Learning From the Masters Themselves

The first time I met Allan, at Rocky Coffee Shop, "godma" intro-d me to him, and my first question was, "Are you guys intending to start classes". This was like 2 years back, before I finally had the privilege of being added to their (Allan & Nigel) facebook count of 1000 friends or so.

So, when Nigel sent out word that classes were commencing, I was rather excited. The butter cake class was fully booked before I could even utter the word CHURN. I expressed an interest to join the 2nd class, which was Chilled Souffles and Mousse.

Strictly speaking, I guess you can't call it a baking class, since there was hardly any baking involved, if by definition baking required an oven or heat. It was a cosy class, so it was like getting privately tutored by the master himself. I felt like Kung Fu Panda under the tutelage of Shih Fu.

While waiting, (for the rest to arrive), I checked out the raw ingredients.

Is this a bird cage ah?

Masak Masak was one of my fellow classmates too. We started with some theory, such as the differences between souffles (SOO-FLAY) and Mousses. Basically one got egg yolk la. Below is ginger taking a spa bath in milk, with the purpose of infusing the milk with the gingery scent, for the Chilled Ginger Souffle.

Souffles involve a lot of whipping of white stuff together, from egg whites, to cream. We were taught the proper techniques of beating properly, so that the egg whites are not to stiff, or not too soft, etc etc.

Oh dear, I can't remember, but I think this was when the cream was folded into the basic souffle mixture. (in this case, coconut)


The masterbaker shows us his beaten cream....stiff, with a small nipple on top.



Again, he shows off his whisk, with egg whites beaten to make the meringue fingers. The sign of doneness is the long pointy tail.



A delicate snip of the foreskin of the bag, to let the white stuff ooze out effortlessly.


Grip and press, steadily.


One doesn't have to stick to fingers, you can also make circular movements to form a nest.





There's something about the melting of chocolate that really warms the heart......it makes you feel that everything is right in the world, especially if its good quality couverture buttons.


A satisfied student licks the spoon which was used to melt the butter, with sighs and moans of esctasy.


The glorious amalagmation of White on Black. Well, brown, actually. It's like a marriage between lemongrass and a caucasian.


Makes you just want to attack that whisk with the dining etiquette of a drunken sailor.



The unmolded chilled ginger souffle with a drizzle of gula melaka syrup. Absolutely divine.


Meringue Fingers, that resemble baked nudibranchs, stripped of their color.

Of course, it was a delightfully entertaining class. And the end product? I loved the ginger souffle and the chocolate mousse. The chilled coconut pudding would be nice if you are a coconut fan, and I since am ambivalent about coconut, except for Bounty chocolates, and chendol, and sago gula melaka, I would rank that my 3rd favourite after the other 2. Well, do check out the Just Heavenly Website for their future class offerings.