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.

Web Resource Review 2 - Sewing.org

Sewing.org is one of the sewing websites that I viewed. Like many other websites, they have a wide range of sewing projects ranging from free projects to holiday projects. This website also allows us to post our creations on the website via “My Sewing & Craft Room”.

Sewing activist can also visit the SEW-lutions blog to check up for post on sewing, quilting, embroidery tips and home decorating. The blog has an educational segment which includes the guidelines for sewing. The guidelines are elaborate and provide ample information.

Web Resource Review 1 - Kids Health

Kids Health mainly covers the nutrition, growth and development of children and teenagers. This website not only caters to the kids, but also to the teenagers as well as parents.

For the parents, it basically provides a source whereby they can seek practical parenting information on how to deal with their child’s issues. They not only discuss about children’s health but also include topics that help them to understand their child’s or teen’s behaviour, feelings and emotions. It also addresses issues that are commonly related to children or teens such as Binge Eating Disorder, Temper Tantrums, Helping Kids Cope with Cliques and more. I felt that this website is a useful and simple guide for parents to follow on how to handle and provide support to their children.  

Besides having a site for the parent, they also created a site for the children and teenagers. As we know that sometimes children and teenagers are shy to discuss about the issues or troubles that they are experiencing, such as about their growing body, sexual health or even about social acceptance. Thus, they can use this website as a tool to find out information without having to feel uneasy or uncomfortable.

I noticed that the site for kids have a tool that is called Kid’s Dictionary of Medical Words. This tool facilitates them in understanding the terminologies that are usually difficult to comprehend. 

My Fascination with FONDANT

Fondant is made from sugar syrup with water, sugar and glucose/corn syrup. The corn syrup serves to prevent the fondant from crystallising during storage. Fondant is one of the most common type of icing that is used to "ice" from simple cookies or cupcakes to amazing wedding cakes. Fondant is so versatile that you can even use it for sculpturing of figurines or odd-shaped cakes.

My fascination with fondant first started when I came across a reality show programme , "The Ultimate Cake Off". Looking at the bakers creating art with cake just awed me so much that I too wanted to give cake decorating a try.

Do check out the following videos that I've uploaded to give you a brief idea of what
"The Ultimate Cake Off" is all about and a basic video on icing cakes with fondant. ENJOY!!!

Learn How to decorate a cake with fondant frosting. For more Cake Decorating How-To Videos & Articles, visit WonderHowTo.

Belinda Gregor, specialty cakes designer at Ettore's European Bakery and Restaurant shows Gwen Schoen how to add and decorate a fondant cake. This is a great skill for pastry chefs, cake decorators and over-achiever moms alike.

Clothes??? for my Food???

I'm sure you must be wondering why I gave such a weird name for a blog
 "Clothes for my Food"...

Well, I have two reasons:

1st

Partly, the name is inspired by the modules dedicated to this blog. I figured that it's creative if we can incorporate aspects of each module into the name.

2nd

The second reason is related to my new found interest-Food Decorating. Have you ever seen a cupcake or cake or even a cookie and you are just mesmerized with how pretty and appealing they look? Well, I know I am. Although I am not equipped with the skills yet, I am slowly trying to explore the art of food decorating. I'm particularly interested in cake or cupcake decorating with fondant. After saying all these, you might still be wondering how this is linked to the tittle that I've chosen. Simple, I envision my food ( particularly baked goods) to be appealing and presented in a creative manner. The decorations are the clothes for my food. Without any decor, yes, the cake will still taste as yummy, however it lacks the visual appeal. As we all know, visual appeal is one of the important factors in enticing customers or potential eaters besides the smell and the taste of the food. Without decor, food will be like a picture without colour.

Hopefully, you understood my so called "vision". =P

In the posts to come, I will try to share with you my learning experiences in Food Decorating and hopefully share some tips with you. For now, I will share with you my previous tries I had in decorating cakes, cupcakes and cookies.





These are my very first Miniature Fondant-Covered Cake Dummy. I made use of small IKEA boxes as the structure to practice the technique of covering the cakes with fondant. Besides the boxes, you can also use Styrofoam dummies that are cut into cake sizes. These dummies can be found at Poon Huat or Art Stores ( but usually these are expensive =S).

This time, I tried covering a REAL cake with fondant. TRUST ME, its not as easy as it looks. My little sister (wanted her hands to be featured in this picture =P) is smoothing out the surfaces if the cake as well as to push out any air bubbles or air pockets that are trapped below the fondant. This is a crucial step as it helps to give a more finished look to the cake.

I usually buy the basic white rolled fondant and tint them with food colouring myself. Tinting fondant involves lots of kneading to ensure that the colour is distributed well in the fondant.

This is the finished cake! As you can see, there are still are pockets bulging out of the cake. Covering a dummy and a real cake, is really different. For a dummy, you don't have to be so careful about crushing the "cake", but when working on a real cake, you have to take into consideration many factors such as cooling the cake beforehand so that the buttercream/frosting is stiff enough for easier handling and to make sure that the fondant is pliable enough that it wont crack (tear) easily.

Knowing that I need real training for covering a cake, I tried my luck with cupcakes. Made these as my Aunt's birthday present. For me, covering cupcakes was much more manageable than covering the cake, could be due to the smaller size.

The finished cupcakes.... =)

I attended a Cookie Decorating Class with my little sister and we got to make the cookie of four different flavours as well as the "SAFE" royal icing that is used for the decoration.

My Finished Cookies. Troubles that I had while decorating was maintaining the amount of pressure I was exerting on the piping bag and to keep my hand steady. As you can see, my lines are all over the place. =P

Post Numero Uno !!!

After the long weekend break, I finally sat down and started putting my very first blog together. Basically, this blog, like everyone should know by now, is for the 3 modules that we are taking, namely:

Home Economics Curriculum and Evaluation ,

The Teaching of Food and Nutrition and

The Teaching of Clothing and Textiles.

Since this is my "baby" blog, I hope I can learn to fully maximize the usage of this blog and to share with you my learning journey as much as possible, be it in school or at home. Feel free to drop your comments or suggestions whenever you can, I would really appreciate it =). I guess that's it for now... till the next post =)