September 3, 2006

Running low on battery

My body's "Recharge-immediately" signal flashed every 30 minutes this afternoon. After my vision went blurry for a couple of seconds...I knew it was time I slowed down a little despite the day's many obligations.Preparation for the Malaysia Fest; Ipoh White Coffee stall began about a month ago, when we decided to get together and earn some extra $$ after being offered a stall to promote the product from Home's Cafe. We weren't required to pay rental/deposits/etc. for the booth...but we were given the supplies and the permission to do as we wish; as long as we helped give their new product some publicity. Initially...we were all excited, until everyone one realized they were extremely busy with work, uni, responsibilities and exams on the same week! Once a week meetings became once a fortnight...and sometimes not everyone could make it at all...it was getting a little frustrating and we decided to 'wing' it at the last minute!-considering how we didn't have much to lose.Cupcakes and cookies were baked and packed away neatly in boxes and tupperwares the past week by me and Azalia. I didn't really have much time to work on my 600-ish mini cupcakes as I had many other 'more important' matters to attend to. After completing Ying's 21st catering job; I spent some time at her place to celebrate and came home at about 10 at night. The girls and I slept at 3am after spending the night doing last minute research on our product and digging out old boxes to wrap to turn into cupcake stands.
We all looked partially asleep 7.30am the next morning when a nice friend of ours came by to offer to drive some of our stuff there.
I felt sorta crappy about the entire thing when I saw where our stall was located and how the cupcake stands turned out from our 1/2 effort sticky taping of extra scraps of paper I had lying around; but *shrug*It was done at wee hours of the morning and I didn't exactly have the energy to fuss about making all 3 of them perfect anymore. We were just trying really hard to keep the damn wind from blowing everything over!
The EXTREMEly hot sun was cruel to my frosting and the strong evil winds dried up many of my little mini cakes on display. I guess they aren't meant to be left outdoors that way; I piped frosting onto 1/2 the batch of cupcakes to start off...but they dried up in less than an HOUR! *tear* A health inspection officer came by to point out to us that we were to cling wrap/cover all our food for sale to keep the germs off......our jaws dropped..... he wanted us to cling wrap our frosting full cupcakes on the stands?.....we decided to compromise on an ugly "i-have-a-disease-looking" cling film border around our store. It looked ridiculous; but it had to be done.
The day went on alright...the girls started off pretty quiet; but began to lighten up when more customers rolled in to have a peer at what we had on our counter. It was nothing compared to the other "Malaysian" food stalls filled with AMAzing freshly cooked local delicacies; but our coffee packs and baked goods sold alright considering the small amount of attention our store was getting. We finished almost half our coffee stock and all the cupakes and cookies by the end of the day. I was just happy that we wouldn't need to carry too much stuff home that evening. The girls and I had a little fun along the way. We were close to the stage and could watch performances and sing along to our favourite local songs as we didn't exactly have LINes full of people waiting. It didn't bother us much as our coffee sales covered our costs by about 12 in the afternoon. The profits were for us to keep but we weren't exactly the most enthusiastic money-making bunch. I was pretty stressed out with my drying-out cupcakes and melting frosting but finally decided it didn't matter as there wasn't anything I could possibly do....I admit; I raised my white flag....my mind was enthusiastic; but my body was not supportive of the idea. Owen; a friend of ours came by to help us sell some coffee and Monkey-ing around became the main agenda for the day.
We expected to make about $ 30 per person...but boy were we amazed when we went home and did the math!
Despite having made an astonishing amount of money...I didn't think the whole event was worth my time and energy...I've been squeezed to my last drop with all the hectic "happenings' of the last week, and it's time to finally hit the sheets! I'm just glad my insanely BUSY week is over....*sigh* many more to come....i'll worry tommorow....*snoOze*

2 comments:

Lex said...

Congrats on your wonderful sale... been awhile I came over here.. and woman, you sure got the power to bake and cook every single day. Kudos! heeheh... I'd like to personally try 'em someday

Lex said...

can u email me how to make buttercream frosting?