Gorgeous Cupcakes Workshop

Before...

After...

Icing designs

'Cupcake ladies'

Looking Pro...

100% concentration...

Cupcakes are such a treat to bake, but ‘dressing’ it up with pretty royal icing is even more fun.

In this workshop, I had a group of eager ladies who don't really have much baking experience, but they sure look pro in the kitchen. We started with baking the vanilla cupcakes, a simple recipe that requires very little effort and is almost fail-proof.

Once the cupcakes are in the oven, the ladies launched into serious piping mode. Royal icing is one of the easiest icing anyone can make. I tainted the snow white icing with different food colours for our cupcake artists to start their design work. We practised making mini piping bags, filled it with icing and started to pipe enthusiastically.

The kitchen became silent... The ladies were really focused on designing their cupcakes. Well, see the end results for yourself. We have flower gardens, mini mazes, green forest, dainty dots and even Bart Simpson’s hair-do! I think they all look too gorgeous or cool to eat.

Another blissful baking session... ;)

No Baking Please?...

No Baking Please.... is a workshop designed for chocolate dessert lovers who doesn’t own an oven, whisk or an apron. There aren’t any serious baking skills required in this class, however a strong will to resist licking whisk or spoons is probably an advantage.

The 3 recipes- Rich chocolate mousse, Dark chocolate cups and caramel crunch are very simple, fast to make and most importantly ‘fail-proof’. These delightful treats are low in sugar but still pack a strong chocolaty kick as 70% dark chocolate is one of the key ingredient. The caramel crunch is a simple 2 ingredients recipe which gives any cake/dessert a classy designer look.

I had a bunch of bubbly gals in this workshop. My dear sister, Meiru and her best pals were some of the participants. Meiru is somewhat clueless about baking as my mum can only ‘tolerate’ one serious baker in her tiny kitchen. I finally had a chance to bake with little sister! It’s really enjoyable to bake with people you love.

I must say i was pretty surprised when Meiru and her pals were attentive and serious in the kitchen (i had expected lots of ‘giggling’ and blur blunders). Eventhough there were some active spoon lickers in the class, they did a great job and the desserts turned out looking real fine.

We even extra time to enjoy the rich chocolate mousse with a pot of camomile tea while waiting for the chocolate crunch cups to set in the fridge. I felt a sense of achievement after seeing the gals leave with more confidence on baking. My duty of nurturing budding bakers is definitely a success in this workshop!

Ps: It’s probably not ‘ethical’ for any teacher chef to comment on their student’s aprons, but I just can’t help it this time...

The “Most Daring Apron Award” goes to Ms Jiang Meiru. The “Most Original Apron Award” goes to Miss Tan (name deliberately changed to protect identity) for wearing her maid’s unwashed apron.

What's Smart Baking?

1. Simple baking
This starts from the recipe. There shouldn’t a tedious 20 ingredients list or steps to get to the final product. Having to plough through every supermarket aisle to buy ingredients then prepare and weigh 20 ingredients is quite a task. If it takes more than 10 steps to get to the final product, it’s too complicating...the chances of me baking this recipe more than twice will be minute. It’s definitely more enjoyable to bake recipes that are deliciously simple and fast.

2. Blissful baking
We don’t always have to leave a trail of mess or an overflowing sink after baking. There are many tricks in my chef hat to make baking enjoyable and hassle free. I love sharing shortcuts, tips and smart ideas on how to make baking a breeze. Being able to enjoy the process of baking makes it a ‘sustainable hobby’.

3. Healthy baking
This is me in my nutritionist mode- I love collecting recipes that taste fabulous and doesn’t go straight to the hips. That’s why i spend loads of time ‘discerning’ then creating healthier version of many all time favourites. I will share many of these ‘healthier’ recipes in my workshops.
I simply have to spread this love!

Smart Baking Demo and Hands-on workshops are held on most weekends.
Demo workshops will include:
- demo of 2-4 recipes
- recipe handouts
- tasting of final product and drinks to enjoy your treat with
- a sweet treat to bring home

Hands-on workshops will include:
- demo of 2-3 recipes
- quality ingredients, equipment and recipe handouts
- group hands-on session
- tasting of final product and a freshly brewed cuppa to enjoy your treats with
- tupperware because there’ll be some treats to bring home

If you need to more info about the workshops, pls email me at sylvia_kang@hotmail.com
Here are some pictures of the actual bake-site, it’s air-conditioned and fully equipped for Smart baking!

Naughty Cakes

The "Bare' Stage


'Top down' view


Side view


Frontal view


Here's happy Keith, dressed in his smart office attire and fixing my pipes


I’m happy to share about my naughty cakes. Some cakes are ‘naughty by nature’ (ie; high in calories) and some just looks naughty.

This Bikini Birthday cake was customised for my interior designer Keith. What can i say...cheeky cakes for cheeky mates ;)

I first started with making a basic chocolate sponge that’s moist and firm enough for sculpting. I have the chocolate sponge sandwiched with lush dark chocolate ganache and placed in the fridge to get ready for ‘carving’ (chilled cakes are easier to carve). The torso is ‘carved’ out from a cake baked in a square tin and the ‘assets’ are carved from round bottom moulds. I used simple white non-dairy whipped frosting to ice the cake as Keith has pretty strong objections on icing the ‘body’ with dark chocolate ganache... he prefers ‘white’ babes.

There are others ways to cover the cake, for example marzipan or gum paste which have a dough-like consistency and can be rolled to a thickness ideal for covering the cake. The bikini is made with whipped cream icing tainted with pink colour and ‘laced’ with colourful silver beads.





This other cake is a 2 tier chocolate mud cake made for a children’s party. I think the unwritten rule for all children cake is that it has gotta be colourful and captivating. I have carefully placed chocolate Hersey kisses, walnuts and sugar beads sparsely around the cake just before the dark chocolate ganache sets. It’s such a simple deco but the result is awesome.
Any new baker can deco the cake in less than 5 minutes, no worries!

The 1st Smart baking workshop

I conducted the 1st official Smart baking workshop last Saturday. We had a great time baking all things chocolate.

The aroma of dark chocolate mud cake and brownies filled the entire kitchen, i guess that's why everyone of us ladies felt a sense of serenity and bliss. All of us enjoyed the stress-free baking and some of us even have time to strike a pose for some photos.

Once the treats were out of the oven, we enjoyed them with a cuppa. What a heartwarming day!

Let the pictures do the talking...