Fondant, Gumpaste & Buttercream

I decided this as I was working into the wee hours of Sunday morning.... I like cooking and baking, but I simply love cake decorating.



It all started sometime in the middle of last week when I had a tele conversation with the president of our Kechara House. They were having a booth at the flea market on Sunday at Amcorp Mall and wanted to ask for volunteers to help out, either in terms of money sponsorship, items to be sold or just hard labor. I volunteered to bake some cuppies for them to sell and the president agreed without hesitation. I reckon that in my enthusiasm, I didn't really consider if I actually had the time to do as many cuppies as I intended to... also with limited resources such as only a small electric oven that can only perhaps bake only 9 to 12 cuppies each time, depending on the size of the cuppies and only 1 pair of hands to do the work.



Since I do have a day job and I had my swiss roll class at Melinda's of Apple Kitchen almost the entire Saturday, I realized that I may not really have that much time :(.


Anyways, on Friday night, I started making the fondant and the gumpaste. Stored them in an air tight container and went for a movie with a friend (haha.. still hella confident mah that I can make it for Sunday's flea market). During class on Saturday with Melinda, who is an old hand at this sort of thing was rather doubtful that I can do the job with so little time. She asked me how many cuppies did I intend to make? Without hesitation, I replied "100 cuppies". She tactfully said "I think 30 to 40 should be enough lah".



It was only at 9pm that I finally got down to starting my "work". First was the baking of the cuppies. Did 2 varieties, the moist chocolate cuppies and the vanilla mixed fruit cuppies. Whilst the cuppies were going into the oven in batches of 9 to 12, I started making flowers, mushrooms and butterflies with the fondant and gumpaste.


Started the decorating on the first batch of cuppies after they have cooled down enough.. wah.. sure is taking a long time. I know that it was getting quite late, or shall I say early, but I was really have such a good time that I had to force myself to stop at 3am. I know that by the time I clean up and showered, it would be 4am.. but I still have lots more to do...*panic*.


Got up at 8am on Sunday, brushed my teeth had a quick shower, ate one of the undecorated cuppies for breakfast and stated work again. Started with the buttercream preparation. I didn't do it the night before as I wanted it to be fresh. Put in butter vanilla flavoring into the buttercream as I simply love this smell and taste...just like the toffee sweets I used to eat by the bagfuls during schooldays.



When I did the first few ones, I still had time to take photos of each of them.... but by the 6th or 7th one, I knew that I was really pressed for time. No more photos until maybe after they have all been done. Oh, I didn't managed to make the 100 cuppies that I intended. Could only make 40 and in 5 batches. By the time I was done, it was almost noon. Took another quick shower and called Madame President. She told me that the business at the booth was kinda slow and since it is such a hot day, she was very afraid that the cuppies would not hold up in the heat. Actually, they should be able to but she didn't want to risk it. So, instructed me to bring it to Kechara House for the puja which was happening that same night. So, my cuppies ended up not at the flea market that day. Instead, they had a nice time sitting in the beautiful air-conditioned Kechara House. Well, it was really a long Saturday and Sunday for me doing the cuppies, but I really enjoyed myself very much and would not mind doing it again and again as decorating those cuppies really gives me so much pleasure :)

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