just going to starve now huh?!" ............. The kookaburras still came and waited for mum's regular feeding for a few days, but apparently they are over it now, and Mum is the one having abandonment issues....

So I hope there are no nest setups in the mango tree this spring!

Also, the arrival of spring kick started the last month of my campaign. Time flies! I've cut down on baking significantly, but there's still a few more cake orders to happen and the muffin orders and a wedding cake... but I'm finally feeling less guilty and not waking up anxious in the mornings :)

An opera cake please!

uneven layers :((((

Jess's team leader slipped in a short notice cake order for their "new start" (whatever that is), anycake was what he wanted initially, but Jess probably talked about the hazelnut opera I made for her brother's birthday that she repeatedly said it'll make her colleagues very happy if I could make one for them....

they do look happy this time!

Hmmm... well, I thought I could do with another practice of making the components of this cake and it was for Jess's popularity at work's sake too, so I agreed. But over the weekend I realised I had over committed myself again, once again sacrificing precious sleep time. Had to dash out for a birthday dinner and movies in between making the cake, which was not a good idea as the buttercream layers are best spread right after creaming... also, because I was doing a million things at once while making the cake, I over baked one layer :P and each layer is still a bit uneven.

i think the caramel melted lol...

As I wasn't able to make loud noises (mixing, chopping, crushing the hazelnuts) through the odd hours I was baking, so really had to make do with my circumstances.... there's still plenty of room for improvement, I made a few more sugar and quantity adjustments for the recipe but have to work on assembly and perhaps next time will try a chocolate glacage for the top layer instead. This is a simplified version of the opera cake and way more rustic looking than it should be... nonetheless, still a crowd pleaser :) Look, the boys actually look happy this time (check out photo from muffin day last time for comparison!) or forced to smile who knows.

carrot cake with lemon cream cheese frosting

Apparently the guy who was suppose to be the reason for ordering the cakes, was stuck at cairns airport on the day, BUT THE TEAM ATE THE OPERA CAKE ANYWAY without him!...... Luckily, I gave Jess an extra carrot cake to take to work, coz I'm nice. Also, thanking her colleagues for the support they had given me with my first muffin day :)

Sorry about the state of the cake, damaged a bit during transport as usual.

I'm going to pass out now... going to sleep RIGHT NOW!!! will write about today another day :P