May 13, 2008
By: Min
Category: Sugarpaste
Making 3D figures from fondant is not easy for me. It takes a lot of time just to make a single figure. Today I’m going to show you how I make some human figures. First start with two small ball for the buttocks. Add the legs.
Then add the body.
Put on the skirt or lower part of the clothes.
Before making the hands, put on the top shirt.
Now prepare the hands and add the sleeves.
Make the face, add the features and hair and touch up the whole figure. And it’s ready. Looks simple, but I take at least half an hour to do one of this.
Another figure, a baby ( a giant one ) .
My daughter who always kepoci when I do my sugarpaste, wants me to show her work too on my blog..This is hers 
Anyway, you can learn more on how to make figures from an excellent tutorial at cakecentral.
Good luck to you !
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Comments (6)
May 09, 2008
By: Min
Category: Baking projects, Cake decorating, Sugarpaste
Making gum paste roses can be time-consuming, sometimes I just make do with these simple fondant roses. My maid cum assistant is really good at this, here’s her in action.
First, roll a long strip, then start twirling it around till you get the size you want. Leave some space in between the layers and furl the edges. Pinch the excess fondant at the bottom. It’s done. Fast and easy.
I practice decorating a cake with these fondant roses today.
Yes, those are not real butterflies, I pinch it off my daughter’s jewelry box. By the time I finished decorating this cake, I was too tired to create a center piece. Step by step process on making this cake :
- One layer of marzipan
- Followed by a layer of fondant
- Cut out a smaller circle in the centre until I can see the marzipan layer.
- Put in the purple fondant layer. Crimp the sides and inside of the circle.
- Then I coloured the background where the flowers will be placed, using my gel colouring and brush (felt like a true artist for a while
).
- Arrange the cut out leaves, and roses.
- Colour the leaves with gel colouring.
- Make the bottom edging.
- Brush the flowers, crimp edges and bottom edging with diluted pearl dust.
It’s better to colour using paste or powdered colouring, but I don’t have any.
Hope this gives you some idea on how to decorate your cake. The round circle can be replaced with pastillage which becomes very hard, and you can also do some painting on it. Or you could put a small edible image instead, lots of things you can come out with..
Ok, take care and have a good weekend ahead.
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Comments (3)
May 08, 2008
By: Min
Category: My gadgets
Just like to show you guys the crimpers that I bought yesterday.
This may be common to some, but I’m sure many of you out there don’t know what this is. Basically, these crimpers are use on a fondant cake. There are many designs as you can see from the tip of the crimper. This is one way to decorate your cake if you are too lazy to make fancy decorations or use royal icing and other stuff.
The cake must be crimped (macam cubit..) while the fondant is still soft. The black rubber is use to adjust the opening of the crimp. Here are some sample of designs I saw while surfing the net :
So, next time you are at the bakery supply shops, look out for this gadget. More reason to spend !
Salam,
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Comments (3)
May 07, 2008
By: Min
Category: Baking class
Hi, quite a busy day today. Went out to get some ingredients and buy more gadgets to prepare for the coming classes. Just a short note to inform all of you who are in the Kuala Lumpur area. I’ve started giving classes. Click on the May calendar on the top left for the class details. Further info is on the top page.
Please use the ‘Contact Me’ form for any inquiries or to register. Looking forward to meet those of you who are joining. Thank you very much.
Salam,
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May 06, 2008
By: Min
Category: Cake decorating, Gum paste flowers, Sugarpaste
I was leafing through my cake decorating book and saw this beautiful frangipani flowers (kemboja). Tried doing it last night, the gumpaste flowers were left to dry in egg cartons on top of my fridge. Somehow, I find this method always speed up the drying of the flowers. By today, the frangipanis are quite hard. So, this is the cake I came out with :
The gumpaste flowers, to me, doesn’t really look real. I tried to make a blooming frangipani, but it was quite difficult as the base of the petal is too thin and breaks easily. So I guess I’ll have to stick to not-so-blooming kemboja.
For the cake, I use two layers of fondant. Then I make the swag. You can learn how to make the swag (yang macam langsir tu..) from cakecentral.com. Add the tiny pearls at the base of the cake. Lastly, I arrange the flowers and leaves. I’ll do a post on how to make the frangipani later, ok. For the shiny look, I squeeze a few drops of lemon juice, added my pearl dust and painted the swags and the red pearly thingy.
I guess that’s it. My swags and ribbon do need some improvement. But I’m quite happy with the results .
Bye for now,
p/s : 13/5/08 - I found a good tutorial on how to make the frangipanis. Click here.
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Comments (11)
May 05, 2008
By: Min
Category: Cake decorating, Cupcakes, Recipes
Glace icing is the simplest form of icing. Very handy if you don’t have enough time to decorate your cake or cupcakes. I made some cupcakes yesterday and decorated it with glace icing. Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 to 3 tablespoon of warm water or fruit juice
food colouring
Method : Sift the icing sugar. Use a wooden spoon, add the warm water and stir until the icing is smooth. The consistency should be similar to that of a whip cream. Or it should coat the back of your spoon. Add the colouring and it’s ready to use. This recipe is enough to cover an 8 inch round cake or for 24 cupcakes.
However take note that glace icing will harden quickly, so you have to work fast. I also find that my cupcake doesn’t look very nice the day after. Some of the icing started to crack. So it’s best eaten on the same day. There’s a few variety, you can add coffee powder, cocoa or fruit juice to flavour the glace icing, in place of the water.
All beginners should try this icing. A no-fail recipe !
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Comments (12)
May 04, 2008
By: Min
Category: Recipes, Sugarpaste
I must admit that not many people know about fondant here. When I’m chatting with my aunties, they keep saying fondant is marzipan. I guess I’ve also had the misconception earlier on. I’ve read about marzipan, but never tried it before. So, for my hubby’s birthday party today, I made a fruit cake and covered it with marzipan followed by a layer of fondant.
Marzipan is usually use to prevent the loss of moisture in cakes. It also provides a smooth under-coat for the top layer which can be fondant or royal icing. Here’s the recipe for the marzipan. Mine turned out ok, only thing the almond is still showing, not as smooth as I wanted.
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups ground almond
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 drops almond essence
1 egg, beaten
Method
Mix the ground almond, icing and caster sugar. Add the lemon juice and almond essence. Lastly slowly pour in the beaten egg until the dough will just stick together. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth. I use my mixer with the dough hook to make my marzipan. This recipe makes about 450 gm or 1 lb. Enough to cover a 7 inch round or 6 inch square cake.
Some illustrations. Covering with marzipan after brushing the cake with warm apricot glaze:
I use my fondant smoother to smooth the surface.
The right way is to let the marzipan dry for a few days. Then apply the fondant, but since this is a last minute job I went ahead and decorated the whole cake.
My hubby always comes home from work and then sleep on the sofa like this. Tv set is sagging, I should have used gum paste or something stronger 
At least he’s happy with his cake..happy birthday hubby@my faithful cameraman, as the saying goes “life begins at 40″.
Cheers,
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Comments (14)
May 02, 2008
By: Min
Category: Baking projects, Recipes
I love seafood. We grew up in Sitiawan, Perak about 10 km from Lumut, a seaside town (picture above). So you can imagine how easy it is to get fresh seafood. Combined with cheese, this recipe is heaven ! Adapted from a recipe by Chef William Tan.
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Ingredients needed are :
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For the tart (you can use any pie crust recipe you know or follow this one)
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon shortening
12 tablespoon butter
a few spoonful of iced water
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For the filling
125 g cream cheese
60 g yogurt
1 egg
75 g all purpose flour
About 4 medium sized crab meat, shredded (or substitute with crab stick )
2 small red onions, diced
A bunch of spring onion, diced
1 clove of garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
a dash of pepper
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Method
Prepare the tart. The easiest way is to put all the ingredients in a blender. Mix, add a tablespoon of iced water at a time until the dough can stick and form into a dough. Put in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least half an hour. If doing it by hand, just grate the butter and shortening into the flour and salt. Rub until all is combined, add iced water and mix until you get a dough. Remember not to add too much iced water or you will not get a crunchy and flaky tart.
For the filling, beat the cream cheese and yogurt for about 3 minutes. Add the egg, mix and then add in the flour. Stir until all is combined. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Ready. Roll the pastry and fit into your tart mould. Pour in the filling and baked for about 45 minutes at 185C. When cooked, the center will be slightly soft.
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Some photos I managed to snap with my dirty hands :
If you don’t have crab meat, try this with lobster meat or scallops. Anything which is not too fishy.. Served on its own, or for more calories, goes well with thousand island sauce .
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p/s : Looking at Lumut’s picture makes me feel homesick now. Used to be my playground.
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Comments (16)
May 01, 2008
By: Min
Category: Gum paste flowers
I have tried making roses many times but up till to date, I’m still not satisfied with how it turned out. However, I think I’ll just leave a note here on how it is done. Then we can all practice to perfect our roses.
Items needed are :
6 inch stiff wire, tiny hook at the end
tinted gum paste
Rolling pin
Small, medium and large rose petal cutters
Sponge
Stick or ball tool to thin the petal
Water & brush
Calyx cutter
Method :
The night before, prepare the base for the rose as shown in the picture below. Dip the hook end in water before pressing in the gum paste. Let dry.
Cut out the petals. For one rose, you need 4 small, 5 medium and 7 large petals.
The arrangement is going to be like this :
Take the small petals, thin the petal on one side only on the rounded part. Leave the sharp end unthinned. Brush the sharp end with water. Stick one small petal around the base.
Stick three more small petals around the center. Furl the edges.
Now the first layer is completed (small petals). Proceed to the 2nd and 3rd layer using the medium and large petals. Each petal must overlapped half of the petal before it.
2nd layer completed (medium petals) :
3rd layer completed (large petals) :
Now for the calyx, roll out green gum paste and cut out with calyx cutter. Thin the edges. Brush the center with water. Push into the wire until it sticks to the base of the rose.
Make another small round shape. Brush with water and push through the wire again to stick to the calyx. Done !
Leave the rose hanging upside down for it to dry. Or if you are not using the stiff wire, put the rose in a palette or egg carton so that the petals will have some support, to avoid it from drooping.
Do give it a try. It’s not that difficult, you only need patience and perseverance till you get it right .
Salam,
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April 30, 2008
By: Min
Category: Baking class
Hi, thanks all for your nice wishes. Today I spent the whole day, from 10 am to 4 pm, teaching two of my friends some basic cake making and decorating. Well, they are my first students.. I have never given any class before but this friend of mine, Ahmootha, had always bugged me to teach her some basic baking. I’ve known Ahmootha since I was seven, can you believe it ? Meaning we’ve been friends for like 28 years ! Its like a reunion in a way.
We made chocolate cake and cupcakes, plus all the decorating. Being totally new and haven’t touch a piping tip/ nozzle before, I’m quite proud with their work. Here are some photos.
My dear childhood friend, Ahmootha, looking so serious icing her cake.
With Vichelle in my kitchen. Quite messy, huh ?
Some of their work :
Not bad, right ? The two girls were so excited to bring back their cakes. And after this, they’ll be making cakes on their own for their kids’ birthday (or that’s what they promise). Thanks Ahmootha and Vichelle for visiting my kitchen.. and having to use my old oven !
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