I finally did it! Took the first step and attended my very very first baking class yesterday at Hougang CC. Actually I had wanted to do that in Feb liao, when my interest in baking had started then. But was a bit scared and apprehensive lar....very afraid that the class will be filled with all those expert aunties who already have many years of baking experience...and also worried that my questions will seem so amateurish and stupid in the class lar. Now I really regret not attending the class sooner....cos it turned out to be such an enlightening and fun and YUMMY experience!!!! I'll definitely attend more classes in future boy...

Yesterday's recipes were for Strawberry Shortcake and Walnut Choc Cake. 单单听名字我都已经心动了!! Our teacher was a very nice lady called Valerie Kong who has been teaching baking for quite a long while liao. And interestingly, I found out that many of the students yesterday were her fervent fans, and they only go for baking lessons that were conducted by her. But after the lesson yesterday, I figured I know the reason and even better still, I think its quite likely that I'll follow them too! She a really really patient teacher who will willingly answer all types of baking questions, no matter how idiotic/无聊 they may be. And one of the things which impressed me most, was that I left the lesson with so many important and precious baking tips which I would have otherwise been absolutely unable to get from those recipe books outside. And I like it that Valerie does not only tell us what ingredients to add, but why they are added and what function each ingredient plays in the baking process. Cool right? And she'll also recommend the best brand of ingredient to buy, such as eggs, butter, choc chips etc etc. And here I was thinking all brands were the same! Amazing!

Anyway, yesterday's class was more of a demo lesson, so we did not really get to roll our sleeves and do the baking ourselves. But it was still good to at least witness the correct way of creaming the butter and sugar, and how to beat the egg whites and to what extent (VERY IMPORTANT!!), or the best method to separate egg whites from egg yolks, and so much much more! It was definitely the best 3 hours I've spent in any lesson! And I really bombarded her with all the baking questions I had wanted to ask for so long....finally!! Cos I had experienced countless baking failures (to the extent whereby I became quite demoralised) and I had never knew the reason behind these failures! My goodness.....I really should have joined the class earlier.

And best of all, the cakes turned out so FABULOUS that I was really quite speechless when I first tasted the strawberry shortcake! My gawd.....it was really really good....can even beat those done by the bakeries! The only thing is that I'm not so sure I can produce the same results lar. But the other students in the class told me that they were mostly able to get the same results back home when they tried her recipes. One of the students Eunice, even told me that when she baked the strawberry tarts using Valerie's recipe, it was so popular that she had to keep baking a few batches to keep everyone satisfied! Wow...if only I can do the same.

At the end of the lesson, there was enough cake for each of us to bring back home cos Valerie baked extra the day before and brought it to the class (how nice!). My mum and sis were totally impressed when they took the first bite on the walnut cake. We are still left with the strawberry shortcake in the fridge, cos a bit 不舍得 to eat it all at one go. Hee hee hee.