Chronicles of Nika

In the wee hours of the morning yesterday, I joined one of those Facebook raffles/draws/giveaways application called Winnla. I joined the draws for the $50 Amazon Gift Card (Voucher), Macbook Air, $1000 worth of clothing and a $3600 luxury watch. The Amazon Voucher was a daily draw and there was one hour left when I joined, soon after that I went to sleep. When I woke up after lunch, I saw that I had two messages waiting in my FB inbox. One was asking if Winnla was true and the one below it was Jeremy Chin of Winnla informing me that I had won the draw for the Amazon Gift Card. I was quite surprised and elated at the same time.

After I gave him my details, he told me that the Amazon Voucher was on the way. After an hour, I received an email from Amazon and got my card. I wanted to buy some baking stuff (or baking books even) but they added up to an expensive sum and I only had $50 to burn, so I ended up getting three of Sandra Byrd‘s books which are the following:

Let Them Eat Cake, Piece de Resistance & Bon Appetit. All three added up to $32.45 (I bought new ones) and the standard shipping for international orders from the Philippines which takes 18-26 business days amounted to $19.96 so the total was at $52.14. I had to buy a $5 Amazon Gift Card from a friend since my debit card didn’t have enough funds and Amazon doesn’t have Paypal where my funds are.

If I had extra, I would have gotten Gayle Trent’s Murder Takes the Cake as well. They didn’t have her new one, which is Dead Pan, so I decided to get the Sandra Byrd books first. Like I said earlier, i wanted to get some baking books but the one I liked which is Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum was really expensive because of its weight when shipped internationally. So I’d just have to get them next time I win an Amazon card. xD

The estimated arrival of my books are between December 4 – 28. I hope they arrive before Christmas though. It’s my gift to myself.

I need a final product that I will be suing for sales presentation for my first individual speech for my ENGLTRI class and since I like to bake, I decided to present a baked product. I’m still trying to figure out which I’ll do (my chocolate cake, cinnamon rolls or a cupcake). I’m low on the premium cocoa that I use regularly for my chocolate cake (which reminds me I need to visit Baker’s Depot in Waltermart Makati which my sister saw when they went there). So I am trying to see if I can bake a decent cupcake that doesn’t need any powdered cocoa or premium chocolates.

I’ll try to make a simple vanilla buttercream cupcake based from the Magnolia bakery recipe which I found on some magazines and the internet. I do hope I get it right so I can do that instead of the cake or the cinnamon rolls. I also have to find a decent packaging to use which I can do over the weekend. I just need to determine tonight what actual product I’ll be using for the presentation so I can finalize my speech outline.