Squire Kitchen Magazine

I attended both the Squire's Kitchen Professional  Intensive Diploma (5 days)and the Professional Wedding Cake Diploma (3 days) Courses in October last year. Taught by renowned and talented ICCA founder , Rosalind Chan, it was a grueling but fruitful experience.

We refused to go out for lunch right from the very first day; much to Rosalind's amusement. Litte did she realize then that she would have to accompany us way beyond the 5 o'clock end of class dateline. Almost of all us stayed till 8 in the evening for the next 5 days; continuing till the wee hours of the morning at home. Nevertheless, we all came back fuly recharged and ready to absorb all that Rosalind was generousy sharing with us. I dont know about the rest but I certainly soaked in like a sponge. All of us are not new to cake decorating but for me , I left the cake decorating more than 10 years ago. I have come round a full circle and decided to take it up where I left off. Thus. although alot of what was thought was not new to me; it was certainly a refreshing revision. But I must also add that I did pick up many useful tips from the 'expert' too. For one thing, I managed to do the 'collar'; something which I never had the confidence to do on my own.

Sad to say though, I no longer have physical proof of all my works that I did during the course... thanks to the RAIN.. monsoon season in December. (This drove me on a relentless  hunt of a 'humidity-proof' fondant recipe -- glad to announce that I found it).

We all completed the 5 days; much to our amazement. Like me, a few of us were continuing onto the 3-day Wedding Cake Intensive Course. We were given a 1-day break ... to recover ; I guess..

I was all gung ho for the 3 day course; my design ready in my head. But God had other plans for me. He put me right in the place where I belonged ... nowhere... But mid-morning on the very first day, we were all already wondering whether we could actually finish accomplishing the GREAT designs that we had in mind.

Rosalind (smarter from the 5 day course) warned us that the cut off time to exhibit our cake was 3p.m. on the third day. "Must finish by then!!" she declared. My confidence shot through the roof. I had planned to do a 4-tier pillow cake (3 dummies and 1 real cake). This time, I had to rope in my beloved husband and at the end of it all, he had literally joined the class (albeit in the background) helping me to smoothen out the hardended fondant... (a story in itself).

But God is also fair. We ALL finished our cakes on time ; I was the last one though. But the GREATEST compliments came from the 'GURU' herself when Rosaling announced that we were the fastest class to finish so far and our cakes displayed variety in design and complexity. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, Rosalind and to all the instructors at ICCA. Rosalind later admitted that she had came up with the cutoff dateline after she remembered that the previous class finished at 8p.m. on the last day and even so they were not so gungho like our class... so she had to come up with something to push us further. Her 'trick' worked but it was all for the best.

That wasnt the end of the story. Rosalind had managed to negotiate with Squires Kitchen to give 4 pages of their quarterly magazine for Malaysian cake decorators. And she was going to submit all of our pictures for selection. Guess what? 8 of us in my class got our cakes selected for the inaugural first issue (Issue 34 -- Jan 2010) -- and including MINE ... whoopeeeeeeee!!!!!

I had to wait for 2 months before the magazine reached our shores --- my cake was really in it..... the feeling was simply great. Thank you Rosalind, once again. And congrats to all .... Kyoko, Raiha,  Zareena, Lyphine, Mok, Man Kwan, Habsah..... and me.

Read more...

The Longgggg Overdue Cake ......

This cake has a history with me. It is one of the very first cakes my friend, Sahila and I ever came across when I first decided to join the cake decorating world.(That's more than ten years ago) Its simple yet beautiful. I have aways told myself ...must make that cake... must make that cake.. but well....... you know....

Anyway, one fine day, Sahila said this ," Remember, the hat cake we saw years back. I want to try and make it for my nephew's upcoming wedding (as a gift to his bride)." And I said,' Go ahead. Its about time one of us made that cake." And so weeks passed by ... again as in yesteryears....

Then three weeks before her nephew's wedding, she called me and asked the million-dollar question :- "Ainee, can you do the cake for me?' Well, to cut a long story short, I agreed and made the cake.

So here it is......

Feedback was :- Some found it beautiful for its simplicity; others thought it was too simple.... Well.. you just can't please everyone, can you? But the important thing is, my customer was happy.... so Im happy.

Read more...