The Project of THE year!

The long awaited(and also long winded!) post for this year. The ultimate cake I was to bake, decorated for Ru Shin. A girl I knew since she was little girl. Watching her grew up, seeing her in all our family parties we had over the years. It was such a privilege to me that the family ask if I could bake and decorated the cake for Ru Shin's wedding.

At that time, the shop wasn't opened back then, and I didn't expect the store to take up most of my days and nights and hours. So I said "Yes" without much doubt or thought.

Ru Shin was clear about what she wanted. She envisaged how the cake will look like. But she was also worried if we could pull it off. Honestly speaking, I was a bit fearful myself. Because I have never decorated any wedding cakes for anyone. Although I have taught many to do it themselves.

She would send me photos of the cakes she saw online and thought about the flowers she wanted too. She didn't want roses which was seen in every wedding cake. She wanted something different for a change. She wanted Peonies. And it has to be pink.


Photo source : no idea. Just to show me how a peony look like. Because I have never seen a peony in real life before.

She wanted the cake to be 3 tier, covered in sugarpaste that was tinted light green so that the flowers will stand out from afar. And it must only have 6 flowers. Why six flowers? Because Ru Shin family name was "Look" and that sounded like the number six in Cantonese.

I didn't have time to make the flowers myself, so I contacted my source for gum paste flowers. This lady gave me fantastic advice on how big or small the flowers should be, based on the gap between the tiered cakes.

I send her photos of how the flowers should look like..and my gum paste flower maker did this for me:



Oh, how I prayed about this project I have. I asked God only for two things and that is Wisdom and Strength. Wisdom, so that I would know what I need to do, how I should do it. Strength so that I have the energy by the end of the year and possibly the stamina to carry through with this.

Initially, I had planned that my students come by to help me. In the end, I realised many are away for their kid's exams or travelling. So I took upon this task to do it myself.

The wedding is tomorrow, 7 November 2009. But for now, here is the cake I baked, decorated for Ru Shin. More photos to come tomorrow, after the wedding.



The guests (about 400 or so) will get a slice of the cake too. Wrapped and packed into the wedding favour boxes I have prepared.



The cake is actually a very simple cake. But Ru Shin and her family insisted that it was one that made with Love..lots of it. I had to modify an existing recipe I had used for my classes to suit their family needs of less sugar, with more plump cherries and juicy at every bite.



So I modified the recipe..here it is:

Sweet Cherries Fairy Cake
Recipe By Gina Choong

Ingredients
250g salted butter(soften in room temperature)
120g fine sugar
4 eggs(room temperature)
200g plain flour

1 can of Dark Sweet cherries(S&W brand)
400ml Cointreau(orange liquor)

Method
1. Drain cherries from the can. Put the cherries in a glass jar to soak with liquor.
2. Leave this jar in the fridge and covered. Soak for at least 7 days.
3. Drain from liquor and leave aside. Do not discard the liquor. You can add 7 Up or Sprite to it to drink.
4. Whip butter and sugar on high speed for 10 minutes.
5. Note that you must whip until the butter look very pale yellow.
6. Then lower the speed, add eggs one at a time
7. Continue to whip for 5 mins.
8. Add flour and continue to whip for 2 to 3 mins or until its evenly mixed.
9. Lastly add the cherries. Do not turn up the speed. Or the cherries will crush.
10. Pour batter into cake pans .
11. Baked in preheated oven 180C for 35 to 40 mins.
12. Leave to cool in the oven. Then removed.
13. Best to eat this after its aged for 1 day or 2.

Just to let you know how much ingredients I have used for this project:

60 pieces of SCS Salted Butter(250g)
4kg Fine sugar(yeah, that little!)
40 cans S&W Dark Sweet Cherries
20 packs of Prima Plain Flour
200 eggs
3 bottles of Cointreau liquor