Friday, August 12, 2011

Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia

Have you ever thought that dessert can be an essential element in life? There is a famous quote by Ernestine Ulmer, "Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first." People would willing to do whatever they could just to savour this little masterpiece. Pastry shops and cafés are the current lifestyle trend where people would spend their beautiful weekends at.


Ficelle Boulangerie & Patisserie, KL, Malaysia
















Ficelle Boulangerie & Patisserie, KL, Malaysia

























 Being branded as Food Monster, my interest lies clearly on "Desserts". Recently, I have made a leap to begin my culinary adventure by enrolling a part-time certificate pastry course at The Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia. This initiative has been fully backed by Adrian and JZ as they are always very supportive and encourage me to pursue my all time interest.













The program is comprised of 12 main topics in consecutive 12 weekends. It covers Modern Cake, Plated Desserts, Chocolate, Sugar Art and etc. For more info, please visit Certificate of Pastry & Bakery Arts. My first ever class is the challenging Wedding Cake. In my first impression, wedding cake is really a hardcore topic to start with and I'm worried if I can ever meet the expectation for the completion of the class. Nevertheless, I have bailed it all out to do whatever I could to make it happen.

The office of Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia

















The Baking & Teaching Facility of the premise





















The instructor for this session is Chef Tan, who has more than 5 years of professional working experiences as pastry chef in hotels and bakeries. He has tried to make the class to be less stressful and fun to have more interaction with the students. There are four students (including me) who are very passionate to start a career in baking and pastry making. Asha is a full-time housewife with years of experience in preparing the meals for her kids and would want to make a living in baking industry when she migrates to Adelaide end of this year. Emily, who was a marketing engineer, has quit her job to enrol in this course to further enhance her baking skills in her online-business to sell puffs and pastries. Zul, a professional architect who would want to have his own bakery in the near future when he has completed this part time course. Their stories are truly inspirational to be a force for me to pursue my baking dream.

All the ingredients for the recipe are provided by the academy and Chef Tan has explained each baking steps and essential baking knowledge patiently to ensure we have a clear understanding on the specific details.   

1. Two-layered Wedding Cake with marzipan & fondant
2. Love decoration - made of pastillage

 














Roses & Leaves - Made of gum paste















Fleur decoration with royal icing















Wonderful creations by the students and Chef Tan















Lovely couple figurines by Chef Tan - So much detail on the hair

































We have the sense of satisfaction after completing the hand-crafted creation under Chef Tan's guidance. The good thing about this class is that students get to bring back their works for own consumption... hurray! But, the issue here was on how are we going to transport this two-layered fragile cake back without any "cake-accident"? I have to admit I was having a hard time to transport it back home in a winding road with road humps... Phew, it was alright and the cake arrived at home in one full piece ;p

The multipurpose carboot organiser - Transportation in progress



















Hmm, I'm looking forward for the upcoming baking topic (Cookies) that will cover different kinds of cookies from different regions in the world - Biscotti, Florentine and many more. I need to practice on how to plan my schedule and utilize the time effectively, while not affecting my full-time work at the same time.

Lastly, I would like to depict another quote, "Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!" Let's release our stresses that have been accumulated throughout the weekdays by having a cuppa...

Cheeky Sunny Boy on a Cappuccino@ Bee Cafe, Jaya One!

Alright, it's Friday Night... TGIF~ I wish all of you have an enjoyable weekend ;)

Love,
Kev XOX