Fun with Food Clay

My two sons, ages 7 and 5, are very much into crafts. They like drawing, cutting and pasting, clay modeling, and lately, baking. My older son, C, recently discovered the power of Google and has googled his way into YouTube videos teaching how to make an Angry Birds cake. He has asked me time and again to make an Angry Birds cake at home. When I tell him I can’t do that, he keeps telling me he knows all the steps and all I need to do is buy him ingredients.

I feel that my son’s interest in crafts and baking is something that I should nurture and encourage. However I have limited baking experience and do not feel confident enough to experiment on my own. I enlist the help of my cousin Mimi Ong, who is a cake decorator and baking instructor. Would she take on my kids for a cupcake decorating workshop that would teach them the basics and let them work on their very own project? Luckily, she said yes!

Mimi’s baking room is a small piece of baking and cake-decorating paradise. She has all the tools needed – oven, mixer, smooth countertop, cutters in all shapes and sizes, tubs of flour, sugar, shortening… (as in balde-balde, promise). And all her gadgets are neatly organized and labeled. I instantly admired her for taking good care of her equipment. The place was clean, well-lit and well-maintained and my kids immediately felt comfortable.

First, she taught the kids how to knead gumpaste or ‘food clay’ as my kids call them to make them soft and pliable. She taught them how to mix colors to make a marble effect. The dough goes through a pasta-maker to even it out then cut to desired shapes to cover and decorate the cupcakes.

She then teaches them to use a piping bag to pipe out royal icing to help attach the cupcake toppers which the kids have selected themselves. If this is beginning to sound too easy, that’s because Mimi teaches us (myself included) in a step-by-step fashion which enables even 2 hyperactive boys to easily follow her instructions.

I am really happy with the way the workshop turned out. The kids were very engrossed with the task and followed Mimi’s instructions and diligently did their work. This also brought out their creativity and they had lots of ideas about how to decorate the cupcakes - some of which we adapted. And they were able to work together on a project that did not involve an iPad for a full three hours!

More importantly, I think the greater value is in teaching the kids that they can make things with their hands. In this day and age where everything is done with a swipe of a screen, I think it is important for kids to see, appreciate and learn the value of beautiful things created with human hands.

And the kids had such a great time! Just before he went to sleep, my older son C told me, “Mom, this is the best day of my life!”

“Really? How so?” I ask.

“Because we decorated the cupcakes the way I wanted to, with some leaves covering the animals like a camouflage,” he replied.

“That’s good. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.”

“But mom, why isn’t the hippo in a swamp?”

Oops. We didn't think of that. But I'm glad you're paying attention, son.

Mimi Ong makes customized wedding and birthday cakes and cupcakes.

She also conducts baking and cake decorating tutorials and demonstrations.
https://www.facebook.com/MimiCakesKitchen?ref=br_tf