it hasnt been a very good start of the year for me.. in almost all aspects, although it could be worse. for now, im just letting time smoothen things. unhappy stuff aside.
saturday, i took an hour journey train ride to my mum's place. i thought there will be seats in the train cos its saturday but i was so wrong, the train is as cramped as during peak hour. i dont quite understand why are they holding back the "extra" trains they released during the peak hours. i was standing more than half the journey and i just thought to myself "let this be a practice for me". but what i couldnt stand was this auntie holding a bag and plastic bag on one hand constantly poke me in my leg, then they were 2 indian uncles who came in and stood there, disregarding the people around them. yes, im anal about strangers touching, hitting or poking me.
i finally arrived at simei. phew! i went to get some flour, sugar, butter, greaseproof paper, cream cheese and eggs which added up to 20++. im convinced my physical has worsen so much cos my hands were trembling a lil after carrying 2 bags. at ntuc, i bought ingredients for pasta, 4 pineapples, fruit juice, 7 packets of mini marshmallow for making fondant and some other stuff i cant remember and they amounted to a surprisingly 50+ moolah. heartpain! all my transport claim gone cos the day before i bought almost 20 moolah worth of flour, sugar and butter. to date, i think i spent more than 200 on my baking neccesities and ingredients, excluding the oven, but its okie cos it makes me happy.
after having our pasta, it was 4ish when we started baking. keong came by at 5pm for lunch, grace and cp came by at 6ish. after 3 hours, i was done with grating and cooking the pineapple and angela was done with her chocolate cupcakes. then we had dinner bought back by cp. grace and cp left shortly later and angela and i continued making kueh baulu and vanilla cupcakes. the kueh baulu was a total failure. =( the texture is so hard and it tasted like "ji dan gao", direct translated egg cakes. i reckon its the recipe. angela left right after the vanilla cupcakes came out from the oven, while i continue to make pineapple tarts - closed and open. i made 2 different doughs for the closed and open tarts but i still couldnt achieve the crunchy pastry, it is still powdery, the melt-in-mouth- type. after an amazing 14 hours of baking (half the night i was almost dozing off), the final products are 22 chocolate cupcakes, 18 vanilla cupcakes, 24 failed kueh baulu, 10 or 12 closed pineapple tarts, 50+ open pineapple tarts. i have to admit i was totally exhausted and my soles were painful from all the standing. im going to take a break from the baking till my energy recovers.
i slept through my entire sunday, waking up in the late evening to get dinner and watched some tv, before i went back to sleep again. tired!
