The dance of the peacock - Part 3

Salam buat semua...well, it had been a tiring day...sepanjang hari menyiapkan cupcake..20 cuppies but mengambil masa sehari suntuk untuk disiapkan ..,tupun belum siap 100%..Maybe ada yg hairan..kenapa cupcake yg kecil tu mahal harganya...It's because...semakin kecil cupcake tu semakin rumit and leceh untuk membuat hiasannya...i'm talking about fondant cupcakes..not buttercream cuppies...if buttercream, i believe it will take much lesser time...Sebab tu personally I prefer to decorate big cakes....tak leceh and tak rumit...Just imagine nak mengulit satu persatu hiasannya....ooohhh memang memenatkan...20 cuppies with 20 different designs...walaupun begitu, I really enjoy doing it..I always feel guilty just to do simple design for my customer...Every customer is very special to me..so seboleh2nya I prefer to buat customize design..and one design for each customer...and setakat ni alhamdulillah..no repeat design lagi...

Ok, sementara ada kesempatan ni..let us forget about cupcake and sambung semula about my experience sewaktu Malaysian Wedding Cake Competition ..let us talk about the peacock...AS i had mentioned earlier..I wanted everything to be in 3D dimension...and had to be from royal icing..and di pipe dgn menggunakan nozzle no 1 sahaja...I was so determine to do it sehalus yg mungkin and kalau boleh nak saja gunakan nozzle no 0 or 00 but disebabkan kesuntukan masa terpaksa guna nozzle no 1. As for royal icing..I used superice and memang banyak superice yg digunakan in creating this peacock. As you can see..all the small feathers were glued to the body and tidak melekat dibadannya untuk menampakkan kesan 3D...Mesti ada yg nak tahu mcm mana nak buat benda ni...It's so easy..what u have to is to lakarkan template corak yg diingini diaas kertas...as for these feathers..satu corak sahaja I gunakan. Normally people will pipe the royal icing on grease paper...tunggu benar2 kering baru dicabutkan dgn menggunakan spatula yg paling halus....but I found a way which is much easier and less time consuming and less mudarat...ha..ha..ha..Less mudarat sewaktu hendak mencabutnya dari kertas..silap2 boleh patah ketika mengalihkannya..What I did is..I gunakan kepingan plastik..plastik transparent yg biasa dijual dikedai..tapi yg licin...So I tampal plasti tu diatas cake board...and letakkan lakaran dibawahnya...So pipekan aje terus mengikut corak lakaran kita..it will dry so fast and bila hendak dicabutkan lakaran tersebut..just pull away the plastic and it will take few seconds....less hassle and kurang risiko untuk patah. Rasanya hundreds juga I pipekan these small feathers..



Proses untuk melekatkannya ke badan adalah proses yg paling mencabar...coz it had to stand tidak boleh terus melekat kebadan. Kena tunggu benar2 kering baru buat yang lain..and silap sikit boleh patah...Seluruh badan burung was covered with these small feathers..and bahagian paling mencabar ialah dibahagian dada..coz had to ditampalkan mengikut alunan bentuk dada...bukan setakat tampal sahaja...biar nampak beautiful movement of the feathers..




Begitu juga dgn bahagian tengkuknya...setiap bulu dipiped satu persatu..dibiarkan kering and dicantumkan...but design untuk bahagian tengkuk lain dari design bulu badan coz had to sesuaikan dgn bentuk tengkuk yg panjang ...if buatkan bulat2 nampak hodoh pula kan...Actually sebelum buat the whole design for this peacock..I belek satu persatu gambar peacocks..study the pattern, the flows and etc..etc..etc.etc..ha...ha..ha..mcm king mongkut pula dlam filem King and I ..etc..etc...etc...etc...Ok sorry termelalut pula,..but I love that movie.


OK..back to peacock...Yup, lots of reseach on peacocks had been done for this project..and from there i baru tahu rupanya ada white peacock and it's known as albino peacock...So I guess mine can be called the golden albino peacock...Well have to stop..coz have to get ready for my wedding cake project pula... a combination of cleopatra and belly dancer ideas...till we meet again..tq for keep on visiting my humble blog..and try to enjoy what we are doing and be ikhlas in everything than only we can see good results..take care...

The dance of the Peacock - Part 2

Salam buat semua..alhamdulillah diberi kelapangan sedikit untuk mengupdatekan blog ini...sewaktu menghilangkan diri buat sementara waktu ada ramai yg bertanya kenapa tak diupdatrekan blog..and that kind of questions really make my day..and ada yg cakap they love to read my celoteh here..syukur alhamdulillah semuga ada diantara paparan disini yg dapt menghiburkan hati and juga memberi inspirasi kepada rakan2 especially to thosse yg baru hendak menjinakkan diri dalam dunia dekorasi kek...to be frank, my personal opinion..being a decorator won't make me kaya raya apalagi di Malaysia dimana ramai lagi yang tidak tahu hendak menghargai seni hiasan kek..to them a cake is still a cake walau macam mana dihiaspun..people sanggup berbelanja ratusan ringgit untuk hiasan hantaran yg mungkin kemudiannya akan dibuang begitu sahaja..but untuk membelanjakan ratusan ringgit untuk kek kahwin amat susah...my wish and maybe harapan kawan 2 decorator yang lain..semuga masyarakat kita makin menghargai hasil seni kami..setiap hasil kerja yg cantik dan lain dari yang lain memerlukan belanja yang tinggi dan juga perlu meluangkan masa yg lebih lama especially bila semua bunga2an dihasillkan manually...sedih juga bila kadang2 dimajlis perkahwinan celebriti terkenal..beria2 diperkenalkan siapa yg mereka pelamin, siapa yg mereka gaun pengantin mereka, siapa yg menyiapkan hantaran...but perasan tak..jarang benar or maybe tidak ada pasangan pengantin yang sudi mengwar-warkan siapakah yang bertanggungjawab menyediakan kek perkahwinan mereka..sedihkan..tapi tak apalah. Kepada rakan2 decorator jadikan lah ia sebagai cabaran untuk kita...kita tidak minta disanjung melangit or dipuji berbakul2 but cukuplah kalau waktu menempah mereka tak kata "takkan kek kahwin pun mahal"..yup itu lah hakikatnya..selalu pasangan pengantin mengimpikan kek yg cantik lain dari yang lain..but bila diberitahu harganya..kita pula akan disoal balik "kenapa mahal sangat"...well what to do ..itulah cabaran buat kita untuk meng"educatekan" masyarakat...



Well back to the wedding cake competition..as I had mentioned earlier ..I wanted everything to be 3D and very grand and majestic..so I decided to do a peacock..but the peacock mesti a very grand and proud peacock...but before I introduce my peacock..let me show part of the cakes first...keknya merupakan kek 4 tingkat..the height was very important for me to display the flows of the tails later on...semua bunga dibuat sendir..and since I was very short of time, I decided to do ribbon flowers..which is easy to do..all what u have to do is just to roll the fondant and potong panjang...maybe about 2 inci x 5 inci...kemudian dilipat dua memanjang..but make sure jgn tekan diatasnya..biarkan macam ada gelembung angin..and kemudian digulung sampai habis..so semasa penggulungan tersebut pandai2lah mengubah bentuknya and make sure jgn tertekan sampai flat pula..it's very easy. As for the color..mesti ramai yg dah dapat agak warna apa yang I akan pilih..yup..definitely gold..Ada yg tanya kenapa I tak pilih warna biru, hijau..warna merak..Hmm..I just need my artpiece to attract people's attention from far..and definitely gold and white are the best colors...By the way..actually from my readings...or maybe u all notice...we do not need lots of colors on wedding cakes...2 or 3 colors should be enough and if we decide to have more colors..the additonal colors should compliment the base color. So I guessed I used hundreds of these flowers..dari pada saiz kecil hingga saiz yg besar...penat juga tapi taklah sepenat buat kuntuman ros malas yang selalu I buat...ha..ha..ha...kiranya bunga ni memang amat sesuai dibuat sewaktu emergency or sewaktu kita dilanda sakit malas yg teramat sangat...ha..ha..ha...but janganlah asyik malas aje..sekali-sekala kena rajinkan diri...So seperti selalu..cake tersebut diairbrushkan dengan americolor gold sheen..actually everything was airbrushed...termasuk semua bulu2 peacock..well in order to produce beautiful things memanglah kena buat lebih kerja sikit...actually bukan sikit..banyak....



As for the cake board...I decided to draw feathers on it...Ha..ha..ha..actually ada cerita disebalik cake board ini...and let me share my secret with all of you..Actually my cake board was very uneven...just imagine..tak pernah i cover cake board jadi macam ni...macam tahu2 pula i nak masuk competition..berbagai2 dugaan yg datang...sedih betul tenguk cake board yg buruk...Presentation of cake board is very improtant for all cakes..tak kiralah samada untuk competition ataupun utk tempahan customers...my prinsip..beautiful cakes should come with beautiful cake boards..i really hate to see beautiful wedding cakes on original stupid ugly cake board yg dibeli dari kedai...if kita dah luangkan masa berjam2 and sometimes berhari2 untuk menghasilkan kek yg cantik..kenapa harus dicacatkan dgn cake board yg hodoh...cake board yg hodoh hanya akan mencacatkan hasil kerja kita...just imagine...kita berbaju kurung cantik..siap bersulam..berlabuci lagi...sikitpun kalau boleh kita tak nak ada kedutan dibaju kita...but bila tenguk kak kaki..kita hanya berselipar jepun...ha..ha..ha..some of u might think it looks funny...actually it looks very ugly...so hiaskan lah cake board kita dgn cantik..so berbalik pada cake board I yang dah cacat tu..puas I fikir mcm mana nak buat..then teringat pada Mitch Turner's creation....so base on that...I kata why not I applykan the same technique but my own drawing...so dilukiskan bulu2 burung as if sedang bertaburan...and hasilnya alhamdulillah..infact mendapat pujina dari judges..phew...so to decorator friends jgn panik bila ada kecacatan...mesti ada cara untuk cover semuanya..Guess have to stop here and to be continued soon with more excitements...taaa...salam kasih untuk semua...

The dance of the Peacock - ICCA WEDDING CAKE COMPETITION - part 1

Salam to semua..had been away for a very long time....busy with syawal projects, competitions, demos and orders...and juga menghadapi dugaan2 dari Allah...alhamdulillah, Allah has given me n my siblings the strength..and hopefully iman kami terus kuat untuk menghadapi segala dugaannya...Hopefully masih ada lagi yg sudi singgah di blog ini...Yup talking about competitions..I joined two competitions...cupcake competition in King Hin Melaka..my first ever competition..alhamdulillah was the champion..but it was a dissapointing competition..tak payah lah i beritahu kenapa...The second competition was the ICCA wedding cake competition..and I only had three weeks to prepare evrything...menggelabah juga dibuatnya coz all my friends dah bersedia sebulan sebelum....oh dear....but lega juga coz I already had something in mind..And apa ye?

Well..since this is my first national competition..i masuk bukan untuk menang ..I just wanna cari pengalaman since I know ramai senior decorators yg akan join..termasuklah my own sifu...Kelvin Chua from Vinism Sugar Art...among others are Shahril...Mad About Cake and my best friends in cake decorating world..Pualine Po Soo...student Calvin Mark, Mama Min...malaysian Debbie Brown.., Liew Man Kwan..the handbag queen, Louis Ng..a very talented young artist especially in novelty cake...tell you all..I was quite nervous actually...But I still wanted to do my best and I just wanted to suprise everybody especially my sifu with my creation...to me winning is not important..the most important thing is how my creation will attract the attention..it needs to be a creation with a WOW FACTOR...Definitely I had to do something different from others...something yg org tak akan buat...and it definitely couldn't be a normal wedding cake...it has to be something totally different..something crazy...and I know I was taking a risk...risk of people kata I gila...ha...ha..ha..memang gila pun kata munchkin I...



I chose Royal Icing as my main medium..and it had to be 3D...everything..tapi apa ye yg I nak jadikan 3D tu...it had to be something yg majestic...the whole thing had to be 3D..the only thing that came to my mind is a peacock...coz of the tail..and the feathers...and ideas of the tail I got it from my MIL's carpet..yup from a carpet...That's me..whenevr I nampak something yg cantik ..I memang really excited and always fikir how to apply on cakes...I just love beautiful designs...bila tenguk corak tu..terus bayangkan how I would do it...and the best thing was...I started to do my work right after sampai rumah my MIL's house ..and it was raya kedua...There was no raya for me..terus keluarkan my artblock, pencils and sciccors...org lain raya..I sibuk lakar idea for my cakes...Ha..ha..ha..bagus punya menantu....but my MIL was very supportive..kept on asking me the progress..I guess I'm a very lucky person...evry family members termasuk ipar duai were also excited about the competition...Maybe u all tak percaya...I was also busy doing all the cuttings for the tail cutouts dalam kereta while temankan my MIL beraya..we were on our way to Ulu Tiram to her brother's house..and thank God ..jalan jam waktu tu..first time in my life..i appreciate jam.......Well had to stop here..hv orders to prepare...will continue updating as soon as possible...with more excitement to share...salam sayang utk semua ;)