The joy of baking!

One of the things I enjoy the most being a housewife is preparing good food for my loved ones.  Cooking is not new to me.  In fact, I love cooking and everything that comes with it!  I may not always serve 5-star look dishes but, at the very least, I can come up with decent meals that could put on those smiles of satisfaction afterwards.

Baking is a different thing though, and I still consider myself a neophyte. I can only do classic chocolate & vanilla cupcakes,  “perfectly chocolate” chocolate cake (courtesy of Hershey’s), brownies and blueberry cheesecake (recipe from a very good friend of mine).  Dealing with the mess after baking is one thing, but for me, the greatest struggle so far is to do the measurement part.  I have no patience.  My normal cooking doesn’t always need to measure each ingredient but could still turn out to be edible.  If there’s something missing, you can add something in.  In baking, you can’t undo!  Well, the last time I didn’t religiously follow the measurement, my “Pan-de-Sal” turned out to be as hard as a rock and none of them were edible!  What a waste!

Thanks to my friend, Mae, who introduced and encouraged me to this course center, Bake It Yourself.  They offer various baking and decorating courses and to my delight, they do hands on classes!  Courses are endless!

I recently finished “The Ultimate Cookie Baking and Decorating” course at BIY.  It was awesome and a fun place to be! I learned a lot of things and the littlest tips they shared were extremely handy!  I loved the decorating part of it and was inspired with all the designs made by the other ladies. Kitchen was overflowing with the aroma of baked goodies and I was overjoyed to have gone out of the class bringing home real tasty cookies, coated with art! 

Oh, it was also the first time I ever set a perfect icing!  My previous attempt when I did my friend’s “wedding cake” turned out to be really messy… “icing” that can very well be used as a fondue! Hahaha!

Captured moments below :)

B-I-Y shop along Bukit Timah Road
Bottom right: Mae and I :)

The preps

Baked cookies in fun forms!

Finished products! You'll be an instant artist!
Upper left: Made by yours truly :)

The ladies rocked the kitchen!

Love the cert!  Makes me proud, lol!

I put my baking/decorating skills into good use when my couple friends had their going-away party 2 days after my course.  I baked cupcakes for them and since they're heading to New Zealand, I tried my very best to have a NZ themed cupcakes.  I had so much fun in the process and I'm glad everybody loved them, especially the kids!

My very first deco project after the course.
I used a neutral fondant and colored them myself!
The chocolate frosting is always a favorite! :)

A thoughtful present for my friends