End of the year resolution

I guess I started this blog at my ex company since I had so much time in my hands at that time…I used to bake nearly everyday at that time and I was feeding everyone in the office.

At my new place now, I’m busy doing “something” sometimes I wonder why I’m so busy when most of my time I am sited at my desk…doing “something” Thinking back, I just realized that the class that I have been planning for is just 2 weeks away and I started to have butterflies in my tummy. I have no idea why…I know I am prepared…I’ve been prepared since 3 weeks ago as all my “something” has been put in research, research, research, memorizing, memorizing, memorizing, and visualizing how my classes are going to be. God, no wonder I feel really tired at the end of each day.

I conducted my 2nd solo induction class last week and OMG I really missed the good old times when I use to have so much fun in my own classes – well, the participants are suppose to have fun but I think I end up having more fun then them…hahahaha. Anyway, its been so long since I conducted a class and boy, I’m glad to be back! I know I’m a little rusted here and there and my brains need a little waking up. “Slowly but surely” I know I would be able to do this the way I’ve always been doing it. Oh ya, for those who don't really know me, I’m a trainer by the way.

Anyway, coming back to my blog; I realized that it's been neglected and my new month resolution is to make sure that write as much write ups as possible. “Promise”

Just to inform you guys, since I have no time to bake, I’ve decided to write on some stuff that I have working on – my materials for ‘Train the trainer’, stress and time management and some other activities.

I can’t believe that I went from baking everyday to no baking at all. Since I joined my new company, I have only baked twice! Anyway, Christmas is around the corner and I hope I would be able to come out with a few cookies and cakes for my family and friends…I’ll tell you guys how it goes ok! Watch out for more stories soon - that I can promise!

Ola...

OMG.........I've been sooooo busy lately with my new job and all...not forgetting, I have been baking too and I would take the time to write on those events too...soon...


Can you believe it?? On my first day, I already received 2 assignments...AT LAST MY BRAIN IS BACK IN USE!!! hahahahha...It's been sleeping for sometime now :)

I'm going to make this short...I still have a few other things to write before I share about my new job...

Take care guys...I'll write soon...I PROMISE

Yummy disaster!

I baked twice last week but it wasn’t great so I didn’t want to put it on here. It was interesting as I learned to save my experiments and learned how to cover it up…and when I say this, I’m sure you get a hint of what I’m talking about!! It felt like a bad week to bake as I baked my normal Chocolate Rice Muffins (Ken’s Favorite) and it turned out really sad looking! Don’t get me wrong, it tasted fantastic but it just looked really bad. In the oven, it looked really great as I added sodium bicarbonate and it was fat and fluffy but when I pulled it out of the oven, everything went FLAT!!! I’ve been baking the same muffins for the past couple of months and this time it went FLAT?? Oh my goodness, I’m going to lose my title as “Muffin Queen”. Sob sob

I sent a frustrating SMS to Ken saying that I give up and I’m going to throw all the muffins away…which I did as the first batch could not be saved…I BURNED IT ALL!!! Holy crap…I’m no longer worthy for my title…sob sob… Ken replied saying “Hold on baby, let me taste it first…DON’T THROW!!” So I told him ok.

Sitting down in my kitchen, staring at the flat muffins…I thought of an idea…maybe I can save this! I thought to myself…but what can I do?? BINGO!!! I took out my trusty 2.5 kg chocolate bar…melted them and poured them into the middle of the muffin! It was a perfect puddle of mud…yummy puddle :)

Guess what? I renamed the muffin to “Chocolate tart muffin” because it really did look like an egg tart but the only difference is, this tart has muffin dough and chocolate in the middle…
As I walked into the office, I was rather shy to even serve it to the team…but what the hack!!! I’ve already tasted it and it tasted good and everyone saw me with my muffins Tupperware, so they know I brought something that I’ve baked.

First muffin went to Kalvin…take a bite I said…as I stood by his desk and waited for his response. “Can I have another one please?” he asked Phew, thank God…it tasted good and it's safe for me to serve the other muffins to the rest (Sorry Kalvin...hahaha). I told him that that it’s a Chocolate Tart Muffin – my own creation…he just didn’t know that it was a creation from a disastrous experiment that went wrong…hahahaha. Well, I brought only 6 muffins and everyone was asking for more…I wish I had more to give… I went home and told Ken that the muffins that had gone wrong was a fast seller and I think I should make more of those – wrong muffins and the only thing he asked was “What’s wrong with it oh? It does taste good” Awwwww…so sweet, he always know how to say the right things.

That same week, I made another batch but this time I didn’t use sodium bicarbonate but instead I used baking powder. The same thing happened to the muffins…I seriously need to stop baking, I thought to myself. I was sad that my famous muffins are not coming out right!!! What’s wrong?? Anyway, this time I made butter icing and placed it in the puddle as a cover up and everyone loved it as well.

Somehow or another, all the muffins that has gone wrong was saved and was gobbled down without even knowing that it was a disaster muffin. I’m just glad everyone loved it and hopefully my next baking session, I would not need to cover up the muffins and come out with some creative names to cover it up…hahahaha

--

I’m excited. I think today, right after work, I’m going to bake a test recipe for my first ever weekend order that I have. It’s my first order and it’s a big order!! 70 muffins for a one year old birthday party! I know what you may be thinking…One year old? So what?? They can’t even eat it. I’m not worried about them…It’s the parents whom I have to impress. Vicky was asking me for my name cards… “What name cards I asked him?” and he said… “Well, I need to promote you on that day right?” “I don’t have a name card I said…this is exciting… I’m going to come out with a BOMB muffin recipe for my very first order…I’m going to make sure that everything is perfect…everything is fresh and everything taste and looks good.

I just got off the phone with my sister a few minutes ago and she was also giving me some tips and help on how to improve myself, colors to use, deco, flavors…I’m excited for this order now!
I’m grateful that I have family and friends who are supporting me on my new passion. It’s fun to learn new things and to try it out…learn from mistakes and learn how to cover up the mistakes…as I said, I’m very new to this and so far, I’ve only been getting good response that has encouraged me to improve myself. Who knows, someday you would see me with my new bakery or something bigger in the future…let me tell you this…It has crossed my mind recently and Ken told me that he would like to invest in the new idea. I think I’m not qualified or ready to go all big time now. Maybe I will stick to home baking for now and take orders in small bulks … at least it’s a good start and on top of all that, I just love baking and satisfying the people that I care and love with muffins and not forgetting chocolate, chocolate, chocolates!!

P/S: Hey, can someone tell me how and why the muffins went flat? Any ideas?

Official Expiration Date

For those who are in the same work place, this is for you…

I’m sorry to say that on 03rd Oct 2008, will be my last day for you guys to be my official experimental guinea pigs as it will be my last day in the company. I’m pleased to announce that I am moving on from here to another company and I will be recruiting new guinea pigs from there :) Since no one here has experienced any food poisoning or any side effects, I am pleased to say that you guys have been really good and I really appreciate all the feedbacks and tips on how to become a better chef…and yes, I’m quitting to go full time on this :P No no…that was a joke. Anyway, you know where to find me and I do take orders. Do keep in touch and keep visiting this blog for the latest discoveries and experiments that unfortunately you guys won’t get to taste! Sorry…

If and when you need a twist in your future parties, instead of getting cakes; get muffins or cupcakes instead – think of me – the Muffin QUEEN!

Satisfaction

Wow, it's been a week since I've updated anything...I've been extremely busy and there were a few interesting "happenings" in the office and at home.

The weekend was interesting, Ken, Navin, Balan and I went to Cyberjaya to fish (another favorite hobby of Ken and I) and we had so much fun. Navin was on the roll as he caught 5 tomans and Ken caught 1 super baby toman and I caught 1 toman as well. Balan was not that lucky on that day as he didn't catch any.

On Sunday, we decided to go fishing again so the whole weekend, we were out fishing instead of being at home baking...which I think was a better idea because I baked the whole week last week. Catch the updates on the fishing trips from http://kyfk.blogspot.com/

I baked on Monday (Double Chocolate Chips Muffins) but I didn't really like the taste as it was a different recipe and method that I tried. I brought a few to work and everyone said it was fine...so the different taste buds were giving some different comments out again...:)

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This is Ken aka my hubby. This is the satisfaction that I get whenever I bake...the muffins turns this grown man into a small kid...(but he is still my man...if you know what I mean...hahahah) It is so cute whenever I bake and he comes back from work, sneaks into the kitchen and grabs a few of the muffins and sit in his corner and eats his muffins quietly.

The following day, the muffins will be packed and transported to work. Well, he basically is on the same mission as I am...he is trying to get everyone in the office fatter too...hahaha. But I'm on a bigger mission; I have to get him fat first!

I wonder how much chocolate I have to put to make him gain more weight??
Digging till the last bits (I'm sure if he can eat the paper, he would...hahaha)
He didn't even offer any to me...sob sob...

Well, on top of the fact that my mates at work loves the muffins and cakes that I bring them. My biggest satisfaction and the reason why I love baking is because Ken loves and appericiates it and because of that, I seriously don't mind baking everyday.

This is the reason

When I was serving my mates in the office, I decided to capture their reactions as well as their feedback on the brownie. Check them out yourself!!

Meet Aaron, when I walked up to him to offer him the brownie, the first thing that he said was “So this is the smell that I was getting from ha??” He took the piece, put it in his mouth and I was asking him for his feedback. “Shhhh…I want to savor the taste…uhhh…that’s the BOMB” Once he finished that piece, he asked me for another piece…need I say more?

Meet Vani “Ummmm…sweet like the baker"

Meet Govind "very moist and I am looking forward to having more"














Meet Darin “Hey this is good lah!”














Meet Gajen “CEKAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!! It’s very rich. Yummy!”
















Meet Arun “It's nice but I think too much chocolate lah”














Meet Pratip “It was like WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA in my mouth! ...........pleaseeeeeeeeeeee bake me one...............i wanna get all large eating this at home................" but seriously again I wanna tell you it was damn gooddddddddddd”












Meet Ganeshni – She was just happy to receive a piece but this is what she said “ It was nice but a bit sweet”















Meet Joe "If I were a pastry chef, I would certainly steal few recipes away from her and make it as mine..;-) You did it again, gal! Keep it up!"


"Free one month muffins when you open your bakery ok?? hahaha"








Meet Vicky “Damn nice!! Really, it’s superb. Practice makes perfect and today’s one is PERFECT!!” and this is what he said before he left “If there is any balance, I book now itself ar..!!”

"I'm proud of you COCOseed, you can do so much in life, make good in this. Im sure you will just be somewhere with this, your creativity especially"




From my findings it looks like to the ladies, they are very particular about sweetness and the content but to the guys…they really do have sweet tooth and they came back for more” Overall, no matter if it was a good feedback or good, this is the reason why I don't mind loosing my sleep - waking up early, spending that time and money for everyone around me to have a little sweetness in their day...the smile, the reaction, the satisfaction, the wanting for more...it's all worth it! Thank you very much guys...thanks for your honesty and on top of that helping me achieve my mission as well...hahahaha...I'm just just joking.

p/s: For those whom I have not taken your pictures and feedback, there is always Monday!

Another first time for something new

I woke up quite late today and I was feeling rather tired from not sleeping properly the whole week. I pulled myself out of bed and I walked down to my kitchen…looked at my buttercup tub…OMG its calling me!!! Let’s bake!!! Let’s bake something different today…so I sat down and I pulled my new cookbook out of the drawer. ..I was flipping the pages and I remember setting my eyes on this fantastic looking brownie…but I was not able to find the recipe and seriously, I never made a brownie before...but how hard would it be right?? I have my cookbook and I’m sure everything would be fine…I had the confidence.

Get the book! It’s the most delicious book that I’ve even laid my eyes on “Chocolate Box – Indulge in the finest chocolate recipes for serous chocolate lovers”. It’s only RM29.90 and you can find it in any MPH bookstore. Pg 71 Baked to Perfection – Double Chocolate Brownies with Fudge Sauce but of course…I ended up changing this and that from time to time and putting things that is not in the list made it theirs and mine at the same time.

Well, as normal I started weighing and preparing all the ingredients; butter, plain chocolate, caster sugar, salt, vanilla essence, eggs, plain flour, cocoa powder& white chocolate chips. Today is the first time as well I’ve tried this method to melt the cooking chocolate – putting a bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. I used my mum’s trustable Pyrex and put filled it with the cooking chocolate and butter…it was interesting. It slowly melted and in this method, you would need to constantly stir the chocolate and butter so that it doesn’t become lumpy. Once that was done, I put the sugar and salt into the melted chocolate + butter. Stir, stir, stir…then it says, put 2 large eggs…how large is large? I was confused. I know that the eggs was rather small but do I add 1 , 2 or 3 extra eggs? Looking at the paste, I decided to just follow my guts feeling…don’t add anything! Just go with those 2 small ones.

The next thing to do was to put the flour and cocoa powder into the paste and guess what I had to do next? Yup…stir some more! Wah…as the flour mixes with the rest of the ingredients, it is starting to become harder and it took more energy to stir them together…
After a while…done! I was ready to put it into the oven…looking at the paste…eh, something is missing!!! Chocolate chips!!!!!!!!!!! And this is the best part…it was suppose to be only 100g of white chocolate but I put in more and on top of that, I put in dark chocolate chips too!!! Wa wa woom!

Once it was in the baking tray, in the oven it went for 40 minutes.

TING!!! It was done just on time (7:20 pm) when I wanted to leave my house and I just took half of it for the guys at work…

Enjoy the pictures which shows the step by step process of coming out with this fantastic cake!

Getting the butter and chocolate melted

Add sugar and salt in once the chocolate and butter is smooth

Mixing the sugar into the mixture

Next, the confusing eggs

Then the flour and cocoa powder

Don't forget to...STIR like there is no tomorrow!!

Adding the chocolate chips...the more the better!

Don't forget to STIR again!!!

The baking tray...all greased up

Ready to be transformed... Final outcome

Findings: The top part of the brownie is crispy it gives the brownie a little crunchier feeling...the middle is the BOMB...it's moist and it's really rich. Even after a few hours, the cake was still warm and the aroma...was simply tempting. Overall, for the different taste buds that we have in the office, most of them said it was perfect but I had 1 or 2 who said that it was rather sweet...duh, look at the amount of chocolate that is in there!!! hahahaha...Looking back at all those happy faces and all those who flocked around my table just to steal a few more pieces from the rest...I remembered a phrase that I read long time ago...

"Dear God, I can't loose weight so help make the people around me fat" hahahaha...let's just say that I might just change this hobby into a mission!! hahahaha

Thumbs UP!

Meet Wendy. She works with Ken and she has been tasting my muffins from day one and this
is what she has to say...

"Delicious muffins! My compliments
to the chef! :) She has outdone herself again. Thanks."

She called me a chef!!! Wowhoooo...I think I should quit my job and do this full time...Thanks Wendy and I hope you enjoy all the other cakes, cookies and not forgetting muffins to come...you made my day!

Experimental day with "Baby muffins"

I had a blast baking today...I wanted to practice making different styles of muffins so I decided to go really tiny and cute since I’ve been only making the medium sized muffins from day one.

As normal, I prepared my ingredients, weight them and mixed them in my mixing bowl…Self rising flour, my precious buttercup, sugar, eggs, sodium bicarbonate & baking soda. I was planning to try out the new gadgets that I bought from Giant the other day - which I just wanted to have it but not use it...hahaha. I thought it was ‘cool’ to have a piping beg and a few gadgets to make those interesting icing deco ( I don’t even know what they are called) Well, once the dough was made, I decided to use my cute little paper cups for today’s trial…wah! everything was new!!! Hehehe…

I lined the cups on the baking tray and thank God I asked my mum where it was when she came down last weekend..I don't know why somewhere in between the baking process, I feel like I’m turning to be more and more like Monica from ‘Friends’ (for those who doesn't watch Friends, she is a chef). I never baked before this…only for the past 1 1/2 months, I’ve been so into baking and I have no idea how that interest came along. I remembered a few weeks ago, when I was in the kitchen and I was frustrated with some people from work who commented that the cakes I baked is not up to their standard…I sat in the kitchen thinking to myself if I wanted to continue baking…looking back at those happy faces when I walk into the office doors with my Tupperware and those who appreciated my baking I then realized that “Hey, a month back, I knew jack about baking but now…I can bake and I didn’t have to impress anyone about what I can bake and what I can’t! I came out with a theory then…I would only bake for those who appreciated what I do. “If you don’t like it, it’s your problem” So I decided to continue to bake…BUT it’s only for a limited number of people who I know for a fact who appreciates it.

Well, back to my daily baking frenzy story!

I took out my new tools and filled it with my chocolate ammo…and I started shooting each and every paper cup with that chocolate dough that I’ve mixed up…everytime I bake, I have this bad habit of eating the dough even before it is baked! Oh, it taste really nice…as I took my third slurp of that raw dough, I heard my mum’s voice in my head “You better stop eating it raw, you might get a tummy ache!” so I stopped…when it comes to baking, the only experience I had was during Christmas, mum would be stuck in the kitchen for days – baking, baking and baking. From her famous pineapple tarts to her uh-la-la fried banana chips…it was all so good! I should have paid more attention to her…now, I can’t remember much of what she taught me and I have to call her once in a while to find out what I’m doing wrong and why the cake did not rise or how come the cake doesn’t look like a cake in the first place? Hahaha…been there so many times…and you know what?? The best thing is, I don’t even know what I did wrong or even, what I did right!!! It’s just the passion, or this baking ghost that came by one day and planted this seed in me! So you guys, every time I come with my Tupperware, just say thanks and don’t ask me why all of a sudden, I’m baking everyday ok! When I get an answer, I'll let you guys know...

Well, for today at least I know I put some smiles on everyone's faces when I walked by with my Tupperware...as everyone said it was cute...just as what I wanted it to be :)

Check out how the dough looked like in their respective cups

Some chocolate rice on this ones

In the process or being yummy baby muffins (in my thrustable electric oven)

On the cooling station

So colorful!

Once it was baked, I decided to put some icing on it and I've never done this before. It was interesting but I think the icing was too hard and I nearly broke my new piping gadget :( must have done something wrong with the icing...but so what? It taste good and that's important!

First time for everything! Here I go...

The final outcome. With a touch of white chocolate chip.

I was playing with the different caps the piping gadget had and this came out looking like a rose.

Overall, today has been a lot of experimental process from the baby cups to the icing and the final outcome. Somehow since it’s my first time using those small cups, I think I left it in the oven too long and it came out rather dry but on top of that, I know for a fact that the next batch of baby muffins would be superb!

Muffin Queen

I had a very interesting day today and everything fell into place as though I planned everything so perfectly. Well, it's one of those days that you feel the sun is shining for you, the birds are singing beautifully for you and everything is simply perfect!

I went to the cake and bake shop in USJ 1 (Cook & Bake) today and I bought some new stuff and I am proud to say that I own a 3.8kg Buttercup tub. My boyfriend came home and saw the tub and said "If they had a barrel/drum, you would have bought that as well right? Why so big?" Well, seriously they didn’t have the 1kg tin ones that I've been buying and I was out of butter since yesterday's baking event. Come to think of it...isn't it always cheaper to buy the biggest as it would be cheaper?? I made my calculations and I think it was a good choice...hehehe

If my mum sees this, she must think I'm crazy!

Come to think of it, I'm sure I would not need to buy another tub of butter in the next few months with this monster in the house now...hehehe.


This is for anyone who is interested in baking or even if you don't, just keep this in mind. Get your ingredients from a cake & bake shop or shops that wholesale their ingredients instead of buying it from the nearest hypermarket like we always do. You would save a lot (trust me) Well, I bought a number of stuff and it only came up to RM63.90. Here is the breakdown on the pricing on the ingredients:

Buttercup (tub) 3.8kg RM 43.50
Self Rising Floor 1kg RM2.80
Castor Sugar 1kg RM2.20
Brown Sugar 1kg RM2.20
Chocolate Rice 500g RM3.30
Color Rice 500g RM5.50
Vanilla Essence RM2.30
Vanilla Flavor 30ml RM 2.20

All stocked UP!

Just as I got home, I wanted to officially use the ingredients to I decided to bake some muffins as I promised Vicky that I would bring him some today. As normal, I measured all the ingredients and started putting them together but this time I didn't use the mixing machine to do this, I did it by hand and it made a difference in the texture and taste.

The outcome and an experiment that I did on the normal recipe that I've been using, I put in the colored rice into the chocolate mixture and to finish it up, I sprinkle it with some white rice. It tasted like heaven. Here is an outcome of the muffins:

Check out the white chocolate rice!!!

It was a weird combination of colored rice in chocolate dough but when you break the muffins and look into the dough, OMG...the colors are so beautiful and the taste (it must have been that new tub of buttercup) it's moist and rich. I've learned something about getting superb cakes and muffins or even cookies; even if the recipe says to use margarine, use BUTTER! It makes a whole lot of difference to your taste buds.


I baked 2 batches and the other batch was just plain white dough with chocolate rice in them.

Bite me!

I brought a few of the muffins to the office and coincidently one of my good friend Navin, got the job he wanted and while writing thing, I heard a familiar voice across the room...SHARMINI IS BACK!!! She left for the states and she was there for a few months but now, she is just in time to taste my ever famous muffins...hehehe...this calls for a celebration and we will do it, muffin style!
As I said earlier, I started my day and everything was perfect, just to top everything up...my boyfriend just crowned me "Muffin Queen". For the few months of finding the perfect ingredients and feeding my office mates and even my boyfriend Ken's office mates, I think it’s been worth it :)

I brought about 6-7 muffins and it’s all gone and it’s not even half of the day yet! I’m proud…and at last Kalvin (the fussy pot) put his thumbs up and said that the muffin is good…now I wished I brought all 24 muffins instead of the 7 I brought today. Well guys, there is always…tomorrow and yes Sharmini, you have a lot of catching up to do tomorrow. And not forgetting Jo, yes that muffin is still reserved for you :)

Did you know...?

White chocolate isn’t chocolate at all!
White chocolate is made from milk, sugar and cocoa butter but contains no actual cocoa solids. This is why white chocolate is notoriously difficult to melt.




So how do I melt my chocolate?
Many yummy recipes involve melting chocolate. This is a very simple procedure, but one that is important to do properly otherwise you’ll end up with burnt, lumpy un-useable chocolate. Apart from in your mouth, the best way to melt chocolate is to place it in a large bowl and to microwave it on HALF POWER, stirring after each minute (it should take approximately 3 minutes in total). Melting chocolate should be done s-l-o-w-l-y.


So why does melted chocolate sometimes go lumpy?
This is probably because water has got into it. Do not allow any water to come into contact with chocolate, this includes steam, additives such as water based flavourings and colours and wet utensils. Alternatively you may be using the wrong type of chocolate. Bars of ‘eating chocolate’ (such as Cadbury’s Dairy Milk) are meant for putting straight into your mouth, if you try and melt it first it can often result in the chocolate becoming thick, lumpy or refusing to set properly.

This is where it begins...

I've always wanted a blog but I never did take the time to do it as I thought that I wouldn't have the time or I was just too lazy to manage it. For the past few days, I've been planting this idea in a few friends of mine to have their own blog...but shame on me! I don't have one on my own. So I finally made up my mind to start writing again and maybe...just maybe...my doubts on managing this blog would be just a negative impulse I had.

Anyway, I decided to call this blog 'the COCO tree' because I'm so crazy about Chocolate...who doesn't right? The more I planned to write my thoughts down...I soon realized that when I was little, I had this neighbor (I can't remember his name now) but I always called him 'Uncle Coco' who had a cocoa plantation and he always dropped us a few coco fruits now and then. I use to sit in front of my house just eating them one by one and not knowing that, that yellow fruit was the fruit that produced that...yummy, delicious chocolate bars that we go crazy about. If you haven't seen a cocoa tree or even eat it's fruit...at least once in your life, you should try it (I have no idea where to get it now in KL (I grew up in Johor by the way))

Well, for this first post, let's just keep it short and simple so in this blog, I hope to share with you guys what I like, what I know and just some thoughts on this and that on a daily basis...hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it.