Exclusive Baking Class at Munch Ministry

Saturdays are usually family day and supposedly a day to be chauffeur and maid fully attend to the kiddos' needs. They have swimming and wushu classes. Thereafter we would proceed to park (or library/mall if it rains) till the sun down. Bumper to bumper, exhaustion.

Photo Credit: Adeline of The Accidental Mom Blogger

But one Saturday, I sneaked out early and quietly (Bomber would not let me to leave her behind) to attend a baking class at Civil Service Club, hosted by Munch Ministry. This is another event in conjunction of SMB's One Celebration. We were to learn to make Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes.

I love the opportunity given here: learn baking from a seasoned baker, one who I admire at- Pauline. I known her when I chanced upon the playgroup that was led by her back in 2008. Jiejie and I have many fond memory of being part of the playgroup. Few of us mums even learnt sewing from her previously.

Yes, she is an amazing women with tons of inspirations!

Maybe that's why I came out a big idea to lug a stranger-to-me and heavy DSLR, just so I could made friendly connection between the two of us. By trying and errorring on the aperture and the shutter of the camera, I would be a better photographer, well, better than the day before. A tad bit?

Sure enough, it was a lousy idea. One third of the time I was busy adjusting the setting, another one third was monkeying around like a naughty student in the class (like I was once behaved such), the remaining one third on the lesson. Greedy me!

[Photo Credits (L-R): Liza of Mother of Xander and Munch Ministry]

But then again, as you can see, bloggers work pretty hard and I am just catching up.

The class started with Pauline demonstrate the very first part of making the cake: How egg yolk mixture are done. Pauline delightfully told us that Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes is not originally from Hokkaido, Japan. It's merely because the recipe using the milk from Hokkaido. Nonetheless, during the class, we used ordinary milk from New Zealand.

One of the mom blogger was quick enough to try baking another batch of cakes with the milk from Hokkaido(after the baking class), and she said,

"The chiffon cakes were extra milky and creamy and after baking the chiffon cakes, the milky scent was present with every bite."   - Jasmine from scissorspaperstoneblog.com

That is surely entice me to try this recipe with Hokkaido milk!

Back to the class, Pauline shared few other great tips in the class besides walking us through the recipe. For example, the egg white used for making meringue, which is the main foundation of a chiffon cake, is not supposedly have any drop of egg yolk. Another great reminder I got from Pauline is that, once all the batter are scooped into liners/tray, before putting it into the oven, knock it to get rid of the bubble trapped inside the batter.

Lastly, Louisa taught us making the filling and piping into the cupcakes.

After the first part of demonstration, we began the hands-on. We were to team-up in two. Double the ingredients, double the joy of working together for our cupcakes. Liza was my partner. And, together with Jennifer, we had more than baking fun. 

In the class, most of us encountered problem with the separation of egg yolk and egg white. So were Liza and I. Firstly we had more than 1 messy egg yolks, Then we got confused with number of remaining eggs we needed to crack to match the total number of egg yolks and egg whites. Remember double the ingredients? We needed 6 eggs for making the right among of cupcakes for two mothers to bring home individually. Apparently 6 is a big number and easily to lost count.
Thank goodness there were cracked egg shells laying on our table to count on. We were convinced that one of us added extra egg when one of the egg yolks found its way to to mess with the egg white. Obviously, Liza and I had too much laughs.

You have gotto to read the best way to separate egg yolk and egg white from my partner, Liza:

"You can buy the fanciest egg separating gadget available but nothing beats using your hands to wiggle the yolk in your palm while the whites ooze away through your finger tips."

We then pay more attention into our cake-making. It was great to learn and work with a partner. You get to discuss, analyse and execute about the recipe, humorously.   

Inevitably, I had a great time, laughing, battering, piping, photographing. Though, most of the photos I took were pretty poor quality. Rachel of Catch 40 Winks gave me some quick tips, apparently try and error is not  the only way to learn photography. ^^|

But at least the cupcakes were perfectly done! It is light and delectable, I gulped down not just one but two at the end of the class. Yum yum!

Well, I'm a cake person.

I let my girl try the cake as supper that night. Judging from my fussy eater's response, I am encouraged to bake these cakes again.

Hopefully, I find the milk from Hokkaido too;).

For similar recipes, hop over to Munch Ministry's link. More of our SMB's individual's story can be found here. If you have intention to host a party or team building event over baking/cooking class like ours, ask Munch Minstry at munchministrylwp@gmail.com.

Thank you Louisa and Pauline for hosting this for us, SMB.