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...

Swan Lake with Master Kelvin Chua (Vinism Sugarart)

Salam Ramadhan to all my moslem readers, sisters n brothers...maaf diatas segala keterlanjuran kata or gurauan yg over...semuga ramadhan kali ini merupakan Ramdahan yg lebih baik dari yg lepas2 and semuga segala amal ibadah dilakukan dgn penuh keikhlasan...and waktu sahur tadi sempat lah juga ber"tazkirah" to my anak2...peringatn for myself actually...I told them that Ramadhan bukan saja takat tahan lapar and dahaga..kena jaga semua pancaindera...esp mata, telinga and mulut...SO for this month of Ramadhan less TV time for them..can only watch program tertentu sahaja...and it doesn't mean that they can watch an Indonesian drama yg berlatarkan lagu memuji Allah...diantara liriknya yg selalu I dengar..Allahhuakbar..Allah Maha Besar..bila dengar lirik tu mesti kita sangka yg plot movienya pun bercirikan keislaman...nope..this movie penuh dgn adengan yg tk sepatutnya ada dlm sebuah keluarga islam..pergaulan bebas..berpelukan n the worst thing pakaiannya semua sexy...maybe penerbit ingatkan kita penonton bodh yg boleh dibodohkan begitu sahaja...Told them to jaga mulut juga...jgn cakap benda yg tak baik..jgn bergaduh especially. As for telinga , tak boleh dengar bend yg tak baik....straight away my smallest daughter tutup kedua telinganya..when I ask her why...selamba aje dia jawab..."kan ibu suruh tutup telinga"...duhh..gitu pula fahamnya...Well, apapun marilah kita semua berazam utk menjaga ibadah puasa kita dgn sebaik2nya dan semuga ia berterusan hingga selepas Ramadhan..

As I had promised in my previous entry, this entry will be about my royal icing class ...The Swan Lake taught by Kelvin Chua...a very talented artist in cake decorating...I guess ...maybe he is the best local artist. All of his works are very different..tenguk sahaja dah tahu...it belong's to KC..His creations are so unique and detail...pls do visit his blog..which is under my listing..Vinism Sugarart and definitely u will be amazed with all his creations...By the way, dia baru aje balik dari London..segala ilmu diperolehi dari London..This swanlake class cost me RM999 but memang berbaloi..tak ada regret pun. His class was super excellent and to those yg serious in cake decorating can consider going for his class..banyak petua and panduan menghias kek yg diajar ..memang berbaloi sgt..



As the title said...it is a swan lake class..so mesti ada swan ...and sepasang pula..sp this is the 3rd version of my swan..and different technique...teringat pula kata2 KC..these swans can only be found in France during summer at one particular lake...well..that was his joke...yup...the class were full with laughters..Senang aje nak buat swan ni...cuma just to make sure nampak flows of the wings n yg paling distinguish sekali lehernya...It has to be properly bentukkan..or else it will jadi leher itik yg panjang.


This class is all about royal icing piping techniques..2 days intensive class..and we were thought from the basic to advance techniques..and utk class project kami diajar untuk construct gazebo from scratch..just bayangkan hanya dgn menggunakan royal icing dan nozzle no 1 we were asked to dirikan sebuah gazebo..mcm impossible kan..but tak mustahil....bila siap hasilnya memang terpegun...but sebelum tu all the hardwork first..In order to construct this gazebo..we had to study the binaan and sokongan first..siap dgn dasar and tapaknya...semua plan harus dilukis satu persatu...dari tapak...dinding and atapnya..and setiap lakaran mestilah diukur dengan teliti...ha..ha..ha..itu theory...in the class we were given all the layouts and plan...everything was done by KC...Sebelum mula lukis lakaran dgn super ice...we have to gam kan satu persatu kertas surih diatas lakaran yg hendak dilukiskan...and then only we piped the super ice on the top of it..and make sure kertas yg digunakan adalah kertas surih/parchment paper yg elok or else susah hendak ditanggalkan...which mean hasil kerja kita akan mudah patah bila hendak ditanggalkan. Proses lakaran dgn superice senang sahaja, tetapi mengambil masa untuk kering...in our weather normally it takes about two weeks to dry...so dari gambar diatas u can see satu persatu binaan gazebo..semuanya merupakan kepingan gula kering and very2 fragile.


Selepas semuanya kering, barulah kepingan2 yang terlalu fragile tersebut boleh dicantumkan ..memang kena handle very nicely...pada mulanya rasa memang macam mustahil..but ibarat kata..bersatu teguh..bercerai roboh...sebenarnya bila sudah dicantumkan ia akan menjadi structure yg "kuat"...Teknik percantumannya harus dilakukan dgn penuh berhati2 and dilekatkan dgn menggunakan gum glue dari super ice juga...



Memang excited bila gazebo dah siap...semua "lubang" harus ditutup dgn royal icing melalui hiasan tambahan so tak nampaklah sebarang kecacatannya...yup memang begitulah dlm dunia hiasan kek..jgn takut or panik bila terdapat sebarang kecacatn..gunakan kreativiti kita utk cover sebarang kecacatan yg ada...just do not panic...


Actually dlm gazebo ni I plan to buatkan pancuran air..but the thing is..tak sempat kering..so letakkan seekor butterfly kecil...Actually banyak kepingan sturcture i yg tak sempat kering...ha..ha..ha..ini semua disebabkan I was down with bad flu..infact waktu my first class...50% of the time I was sneezing non stop..habis aje class..terus tidur dlm kereta..and sampai sahaja diMelaka terus pergi klinik...And ditambah pula dgn satu projek "istimewa" I yg harus disiapkan..I will post it right away after this entry...special project yg menggunakan teknik piping royal icing..practical..tapi buat benda lain..bukan buat homework....



So here are the pictures of my swan lake project...notice the 2 big butterflies...semuanya dibuat dgn royal icing sahaja...and subhanallah memang cantik sangat..dah tak lagi terfikir nak buat butterfly dgn menggunakan mould...


And these are hasil kerja semua student...and also a group photo...KC is the only guy in the picture..and mesti ramai yg kenal dgn Mama Min yg memang famous dgn naughty cakes and figurines alaDebbie brown..she is the one yang duduk paling kanan sekali....a very fun and bubbly lady...sedikit pun tidak sombong...and gambar ini diambil di class kami iaitu studio Mama Min di Damansara Perdana..a very lovely and homey studio..wish that one day i will be able to have a studio like this...


Well..my hasil tangan tidak dibawa pulang ke Melaka..if u guys go to Mama Min's studi..my artwork is being displayed there...All in all..it was an exciting class...and by the way..mesti ramai yg nak tahu..berapa harga kek yg begini...mesti terperanjat..one tier cake like this is priced RM1000..due to the intricate work..bukan senang nak buat....ambil masa..and kena banyak2 sabar...Akhir kata...semuga ramadhan ini bukan ramadhan yg terakhir buat kita dan semuga amal ibadah kita lebih baik dari tahun yg sudah2...and ingat..puasa bukan setakat menahan lapas dahaga...semua anggota kita harus berpuasa juga...sampai jumpa lagi dilain entry..semuga iman kita bertambah pada bulan yg tersangat mulia ini...amin