In the Neighborhood

Another bazaar just took place in my neighborhood last Saturday. Regardless of my fear of the rain and no one would be available to assist me, my positive thinking fuelled my determination to participate. I regarded it as a good opportunity to improve my baking skills, meet face-to-face with my previous bazaar costumers and get to know new ones.



The experience of meeting customers always amazed me. From the second they came into my sight until the second they left my booth, I had learnt so much about them. It was interesting to notice that some came decisive - they basically dropped by spontaneously and instantly pointed their fingers to their desired cakes without even addressing any single question about the flavor of the cakes they chose. These were my best customers! (wished that all my customers would have such confidence in my cakes but unfortunately it was not always the case)... To the opposite extreme, they were those who walked away empty-handed after a long session of questioning every single detail about the cakes.



Nevertheless, I loved selling cakes in the bazaar. Despite the lack of sleep a few nights before had induced drowsiness while I was standing at my booth, I forced myself to stay alert and communicate with my customers. Obviously my neighborhood consists of people from all walks of like. Some bought without asking about the price while others left after presenting startled faces when told about the price of my cakes.



And of course the rain did pour as I had worried about, and I and T had to carry our cake boxes under the rain, plus other discomfort happened such as T had to leave to his seminar soon after helping me settling up my booth, but still the whole selling experience was fulfilling and satisfactory. 75% of my 7 cakes were sold out!



And yes, before I forgot.... in case you are curious... the 7 cakes were 1 Sacher Torte, 1 Coconut Cheese Cake with Butterscoth topping, 1 Coconut Cheese Cake with Chocolate Ganache and Almond Decoration, 1 Capuccino Cheese Cake, 1 Blueberry and Strawberry Cheese Cake, 1 Fresh Fruit Chocolate Whipped Cream Cake, and 1 Fresh Fruit Blueberry Whipped Cream Cake.



I did hope my customers enjoy what they bought... And I would definitely take part in this bazaar again next time!

Wednesday Special 10

Thanks so much to you all for good wishes on my bazaar. I definitely have to do my best in showcasing what I baked for that event: Yellow and Green Kiwi Cheese Cake, Sacher Torte, Oreo Banana Cheese Cake, Butterscotch Almond, and Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes. Hope you enjoy the photos...





As I said in my last post that in the middle of a long-hour hectic baking, I wanted to quit. I couldn’t resist the urge because it was true and present, but as usual, once the work was done I always managed to sleep it off. I mean really slept it off and never took it seriously, although I seemed to realize that if I do pick up this baking thing as a major profession such as opening up a bakery, I do need to give it a second thought, a serious one!



The other fact is that at the end of the day when I got the passing-by customers in the bazaar to drop by my booth intuitively and see what were on the display, ask about the cakes and buy them, that just paid off everything – every drop of sweat, and every ache in my muscle. I was standing by my booth introducing my cakes with every bit of enthusiasm, with a wide smile on my face and of course deep in my heart. That showed the customer action meant so much to a baker :-)



It was a hot Saturday and despite the fact that T was supposed to work on that day, he decided to ask for half-day leave to be with me at the booth. For that I appreciated it so much. And this is another fact that I would not be quitting a commercial baking in another bazaar, if any. Thanks T, you are the best!

Wednesday Special 09

Sunday turned out to be another hot sunny day, and lucky enough we had prepared containers to put ice replicating emergency refrigerators. With T’s help I managed to bake 1 Cheese Cake, 1 Kiwi Chocolate Cake, 1 Vanilla Chocolate Cake, 1 Fresh Cream and Fruit Cake, 15 cups of Stawberry Panacottas, 10 cups of Orange Panacottas, and 36 Vanilla Cupcakes. Gosh, I was actually impressed with the range we produced within the available time. By the way, Panacotta was T’s idea since he liked it the last time I made Vanilla Panacotta from the previous post.



Arriving at the spot, we were pleased to find out that we got a space shaded under the building and with a nice table for setting up our cake stands. And the organizer actually gave us the first counter next to the entrance. There were about 20 counters selling various merchandise from clothes, books, shoes, to durian snacks. The latter belonged to the counter next to ours, taken care by a nice young lady who happened to be staying in the same building with us.





We finished setting up around 2:15pm and it was a bit quiet at the beginning. At one point I was actually cracking my head thinking what should we be doing if our cakes weren’t sold at all. The ideas varied from giving away to the orphanage, neighbors or the event organizer. Eventually people, I mean buyers did come, slowly but surely. Our first customer came for a cup of Strawberry Panacotta. It was a hot day and everybody needs a cold dessert. And the way we displayed these Panacotta cups in a transparant ice filled container did attract the eyes in such weather. A second buyer was a handsome guy came for a slice of Cheese Cake, a slice of Kiwi Cake and a Cupcake. What a generous purchase! And then more and more buyers were coming by.





T and I were busy slicing the cake, placing these slices in cake boxes, putting the boxes in plastic bags, giving to the customers, collecting money, and giving change. And of course having a little bit of chit chat with familiar faces. And T happened to be very good at having small talks with the customers or showing welcoming gestures to passers-by. Thanks to T we managed to sell 90% of the cakes within three and a half hours!



And yes, of course a post will not be complete without a recipe. So I will share my Strawberry Panacotta in the following post. See you!

Fondre

Finally confirmed to take part in the Family Bazaar for last Sunday. As I had booked a space for selling cakes, I prepared myself to spend a hectic Saturday for the whole preparation to happen. T had his day off so he was totally up for helping me out with one extra pair of hands and a smile. And I was so touched he actually cancelled his plan with his friends and chose to be with me instead. I was glad as well that we for the first time had an opportunity to run a three-hour business together and establish a connection away from our routine.



Told T that no matter how busy the whole thing was, we were supposed to take it easy and have a bit of fun. Yeah sure….. but in reality??? Well, it was actually a bit chaotic at the end of Saturday evening because we were both busy with our tasks and due to miscommunication, T unintentionally cut the baked vanilla sponge cake which was supposed to be for Fruity Carousel Cake into something else.



While I found out about it, I freaked out but quickly calmed myself down and dealt with it. Apparently my butter cream was not sufficient to decorate 40 cupcakes and 3 whole cakes. It was late and I didn’t really want to make more butter cream nor another vanilla sponge cake. Therefore I concluded maybe the incident was a blessing in disguise and I should be content with 40 cupcakes and 2 whole cakes, instead of 3.



So those were all we got: 40 chocolate cashew nut cupcakes frosted with vanilla and coffee butter cream, 1 coffee cake covered with coffee butter cream, garnished with almond and kiwi fruit, and 1 chocolate cake covered with vanilla butter cream, topped with longans and pomegranate.



On Sunday morning, we arrived at the empty car park at 11:15 in the morning, set up our counter by combining 2 book shelves, and discovered hat we had to share not-so-big shelter with the neighboring shop. Some of my cake stands were obviously off the sheltered area and directly exposed to the sun. Didn’t really have time to do anything about it since customers started to order cakes and we had to slice them, put them into boxes, and then place the boxes into plastic bags. And on top of that collected money and gave the change. Only about 20 minutes later we realized that our cakes started to melt. We had to do something about it right away!! It was a critical situation. SOS! SOS!!!



I quickly approached one of the organizers and begged to relocate our counter to the shady area right underneath the building. She granted it and without any delay we moved all the things as quickly as we could. And that really helped because the melting stopped and I was hysterical noticing that some parts of the cake decoration were deformed and there was nothing fast enough to salvage that. “Oh God, we have cakes to sell here, help us please!”



Suggested to T that I should just take some of the cakes to the food store nearby and ask for a favor to use their refrigerator briefly. I was desperate, alright? When I was about to do just that, customers started to come non-stop. T stressed that my cakes should stay put right where they were because apparently people were buying regardless of the deformed butter cream frosting. I almost couldn’t believe it.



We were both amazed by it and kept reminding the customers to refrigerate the cake as soon as they arrived home and all! And while we did all that, we never for once forgot to give away name cards! And some people stayed to chat about their prospective needs of cakes for events and birthdays. They were pleased to know that I basically stay in their neighborhood and the delivery would be so convenient. I was glad too.



It ended about 2:30 in the afternoon. We sold 75% of our cakes in less than 3 hours. My coffee kiwi cake sold the fastest. We were happy about it and with a smile in our faces, we concluded that we should be doing this again, maybe somewhere else pretty soon when next opportunity knocked.And next thing in our mind was reaching home as soon as possible and having a nap. It was a good day!