Saturday, December 20, 2008

Being green in a non convservational way

Well I knew it was coming… the last week of Xmas Bake Off's at work!

I wasn't able to participate in the first two bakeoff's, but the third and final bake off was for a christmas cake.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to bake. Unfortunately, passion does not equate to ability…
But even knowing that about myself, I put my hand up to bake the Christmas Cake. I had been thinking about it for a while, as is my way.

What type of cake would I bake? I wanted to do something different so I went with a white chocolate type cake. I really don't know what to call it apart from "check what's tasty in the fridge and chuck it into the mix" cake

I didn't make a traditional xmas cake, I made a xmas tree shape cake, decorating it with green icing and different candies for the tinsel and xmas tree balls.

It was a messy business! And I was a little embarrased because Sandy and her kids were over as I was icing it and there was just green green green everywhere!!! It was a mess!! The counter tops, the utensils I was using, my HANDS, everything was GREEN!

I'm not bad at "inventing" new cakes but I'm terrible at decorating!

So I was hoping that I would win this bake off for our team just for the originality of the idea and I'm very happy to say that WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOO HOO!!
I'm not even sure what we won but just the fact that we did was enough!

Of course, the first thing I did was forward a copy of the email stating we'd won to Deno.
Would you believe, while we're lying in bed last night waiting to drift of into sleep in each others arms he says "Aren't you embarrassed to be taking that thing to work tomorrow?" (Talking about the cake)

Thanks honey! Always quick to tell you what he really thinks!

I was getting a little worried as no one was eating it until halfway through the day when I got a knife and cut the whole thing up into pieces!

So now I need a fresh idea for my next cake! Any thoughts?



Thursday, December 18, 2008

Working in a call centre...



A couple of customers...


Today I had a customer whose first language wasn't English. These are the type that often bring a certain degree of interestingness to their calls!
He asked me if we'd received his payment and I said yes, then he asked if I could send him a "Bill Enquiry".
I repeated that phrase a few times and he insisted, that's what he wanted, a bill enquiry.
I could have brought up my Virgin Mobile Bill, I have a few enquiries about that!! Or may be my electricity bill which is always horrendously large but I have a feeling that wasn't quite what he was wanting... I clarified and discovered he actually wanted a copy of his bill sent out.
"Well certainly sir, I can do that for you!"


I had another lady today who was quite frantic. "Do you have my fire?" she asked. "Fire?"
"Yes, My fire, is it with you?"

Well I'd like to think I can sizzle from time to time but…
"I'm not sure I understand you"
She was getting very annoyed now.
"Is my fire with you?"
"By fire, do you mean gas?"

"yes yes! Gas, that's what I meant. Is my gas with you?"
Actually I knew she meant gas right away but it's sometimes fun to drag it out just a little…


Friday, December 5, 2008

The moral of this story is....

I can really get quite obsessive about things at times (Deno I can hear your "oh really" from here!!!!)

There's a certain young lady in my team at work who's having a birthday this weekend. I offered to make her a cake as that's what I like to do. Now when I offered this to her, I already had something in mind! Lately I've been making cakes with a ton of fruit in them. Apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries... whatever I had in the fridge! Then I'd add things like yoghurt or cream.. whatever I had. I just like experimenting. That was the type of cake that I thought I'd make for this young lady's birthday.

However when she knew I was making a cake, she wasted no time telling me she wanted a chocolate cake. My excitement waned a little as that's my least favourite cake as you can't really put fruit with it and she specifically said 'no bananas" as she doesn't like them. She's also allergic to nuts and coconut... So I felt a bit limited!

Still the challenge was there. She's into labels... Guess, Louis Vitton, etc, so I thought I'd make a theme cake. I asked her what label she liked best and she said. "Playboy"

I'm finding out that the moral of this story is
DONT ASK!
LOL

This cake was all I could think about! What ingredients was I going to use? How would I decorate it? Which baking dish was I going to use to bake it in? Was it going to have the playboy picture on top or would I trace out the playboy shape for the cake?
I would go over this constantly! Deno and I would be watching a movie and he'd ask me something about the plot of the movie and I'd have to fudge my way through an answer because I hadn't really been watching... I'd been thinking about the cake!

This week the countdown was on... Four days till I make the cake, Three days till I make the cake, Two days till I make the cake... Tomorrow I make the cake!!

I told you I'm obsessive...

Needless to say, I accepted the challenge and last night made the chocolate Playboy cake!! I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Now I just have to hope it survives the journey to work!!

And as I have bakers insecurity, I'll be wondering all day if people are eating my cake and what they're thinking of it.....
ARRGGHH!!