2 Tier Fondant Decorated Cake =)

Finally, I have something to post again!! Ok ... I think from most of my previous post, you would know by now that I’m just too crazy in love with food decorating.... especially for bakery goods! Since the day I signed up for the ...

“Fabulous 2-Tier Fondant Cake Decorating Workshop” at Sugar Inc. ,

I’ve been anticipating for the day to come ever since. This time, I really had the chance of assembling a cake from scratch...

Let me guide you through the normal cake assembling process:

1^st

I call that gadget to cut the cake into perfect halves "THE SAW"

Look at the perfect half!! i would never be able to do it with just a knife =S

– cut the cake into 2 halves or 3 halves (if the cake is tall enough, cut it across the height of the cake)

2^nd

YumYum Vanilla Buttercream!

– spread buttercream on one halve (here is where you can put your surprise in your cake... such as fruits or ganache or nuts!! So that when you cut open the cake.. u see a layer of decadent fruits awaiting for you to take a bite! =D), then top with another layer of cake

3^rd

– Crumb coat the cake. Basically this is just spreading a thin layer of buttercream ALL over the cake to fill up for holes and unevenness of cake. With crumb coating done, you will get a close to perfect cake! Hehe =P

4^th

– Refrigerate the cake to allow the buttercream to set (for me... I feel that to allow the buttercream to slightly harden or become firmer... so that it is much easier to cover the cake with fondant later on =) )

5^th

– Rolling out of fondant (the size of the rolled out fondant has to be big enough to cover the whole cake)

6^th

– take out the cake and covering cake with fondant. Smooth the sides and top, cut the excess fondant and TA DA!!!! A cake covered with fondant!!! =D

7^th

– decorate with anything your heart desires... Just make sure... they go well with everything that is on the cake!

In the class, I learnt how to stack the two tiers together. Just like a building, cakes need support too... can imagine a 5 tier wedding cake without any support system??? Well... that calls for a disaster!!! From what I’ve learnt through baking shows and books, dowels are the basic support system for a cake. They are like straws that are either made of wood or plastic. The one that we used in the class were rather innovative... Considering our cakes weren’t too big, we actually used bubble tea straws!!then we topped it with royal icing and stack the second tier on top... the royal icing will harden thus acting like an edible glue!! Hehe... doweling was one of the technique I’ve been yearning to learn and I’m glad that the workshop covered it! =D

Miss Anna showing us how to add the "dowels" into the cake and marking them so that we can cut off the excess...

here is dowels! in the cake!

Next thing that excite me was the fact that I got to do stencilling!!! I am super glad that I have the chance to do stencilling!!! It is one of the easiest way of decorating a cake but requires you to be very neat! =)

As you can see on the second tier, I have stenciled the pattern. Now moving on the the bottom tier.. this is the only stencil the helper found that was small enough for my cake hehehe so yea... the cake was not that big =)



Alright... I think I have said enough... Let the pictures do the talking!! =D 

My finished cake!!! so do you like it???!! =)

suddenly my cake look so dark... poor lighting

I learnt to make this ribbon from YouTube!! by a cake decorator named EDNA (she works for Wilton)!

Details of the ribbon... guess wat! we actually used a sewing tool for the details... the tool is the one that we used to draw lines on fabric... the one that looks like a pizza cutter with jaggared edges =P

My fellow workshop mates' creations!! plus mine

I love the colour of this cake... very unique and modern!

Cakes are afterall meant for eating... so no matter how pretty it is... cut it and enoy the burst of flavours that awaits you! =D

I hope you have enjoyed my blog post!!! Do drop me a comment yea!! will like to hear from you!!

Believe It or Not...

When I visit the library, all I will be searching for are books that have got to do with food decorating and cakes. It’s amazing how something so simple such as food can be applied in such an artistic manner. I’m not an artsy person, but I do believe that food has more potential than just to satisfy our cravings. Food is definitely a form of art if you know how to visualise, imagine and simply play with your food. You might not believe what you will be seeing below...

Here’s a job for you.... look at the pictures below... and guess what they are... =)



Stuffed Chicken???



Crinkly French Fries???

Eggs on a tray???

Cockroach????EWWW!!

Indian corn???

Chinese Takeout???



pizza with olives???and lots of grated cheese???



Well, made your guesses??? I’m sure my introduction above has given you an idea that these are actually food... but... what are they exactly??? Hmmmm... Cockroach gummies??? Spring chicken gummies???

Well...All the above are simply your

humble little CUPCAKES!!!!

Amazing isn’t it!!, the way it is being decorated and presented. THIS is what I call ART. Karen Tack the author of “What’s New, Cupcake?” is the creator of these picturesque cupcakes. Her speciality is to decorate cupcakes out of... no...not so much of fondant.... but rather the sweet treats such as biscuits, gummies, marshmallows,dates, coloured sugar, taffy and more!!! I got to know about Karen Tack’s work when I was watching Travel & Living Channel (TLC). They were filming on her work with cupcakes and how she came about with ideas to decorate them. One thing that she said in the show interest me:

"anything in your pantry can be art"

Well, it sure shows in her art creations with cupcakes!!! =D

To know more about her books visit:

www.hellocupcakebook.com

www.whatsnewcupcake.com

FOOD that ENTICE you...

Garnishing and food plating plays an important role in creating the perfect dish. Flavour is one aspect, but the presentation is another important factor of producing really good food. I’m sure all of you will feel more tempted to eat food that is well presented than food that is plopped into your plate. Well, let me feast your eyes with some of the pictures of “beautifully plated” food that I managed to take recently. ENJOY.... =)

=)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HIDAYAH!!!!!!

usefulness of a weblog

A weblog can actually have various purposes. It depends how we utilize this application. Weblogs can be used as a forum whereby the teachers can post something realting to the subject and the students can post their veiws and comments on the post.

Teachers can also include learning materials into the weblog such as videos related to the subject as a means of additional ressources for the students. Students may find this much more to their convenience as they can view the resources at their own time and target. they can even look at the resource as many times as they want in case they need more time to understand the content.

NEWS REEL

U and I =)

Cute isn’t it? Well, can find about 400 more of these dolls in the showcase that was set up at Toa Payoh Hub. “Project U & I” is the collaboration between more than 200 schools in Singapore. The handmade dolls are “citizens” belonging to the many Youth Olympic Games (YOG) participating countries. The dolls are dressed in their respective traditional costumes.

This project is jointly organised by the National Heritage Board (NHB) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) .'Project U & I' is a school outreach programme to commemorate the inaugural Singapore Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in August 2010. the purpose of this project is to encourage the students to respect and appreciate the tradition, values and cultures of different people.

When I first set my eyes on these dolls, the dolls look so neatly done with lots of details. Believe it or not, these dolls were painstakingly stitched by the students. They even sacrificed their June Holidays just to complete these dolls. Now... who says sewing isn’t important??!! It definitely is!! Just look at what the students could do. Now... who says sewing isn’t important??!! It definitely is!! Just look at what the students could create something so beautiful and creative.

This project has given a new perception of what sewing can do. It has also given the students a greater insight of what sewing is all about. Instead of painting, or drawing...why not SEW!! It’s definitely a new way of ART.

Visit Heritage Fest: Project U& I to find out more about this collaboration! =)

My First Order

A week ago, when my best friend asked me to make a cake for her to celebrate her friend’s birthday, I had mixed feelings. First, I was very excited about my very first order. Second, I was nervous and was afraid that I won’t be able to pull this off.

Planning......

So it all started when she asked me and I said yes.. And the planning begins. My vision for the mini cake was to make a two tier cake.

She requested for:

-chocolate cake that wasnt too sweet

-small cake fit for 3 people ( I was glad the order was small, couldn’t imagine how I could handle a bigger cake.  =P)

-fudgy icing for the coating. 

Searching for Recipes......

After looking at recipes I’ve tried, I finally decided for chocolaty shortcake with chocolate icing. I didn’t want to make buttercream... not skilled for it yet... so icing is the closest I can go.

Then, we went on to look for ideas to decorate this cake. I googled for chocolate decorated cakes and saw endless pictures of delectable chocolate cakes. Now, time to choose. We agreed on having long chocolate curls lining up the sides and to tie the ribbon around it. With roses on the top and a 22 made with white fondant.

The Cake suppose to look something like this.. with only two tier instead of 3. =)

Shopping......

Friday, 17 September 2010, 8.30pm. After a long day at school, I had to buy the ingredients for the cake. Tired.  Sleepy. Stressed.  Wished I could just fall and land on a bed.  No matter how tired, I must be responsible for the promise I made. So, I made my may to Poon Huat. While gathering my ingredients, I couldn’t find chocolate curls. The only thing is saw was a box of chocolate sticks. I was thinking maybe THAT was it.  So, I went to ask the shop assistant.

“Uncle, are these chocolate culrs?"

Uncle said, “Yea, Chocolate long long ..Chocolate stick chocolate stick”.

When I reached home, I was so disappointed to see that they are not the curls I wanted... super disappointed... lucky my friend said it was ok and she didn’t mind.

the chocolate sticks.... had to find a way of using this on the cake..

Baking......

Saturday, 18 September 2010, 9 am. Time to bake the cake!! Baking the cake was easy. It’s assembling the cake together that is the difficult process. I used a cutter to cut my cakes since the cake was supposed to be small. The round cutters are one of the important tools you need if you love making miniature cakes. It saves your money of buying many round cake moulds and definitely saves you time. (Be a smart consumer =P)

They had round ones, curly edges ones, and even heart shaped ones. They are definitely good investments. =P

I didn’t manage to take pictures while I was icing the cake since my assistant (my little sister cum photographer) wasn’t around. These are the only pictures I managed to snap. When Icing your cake,

its good to have a trunable ( helps you to turn the cake easily ) and to line cake plate with four strips of parchment paper to form a square outline. this helps to stop the icing from running onto the plate. A tip I learned from Nigella Lawson (my idol =D).

Struggling my way through, I finally came to the last part of the cake making, arranging the chocolate sticks.

Pardon my messy icing. Afterall, its going to be covered with the chocolate sticks. =P

Sadly, my chocolate sticks had fat bloom.



See the white specks????



What is fat bloom?

Well, fat bloom is common in chocolate that has not been stored properly and have been exposed to widely fluctuating temperatures. They are actually the cocoa butter (fat) that infiltrates to the surface. As they the chocolates undergo wide temperature changes, the cocoa butter rises to the surface, crystallizes and forms gray or white specks on the chocolate.

How to remove it?

By easily wiping it off! however, this is not the case for sugar bloom. well, sugar bloom is a whole another topic.. hahaha! shall not cover it here. =)

Finally......

After I’m done with the decorations, my cake was ready!! We decided to put the “22” and the roses on Sunday, since my box wasn’t tall enough. Hehe.

Special Thanks to:
Andrea - for believing and trusting me with me this cake... thank u Andrea!!
My Mum - for helping me clean up my mess and for giving me encouragement all the way
Aishah ( my little sister) - for just being there for me =)

without them, I don't think I will be able to complete this cake. Many many Thanks! <3

Oh well, enough stories!! Feast your eyes on my very first two tier cake. Share your comments about my cake and tell me how I can make my future cake better yea! I will very much appreciate your inputs!!! =D

Dont forget to leave your comments on my cake yea!!! would love to hear it from you!!! =D

Reference:

http://sweeticingonthecake.com/chocolate_cakes.html

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake-119

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/202397/fat-bloom

Web Resource Review 5 - FoodTube

Food Tube is a video base for food lovers to source for recipes and cooking videos. I like websites as such as I prefer to learn new recipes through watching the demo as I feel that I can learn more by watching than through reading. Eventhough this website doesn’t focus on nutrition and doesn’t seem to be relevant; I personally think that we can learn a new skill through watching videos. Sometimes we learn more through watching other people do it than reading about it-Observational learning.  However, knowing that there is a wide selection of videos, we need to make sure that we source out for the right video.

Web Resource Review 4 - Nourish Interaction

Nourish Interactive is an online resource for parents to learn about nutrition. This website helps to guide the parents to make sound nutritional decisions for them and also to cater to their children’s needs. Parents can also refer to dieticians advices on nutrition related issues. 

Eventhough this website is created for the parents; there is also a segment for health and nutrition educators. Educators can make use of the lesson plans, resources and refer to clinical studies for more insightful read from journals available.

Children can also enjoy this blog when they try out on Chef Solus’ nutrition Kids’ Games or the Kids’ Fun Nutrition Section. I felt that this section is useful for parents to use as a tool to explain nutrition information to their children in a more interactive manner.

Web Resource Review 3 - Health Promotion Board

I’m sure many of us know what Health Promotion Board is. Besides providing information on health topics and nutrition related issues, they also provide a wide range of educational tools such ABCs of Healthy Eating and Handbook on Nutrition Labelling. Health tools such as Recipe Analysis, Calorie Calculator, Energy and Nutrient Composition of Foods to facilitate in meal planning for their coursework. 

The tool that interests me the most was the DigiTool. Here is where the interactive multimedia resources such as videos, audios, eCards, podcast, games and quizzes are uploaded. One digi tool that caught my eye is the E-Supermart. Guess what? It is designed and developed by Temasek Polytechnic Students. =) Basically the E-Supermarket helps the students to experience a virtual supermarket tour which covers the dairy, beverages, canned food, and snacks section. There will be questions asked based on the contents that they learn in Home Economics content.