Sunday, 29 June 2008

Le Grande Finale !

26 June 2008
The day is here! Today we will have our last lesson. After 2 long but fun filled months of baking things from breads to cakes it has finally come to an end. Will any of us continue learning by signing up for the Advanced Continental Cakes & Cookies class ? Or maybe the Cake Decorating Class ? Who would take up the challenge and sign up for the full time Diploma in Baking Science & Technology course ? I don't know... but I don't think I'll be signing up for any of those for the time being. Will concentrate on 'polishing' and 'honing' my skills !
Anyway... for our last lesson we made a Chocolate Ganache, Wholemeal Walnut Muffin and Almond Curls. This was quite a relaxing evening and we even had a 'makan kecil' thingy while waiting for the stuff to bake ! And after the class we had a 'graduation' ceremony and we took lots of photos too !

Wholemeal Walnut Muffins


Almond Curls


Chocolate Gateaux







Thursday, 26 June 2008

MORE Chocolate ! and a Fruit Cake (without alcohol?!!)

24 June 2008


Today is our second last lesson ... :-( I think I will miss my new found friends and also the lessons we had. Sigh.


Oh well... more chocolate today. Also lots of work involved making the chocolate mousse. Don't think I would want to make that again .. anyway, mousse is not my favourite !

Chocolate Chip & Walnut Muffins


Chocolate Mousse Cake


Dundee Fruit Cake

Cheese, Cheese & MORE Cheese !

21 June 2008

We made lots of cheesy stuff today... there was Baked Cheesecake, Blueberry Cheese Tarts and Blueberry Cheese Cake ! Lots of work involved in making these! No wonder they charge a lot for orders of cheese based cakes or tarts !



Friday, 20 June 2008

Mini Birthday Cupcakes for a Special Lady !

20 June 2008


Today is my brother's birthday and it is also the birthday of another very special person. I baked and decorated these mini cupcakes for her today ! Here's wishing her good health and hope she likes these mini cupcakes !

3 Cakes !

19 June 2008

We made 3 different types of cakes today. An Almond Cake (Financier), a Carrot Almond Cake and a Chocolate Brownie Cake.
The Almond Cake was as its name implies. To me, it was nothing much. Just a plain old almond cake. The carrot cake was nice and moist but I wonder why we didn't put any cream cheese on top ? The picture of the Chocolate Brownie Cake that was iced with Chocolate Fudge and topped off with Walnuts isn't mine. I left mine just the way it was as I thought I'd already had too much chocolate for the week !



Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary !

19 June 2008


A couple who my aunt knows were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and they were having a dinner to celebrate the event tonight. I was asked to bake 100 cupcakes for the occasion ! After 8 hours of baking, icing and decorating ... here they are !

They are butter cupcakes and were decorated with buttercream icing. I used white for the base and then topped them with purple and white flowers with a little silver ball at the centre of each flower.

Pandan Chiffon Cake and Chocolate Fudge Cake

17 June 2008

Baked another chiffon cake today. This time it's the Pandan Chiffon Cake. Also made a Chocolate Sponge cake and then covered it with chocolate ganache (fudge) and we have the ... Chocolate Fudge Cake !!





Sunday, 15 June 2008

Black Forest Cake & Orange Chiffon Cake

14 June 2008

Yummy ! We made the Black Forest Cake today. One of my favourites plus the Orange Chiffon Cake ... this goes really well with Black Coffee !

Didn't realize that a lot of work goes into making the chiffon cake ! We had to get the batter done and then for the meringue not even a drop of egg yolk is allowed ! Phew! Lots of work!! And then we had to fold the meringue into the batter.....


Sponge Cake and Almond Sugee Cake

12 June 2008

We baked an Emulsifier Sponge Cake today.. it is a simple cake which is used for Fruit Flans and Black Forest Cakes. This cake is very light and may be used for simple light decorating. For Wedding Cakes or cakes that would want heavier decorations using fondant or cream icings, this cake would not be suitable.

Another cake we made was the Almond Sugee Cake. I would have liked it more if there were more sugee in it !


First Lesson in Baking Cakes

10 June 2008

At last! We're learning how to bake cakes... which also means our lessons are coming to an end soon. ... oh well...

We made some simple-to-bake cakes today... a Butter Cake, a Banana Cake and a Chocolate Hazelnut Cake. I quite like the Butter Cake as it was moist enough... unlike my previous tries at home where they turned out dry !
Also learnt this thingy about Specific Gravity (SG) - where we measure the SG for the batter before baking the cake. Never heard of this before and was wondering what it was. But maybe it's also good to know so that in future I can measure all my cake batter for their SG before baking to ensure that the cake turns out right !


Monday, 9 June 2008

My Sister's Jacket !

08 June 2008

At long last, I can finally join the parts together and finish off the jacket that I really owe my sister! After re-doing this many, many times, the lady at the shop (who's teaching me how to crochet as well) gave me the ok and I can now proceed to join the various pieces together. Just a little while more my dear sister and you shall have your creamy white crochet jacket !!


A Stole for A Friend

04 June 2008

Finally it is done! I have managed to rush this Stole in time for a friend who will be leaving for Shanghai to work there. Didn't use really thick yarn so that it is lighter and easier for her to carry around. Made it in black so that it would be easier to match whatever attire she'd be wearing !

I just hope that she'll like it !


Cookies & Chocolate

05 June 2008


Today is our final class in Pastries and Cookies. For that we'll have another 'relaxing' day and just bake cookies !


There was one recipe which required us to refrigerate the cookie though before we cut it up for baking ! That was the Chocolate Almond Cookie (Fridge Box Cookie)



The dough is put onto a layer of plastic sheet and then into a rectangular shaped tray before being refrigerated.



It is then sliced into this size and baked.


The other 3 types of cookies were : Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, Chocolate Biscuit and Viennese Cookie. The Viennese Cookie was not spared from being 'chocolated' too 'coz we laced it with chocolate sauce after it was baked.

Chocolate Biscuits

Chocolate Chip & Almond Cookies

Viennese Cookies before being laced with Chocolate Sauce



Tarts & Scones

03 June 2008

Yummy Pineapple Tarts !! We learnt how to make these today and since this was quite a 'relaxing' day we played around with the dough ! Came up with funny shapes for our pineapple tarts - volcanoes erupting, the KL Tower, ...

Also learnt how to make Egg Tarts (not the flaky type) and Coconut Tarts. Having so much fun with the tarts, we nearly forgot that we had to make Scones too!! We even washed all our utensils already ! Pineapple Tarts (in funny shapes) fresh from the oven !




Monday, 2 June 2008

Pies, Pasties & Quiches

31 May 2008

After a week long holiday, we had our lessons again on Saturday. We made pies today ! Chicken Pie, Cornish Pasties and a Quiche Lorraine (the mini version). Again, I found that it was not that difficult to do after all. Only thing is I will need to cook the filling before I get to make the pies. After I buy my ingredients, I may just try to make some.