2nd Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2010

The 2nd Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2010 was held from 18th to 21st March 2010, Thursday to Sunday for 4 consecutive full days. The most exciting part was that we got to ride on the balloon! Without much hesitation, I accepted my friend's invitation when she asked me to join her for the fiesta on Saturday.

Right before we started driving, the sky was filled with foreboding dark clouds. It started drizzling soon but it did not stop us from going as we had already set our hearts on seeing hot air balloons for the first time through this rare opportunity. Armed with our digital cameras, we were ready to do some serious photographing.

Even though the traffic was heavily congested, we were delighted to see many hot air balloons floating across the sky as we approached the venue. It was a beautiful landscape view from the Putrajaya bridge, we began snapping photos incessantly from our car.

The place was packed! The drizzles had not dampened the spirits of enthusiastic participants and everything was up and running as usual. We arrived at around 6.30 pm and according to the itinerary, the programme scheduled was ‘SuriaFM Mini Showcase’. Okay…… whatever that means. The next one was ‘Balloon Fun Fly with Media’, followed by ‘Balloon Area opened to photography’. Great, very clear descriptions…

The queue to ride the balloon was crazily long. I gave up after 20 minutes when the queue did not budge at all.

We were strolling along the path when we spotted this. This looked like fun!

And very pricy too. Then we saw this, which seemed fun too.

Why are all of them kids? Am I too old for this? Haha...
Check out the big blue balloon, can you tell what it is?

It’s a pair of Levi’s jeans haha…

One of the main attractions, Darth Vader! Arrgghhh…….

We were patiently waiting for hours for the hot air balloons to fly, but they did not leave the ground at all. Our hopes were thoroughly shattered when they deflated the balloon at the end of the fiesta after the fireworks. Strange… what good is a hot air balloon if it can’t fly?

This is a must-go event for those who are curious and have not seen a hot air balloon before. I believe it is going to be an annual event. However, there are some drawbacks to the event. If you are lucky, you might be able to catch the short period of time when all the hot air balloons are floating in the sky, like when I first reached there. Forget about the itinerary. Yes, it gives a rough idea of what is going to happen, but you know how vague the description is and things are hardly punctual here anyway. If you want to go on the balloon, you will have to be as hard core as my friends who woke up early in the morning before the sun rose or just patiently wait for hours. Oh, and there is definitely room for improvement for the bazaar and games…

Watch out for the event next year if you missed this one and love hot air balloons or photography, hopefully it will be better. The government may be investing more fund and effort in the future to promote tourism in Malaysia. The official website is at http://www.myballoonfiesta.com/.

The Wilton Method of Cake Decorating Course 1 - 4th Class

GRADUATION DAY!

24th March 2010. On this auspicious day, we had our last class for cake decorating course 1. Before I blog about my final class, I would like to grab this opportunity to thank my instructor, Azalia Zainal for her patience and guidance, and also my classmates for their support along the way sob sob... Now, let's not overeact and get too sentimental ahaha...

My cake was successfully covered with a smoooothhh layer of icing, but my Wilton roses were err... let's just say that I would be very happy and grateful if anyone could even recognize them.

Many of us had been asking this question in the past few classes, how do we do brush striping? As promised, our instructor taught us how to do it. And thus, we could make even more attractive roses.

Then, we had to make sweet peas, bows, leaves and vines on our practise board before we were given time to decorate our graduation cake.

Our final creations. Don't they look impressive? I say they are definitely head turners. Can you spot mine from the picture?

The answer is....

Did you get it right? I must admit that the 2 white roses with red outlines were actually made by my instructor. Yes, I can't possibly make such perfect roses, but I believe with more practise, I can achieve that in no time hehe...

Certificate of completion of the course.

Hope this piece of information help if you are looking for cake decorating classes. I have yet to enrol for course 2, as I want to take a break to absorb and practise on what I have already learnt. Perhaps I might find something else more interesting while I continue to explore other opportunities out there. So stay tune for more action!

The Wilton Method of Cake Decorating Course 1 - 3rd Class

21st March 2010, 11:00 am

Wilton Method Cake Decorating Course 1, 3rd Class

Class 2 Mission Status: So-so

"It's just a piece of cake, it can't be that hard."

That was what I thought when I decided to bake my own cupcakes. But no matter how many recipes I tried or how meticulously I followed the instructions, various baking problems still arised. For instance, the cupcakes tasted horrible, the batter overflowed, texture was too dense, cupcakes shrinked away from the cup etc. In the end, I was able to bake delicious and moist chocolate cupcakes with a very pleasant and sweet aroma. The only flaw was that the surface was not smooth and it shrinked away from the souffle cup. I was relief to later find out in class that the other students faced similar problems. My instructor's advice was to keep trying new recipes until we find the perfect one.

For my 3rd class, I learnt to create shells, star flowers, swirl flowers and the highlight of the day - the Wilton rose.

And then amazingly, using the star tip, my instructor easily made clowns in different poses. It's really simple, but the results are fantastic!

I decorated my cupcakes with all the techniques I have learnt and most importanly my own creativity hehe... Unfortunately, I left them in the car too long and the icing melted. I also smashed it in the container when I was driving, so here are the best pictures that I have. Believe me, it looked way better before the tragedy happened haha... 

Yes, nobody got to leave the class until homework was given. For our last class, we had to prepare a frosted 8 to 9 inches cake along with 6 to 8 roses. I knew I was going to have a tough time making the roses. This might have meant another sleepless nights but it was our last mission, so I told myself I must rise to the occasion! WuHa!

The Wilton Method of Cake Decorating Course 1 - 2nd Class

14th March 2010, 11:00 am 

Wilton Method Cake Decorating Course 1, 2nd Class

Class 1 Mission Status: ACCOMPLISHED

After slogging away for hours until midnight, I managed to frost an 8 inch chocolate cake, bought from a nearby bakery, with class buttercream icing that was prepared by myself. I followed my instuctor's advice but it really was easier said than done, I just could not get the smooth and flawless icing seen on cakes in professional cake shops. The crumbs kept getting in my way and at the end of the day, I had what seemed more like Oreo icing than vanilla. I was too tired to fix the problem, so I brought the cake to class anyway. Surprisingly, my instructor commented that it was ok, except that I should have let the icing crust first to hold the crumbs before I put another layer on top. This method is called crumb coat, don't know why I haven't thought about it.


The 2nd class was more exciting as for the first time we had the opportunity to hold the bags to decorate. We watched our instructor decorated and wrote effortlessly using the star tip and round tip before trying it ourselves on the practise board provided in the studdent kit.

Do not be mistaken, the cute little pink face in the photo below is a work of mine and not the instructor's. :P

After practicing over and over again on a piece of board, the most anticipated moment arrived. We got to to do real decoration on our cakes! Our assigment is to create a Over The Rainbow cake, so we started off by doing piping gel pattern transfer onto the cake.

Now, we would have to fill the rainbow with dainty colourful stars.

Time was ticking really fast especially when you were totally engrossed with something. We had to finish it quickly by 1.30 pm, but ouch! My hand hurt quite a bit after pressing and releasing the bag constantly. According to my instructor, this should not happen, so I was probably not using the right strength.

Ta-da! My 1st precious baby! All the hard work finally paid off... of course I knew that it was only the beginning. For a first-timer rushing frantically for time, I would say that this looks GORGEOUS & DELICIOUS!

Hehe... okok, it is not perfect, but hey, I never thought I would be able to do this, and this was definitely harder than I expected. I will give cake decorators more credit from now onwards haha...

Again, like the previous class, were were given another mission. This time we had to prepare 8 frosted cupcakes and bring 2 clown heads for our next class. Well... a cupcake is much smaller, I supposed this would literally be a piece of cake for me, no problemo... or maybe not?

The Wilton Method of Cake Decorating Course 1 - 1st Class

Whoa... I have been really busy recently. Nevertheless, my Roaring Tiger Weekends 2010 project has succesfully commenced on March! As you can see, it is already mid-April now, I have so much updating to do for my blog. I have been actively participating in some fun-filled classes. Guess what it is... Yes! I have enrolled myself at ICCA (International Centre of Cake Artistry) HQ at Sunway Damansara, which offers the Wilton Method of Cake Decorating Course.

I registered for Cake Decorating Course 1 - Discover Cake Decorating which costs me RM 550 for 4 lessons. I chose to have the classes on 4 consecutive sundays from 11 to 1.30 pm, which is the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of March, as the other options fall on weekdays afternoon.

On our 1st class, we were all given a Wilton book and a student kit comprising of decorating tips, bags, spatula, brush etc.

There were about 11 students in the class. The 1st class was easy and rather boring as it mainly involved theory, but I can assure you that the following classes were all challenging hands on training. My instructor, Azalia Zainal started the class by introducing us to the fundamentals of cake decorating such as the recipe for class buttercream icing, icing consistency, decorating bag position and pressure control. She then did a little demo on preparing and icing the cake, and made some simple decorations on the cake.

 

Now here comes the best part, before we left the class, we were told to bring an 8 inches cake, frosted with buttercream icing for our next class. That was when I thought oh dear... I am on my own now...

If you are interested in joining ICCA, their contacts are as follows:

Address:

Wisma ICCA,

1, Jalan PJU 5/15,

Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia

Tel: 03-6140 8835
Fax: 03-6142 1501
E-mail: inquiry@2decoratecakes.com

Operating Hours:
Mon to Saturday : 10am - 8pm
Sunday : 10am - 5pm
P/Holiday : Closed

They have 2 other branches located at Section 14, PJ and Desa Sri Hartamas, KL. You can find more information regarding ICCA centres and classes with location maps on their website. Click here to visit the website.