Gradients and New Knowledge

I've just recovered from all the body aches I got from my class with Sharon Wee... Don't get me wrong, she's a wonderful teacher but I just didn't know a double barrel cake would require such great amount of physical strength... ;D 


I had the privilege to attend a course by the talented Sharon Wee from Australia who came all the way here to Singapore... Wish I could attend all the courses but my schedule and financial means only allowed me to attend one class... I was attracted to it because of the Peony flowers that we get to learn and also the skills to cover very tall cakes... There are so many things you can learn technically from Sharon. The most stress that I got from making the cake was contemplating on the design of the cake.. The next stress was covering the 2 tiers of cake.. Hahaha.. The last stress was making the flowers...


The design was killing me since the past few days even before class.. I was going through pictures of beautiful cakes in the internet like an addicted person every night before I sleep... Im not kidding you. I think even my husband was lazy to entertain me. Hahaha.. Poor him.. I just know I wanted to do something simple yet eye-catching.. Colourful yet subtle.. Fascinating yet clean.. Modern yet vintage-y.. See what I mean.. I'm contradicting myself at every thoughts and imagination I have.. In the end.. I decided on a colour scheme which was not so common but had the vintage feel to it.. But actually I got the inpired by a lady who wore the colours that I chose... It was just one random morning where I was walking behind a random lady who was wearing a 3/4 teal coloured skirt with a sleeveless peach-salmon coloured top.. I just knew there was no turning back.. As for the designs, I wanted to do something modern and clean.. I kept thinking over and over again whether my white peonies will go with the colours I chose.. I was ultra stress!! But I just did it and guess what.. It's beautiful and unique! 


While watching Sharon demo how she covered the double barrel cake, I actually held my breath until she finished covering the sides in one swift movement.. I was thinking to myself, can I do that?? Suddenly, my palms became sweaty.. It is usually not.. Hahaha.. I was really nervous.. Hence, I covered the smaller cake to warm myself up for the challenging task ahead... When I had to finally cover my tall cake, I took a deep breathe and stood straight.. I was really scared something bad would happened.. But I was really paranoid as the cake is ganach-ed all around.. Any mistakes would mean I would have wasted the fondant which was a lot of hardwork to roll.. Well, I still manage to cover it with no problem.. 

It's been a long time since I make wired flowers.. Honestly, I'm still not good at curling the petals and the peonies needs to be really curved to be nice.. I was initiall having problems wiring the petals. I had to the each petal over and over again as none of the petal I did was good enough.. I hate being so critical of my own work and such a perfectionist at times. I just like to stress myself... Finally after some time, I just had to not bother about being perfect.. I realised I was wasting time and I was really lagging behind everyone.. 

I was really happy with the end result.. Im very very proud of myself.. Although I was really tired and my back was aching like crazy from kneading and rolling strips of fondant, it was all worth it.. I'm not really sure I can repeat all this task or this cake after this class.. Actually, I'm more worried about whether the chocolate ganache will set if I do not have the luxury of having aircon at home unlike in class.. I really need to experiment.. I also learn from Sharon that beautiful looking cakes and flowers can be achieved with the simplest tool that you have at home.. You don't have to buy special cutter from different flowers.. All you have to have is imagination and creativity.. And being happy with what you do.. "Do what you like, don't have to follow others".. That's what she always says... 

A friend I made in class who has the same taste as me.. How cool is that? I love her falling petals idea..

I'm definitely going to work towards making this kind of modern, clean cakes because it's very me.. It's what I love and it makes me really happy.. 


~Love me love me..
Say that you love me~

1st Wedding Cake

I read a wall post on Facebook once.. I can't really remember it.. But it goes something like this.. "Do something for yourself, nobody will know.. But do something for others, people will remember it forever.." It's very general but its very inspiring for me.. :) I use that believe to motivate me why I like baking and making cakes for people..

I am so relieved as of yesterday night, after delivering my very first wedding cake order... I spent more than 2 weeks on that cake.. Sacrificing my social life and nights on it.. But I think it was all worthwhile.. It makes me happy and I enjoyed the ups and downs throughout the process... For more picture, you may search Simply Baked in Facebook..

The bride was my secondary school friend.. And she's marrying my secondary school friend too.. :) Anyway, Congraulations Hatta and Liyana!! You both look really good together..

The first step of the whole process was making the flowers.. Bride requested dark red or something close to maroon Roses and Golden Yellow Calla Lilies.. In cascading style... The flowers took one whole week from start to finish including the dusting and wiring and all.. I was barely satisfied with the colour I got for the roses.. I had to use 2 different lustre dust to get the colour which I was still not really satisfied with... But I think that's it.. I can't do anything with it anymore.. haha..

Next step was to prepare all the different fillings and buttercreams for the cake.. Then, making the marshmallow fondant.. Yes, I make my own fondant because I find the store bought fondant hard to handle(sticky) and expensive.. I rather work with something easy to handle although it's hard work to make your own... But I think it's quite easy and cheaper.. As for the taste, I think it taste like marshmallow.. I don't really like fondant but I think this is acceptable and taste like marshmallow itself.. sweeeet~ I shall share with you the recipe below.. Try it!!

3rd step is to prepare all the cakes.. 3 different flavours of cake: Strawberry, Lemon and Chocolate.. I took the last 2 days to bake and level the cakes so as to keep my cakes fresh.. And also to bake the cupcakes..

Last step, is filling/layering the cake, covering and decorating... The cakes I do is usually a 3 layer cake.. I always try my best to make a nice tasting cake which is not so dry.. I know usually fondant cakes are dry and not much filling.. As cake decorator.. dry and firm cakes are easier to handle and looks nicer overall... But I always want my cakes to taste good.. Cos I want people to enjoy eating it.. But I got to stike a balance somewhere between nice tasting and nice looking although it's kinda tough sometimes..

I covered the cake in pale peach colour because I remembered the bride saying she wanted to stray away from the traditional wedding colour: white.. I couldn't really find a nice maroon ribbon to put on the cake.. But I got a close pinkish-maroon colour which I think is the best that I can get.. I made an egg yellow dots above the ribbon to spice up the design a bit.. But it's quite insignificant from far.. Maybe it's the colour.. Hmm.. But I like the touch the dots added.. It was a tiresome work though and my eyes got crossed after that.. haha..

 

The cupcakes were a gift from me to the couple.. I made a pink-maroon-ish heart shape fondant topper for the cupcakes and gave it my signature swirl cream buttercream... In peach... I thought the colour was so romantic and pretty.. I fell in love with it.. 2 butterflies to signify the bride and groom flying towards the heart... Simple and pretty.. I love~

I wanted to achieve a clean, simple, modern look to it.. But I guess I'm still an amateur in wedding cakes or cakes.. :) I'm slowly getting there, I hope.. I hope the bride and groom likes the cake.. especially the taste.. 

The cake stand and decor was done by the bride's friend.. It was matching wit the whole event decor at the venue although I wish it was not feathers... to be honest.. I don't really like feathers.. haha.. But overall it was really nice and pretty although I wished it had more height.. But nice and simple..

The bride also surprise her husband and his twin a birthday cake at the dinner event.. I made something new.. Chocolate cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Filling and Chocolate Glaze.. :)

It was a truly good exposure and definitely a learning experience.. Thank you Liyana for ordering! and Thank you to Mr Wafi for helping me throughout.. And my handsome and trusty friends for helping me transporting the cakes..

Marshmallow Fondant (taken from Design Me a Cake)
(I always half the recipe becuase it's easier to handle)

15 oz. mini marshmallows 2 Tblsp water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon juice (fresh or bottled) (I omit)
2 tsp light corn syrup (helps w/ pliability)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon extract (I omit)
2 lbs (approx 7 C) confectioner's sugar, sifted
1/2 C Crisco or vegetable shortening (For greasing appliances and tools and covering the fondant)

1. Grease microwave proof bowl w/ Crisco (I was lazy and use a spray oil, doesnt affect anything). Also grease wooden or heat proof spoon.

2. Pour marshmallows and water into bowl. Microwave for approximately 2 minutes stopping and stirring at 40 second intervals (mine took shorter than this). Mixture should be soupy.

3. Take out of microwave and immediately add corn syrup, lemon juice, salt and extracts. Stir well. Sift confectioner's sugar into mixture, one cup at a time. After approximately 5 cups (3 cups if you're halving the recipe), grease your hands well with Crisco and knead the mixture in the bowl. Add the sixth cup and continue to knead. Now grease your work surface well and turn mixture out of bowl onto counter. Sift remaining sugar, regrease hands, and knead well. If mixture seems soft, add one additional cup of powdered sugar.

4. Shape into a mound and put a coating of crisco on outside. Double wrap in cling wrap and insert into ziplock bag. Press air out of bag and seal. Allow to rest overnight, but, can be used after sitting for a few hours.

New Beginning



I think it's time I start this back... I've got almost everything sorted out.. Almost I guess. :) Well, here goes nothing..

I think it's been a long road for me.. Of course it hasn't ended.. It just started... I started out baking for the fun of it.. Just to make goodies good enough to make the NS boys at work satisfied.. to wanting to make nice looking cakes... Then I realize that I wanted to make more great tasting cakes, not just nice looking.. ahuh.. Anyway, my passion spurred me to invest in a new oven, my dream machine: KitchenAid.. ahaha... Till now, I am forever learning.. I'm loving how I can make flowers from sugarpaste.. It's just amazing.. How much you have to / can learn from just one passion.. It's cool..

Basically, this blog will just be an avenue where I rant about my baking problems and theories and reviews and comments where I can't do it anywhere else and where pictures can't describe what goes behind all that beauty.. haha.. Does it make sense?? See, I'm ranting... hahaha..

If you think you wanna try some of the goodies I make, you can visit my website at http://www.simplybaked.webs.com/ ... For more detailed pictures of my goodies, you can visit Facebook.. Just search for Simply Baked.. Or you can just click here if you're signed in to FB.

Fuchsia

I just finished my PME Diploma in Sugarflowers.. It was really a fun course... Though it burned the major time of my Saturdays, my weekends, I think it was well worth it.. And the results are satisfying and very very beautiful and will make you happy, really happy..

Next up, is my first wedding project... In 3 weeks time, hopefully you'll see a masterpiece.. haha.. i really hope so..

And I shall try to make time for my own real baking.. I really missed those times where I baked for myself.. To test recipes, to relieve my craving.. though, actually I don't really like to eat my own baking.. But I just wanna bake.. Can't wait!!

P/S: I love the new background!! So pwetty... ;)

*Khas*