Japanese Peony and Spider Orchids

FINALLY, the call came...... 'Kak Ainee, kelas saya hujung minggu ada cancellation; akak nak join tak?' .

I flipped; FINALLY...... a chance to attend Shahril's class....

I cancelled a previous engagement and said 'yes' .

The day came..... I was excited and also nervous.... Excited coz' I have always wanted a chance to learn from the best sugar artist for flowers (KL) and nervous coz' the LAST time I really sat dow and made flowers (other than a rose ) was more than ten years ago... Warned Shahril that I would be one of the slowest....

Anyhow after 2 days of kneading, rolling and frilling  and lots more, my peony 'grew' from petal to petal.... my spider orchid took shape; my frangipani twisted in place.... and the leaves cut, shaped and dusted....

Here are my humble offerings ...... sorry no individual/progress pictures of the orchid, capers and frangipani... simply forgot as I was in a great rush to catch up with the others.

Here's the team... thanks ladies.. I sure had lots of fun learning with all of you. Next session with Shahri, don't forget to count me in...

Here is the final bouquet (minus the frangipani -- no time to include)........

And here's how I later presented it on a cake ... at the wedding exhibition......

Comments please....

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Weddng Carnival 2011

This time, the call came from another friend... Yana..... with her kind offer to share her booth at the wedding carnival/exhibition at Shah Alam.  "Yana will do the chocolates and akak buat lah wedding cakes" ... Yes .... No.... then Don't know...... finally yes again.

And as usual, could only squeeze in the preparations only within the same week.... That means we could only start on making the dummy cakes on Monday.... Friday was the exhbition..... and so ... very little sleep again..... same old story eh?????

Ladies....and Gentlemen :

We humbly present the Hometeam and the cakes :-

The cake stand looks beautiful right ?....... it stayed in the box for 4 years... bought it at a exhibition from a French company.... (satu sen tak nak kurang.... mahal gila but NICE right??)

A note to add --- recieve confirmed orders at the fair already .... Alhamdullilah.....

And last but not least; a word of thanks and gratitude to Yana and Chaq for giving us the opportunity to join them at the fair and the support they gave all this while.

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ICCA Cake Competition

For those who did not manage to view the exhibits; what a waste.. I have downloaded some of the pictures here for all to share..... pls go to the photo gallery page. Congratulations to my new found friend, Shahril for his most deserving win.

I did join the competition at the persistance of my supportive husband..

His design was an engineering feat in itself....

He wanted me to do floating collars ... yes floating... that means two or more collars supported only by extension work...... challenging indeed but it was very tempting for me to live up to his challenge... and so I agreed to his design...

BUT I forgot all about the date of the competition and made a committment to take up a teaching position  -- I agreed to start on the 20th September.....

Again Vivian from ICCA called me and reminded me about the competition.... she had even helped me to register for the competition.... BLESS you girl...

When I heard that the date was on the 1st of October ; I screamed.... I had less than 2 weeks and the design Mr Hubby was talking about was still in his head....

I went back to the school management and asked if I could join them two weeks later... the answer was no.... they had been waiting for me for more than a month already.... and so the battle begins...

Daytime teaching and night time preparing the competition cake.....

One consolation.... I did not enter the competition to win... just for the stress, sleepless nights, the frustrations, the worries.... all these are invaluable experiences. Believe you me, you got to try it to understand what I mean...

I am one person who is aware of my limitations.... what am I compared to the big guns like Shahril, Man Kwan, Kelvin Chua, Mama Min........ but I did it for two people.... HUBBY and ME....

And so the burning of the midnight oil started..... every night, we would make collars after collars of royal icing - they were big ones ---- 16" by 16" ..... then the embroidery pieces.....

My 2 sons received lessons on the spot; literally overnight they learnt how to make and knead fondant and royal icing ......

But rushed as we did, the collars did not have time to dry..... to cut a long story short, the big collars all broke --- all 6 of them. And so the bottom tiers had no collars .... we had to think of a new design fast  and that was already 3 o'clock in the morning... our minds went blank....

The smaller ones --- with the big piped lace work ... were fine.

I started 'floating' them at six o'clock the same morning of the competion..... as I was piping the extension work; I noticed one string that was not so straight..... I broke it with a pincer and as my luck would have it, it fell under the lace piece.. Against my hubby's advice, I did the UNTHINKABLE... I manouvered a pair of pincers under the lace and attempted to pick up the broken piece of royal icing..; got it in mo pincer but as

 I was pulling it from under the collar, my wrist knocked against the collar and a cracking sound was heard.... and thus the sinking of the lace collar piece began.... I deserved the stern glare I got from Mr HUBBY.... I felt like crying but it would have been no use... and there was not enough time for me to start 'floating' another collar.

And thus, my cake turned out very different from what we had planned.... but as I said... an invaluable lesson learnt indeed.... Eddie Spence and Rosalind (ICCA) -- 2 of the judges-- gave many pointers on how I could have improved my cake and Eddie shared on how I can guarantee my royal icing collars would not break.... those advice was worth each drop of sweat and stress we went through to get the cake done.....

Please feel free to comment and provide pointers.....

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Sharing Session and the Hantaran Project

Last week, a good old friend offered to have a sharing session for us to exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences with regards to the pillow bags and range of handbag cakes and shoes. The best part is she and another friend were willing to travel to KL. I immediately jumped at the suggestion and the day was set for a Wednesday.

But on the day she confirmed that she had booked the bus tickets, another new friend called to say that she would like to give me the pleasure of making the cakes as well as the bridal gifts (hantaran) for her daughter's engagement on the Friday of the same week.  This was NO ordinary invitation (for reasons I cannot reveal here); it was a great privilege for me to recieve this order and yet it was also daunting at the same time. The expectations and standards were high.

                                                             Arm of the Samurai Sifu


As usual, I said 'yes' then panicked . This is because in theory I had only one day to do a total of 9 different of  'gifts'. But that seems to be the trend with my orders.... Thus the mission began.... and the challenges.....

On Tuesday night, after whipping up 6 batches of the butter cake needed for the sharing session, the electrical sockets in the kitchen suddenly played up on me... all the equipment in the kitchen could not be used as the electrical system was tripping all the time.... Tried as we may, changing the fuse in the plug; changing the plugs itself, even the electrical sockets in the living room tripped on us.... At last, desperate and frustrated, I make the omnious decision to carry the oven to the shop to bake the cakes and that was at 1.30 in the morning. My poor children and hubby kindly obliged and accompanied me to the shop. We ended up baking till dawn-- 5 a.m.

At nine Wednesday morning, picked up my friends and went to the Bake With Yen and bought all that we needed. Official sharing session started after lunch until 1.30 in the morning... But boy did the three of us had fun... We kneaded and kneaded the fondant (after a while, my adopted brother was roped in to help the ladies with the kneading), carved the cakes into pillows -- a story in itself (husband was roped in for this part), had a brainstorming session on how to create different effects of the dented look on the pillows... After lots of trials and errors, the three of us sat back and laughed--- coz the tools were all staring in our faces and we had been imagining and cracking our heads how this and that effect was created..... Soon the pillow cakes were on their way. The youngest of  us (not me) was designated to complete the cake.

The 2 'older' ones proceeded with the handbag cakes.... to cut a long story very very short.... we ended up with a completed clutch bag, a crocodile skin Prada Bag (with no handles yet), one shoe and a mini mini bag.....

And because all the projects were carved from actual cakes and not from polystyrene foam, we decided to give away the white clutch together with a scarf to the bride (whose mother ordered the hantaran gifts) as a surprise gift.

My friends left on Thurday afternoon with loads of stuff... some are left with me for delivery later.... happy and satisfied at the achievements made.... Thank you .....


Then my REAL nightmare began.... by the time I got back (just my luck,the whole of KL was jammed with traffic that day), it was already five..... the baking of cakes and the kneading of fondant continues throughout the night till the next morning.... I literally fell asleep while cutting the ribbons and worst still, while beating chocolate into the cheese cake batter (needless to say, some batter ended up on my apron en route to the floor) -- my hands were moving but my eyes were closed.... woke up to a loud exclaimation of 'MAMA!!!!!!!!!'.....

Thanks to the Grace of God, the pick up time was postphoned a few times that day...... HE was just giving me more time to complete my task.... at 4 Friday afternoon, EVERYTHING was actually completed......

 I must also covey my thanks to Nomie who had graciously agreed to do the Lapis Sarawak Cakes for this project... poor Nomie... she must gotten my panic bug coz when she delivered the cakes; she was short of one... She panicked when I reminded her there was another one...... finally she 'negotiated' for a slightly less complicated design and I agreed.... My eternal thanks to Nomie for having delivered her promises.

When we presented this cake to the bride, she went 'Oh My GOD!!!!! Its so BEAUTIFUL!!!! Thank you... Thank you so much...' Later that evening, my friend called, "Ainee.... FANTASTIC!!! Thank You Very Much'

Those words ALWAYS make my day and was it worth the sleepless nights.... YES.... Thank you Yong and Nana.

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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.

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Crazy but we all did it !!!!

I always do this --- agree to something almost unthinkable then when reality sets in, even my little toes shake.

I agree to do an initial 700 mini cakes and a 3 tier pillow wedding cake. The number increased to 800 after much plea from the bride.

And so the mission impossible began...one month before the deadline -- 19th Feb 2010

Thanks to Kak Yom, I managed to get the plastic containers for the mini cakes -- they were a perfect fit for the look the bride wanted... thanks again, Kak Yom.

Then I persuaded my husband to drive over 400km away to the north to plea with the manufacturers to make 50 of the mini cake tins..I had aso persuaded another manufacturer friend over 300km to the south to make the other 50.. so eventually I managed to get 100 of the mini cake tins...

The actual countdown began a fortnight before ....worked out the size of the ribbon bouquet.. then the length of the individual loops..all in all 17 loops.

for a complete ribbon bouquet.. multiply that by 800 bouquet .....we had to cut thousands of ribbon lengths to cut and make into loops....... in between we had to go around gathering the ingredients and because of the huge quantity of gumpaste and the fondant needed, it only made sense that we buy in bulk.. but we overlooked the fact that it was approaching Chinese New Year and that the price of sugar had just gone through the roof, sugar suddenly became almost gold.. Numerous calls to friends and suppliers were made before we got what we needed.... 80 kilograms of icing sugar... 40kilograms of caster sugar... But being me, I forgot one of the most important thing -- Royal Blue colour paste.... remembered it at the time when the supply shops were already closed for the longgggg holiday...went around asking friends who may have the colour.. Adlina and Lai lai came to the rescue .. enough to start with..

At the end of the first week, the three of us (my husband, our sole employee and me) managed to make only 400 white ribbon bouquet and then the last Monday came and we had to start with the fondant making and the baking... the REAL nightmare began...

With the fondant making and baking of cakes an ongoing process(I had the help of my two sons to do this --instant training was done-- I must say they came up to expectations indeed -- thank you boys), I began the tedious task of wrapping the minicakes.. then to my horror.. found that I could not just wrap the minicake as in the normal process.. Its because for the design on the fondant, I was using a textured rolling pin and in the process of wrapping the patterned fondant, the rose flower pattern got elongated and the due to the pressure, the mini cake became shorter... an ugly sight indeed... so had to try another method.. more precious time spent

We decided to wrap it in two separate pieces -- makes for a more cylindrical look .. looks much better but sooooooo much more work too... Real PANIC was seeping in. -- we were already going to bed only at 4 in the morning then

Three days left and we had ONLY made the first 100 mini cakes and the wedding cake was not done yet.

SOS calls went out and Adina and my niece, Salwa  again came to the rescue. When Adlina saw what we were trying to achieve, she declared that I had indeed gone crazy to agree to doing the mini cakes this way -- the sheer number and the details I agreed to ... that was Thursday...the 24 hours shift had begun the previous day...

Wee hours of Thursday, managed to wrap the top two tiers of the wedding cake (dummies); while my husband scuplted the pillow out of the stacked sheet cakes. Friday morning ... mini cakes going only into the two hundreds..... PANIC ALARM was sent out to Kak Yom begging her for her staff to assist. This godsend lady calmly told me that she is in the middle of an order herself and that she herself would come over later in the evening. Relief awashed everyone... we finished covering the last tier of the wedding cake and prepared for a long marathon.

Meanwhile, my niece Salwa came by to drop off the bead necklaces which I had asked to help me buy. Thanks Sawa and hubby Jimmi.

Kak Yom fulfilled her promise and brought three of her girls . Adlina also returned (also thanks to her hubby's understanding). Together, we ALL slogged through the night and by morning almost seven hundred was done . That was eight thirty Saturday morning and my god-send angels had to go home --- Our deep gratitute accompanied their departute and the three of us finished the wedding cake and the mini cakes while my two sons started packing the car. Then lo and behold , we failed the last challenge.. tried as we might, we just could not fit all the mini cakes plus the wedding cake into the MPV. We tried and tried and tried ..... but to no avail. By then , my husband only had three and half hours to make the long journey of over 350 km to the wedding destination -- down south to Singapore. The bride's sister was already calling....

Meanwhile, my brother also pitched in and found the blue bead necklace that I so very much needed for the wedding cake and my sister-in-aw Siti Fatimah went dowm to my regular florist and bought the fresh flowers for the wedding cake.  Thanks ... both of you.

Last but not least, thank you Vivian. I cant elaborate on what she did for me but suffice to say that I owe her big time... thanks once again.

Finally, with God's grace, we reached the wedding just as the first guests were coming in. The mini cakes were recieved with a big 'WOW' and the wedding cake amazed even the photographer...

All in all... we survived the ordeal .. many lessons were learnt. But it would not have been possible at all WITHOUT my friends, Adlina, Kak Yom and her 3 girls, Evi, my two sons, Afiq and Azri and last but not least my beloved husband, Yusoff.. Thank you , thank you all from the bottom of my heart..

WIll I do it again ... YES, I will .. crazy yes.. but rewarding... so Yes I will... but a little wiser the next time I hope.

Last of all, congratulations to the bride and groom, Fadzlon & Ansari and thank you for the opportunity and experience...

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