Had some leftover fondant which has expired but decided not to waste it and since I bought some new ‘toys’ decided to give it a try.  These ‘toys’ are called patchwork cutters and they are fantastic for cake decorators.   The items I bought were from the B-I-Y  shop in bukit timah road which is a haven for cake decorators.  The shop also conducts cake decoration classes which are very popular. Their website  http://www.b-i-y.com/ has more information and products they carry. No, I’m not their spokesperson but just an ardent fan of the shop and the products they carry.

Cake decorators can’t always bake a cake purely for experimenting new products or ideas, and that is when fake cake comes in handy.  Well you might ask – what is fake cake?  Fake cake is actually a piece of styrofoam which comes in either round or square just like the size of a regular cake pan.  The best part is that you do not have to bake it at all.  Decorate the foam as you would  for a real cake and strip off all the decorations and just reuse the foam again for the next project. The best part of decorating a fake cake is that you can take all the time you want without worrying the ‘cake’ turning stale.

Feuill …… you what?    Well then what is feuillitine?  Never heard of it. Googled and had this definition: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_feuillitine_for_cake_ingredients.  “Basically, feuillitine is a dried French crepe, it is used for texture. Because the ingredient can be cost prohibitive and difficult to source, some people substitute crushed crisp rice cereal, although there is a noticeable difference in the end result.”  Pronoucing the word seems to be a tongue twister when I called Maureen (my sister) who learnt french telling me that feuillitine is pronounced as fay you teen.

I had a chocolate feuillitine cake some time last year and I really liked it. I was trying to figure how the base of the cake remains crispy despite being coated and layered with chocolate ganache.  At the back of my mind I thought it was  too classy that it is only sold to upmarket establishments and in no way can I even think of trying to get it.

As usual I normally surf  Phoon Huat’s site for their monthly hands on baking classes and was thrilled to find that they were conducting a class for feuillitine chocolate sponge cake for a reasonable fee of $35.  Booking for their classes is one week in advance. As with all their classes two types of bakes are made for the day. The one I attended included making  almond twist bread in addition to the feuillitine chocolate sponge cake.  By the way this is a hands on class and we take home what we bake.   The cake was just as I expected crunchy with the feuillitine and mousse like chocolate ganache giving it texture.  The feuillitine remained crunchy even to the next day. Hmm………. my expanding girth.

When Marc and Michelle approached me to make their wedding cake (sugee cake  is the standard  for most Eurasian weddings) I was taken by surprise. My sister-in-law  (Maureen) told me that they have been sourcing for their wedding cake and also sampled some cakes which were not to their satisfaction.  One Sunday about three months before their wedding Maureen called to inform me that Marc and Michelle wanted to see me.  Gosh, I was searching my mind and even before I could ask her why when she mumbled something like Michelle wanted to see me about her wedding cake. Both Marc and Michelle came to see me together with Maureen of course (being the mother of the bride and kaypoh) discussed what she wanted for her wedding cake.  However, I did forewarn her to bear in mind that I am not a professional which I cannot be compared with. Luckily she settled to have a 3-tiered stacked cakes with ribbon at the base and roses as decorations.   I emailed some samples found on the internet for Michelle to see what design she wanted.

As her wedding is very close to Christmas, I did not want to take any additional cake orders except for my dedicated and regular customers. Just about a week to the wedding I called Michelle to confirm numbers when she casually asked if it was alright to change the set-up of the cake.  Her dad thought that stacked cakes did not have enough height and decided to have pillars instead.  To change from stacked to pillared cakes is not a problem provided you have enough pillars which I did not have enough of and suggested that she can have a combination of both. Emailed the new set-up to give her an indication of what I meant and confirmed that it was ok.  I also made a base for the cake to give additional height .  As can be seen from the photos,  the construction of the wedding cake taking it’s final shape.

The long awaited day to showcase my first silver wedding anniversary cake after my ‘dry run’ in April. I was not stressed nor was I worried about the outcome of the resulting cake as Connie and Lewis gave me freedom to do what I thought was best.

My idea was to have three cakes, one placed on top of the other and the third tier would rest on cake pillars, but I decided to place them on wine glasses instead. (You get the idea from the photos). Monogrammed the wine glasses with the number ’25′ using sparkling glue done by my daughter Denise.

Just like buildings, cakes must also have a strong foundation so that they will be able to withstand the weight of all the tiers and not cave in. My dear husband is the ‘architect’ and he helped with the foundation (ie. placing wooden rods or dowels) strategically into the cakes. Yes, that’s how its done.

The cakes had to be packed individually for transportation and then constructed on-site for display. As you can see from the photos the fully constructed cake and I am proud that I made this cake. Never in my entire life imagine that I could make something like this. Needless to say the guests enjoyed the cake.

Every year I am bestowed the honour to make my mother-in-law’s birthday cake and this year is no exception. I decided to make a two tiered cake because I wanted to experiment making tiered cakes as I have to make a cake for Connie’s 25th wedding anniversary (sister-in-law’s sister). I do not have any background and or experience in making wedding or anniversary cakes let alone tiered cakes. My mother-in-law’s birthday cake will be used as a `dry run’ for the wedding anniversary cake. For the past few weeks, I have been borrowing many books from the library on cake decoration and wedding cake books to give me some ideas and insight on assembling different types of tiered cakes. As you can see from the photo, I manage to assemble the cake though there is nothing to boast about but I am proud to achieve my goal which has given me confidence in making my next tiered cake.

This is an update to my previous blog post of attempting to make white bread taken from the book “Dough – Simple Contemporary Bread”by Richard Bertinet. This time round, I succeeded in making the basic bread taken from the same book. I take this opportunity to thank Richard and Jo Bertinet for writing to me and also giving me advice as to what went wrong in my first attempt. I must say the aroma of the bread wafting throughout the house is sensational. The buns were soft and light. Needless to say, I had to devour the buns even before it was completely cooled down. Ah……….. the taste of freshly baked bread is heavenly. Will definitely try out other recipes in the book now that I have grasped the basics of white dough.

Just feel like trying out the basic recipe for bread taken from one of the two bread books which I received for Christmas. The titles are “Dough” and “Crust” Simple Contemporary Bread by Richard Bertinet. These books come with a CD giving you step-by-step instructions on bread making. Made the bread following the recipe to the “T” and it didn’t come out as I had expected. We love soft and light bread which this recipe did not yield. Feeling disappointed, I decided to go back to my basic bun recipe and made pork floss buns. Needless to say, I was happy with the texture of the buns which is soft and light. But all is not lost, I will try again definitely. I must say the books are very interesting depicting the various types of bread in a different perspective.

Christmas is the time of the year when I bake and bake and bake till the new year begins. Orders for the all time favourite ie. sugee cake – some ordered plain and yet again a handful ordered them with marzipan and icing (iced cakes). I normally don’t take like to take orders for iced cakes during Christmas as it’s time consuming and also the busiest time of the year. In the past year or so I have been receiving orders for iced cakes and I try to accommodate the orders if I get them early, and on exceptional cases will I do last minute orders. I’m very busy during this time of the year and making iced (marzipan and royal icing) cakes definitely takes more preparation and time. Since I bake and ice the cakes on my own I try not to take too many orders that I cannot manage and worst still unable to deliver. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Yes, as you all know, I’m not chinese to celebrate the mid-autumn festival but I do enjoy eating mooncakes. Basically I bake mooncakes for my family’s consumption. Some years back when I bought my microwave oven it came with a hands on class on making mooncakes. I took the opportunity to attend the class for a minimal sum which I can’t remember. Over the years I have tried baking mooncakes and trust me they are easy to make but difficult to master. Sometimes the mooncakes turn out alright, but at times they seem to be bursting at the seams. I love the mixed nuts filling and decided to give it a try – I must say not too bad for my first attempt. This year I decided to make mooncakes using a mixture of black treacle and syrup. As you can see they are rather dark in colour, but the aroma of the mooncakes wafting throughout the house is tantalising. The mooncakes seem to be a little bursting at the seams hence being out of shape (just like the person who baked them – hahaaa…..) By the way, I happen to read a food blog which recommended spraying the mooncakes with water before placing them in the oven. (Hey, isn’t it too late my dear??) Hmm……must try to see if that really works.

I was contemplating to register at Creative Culinaire for their bread making class when I decided to surf Phoon Huat‘s website. To my delight, I realised that they are presently conducting a hands-on class in which I was interested ie. Traditional Soft Buns and Baked Cheesecake. I attended class today and the highlight of my day was making the soft buns. Buns came out soft and light just the way I like them to be. We took home whatever we made and rushed home as I had to to make cupcakes for tomorrow. I completed baking by 8.00pm, left the cupcakes to cool so that I can ice the cupcakes in the morning. Overall, I managed to accomplish attending class and baking cupcakes within 7 hours flat – (see, now you know what I mean by 7/24). Did the final touches on the cupcakes the next morning. Ahhhh……………. the fruits of my sweet labour ………..