My 'Swedish' Sunday

A few weeks ago, a friend sent me a message on FB asking me to participate in the IKEA Pretty Smart Kitchen Contest, since she noticed that I have been using a lot of IKEA's kitchenware in all my culinary photos. Not knowing anything about the contest,but tempted by the propect of winning the prize of a SwedeCook class, I got all excited to take part!

So, I sent the pictures below - IMMEDIATELY!!! Hehehe... All were taken from my previous blog entries. Actually, I had thought of sending 20 pictures, but I ended up sending only 16 instead, as the internet connection at my workplace was extremely slow at that time. As I expected... Oppssss! I was being choosen as one of the ten lucky winners! To be honest, I was a bit confident of winning the contest. Why? Because, I have been using only IKEA kitchenware for the past 10 years. Had I not won, I won't be too happy with IKEA! *Only joking, OK! :P





    So, yesterday morning, I eagerly attended the class. The venue was at 19 Culinary Studio in Damansra Heights. The kitchen was awesome, and we had so much fun in it! We were taught to cook four Swedish dishes by Chef Khai.





There you go, eight lucky winners, here with Chef Khai. Two of the winners were absent. We were given a new IKEA 365+ frying pan and an apron each. Cool! *pity for Jesse, your face was blocked! hehe         O.k, let's see more pictures!      After several hours in the kitchen, we learned a lot about Swedish food and of course, some special cooking tips from Chef Khai. Personally the cooking class was well worth it, and I would rate it an eight out of ten. Many thanks to the three IKEA staff! Of course, as in every cooking class, the most anticipated part is the food testing ;) Yeah, to try the food that you've cooked! The four dishes we cooked yesterday were:

1. Jansson's Temptations. Baked slice potatoes with anchovies and cream. Miammm!     2. Swedish fish cakes on toast with saffron mayonnaise. Super yummy!     3. Lindstromare with pickles cabbage & onion sauce. My favourite! This well marinated mutton with beetroot and herbs tasted perfect!     4. Dark chocolate kladdkaka with raspberries. Oh, this is so indulging!     So, if you like cooking and love IKEA products don't forget to like their FaceBook fan page for updates. Who knows, in the near future, you too, might win one of their upcoming contests? Good luck!

Macaron towers and some owl-lection!

Last week was so interesting! Interesting because I managed to make two macaron towers in a single day! At the same time, I baked a whole lot of macarons and cakes, too. Slept only 2-3 hours for the past week, but it paid off, when I hear encouraging feedback from my customers.

I still keep a day job,  working  9-5, and only get to do my baking at night. How I wish we can have 48 hours in a day ^^. For this week, I have an order for a macaron tower for a wedding engagement, and the theme is white and gold. I am so excited to make it! ;)





First tower: A medium-sized, colourful macaron tower with "princess" as its theme, sitting on a fondant cake. It took me five hours to make the fondant base cake. But I really enjoyed every moment of it!   





Safely delivered at the party venue!    





   





Second tower: A medium-sized purple and blue macaron tower for a wedding engagement.    



Safely delivered! *picture taken by the customer. Thanks, Ben & Nuar!     If you are interested in ordering my macaron tower, you can find out the prices below, and "Like" my Le Chouette Macaron fan page for frequent updates!





    Anyway, before this "macaron love affair", I loved painting! Now, baking is the new medium to for me to express my art. I still love painting, though!

There are a few blank, framed canvas at home. I wish one day, I'll have some free time and paint some owls! Speaking of owls, over the past few weeks, I have added a lot of owls to my 'owl-lection' but didn't have the chance to snap a few pictures yet. Soon, I hope! ;)

Managed to quickly snap this picture on last Sunday, just before going out to meet my customers. I chose to wear the Owl t-shirt, from Jaspal.







   





 Picture from mobile phone... Yeah, Netherland!... although they got defeated by Denmark 0-1 in the match earlier in the morning. Have a nice day, Miam!