Thank you for your guidance

Wishing all teachers a Happy Teacher's Day.

My eldest daughter's school celebrated Teacher's Day last week and my two youngest had their celebration today.

I could not bake any cakes for my eldest as she only told me the night before but made some cup cakes for the younger two as they gave me ample notice.

There were leftover cup cakes and icing, so filled and covered them:

The Art of Sugar Work

Learning from a French chef has been on my wish list for sometime now. Last week, this became a reality when I attended a three day course on The Art of Sugar Work at The French Culinary School in Asia.

The course was conducted by Master Pastry Chef Jean-Francois Arnaud.

I decided to explore sugar work to find out if I can incorporate the sugar techniques into cake decorating. The possibility is endless. All you need is a creative mind and the rest is history.

We learned how to make lollies, Berlingot, jewelleries, assemble a showpiece (just like the ones at a buffet table at hotels) and shape sugar into figurines. We also learned how to cast sugar and blow sugar.

One of the many lollies:
These are the jewelleries that I made during the class. Sugar moulded into beads:

The end result:

If you are planning to take up this course, be prepared to burn your fingers ... even after wearing a double layer of gloves. You will be working with hot sugar under a very hot lamp.

Learning the right temperature to work with sugar is essential and you have to work fast before the sugar hardens. It's all about what works for you when moulding sugar.

I loved watching Jean-Francois create his masterpieces. He works fast, calm at the same time and so graceful. One of my friends who attended this course said that seeing Jean-Francois is like watching ballet. I truly agree.

Two showpieces by the master chef:

I enjoyed this course very much despite burning my fingers. It's worth every sen. Some of the pictures used here are courtesy of The French Culinary School in Asia.

My showpiece:

Loads of fun

Last saturday, the Malaysian Cake Decorators' Club held its fourth meeting. One of its members, Margaret, hosted the meet.

As usual, there were lots of food. Margaret was a wonderful host. She made sure all of us were comfortable. Her jackfruit pudding was so yummy. So was the door gift. I am not sure what it's called but it was sure tasty.

It was good to see more new faces at the meet. The ladies exchanged views, news, ideas and most of all got to know each other.

I was invited to do a demo on how to do a pull apart cake and buttercream transfer. Thank you, Jo and MCDC for giving me the opportunity to do so.

It was a good get together. I am really looking forward to the next meet as it would also coincide with MCDC's first anniversary.

Is it a real shirt?

I have been having sleepless nights thinking about making this cake.

It took me sometime to decorate this cake, partly because I was trying to figure out how to do it. I am quite happy how it turned out.

A few people who saw the cake were like ... where's the cake? They were surprised when they found out that the shirt was the cake. So I guess I did pretty ok decorating it. :)

It was a chocolate cake with chocolate filling.

Happy 100th birthday, Granpa!

I am so eager to share this with you. I am proud to announce that my maternal grandpa is officially a centinarian! We celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday. I must say that I am really previleged to attend such a celebration.

His grand do was planned by his seven daughters. It's been such a long time since we had everyone under one roof ... children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

My grandpa has always been big on health. He is a vegetarian and has been practising yoga all his life. He only stopped doing yoga when my grandma passed away few years ago. He truly lives up to the tagline, 'Health is Wealth.'

The birthday cake was baked by one of my aunties. Yes, there are other bakers in the family. I didn't quite understand why a train cake when I first saw it. But after seeing the words, 'Arunasalam Express' on it, I understood why.

I suppose the train symbolises the journey taken by my grandpa through his 100 years. Long live, Appappa! Hope you have many more great years ahead of you.

Happy Mother's Day

Wishing all mothers a HAPPY MOTHER's Day!

I know this post is a day late but, then again, every day is a mother's day. I received cards and loads of gifts from my kids. They may drive me up the wall at times but reading their cards makes me want to melt. Thank you, darlings.

This year, I made cup cakes for some wonderful mothers I know.




Over the weekend, I tried out a cherry cake recipe and this is how it turned out:

A gift from Australia

These cuppies were made for someone who turned 40 recently. It's from her best friend who is studying in Australia.

Before the delivery, I told How Yan that I have something for her from Australia. When I delivered the box, How Yan was like ... 'Big box from Melbourne?' She screamed when she opened the box.

I am glad the birthday gal was happy with the cakes.

Happy Birthday, once again, How Yan.