Sarah's at It again! (Sorry DITH)

We went to Coventry town centre right after we came back from Stratford upon Avon. The plan was to buy some tofu from the Asian shop. Unfortunately they were out of stock. Instead, we bought the ingredients for Sushi.

While we were there, we went to buy a present for Emyr and to look for Sarah's birthday present as well.

Sarah will be 3 on 4 October 2006. She wanted a lot of stuff! She has studied ARGOS catalogue cover to cover and kept on telling us that she wanted a BARBIE doll, a pink bicycle like Marium, a doll that comes with extra pairs of 'baju' and LOTS MORE!

While we were at the toy shop, Sarah saw a box of Barbie doll with kitchen accessories. She held on to it and told me that she wanted it. I looked at the price tag and went "Errkkk"

So I tried to 'kelentong' her and showed her Winnie the Pooh activity book that I intended to buy. Then, she tried to kelentong me saying she needed the Barbie so much.

And for the first time in Sarah's history, she cried and wailed sampai terbaring kat kedai tu. She held on to the box so tight. We gave in and bought her the Barbie set but made her promise not to open it until her birthday party. That was the FIRST time ever she cried in a toy shop. Previously, we could reason with her but on that day - our reasoning was not accepted.

Since we already bought the presents for Emyr and Sarah, we had a spontaneous thought of organising a proper makan-makan with birthday cake on Sunday. We invited Auntie De's family to come on Sunday for berbuka puasa + makan birthday cake. We were so excited and couldn't wait to meet up with Auntie De and family again.

Sarah too, was excited. She kept on saying that she will have her own birthday cake and party and most importantly she will get to open her present. That night, while we were all sleeping - Sarah suddenly woke up. She sat up straight and woke me up and said,

"Mama, Mama, nanti Auntie De datang. Happy Birthday to you Sarah kan?"

I said "Ya", and she went back to sleep. About half an hour later, Sarah mengigau lagi!!!

"Foooh, foooh..."

Then quiet. I think she dreamt of blowing the candles on her birthday cake.

Sunday came FINALLY! I went out alone to return the books we borrowed from the library, to find some baju raya for all of us from NEXT and to buy a birthday cake for Sarah.

It was raining so heavily with ribut petir after I arrived. I went to NEXT first because the library was not open until 12 noon on Sunday. After a good hour in NEXT I made my way to the library but at the same time there was two fire engines arriving to the retail park and directed everyone to leave the 'enclosed' part of the building. So I was not allowed to go to the library as well. Apparently, the heavy rain has weakened the roof structure and somehow the enclosed space area was flooded!

I could see from the outside, there were puddles of water everywhere so they were closed for the rest of the day. So I couldn't return the library books and "unfortunately" for me, I have to bake the cake myself! (Oh dear! Not when people are coming!!!)

Sorry for the very long intro you all, but that was what happened earlier. And not to forget, everyone tried to make their way out of the retail park at the same time that caused a very long queue. I didn't join in the queue :) I continued window-shopping at Boots, Borders and M&S while waiting for the queue to be shorter.

When I reached home, Sarah greeted me with "Cepatlah buat cake"

I went through my Chocolate recipe book quickly and found an easy recipe. Sarah helped with the mixing. While the cake was baked in the oven, she fell asleep. Then I continued making the filling and the icing.

After I have finished mixing the filling and icing, I thought it looked too little. So Babah suggested to use whipped double cream as the filling. So, I whipped a small tub of double cream as the filling. I almost panicked when the double cream took quite some time to become stiff.

The moment I sandwiched the cake, Auntie de and family arrived!!! The cake was not completed and I haven't even started cooking for our dinner. And hey, I always emphasise on good management. Look who's practising bad management now?

Berbuka time was 1.5 - 2 hours away. So it was best to 'delegate' some work (to our guests! ~guilty~)

Auntie Mandy (Auntie De's sister) helped to spread the icing on the cake.

When Sarah woke up, she completed the final touches with the cake decorations with Auntie De.

Edible icing decoration

And further decorated with candles and more decorations by Auntie De and Auntie Mandy.

I couldn't have done a better job than that. But I am looking forward to baking more cakes with Sarah in the future.

More on the "party" in my next entry.