Turning cakes into art
O The BUZZ team attempt to create magic at a Korean daisy flowers piping class
KOREAN Flower Piping is a specific artistic cake decorating style where the buttercream is glossy, but dense and firm. Similar to a meringue buttercream, it’s light, silky, not too sweet, and pipes beautifully.
Last month, the BUZZ team headed over to Mama Girl Baking Studio, located at Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, to try our hand at their daisy flowers class, which is beginner-friendly.
We went on a Friday at noon, and as expected, street parking was full, but we managed to get parking at the multilevel parking complex next door, and the baking studio was just a few steps away. It is situated on the third floor of the shop lot where there is escalator accessibility.
As we entered the studio, we were greeted by a clean baking studio equipped with professional ovens, freezers, and stations. We were provided with the recipe and shortly after, the class began.
Firstly, we were taught the basics of making a glossy buttercream, and the instructor gave us a demo and tips on mixing. She also told us the common mistakes amateurs usually make so that we could look out for them.
Making the perfect buttercream requires the exact temperature for the ingredients, such as cold butter and 118°C hot syrup, so having professional equipment and an air-conditioned place makes learning much easier and neater.
The explanation and demo were thorough, and the instructor even gave us specific butter brand recommendations for a suitable colour, since we were focusing on piping and decorating. She also taught us colour theory of mixing the perfect colour with oxidation (which darkens) in mind.
Having an expert guide us through the process allowed us to feel at ease, as she even reminded us that while it might seem like we were going down the wrong path, the key is to trust the process. Like magic, the egg whites turned into glossy, moldable, and opaque buttercream.
After they made the colour blend for us, the buttercream was loaded into piping bags and ready for action.
We were provided with a tiered chocolate cake which we had to frost. We started with a pink layer, and the instructors were there to guide us through the process, down to the right way to hold the piping bag.
We were able to get the full attention of the instructors due to the small size of the class, and were given improvements and encouragement along the way. Personally, I’ve never taken any piping classes and the extent of my experience in cake decorating was through YouTube tutorials. Having a demo in real life allows you to go through the whole process and gauge how long cake-making takes.
Next, we started piping our daisies with a 103 piping nozzle. The instructor taught us how to hold the flower nail, and how to turn it so that our hands didn’t get strained. We even made it a competition among the four of us to see who could pipe the most daisies.
Although we had the same blueprint for the cake, it turned out differently for each of us. The class was fun and the instructors were there to facilitate us throughout the process.
In conclusion, it really was a beginner-friendly class. Even though we had no experience piping a cake, the instructors were calm and slowly guided us, making it a really good place to take your first piping class.
In the end, we were able to bring our cakes home and gave them to our loved ones. The cakes were delicious, we learned a new skill, and we
really enjoyed our time there. Moreover, baking and decorating isn’t just limited to females, as our male colleagues also enjoyed it very much. After the class, we also got to appreciate how much work went into cake decorating.
The studio’s founder and instructor, Rubbii Ou, was just 16 years old when she was exposed to the world of baking, but she maintained it as a hobby and pursued a career as a reporter. After seven years, she found herself in between jobs waiting for an offer. With encouragement from her friends, she took a leap of faith and decided to give baking as a career a shot.
Her passion grew gradually. In 2013, her very first order was for
her best
friend’s wedding, where she made 400 cupcakes for the guests.
“I spent 16 hours preparing the 400 cupcakes with only my home oven, a small mixer, and four cupcake trays.”
Thankfully, the guests ended up really liking the cupcakes, which gave her a much-needed confidence boost.
“Another friend reminded me that I was only 23 years old. Even if I tried for five years and failed, I still had plenty of time to restart my career as a journalist at 28.”
Three years after she founded Mama Girl Baking, she attended her first flower piping class. With a heart to strive and prove herself, it drove her and brought her to where she is now. Nine years later, she is now the first and only person certified by the KCA (Korea Cake Association) as a Korean Flower Master in Malaysia.
The workshop extension of her business, Mama Girl Baking Studio was established in 2017 and provides classes and courses all about sculpting, decorating, baking, and piping.
In baking, patience is key, as baking a cake takes up to an hour. During the pandemic, interest in baking flourished, and Ou shared the differences she’s seen in participants who join her classes: “Before the pandemic, I noticed that the majority of participants were hobbyists. During the pandemic, more of them looked to start a career or a baking business. Nowadays, they are more new bakers and professionals who are looking to improve their skills.
“The market has become more sophisticated and consumers nowadays have higher standards.”
Now that cake decoration has evolved, consumers appreciate a really handsome cake with more complicated designs, so Ou has also started to offer more complex designs combining different types of flowers.
For people who are also looking to make the career switch, Ou advises: “Think clearly about what you want. The most important trait to have is grit because you might fail 100 times, but you’ll only need to succeed once to make it.”
Visit Mama Girl Baking Studio’s website at mamagirlbaking.com