My Fair Lady High Tea - Matcha Mousse Cake

25 September 2010 (belated post)

Sue had put in an order for a matcha (green tea) cake with red beans since the early days of the campaign. Finally that high tea with her girl friends she has been talking about finally rolled out last weekend. And it was my pleasure to make the mousse cake, finishing it off with white chocolate "petals".

ladies all dressed up in floral lady stuff @_@!

cross section - a little messy

wow pretty candles!!!

No artificial colouring used, the green is all match powder! I initially sprinkled the powder on the white chocolate petals, but discovered it looked quite nice and "artsy" with it all smudged out casually. The petals were pretty difficult to handle as I made them super thin, melts real easily with the slightest touch so I had to work rather quickly in between refrigeration.

Looks like they had a great time, and Sue said they didn't refrigerate my cake because it looked too pretty to be kept in the fridge... thus the mousse was looking a bit droopy by the time it was photo time I guess... Nonetheless, still interesting to see cross sections of my creations and approval from clients :)

I haven't made the matcha chiffon cake with the recipe I had used before for Jess's cake (left photo: a night shot taken at her birthday earlier this year - my first attempt at a green tea mousse cake), so I might have added too much salt to the cake batter without realising the sugar content was already pretty minimal...anyway, I balanced the sweet consistency out with the mousse and red bean additions.

Thank you Sue and your girl friends for your support!!

Grand Finale @ Work

30 September 2010
A final sugar high at work today... well technically yesterday now that it's past midnight...

To be honest, I was secretly hoping to celebrate the end of the campaign by NOT baking! but a few colleagues have asked about what I was going to do for the last day, I guess people were expecting something special to finish off perhaps... so I thought a last boost and squeeze and push of my wonderful colleagues wouldn't hurt, more funds = more safe drinking water, so I sent out an email asking for volunteer helpers for my grand finale.

Thanks to my baking comrades - Naomi, Natalie, Heidi, Judi, Lucinda and Geoff, we raised $170.80 on the day!!! I was able to finish baking at 10.30pm!!!!!! that is considered very early for me, normal time is around midnight to late torturous hours around 2am... so I really appreciated the help I got and the stuff we managed to put together. Just look at the photos :)

geoff's impressive tart - made from scratch!!!

Geoff kindly sacrificed his time in the kitchen to make this fancy looking and tasty tart from scratch!! especially with a new born at home, I was quite impressed, he's known to be handy around the kitchen I'm glad I included him on the team :)))))) thanks geoff!

Camera shy Judi stuck to her specialty and made scones with berry jam and cream while Heidi was mumbling about her lindt choc tarts not being pretty enough, so I gave them some magic PS-dusting :))) much better?!

naomi wouldn't let me take a photo of her and these :(((

my quick happy looking jaffa cupcakes :P

and my fail safe cake with a little too much white choc 

easy to make and tastes like a cheesecake without the guilt!!!!

i didn't have all ingredients for hedgehogs, and had marshmallows so this was a new creation :)

sugar addicts 

and we had to use another table... spring rolls also made a last appearance, gone fast as usual

too many options to choose from, everyone was pretty stuffed

We had enough food to take up to level 3, and enough for afternoon tea as well as left-overs for the next day!!! THANK YOU all, everyone at work for being great guinea pigs for the last three months, for all the volunteers who helped bake, for the people who donated and supported without eating cake, for putting up with my frequent emails and giving in to sugar for a great cause! It really has been an awesome three months, time does fly. 

I was afraid Bruce was going to make me do a speech which I've been avoiding for so long, luckily he only called me over to congratulate me on prolonging through the whole three month that I had set myself, he said normally people would've given up after a week and everyone's impressed with my persistence. I guess I never expected the return and I just did what I could and the directors and colleagues have all been super supportive from the start - I'm grateful to be working in such an office.

Anyway, too much blabbering.... (got a couple more posts to catch up on!)

THANK YOU CGA!

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!