Bake-Even Strips

If you read further on my entry about my nephew's birthday cake, you would know by now that my oven does not work properly since then. Baking cupcakes is fine probably because they are smaller in size thus, it doesn't really leave a significant impact. But if i were to bake larger cakes, they wouldn't rise accordingly even after i turn the pan the other way round after half baking time. They still result in my cake being slightly lopsided if not at all. I was already considering to get a new oven, planning on building a cabinet just for this purpose and to stuff in my baking apparatus and what not until i discovered the 'Bake-Even Strip'. I tried it for the first time to bake for the PIBG cake and hey, it worked like a charm! (though i still have to turn the pan this time but still it helps).

They are sold in a pack of 2s and 4s. The price of 2 strips is about RM45 and RM90+ for the 4s. I'll settle for this at the moment as opposed to having to spend RM5000 for a new oven and a built in cabinet :)


(please don't be alarmed by the colour of the cakes in the photos above. The strip does not alter the colour of your cake. The one in the oven is a buttercake while the one that is done is a chocolate cake. I just forgot to take a before photo of the choc cake :) )

Happy cake for a happy person

We were told to bring a frosted 8" cake to class for decorating in our second lesson of Course 1. We learned the techniques for printing and writing, piping stars fill-in and borders and also pattern transfer.

I know i've done this several times before, but my hands were still shaking during the process. When doing this, PRESSURE CONTROL is key! I didn't have much time to do any writing or printing in class, so during dinner i asked my brothers if they knew anyone's celebrating their birthday the next day, then i can personalise the cake. And the lucky (or unlucky :p) person is...

The Happy Arif

The Arif Happy cake.
I thought i'd inject some fun to it by drawing a stick man.

(I later received a text from the celebrated, personally thanking me and said that he was indeed very happy. How nice :)).

** One good tip i learned is to add some piping gel into thin consistency buttercream for smoother writing and printing ;)

Butterless buttercream?? Hmm...

The first lesson at the Wilton Course 1 in ICCA was more on the theoretical side. It was mostly on the introduction of the tools that are used in cake decorating and how to use them, which includes how to fold a parchment paper (this is more ideal for melted chocolate so i shall try this for the writing on my double double disaster cupcakes!) and also how to make the decorators' icing aka buttercream as well as 3 different consistencies for different techniques.

The decorator's buttercream i learned here at the first lesson is something i find very interesting. First of all, it has NO BUTTER! I have been to several classes and have had several different views from different people in producing the buttercream but none that has absolutely no butter in it. From what i know, shortening are added to better hold the shapes of your designs apart from adding the meringue powder as explained in one of my earlier posts. Some even prefer to use 100% butter because it has more flavour.

But i have to say, this butterless buttercream is THE BEST so far! I find it less sweet even with the same amount of sugar i normally use in my buttercream (with butter) and is creamier too! And it is especially ideal if you want to produce super white frosting for wedding or christmas cakes (for the snow etc.). Also, if you want to get certain colours right, this is the kind of buttercream you would want to use.

Click here for the recipe.

The super white buttercream.

Then again, it really depends on your preference. I'd go back to half cup of butter (instead of 1 whole cup of shortening) just to achieve the ivory colour. Otherwise, 100% shortening is fine by me. It's cost efficient too! ;)

A busy, busy weekend..

It was the busiest weekend i've had in a while. Not only i had to bake a batch of 36s cupcakes and a whole 8" chocolate cake for a Teachers' Day celebration, an aunt requested for a birthday cake for her 24 year old son (bukan age sebenar.. tee hee). "Any kind will do", said the aunt. Another brave soul! :D

Since the cousin is barely a kid and the guests are mostly adults, i've made a simple cake with no elaborate designs to mark the cousin's birthday. I've been wanting to try out this Sicilian orange cake recipe ever since i came across it at this blog called Almost Bourdain but there was never a chance. It's either i have my usual cake orders or there's this other usual thing called 'laziness'. So i thought this would be the perfect time, especially it looked pretty simple too. (Did i mention i had to bake for the teachers?) :) So, i took 'anything' and turned into this:

Though, i think it would have tasted better if i have gotten my usual self-raising flour and used rather sourish oranges for the cake. Recipe here. Let's feast our eyes again, shall we?.. hehe.

Then later i made these. I've told the teacher friend that it will be a rushed job but she insisted. I only had time for simple designs due to the time constraint. I still have another cake to make as a homework for my class! S.T.R.E.S.S! :'(

(I'm not very happy with the results but sometimes, i think best to make peace and move on. So, moving on....).

Wilton Cake Decorating Method

If you must know, mum had been telling me about the Wilton method for a while but i was contemplating because well, there's a pretty price to pay. Instead, i went to the website and youtube to learn some of their techniques :D But now that i have spent good money for the tool caddy and stuff, i think it's time for me to take it up to another level.

So, i finally registered myself to learn the Wilton cake decorating method at International Centre of Cake Artistry (ICCA) and have been to 2 lessons to date. I have to say, i've learned quite some new things and i shall share them with you in the coming entries.

If you're interested to know more about the Wilton method and any other courses they offer in ICCA, click here to unfold that domestic skills perhaps you never even knew you had! The courses are held at 3 locations in the Klang valley; PJ Section 14, Kota Damansara and Desa Hartamas. They also offer a wide selection of tools and equipment as well as ingredients to bake that perfect cake!

Tool Caddy

In my attempt to re-organize all my baking and decorating stuff, i finally succumbed to the idea of getting myself the tool caddy. Pro or not, i need to get my kitchen organised!

There are a few that you can find in the market but me, being someone who prefers things to be compartmentalised, ended up with the Ultimate Tool Caddy by Wilton (supplies not included). I've been eyeing it, but the price had put me off until i thought it was time i NEEDED it (and by then, the price has gone up by RM20, thank you very much!).

Now that that's done, i think i still need to get one of those plastic drawers from Giant. Maybe two. Tool caddy not enough!!!

Double double disaster

These were made and brought all the way to my hometown down south for my loyal customer. She did not specify any designs but she had a message for her sister to be put on the cuppies. I thought i'd try making ganache for the very first time and use white chocolate for the message writing like the ones i saw in Martha Stewart's Living magazine (pix below) - in the Valentine's day 2009 issue i purchased. Recipe here.

I was going to call it the double double choc cupcakes due to its choc contents (chocolate cake, with choc chips, choc ganache and white choc) but i now strongly should consider calling it double double the trouble or double double disaster chocolate cupcakes. Handling the melted white chocolate was too much a fuss and too darn messy, i finally gave up after a few miserable attempts and after the mess i made in my mum's kitchen. The 'roti jala' effect was the result of all this. Sorry i didn't deliver the message, babe (it was nasty, btw :P) but i do hope u guys enjoyed the (free) 'artsy' cuppies.. heheh.

** will try this again...

More blossoms

I wanted to make something different using the techniques i've learned so far. And i wanted to say that this was actually inspired by Monet's garden, but you may not find any similarity to it i'm sure. But it is, to a certain extent, though i did not have the slightest idea of what flowers the artist was actually portraying in his painting nor i use similar colours as the painting, but it gave me an idea to make a bouquet rather than the usual individual flowers on one piece of cupcake. (Actually, i was reaching for purple to give that Monet feel to it but i accidentally took blue instead. I only realised it after i started mixing them. :P). And then decided to use yellow for the background for the writing. So the Monet-ness was definitely gone. Haha. But anyways, i think i should perhaps take the colour tone down a notch next time.

Happy Birthday, Eza & Thara! Hope you're happy with the cuppies, anyways.

A last minute request from a bride-to-be

She likes big flower designs in particular; the Chrysanthemums and Roses.
To be given to guests for dessert at the wedding, i think..

I finally got them chrysanthemums right! NO MORE TEPEE!!! Visual of the first chrysanthemum i did here.

See???? Here's a closer shot (tapi blur..) just to prove my point! ;P

Congratulations on your wedding, dear!

Sama tapi tak serupa

These Lightning Mc Queen cakes were also done using a rented pan from ICCA. I have done 2 Mc Queens so far and the second order was requested to be done no different from the first one.

But of course u can never produce the exact same thing, right?

(Done in Chocolate chip butter cake with buttercream and a candy bar for the writing/printing).

p/s: from my (little) experience, i notice that chocolate chip usage is not very ideal when using novelty cake pans. It makes it more difficult to release the cake from the pan.

Pink & ivory swirl roses just for Mum!

Done in between 101 things! Phew!
Rich buttercake.
Rich, because i made them using a rich man's butter - the expensive President :P
Happy Birthday, Mum!
Hope you liked it.

(pointless fact: the Mr. suggests for my mum to be referred as 'mum' or 'mummy' and his mum as 'mak' to save us from the question, "mak mana?" because we both call our mother 'mak'. Hehehe.. whatever! So now u know this cake is for which 'mak' :))

Sweet Sixteen

The most number of cupcakes i have ever done so far. EVER! 72 pieces altogether! I could hear my back screaming in agony when i was finally done. Luckily mum was around to help me with the after cleaning and thanks to my Thomas Sabo catalogue for the images. Hehehe..

Nak pengsan! I know what you must be thinking... what Thomas Sabo images?? Well, the catalogue was just to give me ideas and sort of a guide.
I think the printing should be thicker the next time. There's always room for improvement. Yes?

For the Big Brother

This was rather a challenging piece as my SIL has provided a Black & White image and nothing much i can go round to change that will make the cake more interesting.

In the end, i have chosen ivory for the base (no colour added to the buttercream), chocolate brown (using chocolate buttercream) for the design in order not to overpower the black & white image and red to add punch. It was of pure coincidence that i stumbled upon that cute candle to go with the cake. The customer said she likes it, so I think it came out alright afterall :)

If first you don't succeed, try and try again!

The first few batches of chocolate cakes i made went rather smoothly with the exception of the very first one (for the Mr.). I got mixed up between the BAKING SODA and BAKING POWDER!

Mum was given the task to read me the ingredients and measurements while i put in all the stuff. So, it's either she said it wrong or i heard her/saw the label wrongly. I highly suspect it was my mother. Kidding. It must be the person who never had any baking experience, obviously. But in the end the cake was fine. Sli......ghtly dry but still good. The buttercream was sweet though.

And then it was time to bake my first vanilla butter cake. One poor soul -who happens to be the SIL wanted me to make a batch of butter cupcakes for her friend's birthday and something went awfully wrong. They all sank leaving a peak like this:


Sorry for the bad drawing. But back to the cakes, not only that it looked bad, it tasted equally horrible too! So that was my 1st real experience of cake tak jadi. I didn't have any contingencies this time because it was ordered at the last minute. So the SIL had to go get a cake from some other place as i couldn't manage to make another round.

Very frustrating it was. Then i tried another butter cake recipe i found at Wilton website on my second attempt and was (extra) vigilant with the ingredients this time too ;) and what do u know.. it was ay, okay! I don't know if it was the recipe but since the latter turned out good, i thought i should just stick to it until i find a better one. Finding the right recipe is NOT easy.

Here's the one i found at the site:

Butter Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 5 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon No Color Almond Extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk

Makes: About 7 1/2 cups cake batter.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray pans with vegetable pan spray, or use Cake Release.

In mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and almond flavor. Mix flour with baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, starting with the flour; mix well. Pour into prepared pans.

Refer to baking chart, for baking times and temperatures for specific pans.

Cool 10 minutes in pan. Loosen sides and remove. Cool completely before decorating.

Caution: For fellow muslims, please note that ALL Wilton's extract and flavourings contains alcohol EXCEPT for the Clear Butter Flavour.

Extra info: I usually skip the almond extract because i am personally not a fan of the strong smell. But it's all up to you!

Here for more yummy recipes. Good luck! :)

The beginning is not the end

This kid's birthday was what had me started. After taking proper considerations (and ignoring a VARIETY of suggestions from both the mother and grandmother), i decided to go with what i had in mind all the while (Please DON'T do this to your customers!) - with some extra extra. The cartoon character was chosen by the mother, though - even before i attended the very first class, if i may add. Yes, it was that advance!

Elmo face cake plus little cupcakes and a dialogue bubble were eventually the end result.
(Novelty pans such as for this Elmo cake can be rented at International Centre of Cake Artistry - ICCA). The dialogue bubble can be done using the same cake pan, even when your oven is NOT working properly. No kidding! All you need to do is improvise! ;D Read about it here.

The mum seems happier here than the kid :)
Happy birthday, kiddo.
Elmo loves you!

Cakes make people happy...

... won't you agree? :)

Order! Order!

And the ball's rolling......

A repeat order from the friend, for her sister.
I was experimenting with bright hues but i wasn't happy with white as the base for the writing.

These were made for another loyal customer-friend for her friends who had been helpful on her engagement ceremony.
I named it a gift of 5 to 5 helpful friends :)

Made for the same customer who ordered the gift of 5 to 5 above.
It was for a relative's engagement.
She is crazy about the classic roses so i made them in 2 different colours.

(fyi, the colour was actually more intense (deep red), not as reflected here).
I was then told that they included the cupcakes in one of the dulang hantarans. Cool! :)
..and the separate box of 5 was for her own consumption ;)

These simple ones were made for a lil boy who have played a (small) role in helping me making one of the batches above.
A small token for my thanks. Next time i bake you a real one ok!
(I wasn't confident enough to make more for the rest of the family to have a bite.. hehe. Malu.)
(Oh, and before leaving, sempat dia 'pau' one of my sugar flowers to put on one of the cupcake! lol.)

Spring in December

It was a humbling and an exciting experience to get such positive feedbacks from your customer(s), especially when you are new at something. And with that, it motivates me further to learn more!!! <--- 3 exclamations = excited. But there's one thing, i am super slow when it comes to delicate things. I will always do it as nicely as i possibly can, alright. But slowly but surely seems to be the case more often than not. I need to learn to do things faster. Except that this time, i'm proud to say that I was the first to leave class with my box of cupcakes! :) Though it was only because i was running late to fetch the Mr. from work.. Anyways, here's what we did in the Spring Cupcake class last December. Again, at Cake Connection. Nancy, the co-owner of the place was once again the instructor:

Top l-r: Sunflower, rose, carnation
Bottom l-r: Primrose, poinsettia, chrysanthemum

Mine vs. Nancy's
Here's to show you how the chrysanthemum should look like, as opposed to my tepee look!
(u know which one...)

Me & my big mouth

Even with my sheer lack of experience in making cakes, i have actually sold a number of batches (at a promotional price ;)) to date. Not bad, eh? Yep, kudos to those brave and daring souls who have heroically put their trust in my hands, literally. Heheh.

I blurted these words (out of wit!) after my friend saw the entry about my first class.. (this took place about a week after class, mind you. And there were ready made cupcakes, all we did was decorate!). "So, bila nak order??", without the slightest intention, really. And she replied, "nak Sabtu ni, boleh?" and i was like... "Haaaaaah?!?!?! Err... ok, can!" You have to be confident, right?

I was just lucky she wanted chocolate cake, because the ONE cake i ever baked was just that! And well, i've had a box of ready-made sugar flower toppers on my side, just in case i screw up. So yes, I was quite confident! :D

It was for the mum-in-law's birthday.

Trying out mini hydrangeas

Fondant fun 101

It's like a trend these days to have chic fondant cakes for any occasion. Having seen so many gorgeous home-made ones, i just had to give it a try. (One of my cousins has the knack for this and she makes absolutely beautiful cakes for her children! I absolutely adore them!)

This was done at Fondant Fun class, also at Cake Connection.

Chic, yes? Well, compared to the usual cakes u get from the bakery..

p/s. If you happen to be interested to know what happened in class or that you have not much to do (ie. takde kerja), you can read my previous post on this - if you haven't already.

My first connection with (cup)cakes

The cupcakes i made in my first class, Cupcake fun 101 at Cake Connection:

Top clockwise: Pink classic swirl, mini rosettes and purple hydrangeas.

Bottom: Creating alphabet from piping stars and Sugar flower topper with sprinkles.

Cake Connection is co-owned by 2 friends, Nancy & Shyamala located at JayaOne, PJ. They have all sorts of cake decorating and baking supplies at your disposal, including many pretty ready made sugar flowers. Also, a number of classes for those beginners, intermediate or advance held each month in their very cozy kitchen. Do check them out!

Nancy was our instructor for the day. One tip i learned is that meringue powder is added to the buttercream in order to hold the shapes and designs from collapsing in our hot weather.

Read here for more gibbers :)

MySugarArt & I

This blog is created because i am too involved in baking now that i need to have a blog specially for this! Haha! The mother of my nephew when planning for the son's 1st birthday, was all hyped up suggested maybe i could make the cake - she had so many suggestions and ideas! The grandmother too! As if the pressure of having to BAKE alone wasn't great enough for me. And needless for me to say, for guests, no less! Previously, I had only done one birthday cake for the Mr, ONE! And let's just say that the frosting was kept at a (very) minimum ;)

So there i was at my first (cup)cake decoration class. And then there were more classes. And one thing just sort of lead to another and before i know it, my kitchen has started to get overwhelmed with all the baking and cake decorating stuff! (I am in the midst of re-organizing every tools and ingredients as the one cabinet i've allocated for all the stuff just isn't going to do it).

MySugarArt blog will be featuring anything bake-related, perhaps mainly on cake presentations (though sugar making is also a form of art too!). This is not a blog (just) to promote my cakes but rather i was hoping it would create a platform to share information with those interested in baking or cake decorating or anyone who just loves cakes, apart from documenting my journey from someone who doesn't bake into hopefully someone good if not skilled at it! (Don't get me wrong, though.. i cook fine. I just don't do baking before, ok? Just so u know that i'm not that clueless in the kitchen.. heheh).

But before anything else, i have to apologise for the quality of my photos. I mostly just grab my phone and snap them before pickups. So please bear with me. Thank you.