My Journey as a Cake Decorator (Part 3: cupcakes)

I wanted to try my hands using chocolate and white chocolate for decorations. After reading from the ‘The Whimsical Bakehouse’ it looked interesting. Awhile ago I baked red velvet cupcakes. Found a recipe online at foodnetwork.com.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 tablespoons red food coloring

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 pound cream cheese, softened

2 sticks butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

My niece only loves munching the top of the cupcake coz it has this crustier surface

3^rd lesson – Always plan your design. Because I was doing this for fun, I didn't really plan what I was going to do. All I know I wanted to try the melting, piping chocolate technique. It was bit rubbish but the cupcakes taste sooooo good! A friend of mine (Ms Sharon D’cruz) gobbles up the whole thing even before reaching her destination (supposedly keeping it till she arrives.... guess it was too tempting!)

Couple of days ago I baked another bunch of cupcakes for a friend who is celebrating her birthday today. So this time I planned it out. I thought about what kind of theme I should do and colours I should use. Because everyone calls her ‘Bee’, I figured hmmmmmmmmmm.... bees??? And here’s what I created.

"Queen Bee"

My Journey as a Cake Decorator (Part 2: My 1st handmade Flowers)

After informing my family and friends about my interests in becoming a cake decorator (temporarily just for fun!), I offered them up to 10 decorative cakes which I will do FOR FREE! I mean I need to practice and what better ways to do it for the people you know. So my 1^st customer was Ms Lee Yin Mei. She requested a birthday cake for her mom who will be celebrating her 62^nd birthday. Well actually I offered to do the cake; she has no say on that matter! :P

I plan to do a carrot cake and try the design from ‘The Whimsical Bakehouse’ using roses, blossoms, buds and leaves. Very ambitious but that’s me! I’ve always receive huge reviews with my carrot cake and I baked for Mei's birthday so why not for her mom. I made the cake 2 nights before the delivery date. I wanted to try out this technique which I’ve read from blogs and forums. ‘Freezing the cake’ – apparently this technique will make the cake more moist and soft. Because of the freezing technique, the moister from the cake will not dry out. So that’s what I did. I wrapped the cake with cling film and placed it in the freezer over night.

The next day I made the cream cheese frosting. Took the cake out of the freezer and started frosting it. I placed it inside the fridge and allow the frosting to harden. I began my training in doing the flowers using buttercream frosting. The difficult part was getting used to the flower nail. Turning it counter clockwise, rotating the head between your left thumb and forefinger. Using the piping bag was not that hard. After accomplishing the flower technique, it was time to do the decor. I need to tell you this, when I was decorating the cake I had an audience. My mom, brother and sis-in-law, you can imagine the stress I was in! Anyways, I begin doing the flowers and placing it on the cake. 2^nd error – DON’T BE TOO AMBITIOUS! Enough said! The cake turned out awful. The design and colours I use was horrendous (according to my bro). I was confused and de-motivated. I left it as it is :(

When everyone went to bed, I crept downstairs to the kitchen, took the cake out and got rid of the horrendous flowers. I cleaned up the cake by spreading some leftover cream cheese frosting and place it back in the fridge.

Early the next morning I started making the flowers. I told myself to keep it simple and nice. I decided to do red roses and few yellow roses and leaves in the middle of the cake. My brother woke up and saw the flowers and said “HAAaaaaaaaaaa kan cantik!” (translate – “HAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa way prettier! (or better)” . I was very very happy with myself *pat on the back*.

The customer was very happy and it was her 1^st time eating a carrot cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTY!

p/s: Yes! The cake was way soft and moist! Great 'freezing the cake' technique!

The Result

My Journey as a Cake Decorator (Part 1: My 1st Real Cake Decor)

I've recently ventured into cake decorating. Back in my A-level days, I was very active in my art class. Can’t wait to start a new project.. can’t wait to go in the class and continue doing a project... and especially I can’t wait to see the end results of my projects. Since then I haven’t been doing anything to stimulate my artistic side of my brain, so I figured, rather than just baking cakes why not decorating it too? Never really dwell into the matter. I mean you need to be creative to do this. It need to look beautiful, refreshing and creative (one of a kind). I love baking + I love creating things...... so I said to myself.... DO IT! And that’s where it all started.

I begin with doing some research coz you know .... you need to know what you are getting yourself into. Internet is the best way to look for ideas, inspiration, read other cake decorators blog, and watch YouTube for techniques in cake decorating.... good stuff! I went to bookstores and got myself some really good books such as ‘The Whimsical Bakehouse’. Love it! The next thing I did, I got myself a sketch book. It’s important for me to write any kind of progress, the results and sketching out ideas for my projects. It helps me to record the errors I’ve done, the recipes I use and the designs I made.

Next.................. SHOPPING! My usual bake shop is the one near my house. But they were lacking in the cake decorating department. I couldn’t seem to find the equipments or decorating tools I need. So went back to the Internet and started looking for shops that specialises and sells this stuff and WA-LA! There’s a shop that sells Wilton’s product and it’s not that far. Bought the necessary items for beginners, was very tempted to buy other stuff but kept telling myself “DON’T GO CRAZY!”

1^st Project: Fondant cake.

FONDANT! FONDANT! FONDANT! Not an easy thing to make. It took me 3 tries to finally get it right!! GOD! I plan to do a very very very easy design using circles and swirls. I use the recipe from ‘The Whimsical Bakehouse’ - The Pinwheel cake. I followed the instructions in assembling the cake from levelling it, crumbing and frosting. Everything looked good.

Now after I made the fondant, I created my 1^st error as a beginner - After frosting I put the cake in the fridge so it will harden. When I took it out, I straight away placed the roll-fondant on the cake without waiting for it to set back at room temperature. BIG BIG MISTAKE! Once I completed the decoration, the fondant started to separate from the side of the cake and it became sticky. AARRGHHHHHHHH! I tried to stick it back by pressing it lightly but it got worse. So I left it as it is. After leaving it overnight on the table, I realise the next day the fondant has harden. Search in the internet and what I found out was the same as my assumption – Need to let the cake set back at room temperature before placing the fondant. So there! 1^st lesson!

you can see that the fondant is slightly wet! Arrgh! Despite the error, the cake was delicious!

Tenggol Smenggol

Tenggol Island

“The Tenggol group of islands is the most southernly of Terengganu's Marine Parks. It consists of Pulau Tenggol (Tenggol Island), Pulau Nyireh, Tokong Timur, Tokong Burung and Tokong Talang/Tokong Kemudi, Tokong Laut.

Cited as “The Best Diving in Peninsular Malaysia” Asian Diver Magazine 2002 Annual Edition.

Pulau Tenggol lies 14 nautical miles (26 km) off the coast of quiet fishing town of Kuala Dungun, Terengganu, Malaysia. This rocky island about 50 hectares in size, spans less than 3 kilometres in length and 2 kilometres at its widest point, is one of the most beautiful and serene islands off Peninsular Malaysia's east coast, with spectacular rocky cliffs that offer many excellent dive sites. One of the island’s attractions is that it is close to its original state. A virgin island with its white sandy beaches backed by steeply forested cliffs is a pleasant retreat away from the city. Activities range from snorkelling, scuba diving, jungle trekking or just basking under the sun on the white sandy beach.

At Pulau Tenggol, divers and snorkellers alike can find pristine coral formations and a number of submerged rocks with excellent coral growths. Tenggol and its surrounding islands offer good visibility with teeming of marine life, including sharks, rays, nudibranch and a wide variety of hard and soft corals. Divers will discover that Tenggol offers great diving experiences, ranging from deep diving, drift diving and wreck dive for the advanced divers or experienced divers. The fantastic shallow dives are great for the least experienced divers or just for the experienced to off gas.”

Tenggol has always had a special place in my heart. It held fond memories during my time as an Open Water Diver. 2004 was my 1^st time experience diving in Tenggol. At that time I could honestly say it’s the most beautiful island I’ve ever been to. Before I jumped into the blue crystal water, I was told of stories of how the currents, surge and unpredictable things happen in Tenggol. It did freak me out. And it still does. I think that’s one of the perks and fascinating part about this island. The UNPREDICTABLE-NESS. The beautiful living corals and abundance of sea life was mind blowing. I was able to appreciate after my 5^th dive and that was when I fell in deep love. Since that moment every year I will pack my gear bags and head off over there. I saw my 1^st manta ray at Tutle Point and it just took my breath away! I had my 1^st panic attack there. I had my 1^st strong surface current experience (too close to the rocks). And recently for the 1^st time I experienced the feeling of being swept away! That’s Tenggol!

On the 3^rd of July 2010, I organised a trip to the island (1^st time organising I tell ya!). 17 divers in total; 3 Open Water students, 2 Advance Open Water, the rest leisure divers and none of ‘em has ever set foot in Tenggol. So I was quite happy to organise this trip. For me to go to Tenggol, I usually go with someone who knows the island like the back of their hand and was happy that Mr. Robin Hood is around. I did the arrangements and by Saturday morning we were there.

The visibility was not that good, not that bad either, planktons everywhere. Was hoping to catch a glimpse of whale shark but to no avail. But i was so sadden by the condition of the corals. Apparently coral bleaching has been going on around the east coast of Malaysia destroying 40% of the soft and hard corals. I took a picture of a clownfish and its bleached anemone. It was terrible!

Currents never seem to fail me in Tenggol. 1^st dive on the 2^nd day was when I experienced being swept away. Was with my 2 other buddies and off we went almost 200m away from the reef. Exciting, scared, panic and anything that you can think of, was what I felt at that moment. But all three of us were alright. Thank god! The last couple of dives were more relaxed. Nudibranches sightings got me excited. I love taking pictures of those cute tiny creatures and was happy to found few I’ve never seen.

All and all the entire trip was a huge success. Everyone had fun and manage to get to know each other. Tenggol Island Resort did an awesome job taking care of us. As always I was sad to leave but have already started planning my return in September. Tenggol OH Tenggol!.....

p/s: i baked a cake for my friend Rashid. My 1st time trying out cake decorating.... came out not bad huh. :P

Stupid Stupid Stupid ME!

Dear readers,

This post is simply for me to apologize for my haste decision in deleting my email account. For the past 2 weeks, I've been receiving almost 200 spam emails in my yahoo account. It started to piss me off, so today i decided to delete it. I was hasty with my decision that i completely forgot about other things such as using this yahoo account for my blog. To cut things short, I'm now unable to update http://diverskitchenette.blogspot.com/ anymore. So, rather beating myself up, I created another blog http://diverskitchenette2.blogspot.com/.

Please do follow, i promise not to do something as hasty / stupid as this......... thank you!

p/s: new post coming soon.............. TENGGOL!