CHEESECAKE CLASS ON 27TH MARCH 2010

Our cheesecake class was attended by Marina, Azza, Wahidah, Hamidah and Fauziah. Azza and Wahidah (From Bertam) are two lovely & stylish young stay at home wives. Their intention is to improve their culinary skills and venture into business. Marina has attended a couple of our classes and is bent on improving her cake baking/decorating skills. Hamidah is a goverment staff and working in Komtar. This is her second class with us, the first one was our Fancy Cookies class. Hamidah told me that she tried to bake cheesecakes before but was not successful as her cheesescakes ended up with domes and cracks. She was extremely happy with the cheesecakes she made in our class as the texture was velvety smooth and there were no cracks or domes. Fauziah from Farlim, Air Itam is a stay at home mum and is very interested in the art of cooking/baking. In her quest to learn more, she has attended many classes, mostly from those who conduct classes at home. Fauziah is very happy with our class and has plans to enroll for more courses with us. She also sent me a sms today saying that her children polished up the cheesecakes she brought from class and she baked a blueberry cheesecake sucessfully. Well ladies, i'm sure by now you all must know that baking a cheesecake will be a breeze if you applied the correct techniques. Thank you again ladies and i sincerely wish the best in all your baking escapades. Have fun 'cheeseing!

New York Cheesecake baked by our students
in this class our students were taught the secrets to achieve a smooth & velvety texture to their cheesecakes
chilled Chocolate Cheesecake (with daim chocolate filling) & baked Blueberry Cheesecake
cheesecakes in the chiller
Wahidah and Azza putting blueberry pie filling on their cheesescake, meticulously.
Marina,Fauziah and Hamidah are also engrossed in putting blueberry pie filling on their cheesecake
Marina is admiring her chilled chocolate cheesecake

FONDANT CAKE DECORATING CLASS ON 13TH MARCH 2010

Six students attended our Fondant Cake Decor class on 13th March - Marina, Salasiah, Dzuliyana, Farah, Kak Fatimah and Christine. Azza registered for this course but unfortunately could not make it as she she was not feeling well. it's ok Azza, there will be other similar classes and i look forward to meet you there. In this class, they learned how to make fondant from scratch. Thay were also taught how to make a new, hassle-free type of royal icing - suitable to use in cake decorating. Different decorating techniques were taught but could not be applied entirely as it would over-crowd their cakes. Although most of them have not worked with gumpaste flowers before, they were able to make some decent roses and calla lillies. After these all they have to do is to practice making flowers frequently until they can get them correct; botanically. Personally, I do not like to put ready-made sugarpaste flowers on my cakes as it makes the cake look artificial and their huge size often overwhelms the cake. It is my opinion only and hope does not offend anybody. It is in my character to add some personal touches to my creations and i believe a cake decorator should not always rely on ready-made sugar flowers. As i told my students, sometimes a client might come with a unique colour theme and the ready-made flowers might not be available in that particular colour. Moreover, most baking supply shops in Penang do not sell a variety of ready-made sugarpaste flowers coz probably we Penangites are a creative lot..lol. My good friend Jamilah (kak Chik)told me that most baking supply shops in Butterworth and mainland areas sell a wide range of ready-made sugarpaste flowers from Indonesia. Anyway. since these flowers are not available in Penang, we have to learn to make them. As the saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of all creations", we Penangites have to create our own sugar flowers whenever it is necessary.

I'm also thankful to Christine (who attended my Fancy Cookies class last week) for coming to this class eventhough she was having a bout of diarrhoea. Unfortunately, she had to leave before the class ended as she had to go to the airport. Christine, is PME trained in sugarpaste and on her way to do PME Masters in Sugarpaste. She wanted to learn to make my fondant as she had heard good remarks about it from her friends. Her verdict was that my fondant was more pliable & easy to work with for decorating purpose.Thank you Christine for the vote of confidence but all praises must go to my 'sifu', Chef Bruce Lee (CAC,Penang) for teaching me to make fondant 10 years ago. I've been using his recipe in all my fondant classes and it has never failed me.

I've also asked Christine to conduct classes on Sugarpaste flowers and Bride & Groom figurines at my centre. She is a free lance sugarpaste instructor and I hope she'll find the time to conduct the classes soon. If anyone is interested to learn Sugarpaste Flowers & Figurines from a qualified PME instructor, please send me an email.

this cake was created by Dzuliyana (Telekom) who had no prior experience working with fondant. she chose baby purple and pink as her colour theme. all the flowers were hand-made by her and dusted with edible disco dust to add glitter effect.

this cake was created by Marina who has attended a couple of my classes. she has improved tremendrously and made this decor with minimum supervision fr me. her colour theme was ivory and orange which worked perfectly well. all flowers were hand-made by her and dusted with edible gold dust and disco dust to add glitter effect.

this cake was created by Salasiah (USM). she chose light green and baby yellow as her colour theme. Salasiah is a very resourceful woman and did her work quietly with minimum supervision from me. all flowers are hand-made by her and dusted with edible disco dust to add glitter efect.

this cake was created by a young mom, Farah who had no prior experience working with fondant. she chose golden yellow and brown as it was the colour theme of her sister's engagement ceremony on Sunday (14/3).this was was to be given as a 'hantaran cake' from her family. Farah killed 2 birds with one stone by learning how to decorate a cake and use it for hantaran purpose. isn't she charming or what? all flowers are hand-made by her and dusted with edible shimmering gold, gold dust and disco dust to add glitter effect.

this cake was created by kak Fatimah who does not know anything about fondant. being a buttercream decorater, she found it was easier to work with fondant. a very jovial lady & full of humour. all the gals laughed and joked with Kak Fatimah thruout the duration of the class. she chose baby pink and white as her colour theme. all flowers are hand made by her and dusted with edible shimmering gold & disco dust. Kak Fatimah is contemplating to make her own ' fondant hantaran' cake next week. Kudos to you Kak and all the ladies who attended this class!

CHOCOLATE FONDANT CAKE CLASS ON 9TH MARCH FOR STUDENTS FROM ALOR STAR

Moist Chocolate cakeS covered in white and dark chocolate fondant. students were taught how to make regular fondant, dark and white chocolate fondant.they also learned to cut their cakes into layers and fill with strawberry preserve.

Sue chose to decorate her cake with frills, drapes and bows. btw, sue forgot to put a line of royal icing dots on top of her frills; said she'll do it later. i also taught her to make a bow from dark chocolate fondant but it was to big to put on the cake. the roses, calla lilies and jasmine flowers are all made from white chocolate fondant (coloured). Sue told me this morning tht she has no heart to cut her cake.

Yati chose to decorate her cake with scrolls,drapes, laces and a bow.like Sue's,all the flowers are made with white chocolate fondant (coloured). this morning, Yati told me her cake and even the flowers were 'zapped' up by her family members. that is the best part of working with chocolate fondant coz it is edible & taste yummy. if anyone is interested in our chocolate fondant class, please fill up the form on your right and submit.

FANCY COOKIES CLASS ON 6TH MARCH

group picture taken after our Fancy Cookies class. thank you toSabrina,Lingzie,Hamidah,Christine, Juliana and Kelly. Kelly told me that she and her Swiss nationale hubby enjoyed the cookies very much. thank you Kelly and i know you will soon be baking these cookies for your family & friends.

these are some of the cookies decorated in royal icing, glaze icing and rolled fondant.

A CAKE FIT FOR A 'CROWN PRINCESS'

Moist chocolate cake filled with strawberry bavarian cream. This cake was ordered by a young lady who owns a retail outlet in Komtar. The recipient of this cake is her 5 year old daughter, Janice Khoo
Moist chocolate cupcakes in various designs.
my moist chocolate cupcake recipe gives perfect results-with even levelled tops. my baking tray is also clean as there are no spillage.Come & join my CREATIVE CUPCAKES class on 27th March and i'll teach you how to bake these cupcakes.