Do I dare??

Before i share in an entry of the cupcakes i did for my friend's engagement day, here's some news. Joanne, our instructor told us about it 2 weeks back. A Cake Competition held by ICCA in October.

Looking at the prizes, i feel so tempted to take part but looking at my competence level at the moment, hmm... perhaps not :'(

For those who are interested, get info and rules of the competition here. Good luck!

15% sugar price hike

I, as a cake decorating hobbyist will definitely feel the pinch! :'(

Time flies.. Course 2 update!

..with Jo, our instructor.

I have just completed my Course 2 as we speak! :D It has been quite hectic, the past 1 month. Not so much on baking but i've been pre-occupied with other things.

Course 2 was more on flower making but this time we were taught using the royal icing instead of buttercream as well as learning the flooding technique with Colour flow.

It was rather less stressful this time round as we only had to bake for the very last class. The only major challenge we had to deal with was bringing the flowers to and from class without breaking them.

But even having had to bake just this once, i had to say goodbye to my plan on coming up with something of my own for the Course 2 graduation cake - i was thinking cream/pinkish for the basket weaving in the last lesson. Due to time constraints i had to simply use the royal icing provided during previous classes for my final flowers to decorate our basket - hence the strong colours. You'll see.. (Nothing to worry, though.. royal icing can be kept chilled or frozen for a long time! Elakkan pembaziran! ;)). And decided to stick with white for the basket afterall for afraid that there won't be enough buttercream, then i had to do another round of colour mixing, and then risking going home with basket only half woven... yada yada yada....
Plus as said, the colours from before were pretty intense. So it won't turn out as i wanted it to be anyways.

Now.. here comes the visuals!

Weaving in progress.. almost there.

The results from Course 2 lessons:

Top profile

All sorts of colourful flowers ina a variety of woven baskets.
Most of the class did roses.

Absolutely love love love the 2 tones!

Sweet daisy arrangement with apple blossoms and violets.

Love birds with a cluster of Victorian roses and brown daisies.

Vibrant chrysanthemums, pansies, primrose and violets in a cascading arrangement with (the compulsory) 2 birds by moi.
The only arrangement with the chrysanthemums.. (nak jugak mention.. heheh).
[I was lazy to add fresh leaves to fill in the gaps].

without the Colour flow birds

here's from a different angle..

[I am on another project now. Fondant cupcakes for a long time friend's engagement. Wish me luck! :)]

Whenever you're feeling down..

The end of Course 1

After 4 weeks, it's the end of Course 1. In the final lesson, we were to bring a plain frosted cake and 10 Wilton roses to class to decorate our "graduation" cake based on the course book.

Here are some photos of the cakes we did for our graduation:

I just love the mix of that white and mauve rose.
This particular lady is very good in mixing colours.
I should try it some time..

Mine.
Simple & fuss-free, just the way i like it.. for the obvious reasons heheh..
Whatever works for you, right?

Our instructor Joanne Fam aka Jo with yours truly.
Jo is a Chemical Process Engineer turned Cake Decorating Instructor.
She's also the founder of the Malaysian Cake Decorator's Club.
Very cool lady ;)
Oh, and she made a birthday cake for Kelly Clarkson's 28th birthday earlier this year too!
Visit her site here.

Line impression

Here's a tip on how to get line impression on your fondant cake at a fraction of the cost.

As an alternative to the Line impression mat like the one here,

Impression Mats
(cost about RM35 each)

... use this:
the roller for rolled pineapple tart (tat gulung)
(bought at RM6 which u can get from almost any baking shop)

Very cost effective, wouldn't you say so? Plus, it comes in handy when i need it for a tart gulung. Ok, let me rephrase that, that's IF i ever need it for a tart gulung ;p

p/s. just found out that it only costs RM4.80 at Tesco! Ciss.. daylight robbery!!

My 1st fondant cake for Zahra's 1st (animal themed) birthday

My ultimate project to date. My cousin's daughter turned 1, 2 weeks ago and i was given the responsibility to come up with an animal themed cake.

The cake is covered with fondant and decorated with gumpaste animal figurines while the animal faces for the cupcakes are made of buttercream. I was going to make the cake yellow, but since the cousin wanted to make sure it's girlish, i went for the utmost girlish colour, a pastel pink instead. I was also hoping to find a Giraffe print wrapper for the tiers but had to settle for stripes as i couldn't find any.

I was lucky enough that Animal figurine cupcakes course was included in Cake Connection's schedule that month! We did, i mean we were supposed to make 6 figurines in class but i came home with 2 invisible ones. Paige Fong was the talented instructor for the class. Her immaculate attention to detail very much impressed me and she's just the kind of instructor anyone could have hoped for. She even helped me with questions in my attempt at home (to make the 2 animals i didn't have time for in class) via email. Thanks, Paige!
(Check out her impressive work of art here).

And thanks to my current instructor, Joanne Fam who advised me due to my ordeal with the sticky fondant. You're a life saver!! :D (it's a lot easier to work with fondant in class as the room is air-conditioned..).

Meanwhile, here are 2 cupcakes i did in class.. the other 2 was taken before i had the chance to snap them.

Anyways, Happy 1st Birthday, dear Zahra!