Squires Kitchen's 24th Annual Cake Decorating, Chocolate & Sugarcraft Exhibition

ICCA will be organizing a Malaysian entourage to attend the Squires Kitchen Annual Exhibition 2010 from 12th to 14th March, 2010.

Highlights of the event includes:

• The Wedding Cake Showroom
• Meet the Experts
• 5-Day International School
• Have-A-Go
• FREE Demonstrations
• FREE Goody Bags!
• Competitions
• Mini Classes
• Workshops
• Displays
• Show Offers
• Chocolate Area
• New Products
• Trade stands
• NEW Book

The Malaysian entourage under ICCA will be looking forward to additional benefits such as:

• Free 3 Day admission tickets worth 26 Sterling Pounds
• Special Table Space for the Malaysian entries at the Exhibition & Competition
• A free specially customized Chocolate class with Mark Tilling, the UK Chocolate Master 2006-2009 for just the Malaysian entourage.

Google searches for happenings of past years' events have not been successful. Most post are on pre-event promotions and pictures of individual cakes submitted for the competition. Would love to do a blog post on post-event here...guess I'm signing up to go! Will be making it my 2010 goal for further development of skills and exposure. So much to see, learn and just soak-up the happenings there!

Wilton Course 3 - The Fondant Ribbon Cake

The first half of Wilton Course 3 includes covering of the cake using fondant, making the fondant ribbon, flower cutouts and bead border. The above is done by me in class specially for a friend who just delivered a baby boy...that's the reason for the blue ribbon.

Class finished late as it was the first time for some working with fondant. Part 2 of the class this Saturday would see us completing a 3-tiered dummy wedding cake, incorporating all that was learnt in Course 1, 2 and 3. How exciting!

Wilton Course 2 (Sept 2009)

Wilton Course 2 has come and gone for my batch of 8 students who most of them will attending my Wilton Course 3 on October 3rd and 10th. An introduction here is appropriate.

Meet (from left to right)

Saras: who has been baking and decorating at every opportunity she get after completed her Course 1

Vinatha: will be wowing her husband and friends with her new skills when she gets back to Kuwait.

Syila: a supplier of steamed fruit cakes.

Evelyn: who has been waiting since last year for Course 2.

Janice: check-out her 25th wedding anniversary cake below.

Yeok Ping: runs a cafe up in Tanah Rata, Camerons.

Vivian: our official photographer.

Kelly: daughter of Mrs Lai who also blogs for Wah Seng

Graduating Course 2: The Basketweave Cake

Janice's cake.

East meets West 2009

The annual East Meets West demo is here! This is the time to be in touch with the latest decorating techinques and tools brought to you by ICCA. Rosalind Chan represents the west, demonstrating the latest cake decorating techniques from ICES convention in Chicago, and Alex Tan See Fong introducing his new range of tools and decorating techniques.

A fondant cake by Rosalind using Tan See Fong's new imprint below.

Fairy wings given a touch of Disco Dust, a new dusting powder that adds glitter.

Gelatine flower.

A cake with the above elements combined.

Tan See Fong's creations.

Wilton Course 1 (August 2009)

Cake creations by students of Wilton Course 1-August 09 group. From left to right: Janice, Vinitha, Yeok Ping, me, Syila, Kelly, Vivian and Saras. See you all next month for Course 2!

Frangipani Tutorial

Frangipani, a common tropical flower found scattered on both side of an avenue giving off sweet perfumed scent. Colour variations include white with yellow centre, which is the most fragrant, pink and dark red. Frangipani also symbolizes "shelter" as in "I will shelter you from all evils". It probably explain why some associate it to graveyards as frangipani trees are commonly found in Malaysian graveyards. Elsewhere, the Polynesian custom, frangipani is used for leis and given to one another as a sign of affection. The Hawaiians also give out leis during occasions such as birthdays, graduations, weddings, funerals and retirement parties.

Below is a tutorial on frangipani which is a really easy flower to make and the result is just so sweet.

Roll out gumpaste, not too thin.

Use a tear drop cutter to cut out 5 petals.

Dust both sides of petals and arrange them in a fan shape. Press the sharp ends together to prevent movement of petals in the next step.

Roll holding the sharp ends. Ensure point A reaches point B.

Pinch the ends together and trim off the pointed end.

Open up petals and rest them to form the shape. I use a Ferrero Roche chocolate container.

Leave to dry. Once dried, dust with lusture dust and a paint brush. Start from middle of the flower and brush out.

The end result.

The Oldest Trick in the Book - Rum Balls

Popularity of Rum Balls goes back to the 1960s, a favourite festive dessert during holidays or Christmas time. Some says its another version for Bourbon Balls, originated from the Irish. Both rum and bourbon consist of alcohol, as where it derives its name from.

Below is the non-alcoholic version which I call it Chocolate Balls. It is normally done with leftover cakes or cake scraps.

Firstly, melt cocoa powder with hot water until a watery consistency like below. I use good quality cocoa powder like Van Houten.

Pour in cocoa mixture into cake scraps.

Use fingers to press cake to ensure liquid is absorbed therefore making the whole cake mixture as shown below.

Mixture must be sticky so that it could be rolled into a ball and chocolate rice could stick on to it as below. I like to make them bite size where you could pop the whole thing in your mouth.

Place them into pastry cups.