Summer Baking Class at Shermay's

Shermay Lee is the author of the New Mrs Lee's Cookbooks. The owner of Shermay's Cooking School. She's also LKY's niece. Graduated with a degree for Political Science and History from Brown University, but succumbed to her love for cooking.

Me too I have a few degrees in Political Science, we share the same sirname and initials and I like to cook. Except that I do not have illustrous ancestors (unless you consider my granduncle Lim Tay Boh), nor any capital to start a cooking school. In any case I'm not a businesswoman, only good at spending money definitely not at earning it. Fortune tellers will probably credit that to my nostrils.

Having said all that I actually set out to talk about the baking class that I attended at Shermay's last Summer. But got sidetracked as usual. Bear with me, please.

The amazing Joycelyn Shu (of the beautiful blog Kuidaore) was the guest instructor at the school and I attended her Summer Treats Class at Shermay's: Layer Cakes, Cupcakes & Ice Creams.

It was not a hands-on class and that was probably the only reason why I felt dissatisfied at the end of the class. I've learnt alot though from watching Joycelyn bake. She shared her knowledge and experience with us and that was valuable. There is only so much that books can tell you - watching someone bake is another thing altogether.

But the person baking also tends to make things look easier than they are. Plus she had 2 beautiful KitchenAids to help her.

There were quite alot of people attending the class. For the price, I thought that we could form a smaller group. The cooking studio is actually quite small and half of it is taken up by the boutique - selling utensils, recipe books, appliances, butter, food colours, flavour extracts etc. Prices are not low - but they are all top quality stuff.

Most of the other learners were regulars from the look of things. Many tai-tai looking ladies who turned up in tight jeans, expensive bags and heels. So at least you know they do bake.

Joycelyn demonstrated 2 ways of making ice cream and one of them was really simple and didn't require the use of an ice cream maker. It's all a question of sugar (quantity of).

Then she showed us how tricky it was to cut a cake into layers and then to ice it.

We also learnt about cupcakes and how to ice them (e.g. make a flower). We were not allowed to take pictures during the cooking demonstration and with my non-elephant (more like mouse) memory, I cannot remember much of the session if you wish.

Voilà my Saturday afternoon spent at Shermay's Cooking School. Worth it to get to see Joycelyn in person at least once though.