ICCA Annual Cake Competition 2010-The before story

My apologies for not blogging in such a long time!
You could say I have been rather lazy haha!

Oh well...

You could say from yesterday I have entered a living heaven in a VERY unexpected way...

As you can see from my previous posts and photos on my blog and Face Book, I entered a cake competition organised by ICCA (International Center of Cake Artistry).

If you want to know I took my Wilton 1, 2, 3, 4 and the Squire's Kitchen Diploma from there and I got to know about the competition in I think August this month right after I completed my 3rd Wilton course.

And of course I spent LOTS of time planning on what to do for the competition since it would be my very FIRST one!

I spent lots of time surfing the net, library and of course my favourite caking website Cakecentral.com.

Before I took my Squire's Kitchen diploma I already had tons of sketches on what I wanted!

But oh what an eye opener to SO many different techniques the 5 day diploma was!

So everything had changed again!

I found my new favourite medium to work with, Royal icing.

I LOVE string work and lace, I find them VERY beautiful!

After some time thinking through on what stringworky and/or lacey cake I wanted I began to realise how similar the string work looked like Indian jewelry...

From then on I began surfing the net and looking at ANYTHING that has got to do with Indian fashion and marriage.

So all the information I got was put into a 5 tiered Indian themed wedding cake.

I started preparing the cake 1 month (Plus lots of holidays, so maybe you could say 2 weeks of holidays in that month?) before the date of the competition.

My first and third tier was inspired by the sari's I saw online and in Swathy's house.
(To Swathy: Thank you for digging out all your Mom's and Your sari's for me to look at and draw!)

The Styrofoam cake was covered in royal purple (You would not imagine how much Wilton Violet gel color I used to dye/color the fondant!) colored fondant and the lace and string work was piped with a 1.5 or 1L Wilton tip.
The rest of the RI (Royal icing if you STILL don't know!) decorations we made by other round tips which I cant really remember what number!



The second and fourth tier was inspired by the Indian henna.
Since I was very little I have been very interested by the henna because well... I just think it is AWESOME!
You could say I had a pretty tough time thinking about which henna design to use for the cake!
Since the first and third tier was a paisley themed I decided to use it for the whole cake.
The henna tiers was the MOST fun to do because it was freestyle (Nope I didn't stencil on it first.) and freedom is FUN! Hahaha!
Even with my tilting turntable I had a tough time piping the paisley onto the cake so I piped it out as lace on a piece of parchment paper and transferred it onto the henna tier when it dried.



My fifth tier was just plain yellow string work (PME tip 00. I officially HATE plastic tips! After using a corsage pic a couple of times to prick the tip when the icing dried around it, the hole expended it quite a bit and it became the size of the Wilton 1.5 or 1L! Ugh!) all round the 8" square cake.
This was the most torturous tier of the whole cake :)
By the twentieth string I piped my right hand was already red, swollen and numb!
I had 4 inches of strings to be piped on...
I was nearly done!
Then... I invented a new PAINLESS way to do string work!
What a GREAT invention :)
Too bad it only came after I finished most of the cake!
But I am glad I don't have to suffer so much when I do string work again!




After finishing I thought to myself...
This cake looks too plain!
It needs a cake topper, BADLY!
I was in the library browsing at Colette Peter's (Her cakes are stunningly beautiful! And so are Eddie Spence's. My style is to mix and match both classy, modern and chic...!) Cakes to dream on...
I was on one of the last few pages of her look when I was this magnificent cake topper!
Not at all Indian but I was going to make it look like so...
The next few moments the was a HUGE tsunami, tornado hurricane storm going inside my head!
I pictured in my mind to change everything on it except the structure.
It was going to be this VERY gold type-a kinda mosque-y look but upside down... The dome design was going to be on the bottom and the top was going to be some lace type of things :)
Brilliant!
It was going to be the first cake (Oh wait my first sculpted/carved cake was my brother's pirate ship one.. But I suppose they are both different types of sculptures?)
I spent the rest of the time when I was back from the library sculpting it...
It was a DISASTER!!
The top was bumpy and some parts tore!
Ugh!
But the bottom was fine... I am glad!
I had fun making the so called 'jewels' for the bottom part.
Eu Fai helped me make the balls and stick them into the holes I made with my ball tool.
Time to brainstorm to think on how to cover it up!


When that was done I had to figure out how to cover the gap between the top and the bottom..
So this is what I did to cover it up...


While I was thinking on what to do with the so very VERY ugly top I was on Cakecentral having a look at some forum posts...
The was this 'Sticky' which I found very useful because it had TONS of free online flower tutorials!
Then I stumbled a cross Satin Ice's (A brand of fondant) website and they had some videos on how those celebrity cakers use it...
I scrolled down the list of videos and then I saw a few of Colette Peter's videos and I decided to watch them...
I clicked on Colette Peters-Drapery.
Me thinking to myself: OMG! That's exactly what I can use to cover the ugly stuff up!
And that was what I did!
It was my first time doing drapery so I was kinda nervous :P
I think it turned out good for a first time...
I dusted it gold, added some jewels and tassels!
I think the tassels were a nice touch to it :)
For the top of the topper I poked in a flower pick and added some fondant covered wires that were dusted in gold into it.
I got the wire idea from Alan Dunn's Wedding cake bible.
And the Flower pick was visible and rather ugly so I had to come up with something to cover it up.
I decided on a fantasy lotus like flower...
There will be petals wrapped around the flower pick and then slowly opening...
It was a good idea.


So that was all the preparation I did for my wedding cake!


Hopefully I can post Day 1 tomorrow!

Oh and yes, before I forget... The bottom 2 tiers didnt turn out well and all the lace drooped and fell off so they were not used.
~K

A few hours of fever...

Wow I haven't posted in such a LONG time!

You could say I have been busy... And lazy!

Today strangely lots of things happened so I just gotta post!

After caking for a few hours in the morning/afternoon I felt rather woozy and I had I sore throat from yesterday...

I simply HAD to rest!

I felt rather warm and decided to take my temprature...

38.1 Degrees Celsius!

Ugh! Fever!!

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

I had a 2 hour long nap...

I felt worst after waking up...

When I got up to sit I felt like I had a tornado inside my head!

I couldn't focus well and my upper half was burning hot and my lower half was freezing!

Sheesh!

Mommy said to take 1 Panadol tablet to make me feel better and it worked after 1/2 and hour or so!

Thank you Panadol!


~K

Just yesterday...

Remember when we did ____ ?

That's what happened yesterday when Swathy and her cousin came over to play at my house.

Remember when we used to be so close with Johnathan, Mei Yee, Kasevi and Karthik?

We would play Ice and water, Freeze, AEIOU, Marco Polo, Hop scotch (If it was just the girls around...) and more...

Since the beginning of this year we haven't seen let a long PLAYED with J, M, K and K!

We wanted to play EVERYTHING we did last time today...

We started off with Marco polo.
One of my favourite games!

AEIOU then Our own version of hop scotch!

We played till the sky was dark...
Just like the old times :)
I had a fun time...
If only everyone was here...

~K

A fun and messy day!

Just another day at home...

Cakin' doing nothing much...

Yawn..!

I know this post has yet to sound like the title...

Just wait a bit will ya?!

Call YOU an impatient grumpy person :)

I just finished covering tier #3 with red fondant (Took me ages took make and LOADS of Wilton red food coloring! Oh yes I wanted to tell you this too: After 1 year and 3 months of cake decorating I just finished my very 1st err tiny container? of Wilton RED food coloring! Wow! It took me THAT long to actually finish it! FYI It is the first one I have finished!)

Here was my first try at cake decorating!
(No not baking... You could say I have been bakin' for quite some time!)
You sure you wont laugh?!

OK here...



So after covering my cake and painting it there was some left over cornflour left on my FAVOURITE 'Sugar Impressions' non-stick mat!

I wanted a bit of a rest before piping and preparing the RI (Royal icing!) for the cake...

I played around with the corn flour and Wilton red coloring+water...

I made goop!

I made it before but I just wanted to play with it AGAIN!
It is such a fun thing to play with!

I showed it to Fai and Han (They were watching TV)...

I said: Guys lookie here! I made goop! (Smiles...) Wanna have a goop WAR...?!
Boys: YEAHHH!! Woohoooooo!

I made more gloop for the war...

GLOOOOP WAR!





It is funny how serious caking became GLOOOOP war!

After our gloop war we collected the gloop from the floor (Yeah, we are rather gross people!)

Adding water when it was dry and just playing around with it...

Mommy asked us to wash the floor when we were done.

We had a water fight after that!

What a fun day...

~K

Birthday parties!

Gosh! I am SUPER tired out!

Everything started at 5 p.m or so yesterday...

My cousin's from Ipoh were here (Staying at our house!) in KL to celebrate their 2nd and 4th birthday!

You could say that I was pretty bored that afternoon because I completed the 2nd tier of my wedding cake and couldent start on the 3rd tier yet because I didnt have any fondant to cover it with!

I decided to make 1 mini cake each for my cousin's birthday party that will be held in Sakura restaurant the next evening (Today.).

Since they liked dogs I decided to make them a doggy birthday cake!

I was REALLY new at making dogs because I have never NEVER EVER made a single fondant/gumpaste dog before!

I thought to my self...
Hmm... It wouldent be TOO bad... I mean I can making teddies, elephants, rabbits... Why not dogs?!

So as usual I drew my cake plan out mentally...
(I only draw my cake plan out physically if it is complicated one!)

So this one was just going to be...
A nice simple doggy cake!
Nothing more nothing less...

Somethign that I could complete in a days time!

Mental plan:

Nigel: Blue cake, blue dog, blue kennal...

Katrina: Pink cake, pink dog, pink kennal...

Simple enough!

Lets start workin'!

Everything was going according to plan my timing and speed until...
I started with the legs!

UGH!

The first doggy I made was the pink doggy for Katrina and I wanted it laying down on the ground and playing with a ball...

I needed to crack my head finding out how to make the doggy look as if it was holding the ball with it's paws not as though it is in walking position but holding the ball...

I do a mentally big HUGE dinosuar RAWWWWRRRRR!





Ok found a silution to that and now for the hind legs...

That I not only needed to crack my head but ALSO my brains!!

Now I not only have to do the leg which is rather simple now...
I have to make that hind leg like a drumstick mixed with a paw...

This is one COMPLICATING dog!

After lots of cutting, bending and shaping the fondant I finally got it!

Whew!

I rolled out some brown gumpaste (It is the strongest 'paste' that I can use in my house becasue pastilage actually MELTS in my house! Can you believe that?! But well I am not sure what brand you use but the one I got from my Squire's kitchen diploma course does!!) to make the sides of the dog kennal.




Some blue for Nigel's roof and pink for Katrina's...

I made 2 pink and 2 blue dog food and water bowls after that...

The dog food was little round brown bolls inside the doggy bowl and the water was glucose!

After our dinner I started my baking...

The next morning= Carving the cake+crumb coating+Fondant-ing!

Before going to Sakura for the dinner birthday party we had to go for another birthday party at Melia hotel...

It was a cowboy themed party!

Yee-haw!!

It was one of my Dad's Rotary friend's son's 1st (I know there are LOTS of 's LOL!) birthday...

If I tell you more about this party youwill get too bored so it is not worth mentioning...

I liked the part where me got free cow boy hats, guns and bandanas!

Dressing up me and my brothers was fun!

Ok Sakura time!

It was a rather typical family gathering...

Nothing THAT interesting but meeting up with family was fun :)

I need to get on with today's post!

~K

Super ice!

On wednesday I visited Mamamin's studio and bought a tub (2.5 KG) of 'Super ice' at RM 50.00..

Mamamin told me that it is instant RI (Roayl icing.).
No sifting or adding merengue powder needed!
I am really NOT sure how this 'Super ice' hardens because there is 0% merengue in the powder mixture!

The no sifting part gave me a SHOCK!
I was SO used to sifting my icing sugar/powdered sugar/confectioner's sugar at least 10 times for my string work/ extension work and such...!

It would save me TONS of time making RI if this REALLY worked that well!

I will be trying this 'Super ice' (It is made in Italy!) out today because I am running low on my stringwork stiff consistansy RI!

PLEASE work!

~K

P.S i am done with tier #2! Hooray!

My evening...

Somehow I was just thinking on what to 'name' this post...
I decided to go with 'My evening' rather than 'My evening at the playground/park' hmm...
I don't find titles very important in my blog somehow!

After caking and having early dinner Mommy decided to go to the playground...
I agreed because I needed some fresh air and I have been cooped up in the house caking and FB-ing the entire day!

Filled up our water bottles and we were ready to go!

I passed my water bottle to Eanny just for fun because he looks so cute (Well extra cute because he ALWAYS looks cute... Well unless he is grumpy or crying...) while holding it...

He walked around the porch going 'Walk walk walk! Walk walk!' and I said Person pants (That is his name of the day!) come back here! You need to wear your shoes before you go walk walk!

He did his cute little run and said 'Oose oose! Oose!' (It mean shoes FYI.) and picked up his shoes and passed it to me to wear it for him...

I said 'Chor chor (It means sit in some Chinese dialect...) Fluffy headed!'. (Another name he has... He must be a mixed up name person..)
He simply wouldn't sit on the porch! I wonder why... So I carried him on to the bench that was half way around the world to wear his stinky 'Oose' for him!

On the way out of the house Mr fluffy headed person pants spotted some loose bits of tar on the porch and said 'Cat emm emm! Cat emm emm Che che!' (Emm emm= Poop and Che che= Big sister AKA me.) I looked at it and I told him 'Eanny fluff it is TAR not cat emm emm!' and Ean replied by looking up to me with that question-y face and going 'Che che! Cat emm emm!'!
My goodness!

I held his hand and he held 3 of my fingers (He used to be able to hold only one!) and we walked to the playground...

A few doors away Puffy Fluff spotted a dog and stared with it with wide open eyes, pointed and said 'DOG!'!
I think he froze a bit...
He isn't much of a doggy person.
Ean and Han are cat people they don't like dogs much...

When we reached the playground I took the water from Eanny and then he looked at me with that frowning eye brows question-y face (Again!) and said 'Hold!'.
I passed it to him.
He was happy once more.

He ran through the basket ball/foot ball court with that floppy happy I-got-the-water bottle look!
Cute cute cute...

He finally put his err I mean MY water bottle down when Mommy told him to put it with the rest of the Kor kor's (Elder brothers=Fai and Han.) water bottles he gladly placed it right next to the rest of the water bottles and trotted of with a wide grin (Water bottle carrying job well done!) to the tunnel slide.

While I was off Eanny duty I ran to the swing! (Swings and monkey bars are some of my favorite things at playgrounds!)
I like swinging when I had a very tiring/troubled/grumpy/sad (Negative emotions/feelings.) day because when I swing I feel as though I am swinging away the negative feelings and thoughts...
The wind gushing pass your face helps as well to wake you up!
Ahh... I felt much less tired after swinging!

After a while the mosquitoes attacked and we had to run for our life the the other bigger playground...

When we reached the bigger playground I felt horrible-y hungry (And I just had my dinner!) and was not in much of a mood to play...
So it was bug Mommy for food time!

bug...
Bug...
BUg...
BUG...
BUG BUG..
BUG BUG BUG.
BUG BUG BUG BUG!
BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG!!
BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG!!!

Hooray! I won! Mommy couldn't take it anymore!
We went to 'Sun Raj Curry House' for supper...

We stopped by 'Petaling store' to get some ice cream!
Yum yum yum!

We ordered fresh fried chicken all round.
I had 1 Roti canai and Mommy had her Tosai.

Me and the boys were still hungry after that so we ordered 1 Paper tosai!

I was on Eanny duty again!

We looked at some food... the elephant god in the fountain and then at the cook/chef making our Paper tosai in the kitchen!

It came not long after...

It finished in a blink of an eye!

The boys wanted another, so did I!

We ordered another...

I told the boys that what I saw through the food passing (From the kitchen to the waiters) portal was quite interesting...

The boys followed me to the food passing portal AKA a hole in the wall!

We saw Roti canai, Tosai, Chapatti and Maggi goreng being made before our Paper tosai.

Here is how the paper tosai is made:

Take A LOT of Tosai batter 9More than the normal Tosai.) out.
Pour it on that HUGE flat frying pan... Wait frying table!
Swirl it out...
Let it cook abit.
Use a scrapper and SCRAP the tosai!
Add loads of margarine and sugar!
Cut with the scrapper at the half point but not all the way, half way.
Roll it into a cone and...
TA-DAH!
Your Paper tosai!

On the way back home I stepped on a drunken (I assume so. There were tons of beer bottles around him!) taxi driver's hand (He was sitting on the floor and it was dark!)...
I was wondering WHY the floor was SO soft and then I found out I was stepping on some one's hand! Ugh!
I apologized and ran away as fast as I could!
LOL

~K