Cupcakes Workshop for Children at The Little Arts Academy

Some months back, a friend introduced me to the Little Arts Academy. I paid them a visit and decided to volunteer some time with them to conduct children workshop for their Little Chefs Unite! programme. The first session was on 13th Aug and I did cupcakes with the children.  

As I was worried that the 2 hours session would not give me enough time (my usual workshop are 2.5-3hrs), I did some extra preparations from home. The children were wonderful, giving me full attention and did everything pretty well. Everyone was also very cooperative and took turns to do every thing, from measuring ingredients, mixing, stirring, carrying trays and even cleanup! As with any workshop, little incidents would cropped up along the way and I am very glad that past experiences from teaching the homeschool group came in handy. J from LAA also gave me assistance during the workshop and though I was initially worried that we couldn't finished in time, we actually finished a quarter hour earlier.

   

Little Chefs Unite! cupcakes workshop at Little Arts Academy.



The children's creative work in cupcakes decorating.

My next children workshop with LAA will be 29 Oct, doing cookies pops and I am looking forward to that already! For parents who are keen to sign their children on the workshop, please contact LAA through their website at:
http://www.thelittleartsacademy.com/category/workshops/

Mooncake Making Workshop for Adults 2011 - A Charity Workshop

Years back, I had put up some chocolate gifts items and donated part of the proceeds to the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund. I had always wanted to do a similar personal project again but it just didn't materialise.
This year, having conducted a volunteer workshop for the Little Arts Academy (LAA) children's workshop, I decided to partnership with them and do some fund raising for their Business Times Budding Artists Fund.

What motivated me in doing this? In my years of academic and professional training, I had been very blessed in receiving one bursary and two scholarship sponsorships. Though the total sum was not huge, they were significant in that I wouldn't have otherwise received the kind of education and experience I have now.

LAA's mission is: "To provide a creative learning environment and a broad-based arts curriculum where all children can discover their artistic potential and develop skills and personal values that will enable them to transcend personal, social and financial circumstances". This fund sponsors arts training for underprivileged children at LAA.

As it was just a few days back that I had the children's workshop at LAA, I had very little time for planning. J at LAA, however, was very fast to put the details on LAA's website http://www.thelittleartsacademy.com/category/partners/ and had also sorted the administrative details for me. I am very grateful to her and also to the Academy for helping me with this cause.

Above is my own effort in publicity and I hope there is enough participants to help raise a reasonable amount for the whole effort. To register, please email: enquirieslaa@toph.com.sg or call 6513 3013.

Friends, if you are reading this, my heartfelt gratitude to you for lending your support in signing up for the workshop or in helping to pass on the massage to any of your friends who might be keen.

Mooncake Making Workshop for Children 2010

For the last 2 years, I have had the privilege of conducting different workshops for the home school group of children. These include gingerbreadmen cookies for Christmas season, and also the ever popular mooncake workshop for Mid-Autumn Festival.

J, who is a mum in the group, would usually help me organise such workshop at her home, or at one of the mum’s in the group. The logistic for such work shop is usually enormous, with all the ingredients, bake wares, tasting samples and also the oven. I wouldn’t have been able to make it for such, if not from the support of my brother, and most often, J, who help me with the transportation.

The objective of such workshop was not only to have the children have fun, but also to enable them to learn the story behind these treats for the particular festival/celebrations, as well as encourage team bonding. The children range from age 4-12 years. I usually limit the group size to maximum of 8 and the older ones who were usually faster would help the younger ones.

Working with children is not easy, as they need to be kept constantly occupied and also extra attention in terms of safety and keeping order. However, it gives me great satisfaction interacting and watching them enjoying my sessions; especially when end of the workshops, they proudly present their work to their parents.



Ning and Quinn, busy at work on their piglet mooncakes, while Alethea helps a younger participant.




Demonstrating to the children how to cook their agar mixture.

 


Angel pressing her dough into the goldfish mold.

 


Spike, with his proud creation



Gngerbreadman Making Workshop

The festive season is just round the corner. What better way to celebrate than making your very own gingerbreadman! They are not only good to eat, they are also wonderful gifts to give away.

Come join us for this fun workshop with lots of hands-on, and each child will also bring home a cookie cutter to make more gingerbreadman at home.

• Each child will be given their own ingredients to make their dough

• Younger children will have the option of ready dough

• Hands-on to work with decorating icing, with practice session before working on actual cookies

• Parents kindly note that recipe for dough used in class will be non egg and non dairy version. Children with allergy will use food colour markers instead of coloured icing, pictures as shown here.





Examples of decorated gingerbreadman cookies



WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011

Addendum:

This post was first put up as an announcement for the homeschool group while I was still in culinary school. It was then that I created this blog and never got back to it again as I was not sure of my directions for this blog then.

I don't have any photo to post for the this workshop, although I remember my friend did helped me to take a few. Hence, I decided to keep the above content, as a reminder of the early workshop I did.

Gingerbreadman is one of my favourite during Christmas season and I love making them as gifts. That year, I did 20 over special pieces for my colleagues at the restaurant, each with it's unique drawing to reflect the recipient of that particular cookies. I took me quite a while to complete that batch, including letting the icing to dry properly before wrapping and tying ribbon individually. Unfortunately, in my rush, I didn't have time to take photos, save for this one below.

This cookie was for a big size, bespectacled colleague who had curly hair ^^)