cantek-cantek

My new blog

2009-10-31T23:40:00.002+08:00

Thanks for dropping over. Please visit my new blog

www.cakeart.wordpress.com.

Bakery China Shanghai

2009-05-18T23:45:00.013+08:00

My first trip to Shanghai was a few years back. Went with a travel agent that has gone bust. Didn't get to see much of the city then. Been wanting to go back to explore the city thoroughly. Managed to get a good deal during MAS travel fair and planned the trip to coincide with Bakery China 2009.

Since we were travelling by ourselves, we relied a lot on Shanghai's excellent public transport. From the airport, we took the Maglev train and got into the city in 7 minute's time. The train was travelling at a speed of up to 403km/hr. Yup, that's really fast! Managed to take a picture of the Maglev station.

We stayed at Wu Gong Hotel (booking made via sinohotel.com) which is about 5 min walk from the famous Nanjing Road. Got a room which was recently renovated and everything was brand new :)

Found the public toilet in Nanjing Road very amusing. Instead of the normal green/red colour to indicate if the toilet is vacant or occcupied, they use a digital indicator as you can see below. If someone is using the toilet, the digital board will show how long the person has been in the toilet. Didn't manage to take that picture as the attendant was around.

This is Jackie Chan's wax statue being displayed at Nanjing Road.

We also explore a local wet market near Yuyuan Garden. The fruits and vegetables are very fresh. They all still have leaves attached to them.

Here are the cherry tomatoes...

watermelons....

some kind of bean sprout..

....... skinny brinjal....

and fresh and sweet strawberries :)

Here are pictures of Yuyuan.

One of the buildings on Nanjing Road

The Pearl Tower of Shanghai.
Here are the photos from the exhibition.

Christmas cupcakes

2008-11-30T15:15:00.010+08:00

Was scheduled to teach Christmas cupcakes last week. Got the course outline back in early October. I was so eager to start working on them as I did not have any classes. But surprisingly, I only managed to try out just 2 weeks before the class. Made some other designs based on the usual things associated with Christmas.

The week before class, Agnes asked me to bake for her some cupcakes to treat her Christian colleagues. Her request was very timely as it gave me the opportunity for more practise. She wanted something nice looking, lots of green and red to represent Christmas. So I made these for her, some designs were from course outline while others are not.

Still had some other designs like ginger bread man, dove and bell, from my cutter set which I have not used. I found that changing the fondant topping to red makes the set looks a lot better, more Christmas like.

This little snowman was initially made of fondant but could not hold due to the humidity. Had to use half gumpaste to make it stay upright.

These are the cupcakes all packed into the box.

Bought these boxes from Jakarta at a very reasonable price. Hope to get some more of these boxes on my next trip :)

Life Size Flower Class

2008-11-23T16:54:00.011+08:00

Learnt how to make life size flowers using cold porcelain last month from this guy with an established wedding cake business. Was told that cold porcelain is another form of "icing" which is made up of PVA glue, corn starch and baby oil. Wouldn't really call it icing. It is actually some kind of clay used to make decorative items especially artificial flowers. Cold porcelain flowers are not meant to be put on cakes given its ingredients but there are people who thinks otherwise.

Anyway, cold porcelain feels like gumpaste and is a little bit softer in texture. When it is dry, it feels like plastic. In class, we were taught to use a lot of vaseline to dust our cutters and veiners to prevent the paste from sticking to it. Too much of vaseline actually made the paste too soft and oily, hence difficult to handle. Instructor wasn't very helpful and insisted that more vaseline is better. When the petals are dry, there is a layer of oil on it. Anyway, when I got home, I used corn starch and found it to be a better dusting agent.

The course brochure showed that we were supposed to make stargazer lily, magnolia, peony and moth orchid. Only when we came for class that we were informed that magnolia has been replaced with lotus as the instructor could not get cutters for magnolia!

We were given wires of different sizes for all the flowers at the beginning of the class and before long all the wires got mixed up and yours truly could not tell which wire was the correct size. Anyway, I found the order of the class to be kind of haphazard. We were jumping from one flower to another. It was difficult to follow and it was worse because I got the wires mixed up :(.

This is the moth orchid I made. Was told that I could hide the wires after appling dusting powder on them. Doesn't see to work! Should have given us white wires instead.

This is the lotus flower I made. Some petals looked as if they are about to fall off because I believe the wrong wires were used. It is very important to use the correct wire size to ensure adequate support for the petals.

This is the star gazer lily which doesn't look like one, unfortunately. The handout given showed that we need to frill the petals using cocktail sticks but we were not told to do so in class.

This is peony, "mau tan" in cantonese. Supposed to be a favourite flower for wedding cakes as the number of petals is in multiples of 8. Some other species does not have the center pistil. This one, I was told, is Chinese peony.

Last but not least, this is the instructor's piece.

I know I don't sound very pleased with the class. How to be when results are not good, right? The flowers look good from afar but not good enough for me. Will just have to make a couple more to get the hang of it. Will be using gumpaste instead.

Ben 10

2008-11-20T20:00:00.011+08:00

I just can't seem to catch up with the things that kids watch nowadays. Still remember that GY liked teletubbies when he was very young. I actually learned the names of all the teletubby characters from him.

After that, he was crazy about cars, ya.... Lightning McQueen was his favourite. He also knew the names of all the cars in that the movie CARS. I managed to bake a Lightning McQueen cake for him last year.

Then, he was fascinated with Thomas and Friends. Once, when we were at the toys department in Isetan he suddenly shouted "Thomas!". I thought Thomas was his friend until I saw him running to all the trains! It was another discovery for me. He introduced me to the Fat Controller and all the other trains. Didn't manage to bake a Thomas cake for him.

Now that he has just turned 6, he is crazy about Ben 10. As usual, I don't know who's Ben. He never existed during my childhood days for sure. GY is willing to sacrifice going for kai-kai as long as he gets to watch his friend Ben. Ben has got this special watch that can turn him into some aliens. Good aliens actually. Ben can turn into Four Arms, Upgrade, XLRS, Diamond Head, Stinky Fly and ..... can't remember what else.

So for his 6th birthday, I decided to make him a Ben 10 cake. Got the sugarsheet printed at Loveliana and brought the whole cake over to Singapore. Got him very excited and he even wanted to share his cake with his friend. Actually, I think it was more to show off...:) But mummy and daddy found the fondant too sweet and refused to give the cake to his friend for fear that his friend's parents wouldn't like it.

Most people do not like the taste of fondant. Although GY loves fondant, SY and her brothers don't. Will just have to try out other types of icing. Hope to find the time soon.

Carol and Edmund's wedding

2008-11-15T00:02:00.017+08:00

When Carol told me that she was getting married, I offered to make her cupcakes for her reception in church. Lilac and silver was her theme colour. Not surprise since lilac has always been Carol's favourite colour.

When I saw the invitation card, I knew what I was going to make. Instead of just lilac and silver, I added white to balance the colour. Here's what I made for her.

Carol like the idea that the cupcakes would have hers and Edmund's initial.

Have not invested in a proper stand to display the cupcakes. So I used this stand which I bought some time ago. Could not fit all of them on the stand though.

At the reception, I spent more time observing her guests instead of eating my food. Was curious to know what they think of the cupcakes. I was very happy to I see the cupcakes disappearing from the stand one by one and seeing them eaten by the young and the old alike.

After returning from her honeymoon, Carol called to thanked me again for the cupcakes and told me that her professional photographer took many pictures of the cupcakes. And they really look nice according to her. Have not seen them yet. Hope to get a copy from Carol soon.

Gumpaste Flowers

2008-10-17T21:28:00.012+08:00

Have been wanting to learn how to make flowers with gumpaste and wire them together. I can make the fondant roses without the wires but am not sure how to put the wires in. Read some books on how you can thread wire through flowers and leaves but have not really seen the practical. While waiting for my Life Size Flower Class to commence, I decided to make roses using the techniques taught in Course 3 of Wilton Method of Cake Decorating. Put in the wires, instead of using toothpick and tied them together and voila..... my very first rose spray.

I bought this Atecco sunflower/daisy cutter from Jakarta recently and made this sunflower. Very easy to make.

Made some extra roses and used them to decorate this carrot cake which I brought to my previous office for raya celebration. Was honoured to be invited and felt so much at home being with them. Even more comfortable than in my current office. Miss my ex-colleagues but not the work. My current job is much more interesting but I can't say the same about my current colleagues. Sigh..... it would be good if I can have the best of both.

Will be going for my Life Size Flower Class this weekend. Will post more pictures after that.

Yellow Swirl Cupcakes

2008-10-03T19:14:00.005+08:00

My ex-boss called up on Sunday to ask if I could make her some cupcakes on Wednesday morning. My initial reaction was to reject it as there wasn't enough time to make them because I will be working on Monday and Tuesday. The other part of me said, "Take it. You'll find the time to do it even if you have to stay up the whole night".

Got home early on Tuesday as traffic was a breeze. So I made these for her. Made some royal icing blossom and swirl flowers earlier and used them to decorate the cupcakes. Didnt have to stay up late all.

Ex-boss wanted something simple that look nice for her to bring to her ex-boss' house for raya. She specifically requested for it to be packed nicely and look presentable. So I got out my window boxes which I bought much earlier. Hoarding these boxes and tools does have its advantages. At least I don't have to go scrambling looking for them when needed. Used green ribbon to tie up the box. Forgot to take a picture of that!

Class of 2008

2008-09-26T20:55:00.004+08:00

Times flies.... it has been 9 months since I started teaching the Wilton Method of Cake Decorating at ICCA. The past 9 months has been really hectic with work in the office picking up and having to teach on weekends, sometimes on both Saturdays and Sundays.

There are happy moments and also not so happy moments in teaching and yet I enjoyed each and every one of the class. Made a lot of new friends and also picked up some extra knowledge from my students. When my students come to class with genuine passion to learn, they are a happy bunch of people..... very informal, always cheerful and ever willing to share.

On the contrary, there are some who come because they are forced to (really don't know who forced them!!), you can see the difference in attitude. I had one "weird" student who came to class without bringing his tools and "homework". He refused to follow instructions and yet wonder why he couldn't achieved what the other students can. Found out that other instructors from his earlier classes had the same problem with him. Phew.... thank goodness it wasn't me that brought out the monster in him!!

Personally, I've benefitted a lot since learning the Wilton Method of Cake Decorating. Couldn't even frost a cake when I first started. I'm glad that I can do a lot more now. I noticed that some of my students also go through the same thing. There is this lady who had no idea of cake decorating when she first came for class. Now, she has started selling wedding cakes and is making lots of money!!

With the right technique and a little creativity and resourcefulness, my students have produced the above cakes. I'm REALLY proud of them.

I will be taking some time off from teaching this coming quarter. Will only be doing cupcakes for Christmas at ICCA. It's time for me to pick up some new skills, there is always something new in cake decorating. Just don't have enough time to master everything. If only I can make enough from selling cakes, it will be a different story altogether :)

Little Lamb

2008-09-21T22:39:00.005+08:00

When I bought this Cuddly Lamb Pan from Pastry Pro at 50% off, I had no idea when I was going to use it, just like all my other tools. So, when Yan suggested that I bake a lamb-shaped cake for Quan since he loves his little lamb so much, I quickly agreed.

Many years ago, I bought Yan and Quan each a little lamb soft toy from New Zealand. Yan's little lamb is still in fairly good condition as she takes good care of it. Quan on the other hand, plays with it all the time as he claims that the little lamb is his favourite amongst his many soft toys. He throws the lamb down the stairs, sit on it, squash it and hugs it too. That's how a boy treats his favourite toy. His lamb has lost all its "wool" and has become a grey lamb instead of its original white. Hope that he likes this lamb too.

Baby bed

2008-08-26T22:43:00.009+08:00

This cake was made for SC who delivered her first bundle of joy last month.
It's a vanilla butter cake made using 1 rectangular and 1 half of a round cake.

It was good to see her as we have been busy at work and had not been keeping in touch with each other. A lot of changes happening in my previous work place. I'm glad that I left, though I still miss some of the people there. The capital market is very small. After leaving, I worked in the same place as SC's husband. And in the current place, my ex-boss' wife works here. Ya.... small world :)

Princess Cake

2008-08-06T22:45:00.006+08:00

This is another one of those cakes that I want to make but just couldn't find the occassion to make it. Well, since it's Shu Yan's 11th birthday today, decided to make this for her. After all, which teenage girl would resist a princess cake for her birthday.

Making this cake turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. Bake the cake using a dome-shaped stainless steel bowl of mine. Added a cupcake on top to make the skirt less round and trimmed the cake a little to get the shape that I want.

Gave Shu Yan a choice of pink or white princess and she chose white.

Also took this opportunity to use my pearl powder to dust the skirt to create a shiny effect. Can only see a little shine, maybe need to put more next time.

Here's the happy birthday girl.

Kyra's Teletubbies

2008-07-13T22:07:00.007+08:00

Kyra is turning 2 next week but mummy and daddy wanted this cake so that she can "tumpang" her cousin's birthday party today. After all everyone from daddy's family will be there. I understand that there will be another celebration with mummy's family. Lucky girl :)

According to daddy, Kyra is into teletubbies. Got this picture from the internet and made them in advance. As this request came with short notice, there wasn't enough time to let the different colours dry completely. Some of the red colour spread to the green and yellow. Had to do some touch up and wasn't really please with the outcome. Pipe stars all over the cake and that took me the whole night! Can see some gaps between the stars :( Definitely need more practise. It's easier when working on a small surface and showing the right way to my students. But when your hands are tired, things won't be that perfect, I've discovered.

Well, daddy and mummy looked please when they picked up the cake. Hope that they will like the taste too.

Have not been getting enough sleep over the last 2 weeks. Made 6 cakes during this time. I'm surprise that suddenly there are so many requests. Today's cake is the last of the 6. Am very tired but at the same time very satisfied. Time to go to bed. Good night.

Cheyne's Full Moon

2008-07-13T21:42:00.008+08:00

Hong Ling and I have been friends since we were in MU. We got to know each other during orientation and later became housemates. After graduation, she moved back to Klang and commutes to KL on a daily basis. It was only when she was taking her CPA exams that she moved back to PJ and we became roommates. That was also the time when I first got my car. Didn't have the confidence to drive to work given the traffic condition in KL city. I wanted someone to sit next to me until I got use to KL traffic and she was the only one who was willing and brave enough to do that. I still remember that we used to leave for work at 6.30am and leave office after 8pm when there was less traffic. We've been through a lot together as roommates until just before her wedding. And we've been keeping in touch all these years.

Visited Hong Ling recently when she had her 3rd baby. Made the cupcakes for her on my second visit to her place. The fruit flan was requested by her husband to be serve as dessert for the full moon dinner. Made some for them sometime back and he liked them very much, hence requested for that as dessert instead of what the restaurant serves.

Goody Bag n Shopping Frenzy

2008-07-06T23:28:00.013+08:00

When I agreed to make these 2 cakes, I kind of broke some "rules" that I made for myself. Firstly, I do not deliver cakes on weekdays due to my work schedule. Secondly, if it is the first time that I am making the cake, I will make them twice. One is for practise and the second one is for delivery. But this time round, I did not have the luxury of time.

When you get to know this colleague of mine, you will discover that it is very difficult to say no to her. Hence, I broke my own ruke. One of her daughters, Airina, will be celebrating her 9th birthday but she needs 2 cakes because the other daughter, Izzati, also wants a cake on her sister's birthday. I understand that when it's Izzati's birthday, Airina also wants a cake. So, it's always a double celebration. We talked about many different themes and design and she finally picked Debbie Brown's designs. And she wanted the cake on a Friday so that she can have the party on Satuday in Seremban where she lives.

I made in advance whatever that I could because I knew there was a lot of work to be done and I don't have much time on week nights.... been going to bed only after 12 every night. Even then, by 2.30am on Thursday night... Friday morning rather, I still had not assemble the little girl. I decided to leave that to the next morning as I would be on leave. It was a last minute decision to take the morning off and am I glad that I did!

When I woke up in the morning, to my horror, all the upright shopping bags toppled and there were creases and cracks on the bags. Surprisingly, I did not panic. Just told myself to re-do lor.... I guess I was too zoombiefied to panic. I did all I could to fix the bags but the humidity in my home was working against me. Didn't even think about switching on the air-con. hmmm... the effect of lack of sleep... couldn't even think properly :)

I felt so bad about the condition of the 2nd cake that I wanted reduce the price but I really couldn't as I was only charging her "friendship" price. My colleague was so nice that she didn't appear upset when I explained the situation to her. Surprisingly, she said that we'll try another design next time.

When the other colleagues saw the cake, one of them said that he wanted me to make a Coach bag cake for his wife. I was speechless.... these people has too much faith in me la.... How am I going to make one?

The next time, whatever I make, I'll make sure that I abide by my first rule ie. to make on weekends only. If it doesn't turn out, I'll still have ample to fix them :)

Debbie Brown Workshop

2008-05-27T22:56:00.013+08:00

Attended Debbie Brown’s workshop 2 weekends ago. She is THE world famous sugar artist from UK. She has written many books on figure modelling. Being a newbie in the world of sugarcraft, I gotta admit that I actually didn’t know who she is until I heard that ICCA was bringing her to Malaysia. I googled for her name and discovered a whole new world of sugarcraft when I saw what she could make with fondant. I felt like the children in Chronicles of Narnia when they discovered the world behind the closet!!

Since then, I tried getting her books from our local bookstores. Only managed to buy one and went to amazon.com to get her other books. Unfortunately, my order went MIA and amazon.com gave me a refund. What a relief! Managed to find a few others from different bookstores subsequently and I got them all autographed by Debbie!

These are the stuff that I learned to make at the workshop. I still have a long way to go….

Also made another Mystical Fairy sugar piece but didn't manage to complete mine. This is the completed piece made by Debbie.

Debbie also showed us how to make these.

Debbie Brown is really GREAT… the way she models the figurines seemed so easy.

It’s amazing how the fondant flows with every movement of her hands and conforms to whatever shape she wants them to be.

She even has an interesting and quick way of kneading fondant.

She wasn’t aware of this until a couple of us asked her to show how she does it in slow motion :).
Well, all these comes after 18 years of being a sugar artist, she said. I am only 18 months into the world of cake decorating…. Still got a long way to go ….. and I’m enjoying every minute of it :)

Car Cake

2008-05-07T21:21:00.009+08:00

This car pan of mine has been sitting in my kitchen cabinet for over a year now. It finally made its debut some 2 weeks ago.

As this is the first time that I have used this pan, I wasn't sure how to decorate it. Decided to use some green fondant left over from class to cover it. The cake looks kind of fat, like a volkswagon.

Here's the view from the side.

Sent this cake off to my brother's place for the kids to enjoy. Too bad, the older kids were not around.Only Hao and mum my were at home.

Hao, being his usual self just smile...... and smile :)

I thought mummy was more excited seeing the cake. She went "wow....... car..... car cake.....nice..."

I'll take that as the reaction from the older kids :)

Moving on

2008-04-21T08:51:00.004+08:00

I am switching jobs… AGAIN?… that's the reaction that I got from quite a number of friends. Going back to the very hectic investment banking department in another bank. It’s not that I’ve picked up this bad habit of job hopping, I just can’t find satisfaction doing compliance work! Nobody really cares about compliance even though it is so so important in this line. I will miss the fact that my work ends at 6 and I’m home around 7-ish. No late nights. Have also got very good colleagues. Going to miss them… especially my “neighbours”. What to do, gotta move on…. Can still date them in Pavillion next time :). Hopefully, I can still find time to bake after starting at the new place.

My long time friend, Shiet, is also moving on…. on a much bigger scale, though. She’s migrating to Perth. A lot of people have migrated, don’t blame them given the current scenario. Some time early this year, I had this thought of migrating too. Don’t know why. Maybe the boredom from mundane office work was getting into me then. But don’t know where to go. I like to travel but the thought of packing my bags to go and live in another country for good seems quite scary, not that I have a lot to pack! Well, I guess I shall just stick to traveling for now.

Well, Shiet’s moving on, gave us another excuse to indulge ourselves. This time we met at Tony Roma’s. Organising these get-togethers is getting tougher by the day as some refuse to respond and yet want to be choosy…. sigh…. pregnant woman.... they always get away with anything!! Anyway, I made these at the request of TTH. Hope that they will like them.

Used Magnolia's vanilla cupcake recipe (reduced sugar version) to make these. Here's how they look before frosting.

I like these two the most.

Cupcakes - Thank You

2008-04-06T20:12:00.004+08:00

Khizam's wife gave birth to a baby boy recently and we presented him a gift voucher as we couldn't decide what to get for him. This is his 3rd child, hence he would already have all the new things he needed.

He asked me to bake these cupcakes to give to everyone in the office as a token of appreciation for the gift. This will be a surprise for all in the office.

All he wanted as to have 2 cupcakes for each one with "Thank" and "You" written on the cupcakes. As for the design and colours, he left it all to me.

So this is what I came up with.

Will be bringing them to the office tomorrow. Hope that they will like them.

Cake Order from office

2008-03-30T18:37:00.003+08:00

My colleague ordered this cupcakes for her boyfriend’s 27th birthday. She specifically requested for purple swirls with silver decorations. At their party, each one of them ate 2 pieces. Am glad that they liked the cupcakes.

Here’s another order from the office.

In my current office, we always buy a cake from Secret Recipe across the road to celebrate the birthdays of my office mates. My boss had said many times that the next cake will be made by me. I agreed provided the cake is delivered on a Monday so that I have enough time to bake on Sunday. This order was initially for a Monday but was postponed to Thurs as one of the birthday girls was on leave.

Bake the cake after I got home from work. Could only start decorating the cake after the cake has completely cooled and slept at 1am that night! Turned out that they like the cake very much both in terms of look and taste.

Another colleague has place an order for cupcakes …. Will update once done.

Strawberry Cupcakes

2008-03-30T17:53:00.008+08:00

Watching Martha Stewart’s show on NTV7 every morning was a daily routine that I miss since going back to full time work. Always look forward to the baking sessions that she has, there’s always some new tips for me. Don’t surf her website often as it always take ages to download using my dial up connection.

Visited her website recently when I was bored at work and found Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcake recipe. I read in this blog that Cupcake Chic at The Curve copied Sprinkle’s concept in its entirety.

Tried the recipes with only half of the amount of sugar stated in the recipe and used IXL strawberry jam instead of fresh strawberries. This is how it turned out.

Still find the taste a bit on the sweeter side. Decorated them with some royal icing flowers and gave them away to Kat for her birthday. Here’s the decorated picture.

CNY Charity Sale

2008-02-19T10:48:00.007+08:00

A friend of mine wanted to do a good deed by donating some cakes to a charity sale held just after CNY. It was also a good opportunity for me to practice. So we decided to make 30 butter cake loafs and 100 cupcakes to sell. For 4 consecutive nights after work, we baked and baked and decorated the cupcakes on the day of delivery.

This is the first time that I had baked so much! I thought that my supply of baking ingredients was sufficient. It was only after the 2nd or 3rd night that I realized I had underestimated some of the supplies. First, we ran out of milk, then it was sugar! And on the day of delivery, we found out that we had miscalculated the number of boxes that we need!. So, off I go again to buy the boxes from a nearby baking supplies shop, knowing that I had to pay more at this shop. Really didn’t have any choice. At the shop, there were only a few boxes left on the shelf and I thought, “oh….no, do I really need to go all the way to Puchong with the jam on a Saturday afternoon?” Luckily, the sales assistant found a stack of them on the floor still unopened. What a relief….

The charity sale is an annual event by the organizers but some how I thought they could still do a lot better. I was supposed to help my friend deliver the cakes and then go home to clean up the mess at home as the organizers have agreed to provide volunteers to man the stall. Unfortunately, no one came and I became the reluctant ”volunteer”.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I had the opportunity to see and hear the comments of the visitors to the sale. The loaf butter cake was sold out within the 1st 2 hours. We actually reduced the price because another friend commented that the price was too high. I guess it was the mentality of the people from that area. They are so used to buying a loaf of butter cake costing around RM4 only from the hypermarket . Many were curious to see the cute little cupcakes but were not willing to pay for them. Some even asked us, if they were real cake! Anyway, we managed to sell every thing by 8pm. Thank God!

I am grateful to this couple who bought 14 boxes from us and this other young lady who bought 12 boxes! This young lady was so cute… she liked the cupcakes so much that every time she comes by our stall, she will buy a few boxes…..

Tiger Cake for Hao's Birthday

2008-02-02T20:50:00.000+08:00

Hao turned 4 today. Some time last month he had requested for a tiger cake when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. I tried to get him to agree to a lion cake which I have made before. He was reluctant initially but agreed after I told him that the lion would be made of lots and lots of his favourite cream.

Nevertheless, I made some searches on the internet for pictures of a tiger that I could use to make the cake that Hao wanted. Found photos of real tigers on the net but it wasn’t anything that I could use until a friend suggested that I should check out Junglebook’s website. Well, I did find my cartoon tiger from Junglebook, got it printed and was going to make that the top of the cake.

While I was going through some new cake decorating books which I bought recently, I found a tiger cake in Lindy Smith’s Party Animal Cakes. It was a tiger head carved out from 2 9” round cakes, covered with fondant and painted with golden brown and black stripes. It was a very difficult thing to do and I was hesitant. But then I thought, if I don’t try now, when will I have the chance to try?

So I bake 2 cakes and tried to carve the head… it looked very easy in the book but I had a tough time getting the right shape. Now I know why character pans are so popular – you get the shape that you want instantly and there’s absolutely no wastage. I think I carved away ¼ of the cake!

It rain the next day when I was going to cover the cake with fondant. On normal hot days, humidity is high at home and I would need to switch on the air-con whenever I work with fondant. Of course it’s normal to switch on the air-con when it’s hot. But on that day, I had to switch on the air-con even though it was raining cats and dogs outside. The fondant refuse to dry! My neighbours must be thinking that something was wrong with me….

The completed cake didn’t look like a tiger to me but it was acceptable to the birthday boy and his siblings. So there’s no close up picture of the cake here… just the birthday boy and the cake from afar….

Wilton Course 1 Class

2008-01-29T23:56:00.001+08:00

Last Sunday 27 January was the final lesson for my Level 1 class. I had a lot of fun teaching and could tell that my students enjoyed their lessons too. See how happy they are to graduate :) I was also very happy :)

Even though I had to sacrifice my time to teach on Sundays, where no other instructor was willing to teach, there is no regret. I believe I had the most number of students in a class. I was kind of nervous when I first found out that I had such a big class. For a first timer, it was really scary to have so many pairs of eyes staring at me. Once I started the class, the nervousness disappeared :) And it was a very interactive class with lots of laughter throughout the class.

I am looking forward to the next class and am very glad that a majority of my students will proceed to Course 2.

Carrot Cake

2008-01-29T23:33:00.000+08:00

I made this carrot cake for this month's gathering to celebrate TH and MN's birthday. It was also an early CNY celebration.

TH loves this cake and had been reminding me in our past few meetings that she had not tasted my carrot cake for some time. Can't remember why I had not bake carrot cake for a while. Probably, I was trying out other cakes. Didn't manage to take a picture of this cake the last time I made it. So I made sure there's a photo this time.

"Very nice.... not too sweet.." that's the review for my carrot cake. We were all quite full after dinner and only consumed a small portion of the cake. The wonderful thing was that every one was willing to pack some home as they like the cake very much. And for once, I don't have to worry about how am I going to finish the cake. The next morning, Nan sms to inform me that he husband likes the cake :)

Pineapple rolls

2008-01-11T13:01:00.000+08:00

Here a picture of pineapple rolls made by me. Got some help to do this because it's time consuming. Firstly, we had to roll the ready made pineapple paste into small rolls of similar size. Then it was time to make the pastry and rolled the pineapple paste into the pastry. Sounds easy but takes time to make them, definitely takes a lot more time compared to baking cakes :)

Practice Cake

2008-01-08T17:06:00.000+08:00

Had my first cake decorating class last Sunday. As Level 1 involves frosting a cake with buttercream, I had to practise to make sure that I get a smooth cake. Gotta look good in front of my students, ya... :)

Started practising just before Christmas and made the Santa Claus cake. The following weekend, I made the other 3 cakes. There wasn't much planning done and I used whatever ready made flowers that I have. Also searched through my books to get some simple decorations. After all, all I need was just to practise. Gave one cake to my brother and the other two to friends.

Had a little hiccup before class started as we could not locate the keys to the class room. As a result, class started a bit late and I also didn't have much time to get all my materials ready. My students are a fun group of people. There were jokes and laughter throughout the 2 hour class. That really helped me to relax and I felt that the class went quite well. I am now looking forward to the next class :) Meanwhile, I will be preparing for lesson 2 and that involves lots of practice. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect..... so I'm off to practise now!

Chocolate banana cake

2007-12-09T22:45:00.000+08:00

Finally, I am using this tool that I bought some months ago, to make chocolate fence to decorate my cake.

I made a banana cake and frosted it with chocolate whipping cream and covered the sides of the cake with this chocolate fence. And added some flowers on top.

A few months back, I saw Martha Stewart making this cake which she called "Secret Garden". The top part of the cake was actually a flower bed with a variety of flowers and a "pebble" walkway. The garden even comes with a garden hose to water the flowers! Since then, I have been looking for some thing that I can use to make the fence. I even bought some Rocky biscuits to make the fence. But that didn't really look nice. And finally, I found this chocolate mould that comes in the shape of fence sticks. All I had to do was to melt the chocolate and pour it into the mould. When it hardens, stick them all around the cake.

Fondant Flower Cake

2007-12-09T22:38:00.001+08:00

Kelly dropped by at my place recently and I showed her what I've been doing lately. They were going to celebrate her daughter's birthday the following week and decided to buy a cake from me. When her daughter saw this cake, she like it very much and wanted this design for her cake. Mummy Kelly even asked her if she like the bee hive cake. She didn't want that.

So, here's Jo Earn's flower cake....Happy Birthday Jo Earn!

Hazelnut Coffee Cake

2007-11-26T21:53:00.000+08:00

In November, we celebrated BL and Nancy's birthday. Over the last couple of years, we've made it a point to meet up in the month of one of our birthdays. As each one of us have our families and careers that take up so much of our time, it takes effort to make this gathering happen. Sometimes, we have full attendance, sometimes not. Without fail, there's always lots of food and lots of sharing and educating each other in dealing with husband, kids and our all time favourite ...... MOTHER-IN-LAW!!. I really wonder what makes a woman so mean after she has been upgraded to the status of mother-in-law and/or grandmother. And the funny thing I noticed is that, mothers-in-law are only mean to their daughters-in-law and not to their sons-in-law. Is it true? Or is it because men don't talk about this kind of things to their friends, or they just couldn't be bothered? Anyway, these sessions are really therepeutic especially for my fulltime homemaker friends.

Now, back to the cake. I learned to make this cake in Homechef a couple of months back when I wasn't working. Instead of using Boncafe coffee powder, I've replaced it with Nescafe Gold. This coffee powder makes the cake so fragrant that you just want to eat it right away . I'm not a coffee drinker, but I just love this cake especially the streusal topping.. The coffee aroma blends well with the hazelnuts ...... giving us a satisfying end to our get-together session.

Castle

2007-11-19T13:28:00.000+08:00

Inspired by the recent theme in Wilton's 2008 year book, I have suddenly become so ambitious to attempt to make this cake. As usual, the process took longer than I expected. At the end, instead of following the exact pattern provided in the year book, I came up with my own simplified version.

Everything was made from scratch, which explains the long process. The castle towers and flowers were made in advance to allow them to dry and harden. The rest of the decorations were made and assembled on the same day itself. The ice-cream cone that I bought were not exactly even, making the towers look tilting at certain angles. I had a hard time piping in the stars on the cone at an upright position.

At the end of the day, it's another mission accomplished for me. Having learned the right method, I believe it is possible to make the cakes in any design. Just need some inspiration and lots of creativity :)

Bee hive cake

2007-10-28T13:11:00.000+08:00

I saw this beehive cake in one of the cake decorating books in a local bookshop. It looked easy to make, so it became one of my projects. It took me quite some time to get the beehive in place as I had to knead and roll the fondant by hand. I wish I have the clay extruder which will save me a lot of time ...hmm... another item to add on to my cake decorating tools. I couldn't get my fondant to be black no matter how much colouring I used. So that's why you see a yellow and blue bee instead of yellow and black. One other option is to make it yellow and brown.

Here's a close-up look at my little bee:

Will give the bees some wings the next time.

When I took the cake to TTH's place, the kids there were so impressed with the bees. And they liked the fondant although it was rather sweet for me.

Flower cupcakes

2007-10-23T16:03:00.000+08:00

Decorating cupcakes can be really fun and interesting. There is so much that you can do with cupcakes. It all depends on your creativity. Honestly, I think the sky is the limit when it comes to decorating cupcakes.

I was asked if I could make cupcakes based on a photo given by a friend. The cupcakes in the photo looked pretty and seemed easy to make. So I baked some chocolate cupcakes and tried to decorate in a similar manner. I used all the different types of cutters that I have and couldn’t make them the same. But then… mine turned out pretty too. Not bad ya, coming from someone who’s always been thinking within the box. (giving myself a pat on my shoulder).

Lightning McQueen

2007-10-06T15:13:00.000+08:00

“Car-car eye”, that’s Lightning McQueen to my nephew, Guan Yu. He really-really loooooves this car very much. He has got several t-shirts printed with all the car characters from the movie Cars, which he will wear most of the time. Of course, as in the movie, his hero is none other than the red car Mcqueen. He’s even got McQueen on his pyjamas!

AB’s and JF’s sons are also very fascinated with this car. AB’s son has been asking her to bake a McQueen cake for his birthday. And JF’s son has several car toys and a poster with pictures of all the car characters. I guess it must be because of the “eyes” that kids love the cars so much. I supposed that’s how “Car-car eye” came about :)

So when my sister came visiting recently, I decided to bake this cake for my nephew as a surprise. Yes….. he was surprised and was speechless and used his hands to gesture his mum to come over to look at the cake. My sister knew about this earlier, of course.

I used the filling-in method to create the car and frost the cake with fresh cream. The car breaks when the cake was cut as it was made of royal icing. I felt “sayang” to see the car break and thought that my nephew would feel the same and not allow me to cut the cake further. On the contrary, he wasn’t and he said “Never mind, cut cake is like that wan…”. Now it was my turn to be surprised! I couldn’t imagine that coming from a 5-year old kid. Ha…..kids nowadays are so smart, they grew up so fast ….

Checker board Cake

2007-09-28T00:26:00.000+08:00

When I first saw this checker board cake pan for sale at ICCA, I was very curious to know how the cake was actually made. Though the pan was expensive, I bought it nonetheless.That was about a year ago.

It was only recently that I finally used the pan. Well, the set consist of 3 9inch pans together with 1 batter dividing ring. It is the dividing ring that separates the colour in the pans. As only 1 dividing ring is provided, I find quite messy to clean and dry it before it can be used for the next pan. If only there were 3 dividing rings, life would be so much easier... :)

One day, when I'm more skillful in using the pan, I can bake the cake in other colours. Maybe, red and green...... just like the colours of Christmas.... or some other colour. Will put it up when it's done.

Fruit Flan

2007-09-19T22:14:00.000+08:00

This fruit flan was made for LC’s 35th birthday in September. It’s a sponge cake layered with custard and topped with jelly and fruits. Fruits like peaches, kiwi, lychees, cherries, strawberries, melons, etc can be used. The cake tastes best when served cold.

I got this recipe in the packet of self raising flour which is easily available in all hypermarkets. This recipe never fails. Have not made this for a long long time and yet it turns out really well. And the most important thing is……….. the birthday girl loves it!

Butter Cake

2007-09-02T14:23:00.000+08:00

Made this cake for BL's father's 70th birthday celebration. This is the first time that I've made such a big cake. It's a 9" x 18" butter cake and weighs 4kg. Baking the cake is a lot easier than I thought. However the difficult part is in the decoration especially in getting a smooth surface for the cake. Still need a lot more practise to perfect this skill. I managed better this time using Tan See Fong's "magic scrapper". That piece of plastic-looking sheet is rather expensive but it really works wonders.

Also made another 3kg carrot cake for BL's uncle for this combo birthday celebration. Didn't manage to take a pic before the cake was whisked away...... need better planning next time :)

This is how it all began…..

2007-08-30T16:36:00.000+08:00

I have in recent years discovered baking and found it to be very therapeutic. In order to make my cakes more presentable, I signed up for Wilton’s cake decorating course in November 2006. It was then that I discovered that cake decorating can be even more therapeutic. Can’t think of one single word that can describe the joy, satisfaction, fulfilment, etc, etc that I felt upon completing the course! See the results with your own eyes:)

In addition to decorating cakes, I’ve also made new friends i.e. those outside the investment banking world. It’s really been a fun time knowing and sharing with them (more often than not, they are the ones giving as I'm still very new to this hobby.

While I am still having my break, I hope to bake and decorate more cakes and learn more so that I can have more to share. So join me in my journey to explore the sweet and pretty world!