My Home Business

I’ve been doing this online bagel shop called “Bagelier” (Facebook page / website) since 2009, and now I supply to 6 cafes + individual customers across Perth.  I don’t know how I got here.  I didn’t put an ad or promote my home business elsewhere except writing about it here in Umeboss, but somehow I got offers from cafes and now I deliver my bagels to them regularly.

It’s been so great doing wholesale service – it’s kind of like my dream had came true.  I work at home and also take care of my son.  What else can I ask for?

But now, with appreciation for all the supports I’ve received, I’m thinking to downsize this bagel business.  There are quite few reasons for this, but one of them is that I realised baking bagels is something I wanted to do as a side, not as a main job.  Also that I had much less time to be with my son to play together and do what he wants to do since I started the wholesale service.

So from June 2013 I will stop wholesale and would like to concentrate on individual customers only.

I’ve also decided that I will only open the “bagel shop” few times a month.  This “open day” will be updated regularly on Bagelier’s Facebook page.  Since Bagelier doesn’t have a physical shop, I will set up a “pick-up place” for customers to pick up their orders on the open day.  Everything including taking orders and answering the questions will be done online (via email and through the website) as before.  The difference is that customers can now pick-up their bagels without minimum order & any delivery fee.

So this is the positive side.  And, you won’t need to buy bagels in set of 5 – you can purchase 1 of each flavour if you wish.

There will be some extra bagels sold on the “open day” so customers can purchase some extra in addition to their ordered bagels as well.

It sounds little selfish, but I hope some customers are happy with my decision.  Some orders can be arranged for delivery, and please remember that I’m flexible

Everything will remain as it is until the end of May – so if you would like to place some order and get delivered to your door, simply visit my website www.bagelier.com and start choosing your bagel selection!

And, if you have Facebook account, don’t forget to LIKE me and connect with Bagelier  @ my Facebook page

Stay tuned ♪

Thanks everyone

Chocolate Cheese Bagel

A season for bagels has arrived!

I just to want to write about my new flavour here…  Chocolate & Cheese bagel.

At first it may sounds a strange combination, but it tastes yummy!  Well, I like it.  The reason of making this flavour was that my sister-in-law baked chocolate & cheese brownie, and it was delicious.  Rich, tangy flavour with deep chocolate sweetness….  so I thought bagel may go with the sweet & tangy combination as well.

It’s best to eat hot, without any spread.  If anyone is interested, let me know if you like it too!

Chocolate Cake with Fresh Fruits

I usually make decoration-cake with vanilla flavour – vanilla sponge cake, whipped cream and fresh fruits.  But, this time, I was asked to make it chocolate flavour.

I know chocolate and strawberries go very well, so strawberries were the first thing I put on the shopping list.  Some fruits wont’ go with chocolate, so I sticked with just few fruits to decorate this cake.

It’s a layered cake with chocolate sponge, strawberries, cocoa cream, and thin layer of rich Italian style chocolate cake and ganache.  Not much sugar it used, so this cake is not too sweet.

The side of the cake is covered with dark chocolate.  It will keep the cake moist, and has a good eye-appeal.

I was asked to make this cake for around 15 people, but I think I made it too big :p

Finished with piped cream, strawberries, peaches, apples and mints from our garden.

The smell of chocolate and strawberries was so irresistible…..  I nearly poked my finger into the cake!

Fremantle Market

It was another beautiful weekend.  Perth’s winter sometimes gets quite warm during the day, almost like spring!

On sunny Sunday we headed to Fremantle market. Some people were wearing halve sleeves.
I wanted to go to Target, but first we went to the Fremantle market to have a browse.  The usual zakka shop “A Maize Homeware” , then went inside to walk around.

From ramen noodle to Turkish sweets, there are always something you can munch on at this market. Munch on fresh fruits, munch on pastries, munch on donut, etc etc.

We felt little hungry, so queued at the hotdog stall to get some Bratwurst hot dogs.  D was thinking to go to Jus Burger which is located in front of market, but I insisted that one hotdog would be enough for a snack.

The soup from the stall Soul Food looked good too.

Then I found this place selling hand made Aboriginal collectibles True Blue products.  When we were looking around, a shop staff taught me each painting on those plates has meaning.  She picked one handcrafted wooden bowl, and told me that the painting on this bowl means “love and friendship”. Other ones have other meaning, like “travel and coming home” and “family”.

I bought the “love and friendship” for my friend, and “3 families” for us.  It was fun looking for items while thinking about the meaning of its illustration.

The smell of body spray “Kakadu plum and Macadamia nuts” sold there was lovely, so I bought it too.

We didn’t go to Target in the end and headed home.  It was a good day.

Bagel from Fremantle Bakehouse

When I was wondering around Cappuccino strip in Fremantle, I saw two huge bagels in a basket through the window at Fremantle Bakehouse.  They were really big, and I just had to try it out and see if they bake a good bagel.

Fremantle Bakehouse is a pretty popular bakery with dine-in section where you can enjoy the baked goods with freshly brewed coffees and teas.  I also like their bread – especially the ones with hard crust.  My husband liked ciabatta bread with olives the other day.

It was a plain bagel with poppy seeds on top.  When a staff passed me the bagel in a paper bag I realised the bagel was actually very light.  I squeezed it with my fingers, and the soft crust just broke and became flaky without any resistance, just like other normal white bread.  I was little disappointed, but took it home and toasted it to see if the texture was chewy.  It wasn’t!  It was just normal white bread in the shape of a bagel.

The bagel was just about the size of my hand, and weighed about 100g.  My bagels at Bagelier are around 10cm in diametre and weigh about 100g.  I know my bagels are quite heavy and dense, but I wondered if this bagel from Fremantle Bakehouse is what people in Perth think of a bagel.  I also tried a blueberry bagel from Lawleys Bakery before, and it wasn’t heavy and chewy either.  Maybe the bagels I make are too heavy and dense – should I rename it from “bagel” to something else?

In Japan, some bagels weigh around 100g ~ 160g!!  Some of them are very heavy and chewy, and some are soft and fluffy.  Which texture is good depends on people’s liking, really.  BAGEL&BAGEL is very popular in Japan, but some people say their bagels are too soft.  I personally like the one with tough crust and chewy interior.  Bagelier bagels are best to be eaten toasted.  I normally slice bagels in half before freezing, and toast them in a small oven toaster before eating.  When I’m making a sandwich, I toast it using a panini press.  Toasting it well-done and eating it while hot is my way of eating a bagel.  Some people like heating up my bagel in microwave.  The bagel becomes soft, but after awhile it tastes little dry, I think.