And the first prize goes to..... (ICCA Mother's Day Cake Competition 2013)

I loved it and was thrilled to bits when you thanked me, JY :))

Learning points for JY:

• Certificates have a tendency to disappear. Keeping them with meticulously neat and tidy Papa is a must...that is, if you can find them.
• Running around looking for lost items at the eleventh hour is never fruitful. Especially at an hour I would rather spend in bed.
• Always ensure Papa's T5 is in tiptop condition so that you can make PD to Giza in 1 hour, so that your cakes do not get disqualified for being late.
• Jumping on stage in a short skirt is a tad tricky
  
  Btw, it was the best Mother's Day ever.

Finicky Fickle Lovable teenage gal

She's back to caking.

Who would have thought.

She swore off caking not too long back when she was faced with disappointment after a nonmaterialised promise from a highly regarded mentor. she didn't know what to do next, neither did I. So she poured her creative energy into others artsy stuff like sketching. She sketched and painted, and never neared a piping bag. Her cake studio was sadly neglected for months.

Until early this year when she suddenly decided to compete in the third ICCA cake competition.

Ummm...didn't you say you would NEVER enter another?

I guess, never doesn't necessarily mean forever to this 15 year old

   

 Here CheChe try this tip

Meme enjoys wondering around Cheche's room and Cheche is gracious enough to let her mess it up while exploring.

 Roses drying

 Piping bags filled and ready to squirt.

 JY had to dig up her Wilton Method manuals as judging is based on this particular method. The Wilton way isn't particularly difficult. After some show how, Fai can make a perfect Wilton rose and JY is convinced he will be able to pass Wilton 1 with ease.

This time around she can't Wow the judges with her more elaborate flowers. So she has to be creative with these cute little ones.

I love the abundance of flowers on the bottom tier. The white on white of the middle tier. And best of all, the eye-catching MOM right in the centre :)
This cake was completed in a harrowing, nail biting, tense, drama-filled 7 days. It rained , no, more like stormed daily as she was preparing the flowers. Let me tell you something, fondant does not work well in tropical climates. I had to keep my apprehension in check, my emotions at bay and leave her with the opportunity to have a learning experience.
Here's what happened. She completed the cake, packed it up into a box with a cannister of dehumidifier and left her cake behind in PD as she prepared for her graduation ceremony with Amber Chia Academy in KL.
She came back after 2 days, ran to the cake studio only to find that her flowers had wilted under the humidity.
She was inconsolable. she couldn't sleep that night.
But the very next day, she showed that no storm will get her down for long. She redid the wilted flowers and restored the cake.

This cake is just so sweet and pretty.
I didn't see much of her for the 2 days she marooned herself in her studio. She came out occasionally for food, down load more songs onto her phone and she was gone. This cake is all piping and she says she did so much piping in 2 days, the piping bag now feels like a permanent extension of her hands.

O Levels

JY wanted to enroll into a college and found out that she needed 5 O Level/SPM passes as a prerequisite.
A roadblock! I do so love roadblocks. Makes us stop and think.
JY is at a crossroad now.

She wants to explore her creative side and yet she wants to feed her intellectual mind. She enjoys reading History and Biology as much as working with paints and brushes.
Would having an OLevel cert open up more possibilities for her?
So I asked her "Want to take up the OLevel challenge?"
She said "Why not!"

So the stage was set... next course of action was to get information
1, British Council
There are 2 OLevel exams: IGSCE or GCSE?
As we are not in UK, we have to sit for IGSCE. It costs RM740 per subject and Art is an exorbitant  RM2060

2. Free Exam Papers
 Took a look at what's in store for JY. We had fun attempting the Art paper and lots of laughs with Agriculture paper especially the one on why pants must not be stuffed into rubber boots. It was an eye opener for JY as she couldn't fathom Art being an exam paper and was intrigued at how it was graded.

Next, to shortlist the subjects she wanted to sit for.
Language:
Besides English, she surprised me by saying she would be taking German as well. German? Since when? Well, according to her she was inspired by Tokio Hotel and LaFee as well as makeup artists who narrate in German and Polish. Dankeschön, YouTube!
She has started teaching the boys German too. As she wants someone she can communicate in German with. So from now on she will be speaking to Meme in German.
Today's lesson was numbers 1-100...eins zwei drei......

Sciences:
She was always into Horrible Science and reading a biology textbook we bought on MVDoulus (the floating bookshop) so Biology was a natural choice. I am trying to coerce her into taking Chemistry.

Maths:
She dislikes Maths. But while University Bookstore in Sec14, I showed her an example of a Maths problem and she couldn't beleive it was THAT simple! She has had an imagined fear of mathematics all along. Now to get her to conquer it.
I am trying hard to persuade her that Add Maths is an even nicer subject :) I loved Add Maths, I loved the simplicity and beauty of it and how everything works out in the end.

Art::
Art is an exam!!! Art can be graded?!! That was her initial reaction. Her father is more than happy to coach her in this subject.

English Literature:
Still thinking about this one.

JY has 1 year to prepare for the exam. The countdown begins.......

ICCA cake competition 2011

A brief analysis and comparison of the cakes in the annual wedding cake competition by ICCA in 2010 and 2011. Enjoy the visual feast. The creativity of the contestants were astounding.

By Norashikin 2010

A beautiful peacock compostion. She spent the night in a budget hotel with her cake and she said the the journey from Melaka and then through narrow corridors of the hotel was harrowing. The tail and feathers were very artistically done.

By Norashikin 2011

This time her birds were even more intricate. I spent a long time admiring her delicate work of art. She said she spent long afternoons snapping photos of lotus flowers in her kampung before creating her masterpiece. I can imagine her painstakingly piping each and every feather and the care she must have taken transporting it from Melaka. A very inspiring creation.

Birds and feathers will always remind me of Norashikin.

Mama Min 2010

I love her figurines. the bride and groom look so happy

Mama Min 2011

Yet again she impresses with her figurines. This time she managed to inject humour into her wedding cake.

Louis 2010 - 2 entries

This is the first time I have seen the airbrush technique on a cake and it made his cakes very eyecatching. He is obviously a whiz at it. His jellyfish is brilliant! And take a look at the phoenix and dragon - a work of art indeed.

However, the judges were looking for string work and other finer techniques that were lacking in his creations.

Louis 2011

This year he totally abandoned his air brush for string work, some piping and a flower! I was utterly disappointed. I had gone around trying to identify his work and when JY pointed at this cake, I couldn't believe it.

His creative genius can only be unleashed when airbrushing.

JY could see for herself what happens when you abandon your forte - you get something ordinary instead.

Pauline 2010

Her stringwork is amazing

Pauline 2011

Her beauty and the beast figurines were superb.

3rd place 2011

I can't remember the name of the topsy-turvy stuff but it requires turning the cake upside down.

Kevin 2010

Wonderful painted pixies.

Kevin 2011 -2nd prize

Even more delicate stringwork. Every tier had stringwork, at times 2 layers of it with angels parting the strings.

It was so fine and close together. His hands are really steady to have done such a feat.

His little angels were beautifully done.

It took him a month to complete the cake.

2010 1st by Shahril

He deserved it. Beautiful everything! Composition was perfect.

2011 winner from Bangkok.

A surprise win.

JY's entry 2010

Indian wedding inspired. She started her henna piping since then.

JY 2011

This year her henna piping has improved by leaps - it is finer and at parts she tried to make it look 3D.

All was done freehand.

No sketching or templates were used. And she was astounded when someone would even suggest she used a template. The judges told her that they wanted to see a whole cake with just her henna piping as that was her strong point.

Her roses were the best. Paper thin petals, perfectly dusted and simply gorgeous.

She had gone in expecting a placing and was sorely disappointed when she was awarded "Highly Commendable" in a rather controversial judging.

Thanks to the situation we found ourselves in, we could cover a range of issues..

• The best one does not necessarily a winner make. Example given by Pohpoh was American Idol winners who were not our favourites
• An unfair judging system
• I had wanted to ingrain the value of integrity on JY and told her that she had to do all the caking herself. The contest rules stated 'Individual work only'. At the event, JY discovered that a few contestants had submitted cakes done by their team. This was an interesting topic.
• Learning from her competitors. Each and every cake entry had their strong points and JY should make an effort to learn from them.
• Disappointments only lead to breakthroughs...JY was disappointed for 24hours... she moaned that "she was already 13!! And there was still so much she has not done! She is getting OLD" ...... after a night of heart-to-heart, she regained herself..... and then the breakthrough came...

JY's talent was spotted by a 'Fairy Godmother' who said it would be such a waste to see it go unattended. Fairy Godmother only wanted assurance that JY was serious in caking and if she were she would show her the path to take. And it starts NOW!

Before we could catch our breath, JY was whisked away. JY was one ecstatic girl!

A new chapter in JY's life has begun.

Grooming KC

Markings on KC.

JY told me that no matter what colour the horse is, after being branded, its hair coat will turn white.

KC could not be ridden that day as one of his horseshoe fell off.
Check out the difference between its two back hooves.

A closer look at the hoof with a missing horseshoe

We walked to KC's stable and found him lazing around.

A groom led KC to the cleaning area and tied him to the post with this interesting loop knot. He later showed JY how to tie it. Rather simple actually but JY said hers resembles a pretzel rather than a chain.

Since KC couldn't be ridden, JY decided to groom him.

Looks like a bad case of dandruff

She started off with this

and moved on to these two brushes.

While getting groomed, KC nibbled on the wooden post.

KC bending down so that JY can reach the top of its head

JY was having a tough time with KC's mane and tail as it was wiry and got tangled as she combed

After asking for help, JY was handed ShowSheen - a hair polish for its mane and tail. Keeps your horse clean for a week.

Spray a little ShowSheen and combing is a breeze

JY untangling the tail. she intends to braid it the next time.

After an hour of grooming, KC is walked back to its stable.

JY the Speed Demon

Free go-cart! We were eager for an evening of zooming around the racing circuit.

The drivers being told that there was to be no racing, no crashing into the barriers and they were only allowed 3 laps.
Fai and Han did not get to go on the free rides as their legs could not reach the paddles.

That fuzzy image is JY zooming off at full speed. She turned corners at top speed with tires screeching. DH says she has talent. I think she should only allowed to drive when she turns 40.

She got off the cart and complained about the driver in front of her that was too slow and she was impatient to overtake. Gosh!

Cake Competition 2011

JY has started preparing for her wedding cake competition.

Date of submission is 30th September.

JY's Primary 6 maths

Found this while sorting the books into piles- one pile for keeps, one pile to give away.
JY's Maths workbook.

I burst out laughing when I flipped the book open.

Looks like she wasn't concentrating on maths problems but creating a multi-tiered topsy turvy cake.

Primary 6 maths has taken a backseat to caking. Wasted my $$ buying that workbook.

Anyone want it? Nearly new. Comes with a cake design.

JY's preparation for an interview with Sin Chew Daily 7-9May2011

This was what greeted the reporters. The cupcakes are meant for a live demonstration.

multicoloured gum paste roses waiting to be placed on the soon-to-be iced cupcakes

JY spent 3 days on the cake. First, conceptualizing the design on paper, getting the required materials then working on the actual cake.

Full concentration required.

Her brothers have learnt to keep away from her caking area when she has a project on.