CREATIVE CUPCAKES CLASS

These are some of the cakes decorated by Shanti. The rest was taken by her sister before I could take the picture. Her sister was in a rush as she parked her car in a no parking zone.

Actually our Ceative Cupcake will be HELD on the 21st November (Sat.) but a student, Shanti called me to have a private class on Monday because she will not be to take leave on Saturday. Normally we do not give private classes but I could not say no to Shanti as she was very eager and enthusiastic to attend the class. The class started at 11am and finished around 5pm. Shanti was a quick learner and was able to pipe her decorations after some practice. She also learned to mould some fondant and gumpaste figures. Shanti was taught to make 4 different types of buttercream, including one buttercream which does not melt or smudge easily. She also learned to make our Moist Chocolate Sponge cupcake.

For Saturday's class (21/11/09), there will be a bonus - Students wii be taught how to make a cupcake bouquet.

For those who are interested in our Creative Cupcake class on this Saturday (21/11), please call me at this number 016-4753114 or send me an email.

OUR 3 TIER WEDDING CAKE CLASS IS ON THE 19TH DECEMBER. YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO COVER YOUR CAKE IN FONDANT AND STEAM BUTTERCREAM. LEARN HOW TO STACK AND CONSTRUCT TIERS.MANY OTHER NEW CAKE DECORATING TECHNIQUES WHICH I LEARNED IN MY SQUIRES PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMA IN WEDDING CAKE COURSE WILL BE TAUGHT IN THIS COURSE. PLEASE REGISTER EARLY BY SUBMITTING THE FORM ON YOUR RIGHT.

NADIA'S PRINCESS ARIEL BIRTHDAY CAKE

This cake was ordered by my client for her daughter's seventh birthday. Her daughter Nadia, likes Princess Ariel and wanted her birthday cake with Princess Ariel. Since her mother told me to come up with a design, I decided to decorate the cake with a mermaid and ocean theme. The base of the cake is a moist chocolate sponge cake and the 'rock' is also the same batter but baked in a pudding mould. Decorations are made with buttercream, royal icing, chocolate fondant and gumpaste.

MOIST CHOCOLATE SPONGE CUPCAKES

This was ordered by a client for just a 'makan-makan'party with friends on Saturday night. The cuppies were very moist and spongy in texture. I topped the cuppies with a special ganache made with couverture chocolate. My assistants made the blossom flowers ( which were made in chocolate modeling paste). My client asked me to pack 6 cupcakes separately to be given to her boyfriend.I rushed with the 18 cupcakes as there is another order for a Princess Ariel cake to be delivered tomorrow. The cake is also made with same moist chocolate sponge cake batter, so my assistants and I have just to do the decorations only. Luckily, this client asked me to come up with my own design for the cake with Princess Ariel as the theme.

CHOCOLATE FONDANT BOW CAKE

This cake is for a client who ordered it for his wife's birthday. He came to my center and we had a discussion and finally after browsing through some cake pictures, he settled for a cake decorated with a bow. He did not want any flowers as it seemed too common, although I told him that we make our own sugar flowers.The cake itself is a moist vanilla cake filled with vanilla bavarian cream( I used real vanilla pods which my niece brougt from Switzerland). The aroma from the vanilla was pleasently sweet and it is very different from the vanilla essence which we commonly use. I have ordered another batch of vanilla bark from my brother who is now in London for a holiday with his family. Insyaallah, we'll be going to London and to Europe in a couple of months time and hope to bring more vanilla barks. We did not join my brother and his family now as I do not like the extreme cold of winter. Anyway coming back to the cake, I covered the cake with chocolate fondant which we make at our center. This chocolate fondant is really delicious as it is made with couverture chocolate. The birthday greetings are made from green modeling choclate and I used a clay extruder gun to mould the letters. The words are attached to the cake board with some royal icing. A very labour intensive cake but nevertheless a fruitful one because my client was exremely happy when he saw the cake. I will be teaching to make this cake and also the chocolate fondant in our upcoming classes. So please keep visiting my blog for more updates.

BABY SHOWER CAKE

This order is from a client who wanted to have a baby shower for her daughter's son. It was to be small family affair but a special one, so I suggested to her of putting a gumpaste baby shoes as the cake topper. I had to explain to her that the gumpaste shoes are not to be eaten and it can be kept as a momento for an indefinite period of time. She was overjoyed of being able to keep her grandson's baby shower shoes and agreed to my suggestion. The cake is orange yogurt cake and filled with orange buttercream. I flavoured the fondant (which we make at the center) with some orange oil to give a hint of citrus flavour to it. I made the baby shoes with gumpaste and it took nearly three days for it to be completely dry.

CLASS SCHEDULE FOR NOVEMBER 2009

7th November (Sat.) CHOCOLATE & TRUFFLES CLASS RM220.00
(10.30am-6.00pm)

14th November (Sat.) FANCY COOKIES CLASS RM80.00
(10.30am-5.00pm)

21st November (Sat.) CREATIVE CUPCAKE CLASS RM150.00
10.30am-6.00pm)

These are the only classes that will be held for the month of October as we have quite a number of cakes, chocolate and cookie orders from our customers. Most kindergartens are having their annual school concerts and orders for lollipop cookies are starting to fill in and so are the wedding cakes and favour orders. Therefore we could not have much classes this month and I prefer not to have classes on Sunday as it will be our off day. If you have any request for other classes please submit the form on your right and I will arrange the class for the following month.

CHOCOLATE & TRUFFLES CLASS - these are following topics that will be covered

1) history on chocolate and the production various type of chocolate like dark, milk and white couverture, compound and Belgian chocolate.

2)Chocolate making process and techniques.
i)tempering chocolate without using tempering equipment
- tempering couverture chocolate
- melting compound chocolate

ii)Moulding chocolate in creative designs - techniques
- marbling
- drizzling
- brushing

3)Dipping chocolate -
- strawberry tuxedo/wedding gown and wafer decorating
- chocolate coloring
- lollipop ( 3 techniques) - couverture, oreo, color

4)Chocolate transfer - to create unique & beautiful designs on chocolates

5)Truffles -using oreos and hazelnuts

6)Almond Rochers & Chocolate Clusters

7)Delicious praline filling : recipes and hands-on making strawberry and mocha pralines

8)Chocolate Card ( making a greeting card from chocolate without using Indonesian mold)

9)name & address of chocolate suppliers given to get you started to make homemade chocolate

10)packing, pricing and marketing plan of your homemade chocolate

250 g raw couverture chocolate will be given free to take home to practice.




FANCY COOKIES cLASS - there will be a hands-on making of the cookie dough.

- Our recipe for crispy and tasty cookies will be given

- students will be shown the different types of molds available in the market

- 2 types of cookie icing will be taught and how to use these icing to decorate cookies

- run-outs technique will be taught

- a special fondant used to decorate cookies will also be taught.

- each student will be given 12 cookies or more to decorate

BONUS students will be shown how to make a COOKIE BOUQUET, suitable to be given for mother's day, valentine's day, aniversaries, etc


CREATIVE CUPCAKE CLASS

- learn to make super moist chocolate cupcakes

- learn to make 6 types of frosting to cover and decorate your cupcakes

1) buttercream that will not melt or smudge easily (tak comot),
suitable for Wilton rose, flowers, designs and borders
ii)buttercream which is suitable for free-hand drawing, filling & writing
iii) buttercream that is made with krimwell

2) royal icing made with meringue powder

3) royal icing made with egg whites

4) Buttercream that looks and tastes like whipped cream

5) super smooth and delicious ganache

6)use fondant and piping jelly to decorate your cupcakes.

Students will get 16 or more cupcakes to decorate

BONUS: STUDENTS WILL BE TAUGHT HOW TO MAKE A CUPCAKE BOUQUET, suitable to be given for birthdays, mother's day, valentine's day, teacher's day, etc.

Please register using the form on your right at least 3 days before the commencement of our class to facilitate preparations. Alternatively, you can send me a SMS at 016-4753114


For those who have submitted their names for our wedding cakes class, please be informed that our 3-TIER WEDDING CAKE CLASS WILL BE HELD NEXTH MONTH. In this class, students will be taught to make the best fondant and gumpaste. Different cake decorating techniques will be taught. Gumpaste flowers like the roses, blossoms, jasmines,leaves and two coloured ivy leaves will be taught.

SQUIRES KITCHEN PROFESIONAL WEDDING CAKE DIPLOMA

I have just returned from ICCA, Kuala Lumpur after attending the Squires Professional Wedding Cake Diploma course. It was a hectic 3 days course where our classes started at 9.00am sharp and ended around 7.30pm.By the time I reach my hotel, I will be too exhausted even to have my dinner.I also had the misfortune of cutting my finger accidently when I was cutting my styrofoam with a sharp knife. The cut was quite deep and luckily Adlina gave me a band aid. In a way my wound hindered me when I was piping the top tier with scrolls. But what can I say, it is all part of the game.

Rosalind taught us alot of new cake decorating techniques. She also taught us to carve a pillow cake and we also made sugar paste flowers. We were also taught how to make a flower spray and how to assemble our flower spray creatively on our wedding cakes. All the students who attended the course were really skilled cake decorators. They came up with many outstanding cake designs and I felt really happy to have attended this course as I learned so much from them.I can safely say that i'm now more equiped with the different and latest techniques in cake decorating.

There will be an entourage to the Squires Kitchen in London in March 2010 for a cake competition and Malaysian cake decorators are invited to join under the umbrella of ICCA. A few of my friends and I have decided to join the entourage to London. In fact on the second day of our class, Rosalind recieved an email from the Malaysian ambassador in London saying that he was very proud of the Malaysian cake decorators and he'll be there to join us.This invitation is opened to students of ICCA and if anyone is interested, please contact ICCA for more details. I think they have the details in their website.

Prior to my departure to KL on Sunday, we had a Creative Cupcake classs on Saturday. This class was attended by 11 wonderful and talented ladies and I really had a good time teaching them the basics of cup cake decorating. All of them took less than half an hour to learn the technique of piping the Wilton rose flower. I'm sorry to say that I totally forgot to snap pictures of the class because there were so many students present and I was too engrossed in conducting the class. In this class, students were taught about 6 types of icing, 3 types of buttercream of which one will be not smudge and melt easily. 2 types of royal icing, a type of buttercream which looks and taste like whipped cream but need not be refridgerated. A delicious ganache was also taught and my students had more fun licking the ganache than decorating with it. To all my students, I wish to convey my heartfelt thanks for attending my class. Most of them are waiting to join my Wedding Cake Class which will be held soon.

Lesson learned :- snap pictures of students before and after class so as to ensure that i'm not carried away teaching. I must also make sure to put my camera in my apron pocket. The other day, my camera was kept in my handbag and I forgot about taking photos.