June 25, 2011

Pretty pink and white :)

Pink and white, is a colour combination, I'm sure, that can't go wrong. It's either you like it or you don't. You can tell from my blog that I love this colour combination, and this is likely what you will see in my kitchen. Hehe. I'm contemplating to do a pink coloured glass backing for the backing of my kitchen countertop, to match my white kitchen concept and pink kitchen aid. ;) To digress a bit, I've finally purchased the kitchen aid that I've been dreaming. It's going at $741 now during the Great Singapore Sale at Mayer Marketing, with complimentary $50 voucher, to be used within three months without any minimu purchase. I'm not sure if this is the best deal that I can get though. Check it out at Mayer if you are interested now. :)


The contractor told me he had never done a pink glass backing before. So, it's like a risk we are taking. I'm not that adventurous yet, so I've asked my contractor to get a sample of the glass backing to have a look before deciding. Hopefully it turns out pretty. Otherwise, I'll likely go for the safer colour -- white. :P

This cake was made the day after I attended the cartoon cake workshop at Sugar Inc. I thought it's a good chance to put to good use what I attended the day earlier since it was still fresh in my memory. Why not a cartoon cake? You might be wondering. Well, somehow the chocolate could not harden and the cartoon-design chocolate transfer was a disaster. I wonder why. Till now, I am still confused over the use of the types of chocolate to be used in baking. Conveture chocolate, it seems, is not good for piping as they don't dry out that easily. Anyone can advise?


I had to make do with a simple frosted cake with simple wordings. The coating was still not to my expectation. But I'm happy that I succeeded in the making of italian meringue buttercream. It was smooth, creamy and stable, best if it needs to withstand for hours in room temperature if I'm making for my friends. :)




Practice makes perfect in perfecting a technique but I wonder when will be my next frosted buttercream cake. *lol*. Hopefully in my new kitchen soon :P

June 14, 2011

Cartoon Cake Workshop

These pictures had been sitting in my edited post for more than a week.... and another 2 days of re-uploading before it finally made its way here.


I attended a cartoon cake workshop a few months back at Sugar Inc with Anna Chan. It was a weekday afternoon and I took half a day's leave just for the workshop, as a treat for me to have a break from my hectic work. Located at the ground floor of a shop unit at Jln Bukit Ho Swee (near iong Bahru MRT station), this small little unit offered more than what it seems to be able to deliver. It is fully equipped with the essential equipment and cookware, that makes my heart beat (excited) as I entered the worksop, knowing I'll be in for a learning session!







The class is limited to 8 in a class so that Anna can gave more attention to each student.




She first did a demo on the sponge cake.



followed by the frosting...





A demo showing how to make Italian meringue buttercream. This was one of my reason for attending the class.


That's Anna, showing us how to do the outline. Melting the chocolate for the outline of the cartoons (using melted chocolate to draw the picture)
And colouring the cartoon picture with melted white chocolate tinted with food colouring.



The frosting was the most difficult part of the hands-on session. No matter how many layers I frosted, I still could not get a smooth, evenly layered frosted cake. I always tend to leave some cake crumbs behind... >_<


That's Anna's work! See how smooth is her frosting.


Other classmate's works. :)And mine! :) To be honest, I thought that the technique and concept of the transfer chocolate method is rather simple. It involves the drawing of the design you like with dark melted chocolate, and "colouring" with tinted melted white chocolate. Let it set in the fridge and transfer to the cake. I thought I could apply the same method if I use gel for the filling but according to Anna, it is different. :(


But of course, there are still certain techniques that you may not know without learning hands-on, such as having to fill in the white chocolate in the outline fully without any gaps so that there will be no breaks when it hardens.


Overall, it's a fruitful session and immediately the following day, I made a buttercream cake for my best friend, by trying to apply when I've learnt. (sans the cartoon!). Will show it in my next post.