4Es Cup Cake Ventures (un)Ltd.
Cup cakes to die for!
There have been several things that I have aways longed to do with my life; for example, I wanted to go to outer space, but the Malaysian Astronaut program came 25 years too late... and I don't think Malaysians would have approved of an overweight, short sighted paper pusher representing them as the first Malaysian in space! So that dream of mine was confined to watching Star Wars and Battlefield : Earth (ask my brother - it's the worst movie we've seen!)
I also had dreams to become a cook - I don't know why, perhaps it was a cool way to be creative and it sounded more alluring then being an accountant! Well, I recently managed to realise that dream and another grown-up longing of becoming an entrepenuer! Don't get me wrong, I've been cooking for a long time now. I made a killer masak asam pedas when I was at Kent, and my tiramisu was legendary (i.e. its no longer being made, hence it becoming 'legend'). But I've never (knowingly) sold anything before!
The Tiny Cup Cakes being set by Ckn (not pictured - me working the hand mixer before!)
So the story goes; Last Thursday, I promised Ckn that I would help her bake some tiny cup cakes for iftar. We started with gusto after I got back from work at 4pm. Using a recipe our neighbour in Sg Buloh gave Ckn, we managed to produce a batch of the lil' scrumptious tidbits. It wasn't too difficult; but I was made to understand that cake making was not to be taken lightly, that it was a delicate process and that the wrong timing of ingredients going in or doing something too much will spoil the batter.
...now open wide for some uncooked batter!
We were fasting and someone had to be the batter tester! So Ehsan and Erica helped out; Ehsan with the cleaning (i.e. licking the mixer attachments clean! Hey that was supposed to be my job!) and Erica with the 'batter quality Assurance' test.
Erica's not into food yet, but she liked what we were putting in her mouth, I guess. She was squirming, asking for more, but we stopped at just giving her a taste as the batter had raw eggs in it. Don't want lil Erica to fall sick now do we!
We had our first taste at iftar...and we loved it! I just looked at Ckn and she did the same - we both had the same thought, that we had to share this with the world (you can say it was a Eureka! moment...)
After much soul searching (30mins or less only!) we both decided to go into business to 'bring the goods to the market'. The timing couldn't have been better as there was a Petronita ramadan bazaar the next day, on Friday. We agreed that the costs of producing a batch of 16 packs was minimal (each pack had 5 cup cakes), while the proceeds from the endeavour would be substantial! Ckn would be in charge of the coupon selling for the whole bazaar, so the cup cake marketing would be my responsibilities! yipee... Finally, an opportunity to become a businessman presents itself!
My 'muka welfare marketing gimmick' and I at the bazaar ramadan
As this was as much a business as it was a learning experience, I told Ckn that we should have a little fun; so I decided to take pictures of all the people who bought our cup cakes. I got some odd looks from the others selling their wares at the bazaar, but I was on a roll (of course I wouldn't have considered this if I had a few hundred customers la).
The lucky few who went to bed satisfied (hmmm!)
The bazaar started at 4.30pm and I had my tupperware opened and ready by 4.40pm. Nobody gave the goods a second look for the first few minutes (maybe because we didn't put signages..DUH!) so I resorted to telling (nay, shouting to!) the patrons about the cup cakes and how scrumptious and cheap they were. Once the crowd rushed in at 5.00pm, my cup cakes literally became... hot cakes!
Throughout the event, Ehsan was not really himself; we thought he would have fun running around making friends - but it was a hot evening, and he managed to have missed his afternoon nap earlier, so fatigue and grogginess was sinking in. He spent most of the time sitting beside me. Ckn bought some lin chee kang to cool him down, and when I left the bazaar later, he cried himself to sleep in the car! Such was his tiredness that he slept soundly till the morning (so it was a restful night for Ckn!). However, he did take a liking to one of the patron's cutey daughter; and Ehsan took a picture of her himself :
Cute little Nur Ain, thru the eyes of Ehsan
All in all, we made a profit of SDG 13 or about RM22; not bad huh? The only problem was that we spent more than SDG 70 (RM120) to buy food for ourselves...! (well it was for 2 days - and _it is_ Sudan!) I now know the feeling of making ones own money and can appreciate how tough it is for people to have to do this on a daily basis. We're still deciding whether we will continue selling the cakes at this week's bazaar... but I'd like to quote Mr Gooding Jr from Jerry Mcguire '...Show me the moneeey!'
I also had dreams to become a cook - I don't know why, perhaps it was a cool way to be creative and it sounded more alluring then being an accountant! Well, I recently managed to realise that dream and another grown-up longing of becoming an entrepenuer! Don't get me wrong, I've been cooking for a long time now. I made a killer masak asam pedas when I was at Kent, and my tiramisu was legendary (i.e. its no longer being made, hence it becoming 'legend'). But I've never (knowingly) sold anything before!
The Tiny Cup Cakes being set by Ckn (not pictured - me working the hand mixer before!)
So the story goes; Last Thursday, I promised Ckn that I would help her bake some tiny cup cakes for iftar. We started with gusto after I got back from work at 4pm. Using a recipe our neighbour in Sg Buloh gave Ckn, we managed to produce a batch of the lil' scrumptious tidbits. It wasn't too difficult; but I was made to understand that cake making was not to be taken lightly, that it was a delicate process and that the wrong timing of ingredients going in or doing something too much will spoil the batter.
...now open wide for some uncooked batter!
We were fasting and someone had to be the batter tester! So Ehsan and Erica helped out; Ehsan with the cleaning (i.e. licking the mixer attachments clean! Hey that was supposed to be my job!) and Erica with the 'batter quality Assurance' test.
Erica's not into food yet, but she liked what we were putting in her mouth, I guess. She was squirming, asking for more, but we stopped at just giving her a taste as the batter had raw eggs in it. Don't want lil Erica to fall sick now do we!
We had our first taste at iftar...and we loved it! I just looked at Ckn and she did the same - we both had the same thought, that we had to share this with the world (you can say it was a Eureka! moment...)
After much soul searching (30mins or less only!) we both decided to go into business to 'bring the goods to the market'. The timing couldn't have been better as there was a Petronita ramadan bazaar the next day, on Friday. We agreed that the costs of producing a batch of 16 packs was minimal (each pack had 5 cup cakes), while the proceeds from the endeavour would be substantial! Ckn would be in charge of the coupon selling for the whole bazaar, so the cup cake marketing would be my responsibilities! yipee... Finally, an opportunity to become a businessman presents itself!
My 'muka welfare marketing gimmick' and I at the bazaar ramadan
As this was as much a business as it was a learning experience, I told Ckn that we should have a little fun; so I decided to take pictures of all the people who bought our cup cakes. I got some odd looks from the others selling their wares at the bazaar, but I was on a roll (of course I wouldn't have considered this if I had a few hundred customers la).
The lucky few who went to bed satisfied (hmmm!)
The bazaar started at 4.30pm and I had my tupperware opened and ready by 4.40pm. Nobody gave the goods a second look for the first few minutes (maybe because we didn't put signages..DUH!) so I resorted to telling (nay, shouting to!) the patrons about the cup cakes and how scrumptious and cheap they were. Once the crowd rushed in at 5.00pm, my cup cakes literally became... hot cakes!
Throughout the event, Ehsan was not really himself; we thought he would have fun running around making friends - but it was a hot evening, and he managed to have missed his afternoon nap earlier, so fatigue and grogginess was sinking in. He spent most of the time sitting beside me. Ckn bought some lin chee kang to cool him down, and when I left the bazaar later, he cried himself to sleep in the car! Such was his tiredness that he slept soundly till the morning (so it was a restful night for Ckn!). However, he did take a liking to one of the patron's cutey daughter; and Ehsan took a picture of her himself :
Cute little Nur Ain, thru the eyes of Ehsan
All in all, we made a profit of SDG 13 or about RM22; not bad huh? The only problem was that we spent more than SDG 70 (RM120) to buy food for ourselves...! (well it was for 2 days - and _it is_ Sudan!) I now know the feeling of making ones own money and can appreciate how tough it is for people to have to do this on a daily basis. We're still deciding whether we will continue selling the cakes at this week's bazaar... but I'd like to quote Mr Gooding Jr from Jerry Mcguire '...Show me the moneeey!'
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