January 2nd, 2010

Winter madness

www.cocoandme.com - www.thisisnaive.com - Tommy picture of Tamami at the cake stall at Broadway Market, Hackney - Coco&Me(Image courtesy of T of this is naive. – I’m recently rabbit mad… The lemon drizzle cake has a rabbit motif too!)

www.cocoandme.com - www.thisisnaive.com - Tommy picture of Tamami's flourless chocolate cake at the cake stall at Broadway Market, Hackney - Coco&Me(Flourless Chocolate Cake. – T of this is naive is so good with taking pictures I just HAD TO ask her to let me use her pictures on my blog!)
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How are you surviving the holiday? Got the “stuffed like a turkey with party-food” drab feeling like I have?
Now that the party season is officially over (my kid’s birthday, Xmas, New Year’s Eve & New Year’s Day parties in a short period of 3 weeks+ is way too much!), I am writing this in sparkly wishful anticipation of normal life to begin it’s cycle again. Monotonous simple life is sometimes the best for très-tired self I think.
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And oh, have you hit the winter-sales yet? Me? Not yet. I like going at the very end of the sales when retailers really slash-down their sale prices. Then again, nowadays I don’t buy clothes as much as I used to anyways. – Ever since I started to earn money by “cash-in-hand” literally “counting” my earnings & not by receiving some digits on a monthly pay-slip, I value “money” a lot more. I look at a price tag on a dress & think “but that’s almost ten cakes worth!” or “but that’s x hour’s worth of work!” & put it back on the railing. When I think about the number of times I shouted “end-of-the-day Saaaaale” on my stall, in the cold winter chill, just to get that extra bit more cash to take home, I just can’t bring myself to blow big money on a whim.
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Then again, maybe I’m writing make-believe. Because I spent 60 quid on a Christmas Tree & as for my kid’s birthday, God knows how much I splashed out to cater for 10 families that we invited. And I always have to buy organic when it comes to cucumbers & carrots too even if it’s more expensive (cucumber’s got high water content & as for carrots I eat them raw so for the benefit of mind I like em “safe”).

Er, so yess… just take the previous paragraph about value with a pinch of salt actually…
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Let’s swiftly change the subject back to about the Market as this blog is ought to be about…
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Trading on my last Saturday of the year was truly madness. Guess how many truffles I made for that day? SEVEN HUNDRED!!! Madness right? It’s because I read my blog-post about the previous year’s Christmas Market day & it inspired me to make that much for this time round. – I can almost hear all of you asking how I did with its sales. Well…, (drum-roll please!) it… (now hit the cymbals!) sold out! (Fanfare!) Alright alright, it took all-day to do it but it did. And as for the hot chocolate drinks, I made over 10 litres & sold out on those too. Madness! I am sooo relieved that waking up til 4am the previous night did the trick. As you can imagine, I topped last year’s figures. Whoo-hooo! GO GIRL!
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But just like last year I had lots of cakes left & I was calling out “saaaale!” near the end of the day. (I just never ever learn.) As I sipped Baileys that got handed to me by the cheese-boys from the stall behind me, my Christmas spirit fired up & I thought it best to just hand out those unsold cakes to the people who’d been kind to me. So off the cakes went one-by-one;
– to “Ladybird S” who gives me cookbooks & toys for my kids that she should be selling,
– to S of La Bouche for letting me use electricity from his shop to power my hot chocolate machine,
– to the fish-lady who gave me some fish in return,
– to the cheese-lady & the bookseller-man for being kind & for buying from my stall every week,
– to meat-seller R who gave me 3 packs of steaks to cheer me up after a horrible man grabbed a truffle & walked off with rude remarks (he was a type of man that would loiter outside pubs asking for a spare cigarette),
– to the Market boys for their good job & also for braving the cold weather (the temperature was on average 0 degrees centigrade that day).
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And ah, talking about the cold weather, again just like last year, I caught a horrible cold which confined me to bed the next day or two. (Like I said, I just never ever learn…!)
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Happy New Year Everyone!

And don’t forget to put away your Christmas Tree on the 6th (last day of Christmas)!

29 Comments »

  1. Happy New Year-I wish there was not a vast ocean separating me from your delightful truffles and that flourless cake.

    Comment by Esme - January 2, 2010 4:32 am

  2. HAppy New Year! Reading your post was like me being there…. I admire your energy and courage I must say. Wonder when will I have that to do it- A stall like yours. :)

    Please have lots of rest. Cheers!

    Honey boy

    Comment by Honey boy - January 2, 2010 4:35 am

  3. whoo-hoo! nice sales figures:) & very sweet of you to pass out the cakes. i’m sure they were greatly appreciated & didn’t last long. i find it much easier to justify spending on foodstuffs for family & friends than i do for clothes. books & yarn are my abject weaknesses. i will admit to a sigh of relief when the tree goes curbside (for recycling) nearest 6 jan. i’m ready for the party season to be *over*. here’s to you & yours a prosperous, healthy, & bright 2010!

    Comment by jonquil - January 2, 2010 2:37 pm

  4. Esme, if only I could somehow invent a cake that can survive the postal journey…!
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    Honey Boy, cheers! Energy… I didn’t have a droplet left by the end of the day tho! – crashed on to bed straight after dinner, which had to be eaten because I hadn’t had any lunch!
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    Jonquil – yeah, spending money on quality food is fair enough isn’t it, as it goes hand in hand with the quality of one’s daily life. Like especially if you’ve got growing kids you wanna stuff ’em with nutritious food.
    Not only that, I think it’s educational to introduce them to food types & cuisines.
    – I prepared the roast duck with my son, & (with food gloves) he was patting salt & pepper on the raw skin, stuffing sausage meat in the cavity. He didn’t squirm atall, even when he saw the bits of feather on the legs! – Mind you, I made him cry when I shouted at him for touching kitchen surfaces with the dirty food gloves constantly…! He just couldn’t understand about germs that he couldn’t see!

    Comment by tamami - January 2, 2010 9:57 pm

  5. Happy New Year! And gd for you for being so generous LLGxx

    Comment by Liberty London Girl - January 3, 2010 11:03 am

  6. Happy New Year to you too LLG!!! Have the most amazing year!

    Comment by tamami - January 3, 2010 12:04 pm

  7. dear tamami,
    my all your sales be like this one (without the cold after effect:)!!
    ive been reading your blog for a year and a half now, and it inspired my so much , reminded my of my passion:)) so for the past year i have my own stall at the tel-aviv farmers market , making old-fashioned confections:):)
    thank you dear sister, have a sweet joyfull year, be blessed by your creations, keep on spreading the love!
    and one day when im in london …
    much love,
    hila

    Comment by hila - January 3, 2010 12:07 pm

  8. happy new year tamami! i’ll visit you again soon in the coming months. am glad things are going well for you, and get better soon :-)

    Comment by Charmaine - January 3, 2010 2:26 pm

  9. Happy new year to you, Tamami! Have to go to the kitchen now to make some hot chocolate ;)

    Comment by Nicky - January 3, 2010 4:31 pm

  10. Dear Hila, Thank you for your lovely lovely message! The bag of marshmellow on your site looks delicious!! I wish I could visit your stall…! May 2010 be just as creative & delicious!
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    Hey hey Charmaine!! Thanks for leaving a comment. Happy New Year to you too!! Hope things are going well for you at T.O.!
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    Nicky!! Soo happy to hear from you! I betcha your hot chocolate is ah-mazing…! Happy & delicious 2010!!
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    t xxx

    Comment by tamami - January 3, 2010 4:45 pm

  11. Glad you like the pictures! Enjoying your recount of your holiday adventures and looking forward to your cakes this year.

    Comment by tommy - January 4, 2010 5:08 pm

  12. Happy New Year Tommy!!! Yesss, I LOVE them! 今年もよろしくお願いしま〜す!たまみ

    Comment by tamami - January 5, 2010 8:31 am

  13. so wonderful to hear!
    love reading, as always. wished i was back in london!

    Comment by connie - January 7, 2010 12:51 am

  14. Dear Tamami-san
    Happy New Year! Best wishes to you and your family for a happy healthy 2010.
    toyomi

    Comment by toyomi - January 7, 2010 12:19 pm

  15. Cheers Connie!
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    And Toyomi San – 明けましておめでとうございます!!今年もお互い頑張りましょうネ!!

    Comment by tamami - January 7, 2010 5:29 pm

  16. Happy New Year! Your last sale of 2009 sounds amazing – 700 truffles?! (I only wish I’d been there to buy some of them…) I hope you have a lovely, restful January. Did you have some galette des rois on the 6th? xx

    Comment by Rachel - January 8, 2010 6:41 pm

  17. Hey Rache, Happy New Year to you too! Ah! Galette des Rois – I did!!
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    But on the 8th, because on the 6th I was house-bound with the children, as it snowed, my kid’s school decided to close! In fact, the school’s been closed ever since… because they say it’s a safety problem for the kids to go to school… Right… I think it’s a bit of a cop out really… I mean c’mon, 3 inches of snow… I can’t imagine other snowy countries shutting their schools for 3 days//

    Comment by tamami - January 9, 2010 1:20 am

  18. Dear Tamami.

    We couldn’t find an email for you so hope you don’t mind us posting here.

    We would like to invite you for our Sunday brunch at the Claptonian Arts Club.
    The next one is on Sunday 24th January.

    Please find the menu and other details on http://www.theclaptonian.com and if you wish to make a booking email theclaptonian@gmail.com

    best wishes and a happy new year.

    The Claptonians

    Comment by The Claptonian Arts Club - January 12, 2010 3:10 pm

  19. Hello Claptonians! I’ve sent you email!!

    Comment by tamami - January 12, 2010 4:54 pm

  20. Hi Tamami, great pic of you and the stall! I guess the only good thing about the cold weather is that it’s natural refrigeration for all your cakes and truffles! Congrats on such a great sale day. Hope you’re feeling better now. Bonne année!

    Comment by Jennifer K - January 13, 2010 1:30 am

  21. Hello~ & Bonne année Jennifer K! Cheers!!! Hope to hear more from you in 2010 too!!

    Comment by tamami - January 13, 2010 5:55 pm

  22. Lovely pics of the cheesecake T san. You were going to txt me crucial info! I have some pics to show you from last week.
    lots of love xxx

    Comment by Angela G B - January 28, 2010 11:24 pm

  23. p.s and a very cute pic of you!

    Comment by Angela G B - January 28, 2010 11:25 pm

  24. hello lovely. I’ve just sent you email!! xxx

    Comment by tamami - January 30, 2010 1:34 am

  25. Hello Tatami,

    I happened upon your blog by accident. Love it! Thank you for sharing your baking knowledge without reservation. I live in the State so it is difficult to visit your market stall. Hope you will update your post soon and with more pix too! Do you have tips for someone who wants to start a stall like you? :) Tina L

    Comment by Tina L - March 23, 2010 9:06 pm

  26. Hello Tina L!! Thanks!! I don’t know what the regulations are for when you operate a cake stall in the States, but one most important tip that I can share with you is… “Passion”!!! – I know, I know, it sounds rather embarrassingly naff, but it is true, as it is the important ingredient in getting your project through to the end! Good luck!! And do let me know how you get on!!

    Comment by tamami - March 24, 2010 2:30 pm

  27. Happy New Year-I wish there was not a vast ocean separating me from your delightful truffles and that flourless cake

    Comment by zafer cetinoz - December 28, 2010 3:45 pm

  28. hi,
    i loved all ur blogs. i am allergic to eggs.
    i fel in love with cheese cake these days, looking at my hubby eating cheese cake. so do u have any cheese cake recipe without eggs.

    Comment by Pavithra - March 24, 2011 11:15 pm

  29. Hello Pavithra, thank you.
    I’m afraid I don’t have a cheese cake recipe without eggs…!!! So sorry…!

    Comment by tamami - March 24, 2011 11:54 pm

 

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