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!



Recently I have watched “Julie and Julia” and got very inspired. I also got busy reading food styling books and taking a short trip with T and his colleagues. Yesterday I had lunch with them since T’s supervisor was leaving the company in the next couple of days and it was pretty much a farewell lunch. Despite my reluctance to be in the middle of such company gathering, T insisted that everyone would be glad to have me around. On little conversations with his colleagues, a few revealed a couple of things they had read from my blog. One of them asked me what I had been doing for my Wednesday break! Wow… they have been following silently!



And I loved a bit of free time to go around and try cakes. I got to say this was like a must exercise in order to catch up with the latest trend, preference, and pricing. And I was looking for an opportunity to set up a booth somewhere on each Wednesday. Still searching for the right location.



An interesting observation is that I have found a local Thai restaurant selling chocolate macarons, packed in a transparent cupcake size container – 5 medium sized pieces priced much lower than one Starbuck’s muffin. Couldn’t believe it or pretty much felt a bit annoyed by it! It was unpleasant to see macaron was brought into such low undignified level especially when the taste was not up to the standard.



T encouraged me to buy and taste them and it was just true enough they were entirely dry and crispy, no moisted softness in the middle as what they should be. And the filling was aweful and little. An obvious consequence for bringing down the price and ruining macaron’s reputation once and for all. For those customers who never tried macarons, this would create a bad perception about macarons. And that was just frustrating.