The icing on the cake

ONE of the most popular adult education classes in the kingdom has proved to be the icing on the cake for housewives planning to whisk up some fancy delights.

Cake Decorating was held in the state-of-the-art Food Technology Lab at the British School of Bahrain (BSB) and its beautifully polished stainless steel ovens and hobs proved to be a perfect environment for the wannabe cooks.

The Wilton Cake Decorating Certificate holders, known simply as Eman and Mays, became fast friends with their 10 eager students as they carefully crafted their icing and fondant flower arrangements.

British housewife Lynn Bowser, 54, moved to Janabiyah in February 2012 from the English seaside resort of Blackpool with husband Paul, having lived in Saudi Arabia and Canada previously. 

Lynn is known by her friends to be a bit of a dessert queen producing fabulous Pavlovas and fresh fruit and cream roulades to die for. She took the cake decorating class to improve her skills and also to ensure she would no longer have to bake ‘boring’ Victoria Sponges for her granddaughter Poppy’s birthdays. She said the course had given her the new skills and ability needed to do something more personal and creative.

South African Chanthal Jupp, 42, the assistant head teacher at the BSB Infants, moved to Hamala from China in 2010 with her husband, avid cake eater, Chris, son, Llewellyn, 12, and daughter, Montana, nine.

She said: “I’ve always had a creative streak.”

And, according to the instructors, she proved the point with an ‘amazing final cake creation’. Chanthal’s mum was a cake decorator and it was always something she wanted to try.

Lebanese housewife Suzanne Ibrahim, 42, who holds a computer science BS degree, has been living in Al Jasra for five years and was delighted to find out about this course.

“I have always wanted to learn how to decorate a cake in a fancy way,” she said. “I really enjoyed attending the course, which covered all cake decorating methods. It was also beneficial to me from many aspects, I made new acquaintances and, most importantly, the things I learned came in very handy during the special occasions I was celebrating after the course.

I was so proud of what I was able to achieve throughout this course: icing cakes with flowers and roses, cookies with royal icing that my kids adored, decorated cupcakes and most of all my daughter’s graduation two-layer cake!”

The next Cake Decorating course will commence on September 8, with places available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

It runs for 12 weeks on Sundays from 4pm-6pm. The course fees are BD125, which includes a starter kit of various tricks-of-the-trade tools, food colourings, powders, fondants and gum pastes. 

There is a certificate presentation at the end of the course, which acknowledges that the student has completed ‘24 hours of the Cake Decorating with Fondant and Icing Course’.

BSB opened its doors to another exciting development in education, when it launched its Evening Institute for Adults in February.

The institute has provided opportunities for adults to develop additional skills, learn new hobbies and gain further qualifications in a secure and welcoming environment.
 
Over the months, BSB has not only rebranded the Evening Education for Adults, to the more descriptive and appealing ‘Life, Home & Hobbies’ but expanded the range of courses on offer from 14 to 29.

The autumn term will commence next month offering courses from Adobe Illustrator, to Arabic for beginners, Italian cooking and skiing! 

For more details and to reserve a place call 17610943. The full course brochure is available on the BSB website www.britishschoolbahrain.com by using the link in ‘Special Announcements’.