Narwhal Birthday Cake for Zara's 7th Birthday

For her 7th birthday, Zara requested for a Narwhal themed birthday. Birthday cakes can be pretty expensive these days. Since I've got a thermomix, why not make one for her like the one I made for her on her 5th birthday. With the ready made fondant sold at Bake with Yen. It really wasn't that difficult. I wouldn't say that it was prefect. If it was, I might as well change my profession. LOL! Here is a step by step documentation of how the cake was made:

First, start with the basic vanilla sponge cake. Over here I split it into 2 cake tins and used 2 different colors for the cake. 

Coincidentally, this is prolly the most even cake I've done. 

Next, i put in a bit of butter cream so that the cake will stay at its place. 

Then, I cut the cake into a few layers and layered them alternately. In between them, I put some butter cream.

Next, I cut it into a shape of a semi sphere. This will be the Narwhal's body.

Then, i covered the cake with butter cream like the picture below:

 

Refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes. In the mean time, make the tail.

Take some fondant and roll it into a cylindrical shape like the picture below:

Then, cut it like the picture below:

Flatten the ends of the cut corners and shape it into the shape below:

Now, set the tail aside and take a lil bit more fondant. 

Roll the fondant out till it look like a thick long string

Getting Ready for the New Normal

So the MCO is almost at it's end. The next phase will end at the end of August (hopefully).

How did you guys adapt to the new normal?

I haven't been to the office "officially" since 18th March 2020, only went there on "as-needed" basis. It was quite fun as you don't have to dress properly in office attire (shirt and slacks), and it feels like you are working on flexible hours when you are in the office. But the headache starts at home..hahah!

Juggling work and handling kids at the same time is no easy task, especially when you have meetings to attend, and ESPECIALLY and when both you and your spouse have a meeting at the same time. A 7-month old baby needs constant attention, and a 7-year-old is always playful. How do you handle that?

Some people say that its easy to work from home. Well, if the kids are not around, yes! Hahah! Bottomline is, working out a schedule and knowing what needs to be done is very important here. For instance, I always ask my wife when is her meeting so that I can know how to fit my schedule around it as she has more meetings to attend compared to me. Mine is like twice or 3 times a week. Her meetings? 2 or 3 times a day!

So most days, I wake up early around 6, have my morning drink, pray and straight away do my workouts. If I don't do it in the morning, most probably I won't be working out that day. Workout later you say? Forget it! And yes, handling the kids, carrying them around is also considered a workout on its own :P

And now, going back to the office brings a new challenge. Since school is still closed for standard 1 pupil, I have to make sure that my elder daughter does her school work before she gets to play her toys. But without proper supervision, can she do it? Ntah la.. haha.. well, good luck to all of us going through the “new normal”!