Baking Supplies Store

As mentioned in my previous post on April, there are 2 other brances of ICCA in PJ and Desa Sri Hartamas apart from the HQ in Kota Damansara. You can get cake decorating supplies as well as join one of the many classes or workshops available at all 3 centres. Below are the address and contact details from ICCA website, maps are available there.

Desa Sri Hartamas
Address: No. 8-2, 2nd Floor, Jalan 28/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +603-2300 1869
Fax: +603-2300 1867
Operating Hours: (Mon to Fri) 10 am - 6 pm
                          (Sat) 10 am - 5pm
                          (Sun) Publich Holidays Closed

Section 14, Selangor
Address: 16-B, 1st & 2nd Floor, Jalan 14/20, Section 14, 46100 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Tel: +603-7960 0388
Fax: +603-7960 6833
Operating Hours: Same as Desa Sri Hartamas centre

If you live outside Kuala Lumpur and find these places too far away, you can try the following stores that are probably closer and more convenient for you, some are ICCA distributors according to ICCA's website, but they do not provide Wilton Method Courses:

Best Baking Solutions

(ICCA distributor)

Address: 57, Jalan USJ 8/2B, 47610 Subang Jaya, Selangor.

Tel: +603-5637 6637

Fax: +603-5637 6637

Email: info@bestbakingsolutions.com

Website: http://www.bestbakingsolutions.com/

(Provide basic bakeware and ingredients, price is cheaper than ICCA's. Also conduct baking classes, contact them for more information.)

BAGUS Baking Solutions HQ
(ICCA distributor)
Address: 52, Jalan Ragbi 13/30, Seksyen 13, 40100 Shah Alam, Selangor.
Tel: 03-5511 0688
Fax: 03-5511 0689
Email: enquiry@bagus.com.my
Website: http://www.bagus.com.my
(More branches on their website, provide comprehensive range of cake decorating and baking tools and ingredients, price is also cheaper compared to ICCA's. Check their website for class schedules.)

Bake with Yen
Address: No. 30 & 32, Persiaran Puteri Satu, Bandar Puteri, 47100 Puchong, Selangor.
              (Opposite GIANT Hypermarket, Bandar Puteri)
Tel: 03-8060 1828
Fax: 03-8061 0828
Email: bakewith@gmail.com
Website: http://www.bakewithyen.com/
(More branches on their website, their branch in Petaling Jaya was very much recommended by a friend of mine. Personally, I have not been there, hence I can't comment much on it. They too provide baking supplies as well as classes. Class schedules are available on their website)


Just a little advice on getting to ICCA centres. If you are planning to drive to the one in Section 14, please be warned that it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to find parking spaces there whether on weekdays or weekends, even the residential area nearby is congested with illegally parked cars. Thus, it will be easier if you can get someone to drop you off instead.

Some people think that the branch in Desa Sri Hartamas is isolated and hard to find, although I found it easily the first time I got there with a little help from my faithful servant - Google Map. If you are coming from Petaling Jaya through Sprint Highway, you should drive pass Bukit Kiara Equestrian Park and the National Science Centre until you reach a traffic light junction with a signboard showing 'Desa Sri Hartamas' on the left. Turn left and drive straight down the road and take the 3rd turning on your right (The 1st turning is where Balai Bomba & Penyelamat Sri Hartamas is located, the 2nd turning will take to you to the Korean restaurants area). Drive down the slope and take the 2nd turning on your right. You should be able to see ICCA signboard on the 2nd floor of the building in front of you now. If you know Malaysia International Ving Chun Kung Fu Federation HQ founded by Brandon Chan, ICCA centre is just beside it. There are usually plenty of parking spaces in front.

ICCA is circled in red

Staircase to ICCA on 2nd Floor

Happy Mother's Day 2010

Happy Mother's Day!

It's that time of the year again when I have to struggle to come up with a brilliant idea for mother's day gift. But not this year... not this time... because I already had the greatest plan in mind, just a few days before the big day. I decided to put all my cake decorating skills to good use. That's right! I am going to bake a cake and decorate it myself. 

So what did you do on Mother's Day? Nothing? Shame on you! Come on, don't be afraid to show some loovvveeee... hehe... Ok, I do agree that most people have commercialised this very special day, and the truth is, we should treat our mother like she's special every single day, but...it doesn't mean that we can't give her extra attention and care for just one day to show our appreciation.

To bake the cake, I used Betty Crocker's SuperMoist Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix and ORGANIC strawberry jam (everything is about organic these days) as filling. Yes, i took the shortcut, don't judge me! Cake decorating is a TOUGH job, and the cake was simply deliciouuussss... just like it's name, super moist indeed. I bought it from Village Grocer at Bangsar Village, but I think you can find it in most major grocery stores such as Cold Storage. You can visit their website at http://www.bettycrocker.com/, but I doubt Malaysia carries the full range of their products.

After spending a whole day slaving in the kitchen, this is my final masterpiece. Ta-da!

Isn't it lovely? Simple and nice I would say, I should at least be given credit for my effort and hard work haha...

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.