Merriessssssssssssssssssst Christmas y'all!!
How was your 25th?
I hoped you had celebrated the holidays with your loved ones.
DECEMBER is once again the busiest month of the year!!! True enough because I am quite caught up with so many activities lined up and some year-end reports in between. Nonetheless, I am always thinking on how I can get back here and share pieces of my life or whatever is going on in my mind that I wanted to share here. Like my brain is figthing back the urge to do a lot of things but unfortunately my body contradicts! I do not know if this comes with old age, wait am I really that old that I am actually experiencing signs of progress?!!! hahahahaha.. OMG! Pleeeeeeeease! Age is just a number! Yeah, keep telling that to yourself self! Convince yourself even more. Sorry I have a bit of a habit of talking to myself.. 😂🤣
Well anyway, I wanted to take part again in my favorite challenge every week! Yep it is always in my first to do list whenever I am here. So, the 
1️⃣ What was your greatest joy of 2022...?
And / Or
2️⃣ What was your greatest sorrow of 2022...?
Hmmmmmmmm... Since it's Christmas, I do not want to delve into sad stories and I would rather talked about the things that had made may 2022 happier. And yes it is OPTION 1 for me.
Year 2022 has brought so many blessings in my life or rather into our lives. And that is my small baking business which I fondly called QBakes. This is the year where I had actually slowly opened up and started launching my baked goodies. In the past, I have tackled and shared a few of my cakes and pastries with you guys (you can scroll back over my previous posts if you like). And if you have noticed I had somehow progressed over time because I am continually learning new things every time. I am not yet a PRO, I admit I am an AMATEUR but willing to learn and explore new things. At first, I can only offer chocolate cakes in its simplest form, no other designs or frosting.
Since then, I had convinced myself to learn how to create and offer different cake flavors and designs. I said to myself that hoping by the end of the year, I can create beautiful cakes and not just the Classic Moist Chocolate Cake. Though my Moist Chocolate Cake is big hit to my family and friends, I had mastered it fairly well which had made my clients keep coming back and ordering for more. I kept watching and following great homebakers who had made it BIG. I could not afford to enroll in baking classes so I just tuned in to YOUTUBE University!! Oh yeah, patience and consistency are the keys to getting what you want. It is never too late to learn, life itslef is a constant battle and quest for knowledge. It is a never ending journery, one has only to grab the right opportunity as it pass your way. I grabbed mine a little tighter hahahahaha and didn't let go until I am satisfied with the results.
And I am grateful to my family, friends and clients who trusted me to create their cakes as they celebrated an important milestone in their lives. It takes pride to be part of their special occasions. My friends kept requesting that I do some customized cakes, that is a cake decorated with requested themes. And my very first customized cake was a SPIDERMAN Theme!
Mind you, it was difficult!!!!! 😂🤣
I could not make my spiderweb stay still! hahahaha because my chocolate ganach was too liquidy and it was not in pipable form. I think I had done 3x the web! hahahahaha. That is the simplest SpiderMan Theme I could whipped up at that time. And I was glad that the client who ordered it was happy with my little achievement. and Oh I forgot, I also had a hard time making my frosting red!!!! I think, every baker had passed through this dilema. It is really hard to create dark frostings such as red. There are a few hacks that needs to do especially if you are not using the best food colors. I had learned that through the year! hahahahahaha.. And I am grateful to my co-bakers who had shared and traded their secrets to newbies like me. shoutout to all struggling homebakers, you are not alone!
And here is my second order for SpiderMan Cake! I think I did good here, I had somehow created more spider webs all over the cake this time and it wasn't falling! Yeeeeey for me, achievement unlocked! hahahaha... Though it is not yet a perfectly piped webs but somehow I am getting there eh. I have learned that it all takes to make a cake stand out on how you put all the right toppers on it. You can use toy toppers or basically make it an all edible cake using fondant. Using fondant in your cakes is another level and milestone for homebakers. Personally, I am not a FAN of FONDANTS because I do not like eating them. Or maybe I am biased because I do not like marshmallows and fondants are basically made from marshmallows. At the moment, I do not create my own fondants, I am using readymade fondants like the DLA Rolled Fondants. It is pretty easy to use with a little bit of cornstarch and tylose. I did tried making fondant from scratch, but it was an epic fail because I do not have a microwave. It is hard to just use a double broiler. Maybe next year if things go smoothly well, why not!
Finally, my third Spiderman Cake and my client here is no less than my Lil boy Mali. He was quite happy with his cake! And I must say I had created a masterpiece of a SPiderman cake this time around, what do you think? I mean compared to my previous creation, this one had made the chart, right?! hahahaha.. be honest guys! I do not mind your critics, we are learning from it.
Oh and here's proof of how happy Lil Mali was!!
He just wouldn't want to slice it up and let us eat his cake! He just kept on staring at his cake and boasting to his friends that he had a spiderman cake. 😂🤣
So you see, I have learned that having a cake on your birthday adds up to the happiness of the celebrants. And it double the happiness knowing that your cake are designed accordingly to what you wanted it to be. I am truly happy and somehow proud of myself and I am overly JOYed to note that I am part of that happiness.
Thank you 2022 for allowing me to create beautiful cakes as per requests from my clients. To year 2023, I am hoping to create more customized cakes especially those trending cakes that I haven't done yet. Yep, there is a list! hahahahaha.. and that is another story to tell. Stay tuned for it!
Thanks guys for listening to my babbling up today!
PS.
Let us support small business like mine in your area. Your support goes a long way!
xoxo,
.
maquemalimax