Lien & Craig's Wedding Cake

I'm just about done packing for my trip so decided to spend some time blogging before I leave for two and a half months. Firstly I have to say God is good! Lien and Craig's wedding cake turned out amazing! With every cake that I do I learn something different. I think making this cake was one the "easiest" in a sense that there were no big problems making it like my sponge cake turned and had enough ingredients.. only made sam make a sugar run lol... only thing was transportation that was hard! Especially when I drive a bug and the seats are stuck and can't be folded down.. So last minute i had to scramble to find someone with a car cuz at first i was going to drive Sam's Rav4 but he took it into get it repaired an forgot to tell him earlier that i needed to use it..anyways Pam Tran and Dawn came to my rescue lol.. God really taught me to appreciate the friend's I have =) ... it was really fun having them there to help me and had a mini trip to Starlight Kirin ... LOL we also had a sign on the back of Pam's car that says Cake on Board =) and there was this one guy that drove beside us and gave us thumbs up! LOL that was nice.

I think my favourite part about making cakes is that when you deliver it to the wedding and place it in the decorated restaurant everything just comes together.. its like WOHHh it all fits..all the planning and everything and this is the day that the couple gets married.. it makes me really happy..All the wedding cakes i've made so far the colour scheme matches perfectly! like for this cake Lien told me purple.. but purple can really be any shade... i spend quite a long time mixing colours and needing the fondant to find something that looked "right" .. when we brought it to the restaurant the purple matched exactly with all the decorations! I think that is so cool not cuz im good at guessing the colour but i think it's a God thing! hahaha ppl must think im crazy... but anyways OH ya that day in the morning before they wedding my name cards were done printing so that was perfect too!

now that this is all done im just so excited for my trip now.. im ready to relax, have fun, see the world, and just be inspired, and be even more in awe of God.... i can't wait for what is in store

Aaron's Sushi Cake

I'm finally updating my blog it's been a while...anyways a lot has happened since last time, Sam's back home,  and there was the Sharing Hope Benefit Concert that was a success and a lot of fun. I quit the Saint Germain job because I'm leaving in a week to Asia!!! Man it is going to be the first time traveling that long with a bunch of friends and with Paul... i can't wait!! But before I leave will also be doing one more wedding cake this summer for Andrea's sister Lien and her fiance Craig. I should be starting right now but I guess I wanted to blog about my last cake before my next.Their wedding is this Friday so come back and see my next blog about that cake.. I'm sure there will be some sort of cake story LOL

There is an interesting story about this sushi cake.. At first when Tessa asked if i could make a cake for Aaron I said i couldn't because I was really busy with work but then for some odd reason I got the friday before his birthday off . it was really a God thing when things just work out cuz i've been working on friday's for the whole summer. The idea of the sushi cake came about at Shauna's Party. I remembered the week before the cake at Isaac's birthday was a Hamburger from T&T so I asked Tess and Elaine what was Aaron's favourite food..and of course it was sushi! This was another group effort cake where Tess, Gloria, and Elaine helped with the fondant work. Ya!

So inside is a chocolate cake.. we brushed the white fondant with a little coffee syrup to make it look like wood.. for the sushi pieces we cut out rounds of cake and covered it with fondant..we used a variety of ingredients to make different effects.. shredded coconut, matcha powder, different food colours ect. everything is edible except the chop sticks. I'm really happy that Aaron really loved it!!

I love grocery shopping

I went to go get groceries after work today at Superstore. I was so excited when i drove by and it said NO TAX EVENT TODAY!! I ended up walking around for about 2 hours just checking stuff out... I was looking for OFF that isn't in the pressurized spray cans for my trip but couldn't find any... also was looking for the old fashion Vaseline that come in the tubs but couldn't find that either.. another thing i wanted but couldn't find was those rice papers that you make salad rolls with!

I did get a lot of other things tho like milk, oj, veggies, lentils, yogurt, plums, chips!, wings, onions, mmmm oh ya ice cream, mini indian egg plants, vermicelli noodles, frozen lasagna ... when i grocery shop i think about what i want to cook...thinking of making cream of couliflower soup, lentil soup, green curry, and salad rolls sometime within the next few weeks... the frozen lasagna is when i dont feel like cooking and when im craving something cheesy...i went to the self check out and forgot to use my coupon for the ice cream! LOL i also think self check outs aren't so good if you have lots of produce cuz you don't know the codes and i think i chose a bunch of wrong items that were more expensive.. for example i bought yams but there was a button for larger or small yams.. lol i didn't know which one mine were cuz it was sort of medium so i picked large and i think it was more expensive then i remember on the sign... also it seemed like on sale items didn't have the right price at the self check out... so i think i paid more than i suppose to on some items... now i know next time even though it is faster ill go to the other cashier... lol i only saved like 48 cents from the no tax event cuz i just bought food..i thought there would be more of a difference.. good marketing superstore

this is such a random post about my shopping trip.. anyways i love grocery shopping......when i got home i made oven baked buffalo wings, also made spinach dip with low fat yogurt.. i steamed my spinach this time cuz i was thinking about school and how if you boil a lot of nutrients are lost.. so i steamed..... and i had microwaved frozen corn kernels cuz i was thinking about the corn cups you can get at the night market...that was how i spent my time after work

Happy Forever 21 Cake

This weekend I got to make two cakes for Elaine <3 This is one of them a strawberry shortcake covered with fondant and cutout flowers.

Pandan Cake

After working all day in the bakery today..went for dinner with my parents and family friends and for some reason while we were driving home i really wanted to make pandan cake! really miss it and you can't really find good pandan cake here... i tried the T&T kind before and i was so disappointed on the amount of artificial pandan flavour they put in it...it tasted horrible.. so today i was determined to make some good pandan cake..from the real pandan leaves!

So i started off first by blending around 10 or so pandan leaves with my inversion blended with a little bit of water to get it started..you can't get it fresh here so you have to buy frozen pandan leaves....it still has some aroma but of course not as good as the real stuff back in Asian... anyways i love the inversion blender by they way (thanks to my awesome friends who got it for me last birthday).. i use it for everything smoothies to soups..whipping cream..and it even came with a food processor attachment.. lol its the Kitchen Aid stainless steel one! i highly recommend it.

anyways back to the sponge cake...so you make like a pulpy slurry of pandan leaves and water..and then you squeeze out the juice... so i thought i could use my usual sponge cake recipe from work and add in the pandan water instead of evaporated milk... then instead of using so many egg yolks i was like ehh ill just use the whole egg..cuz i had egg whites already from a carton... and was lazy to crack and separate all the eggs hahhaha that was probably the first bad idea... i don't even know if you can use those egg whites from a carton in baking..but i did anyways.. in the ingredients it just says egg whites.... then i used self raising flour instead of cake flour... i don't know if that was a bad idea too... then... after i had my batter ready i noticed i forgot to pre heat the oven!... ok already did three questionable things...but i was like meh should be fine.. while it was baking it looked gorgeous was browning nicely and it was risen ..it looked amazing....

4th mistake i opened the oven to check if it was done when for sure it wasn't yet... i was just too anxious... left and came back and saw that the cake sank a little.. it was still looks good... 5th mistake.. didn't really know how long it should take... so after 20mins or so i took it out.. poked it with a cake tester and nothing stuck so thought it must be done.. so i just let it sit to cool in the pan... btw i was using a bunt pan...6th mistake don't think bunt pans are a good choice? i don't really know... then i didn't turn it upside down to cool...everyone knows that when you cook sponge cakes you should turn them upside down.. i don't know why i didnt do it.... soo in the end my pandan cake sank.. it takes like pandan kueh.. lol not pandan cake..its like an eggy pandan kueh... it tastes really good but just not what i wanted!

this shows that even ppl who bake a lot have their days... not everything always turns out the way you want it...and i have so much respect for those aunties that always hang out with my parents for karoke parties that make amazing sponge cakes all the time

after this cake fail i went online to check out other pandan cakes ppl made and came across this awesome blog that will be following now.. so cool that she is from south east asia!!
http://pickyin.blogspot.com/2011/03/pandan-chiffon-cake.html

man i know what i did wrong... i just under cooked it ...cuz i just tried this other part i made in a smaller pan cuz it didnt fit all in one bunt pan.. and it tastes light and fluffy! sigh

Passion & the Food Industry

"if you don't have passion then what's the point"

sometimes I loose heart and really question having a career in the food industry and doing the whole cake thing ..is this really a passion of mine?.. or do i just do it cuz i have experience and am not bad at it?

remember those questionnaires back in CAPP where you write down where you see yourself next year, five years, ten years from now? ..I wish I knew where that was to see what I wrote down before LOL.. cuz if you asked me now where i see my self next year..or 5.. or 10 years from now.. i have no idea!

Some possibilities:
Go to VCC for pastry arts
Seminary School
Find a Job
Do a Masters
Go learn Chinese in Asia 
Get married LOL
 
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11 (NIV)

Helen & Keith's Wedding Cake

Over the past weekend I was busy working on Helen and Keith's wedding cake.
It's a chocolate and vanilla layer cake with butter cream and fondant.
The fondant this time actually wasn't the hardest part.. it was assembling and making the cake inside.. i ran into so minor details along the way.. for example running out of oil while i was making then cake! i totally for got to make sure I had enough at home .. that was dumb cuz i already whipped up a batch of egg whites and it had to just wait there..and by the time i got the oil for the rest of the batter those egg whites where flat....and was also having some baking issues lol..wedding cake with one oven isn't so smart.. all in all though i think it worked out...learned a lot from this cake! Thanks Poli for coming over to help me with the fondant...made cutting circles out a lot funner!..At first i put flowers on the top as a topper because wasn't sure if Helen got toppers made...but then found out before the ceremony that she did and we replaced the flowers with those really cute cats! they matched perfectly with the cakes colours....anways i never did get to try the cake though cuz my parents had to leave the wedding already... i hope it tasted as good at it looks! ... lol more than 60 eggs, tons sugar, tons of butter..... in the end i wanted to weight the cake to see how much it weighed cuz it was pretty heavy ..was like 25lbs! hehehe... Praise God for such a beautiful wedding! Congratulations Helen and Keith God Bless <3

more photos are on facebook

http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10150615790780265.674711.680220264