Esther Foo’s fruit cakes have stood the test of time; they still taste good after 12 years.
MOST of us can’t imagine eating cakes that are months old. But Esther Foo’s wedding cakes are so special that they’re still being eaten after 12 years.
And the verdict? “Yummy!”
“Yup, that’s what I’ve been told,” says Foo, from Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya. Foo who is in her 50s, bakes with a passion. Once, she baked 11 cakes weighing a total of 32kg and assembled them into multi-tiered wedding cakes. The bride, a close friend, kept leftover cakes in the freezer and ate them year after year.
Foo recalls: “Several years ago, she called to tell me that it was delicious even though it’s 12 years old!”
The fruit cakes can keep well for so long because they have brandy and rum in them, says Foo. And they are well-stored to withstand the test of time.
Foo’s niece, Carmen Leo, is another happy customer.
In 1997, Foo baked Leo’s wedding cake. A sentimental person, Leo not only kept the flower paste decorations but was so taken with the fruit cake that she wanted to keep it for as long as possible.
“Last June, Leo called to say that the wedding cake was still delicious. Come June, she will be cutting a few slices to savour on her 12th wedding anniversary!” says Foo.
She is amused that her niece wanted to break the record by keeping her wedding cake for her 13th wedding anniversary.
What about Foo’s own wedding cake?
“I baked a three-tiered wedding cake but it’s all gone,” quips Foo.
Foo first learnt to bake during domestic science class in Methodist Girls School, Ipoh. At 18, Foo baked her first wedding cake.
“It was for my second brother’s wedding. The cake had three tiers and was covered with white royal icing.”
A garland of flowers made from flower paste on a three-tier dummy cake. Today she bakes frequently: breads, cakes and cookies. Occasionally, she gets orders for wedding and birthday cakes, and other special-occasion cakes, mostly from friends.
“I enjoy baking as I derive pleasure from experimenting with new things,” says Foo.
Friends who know her well book her up to one year in advance to make their wedding cakes.
Come July, Foo will be making a two-tier wedding cake that will be covered with real red roses, and an additional seven large 5kg cakes that will be cut up and distributed among guests.
Foo likes a challenge when it comes to baking.
“The more difficult the cake design, the better for me,” she says.
She bakes her fruit cakes six weeks ahead and works on decorations for the cakes three weeks prior to the big day. Closer to the day, she would cover the cakes with fondant icing and start decorating them.
Foo picked up tips from cookbooks and took lessons in making flower paste.
“When I first started out, one customer told me that my fondant icing was too hard and could not be cut. It had too much gelatine. I started experimenting and came up with a softer fondant icing,” says Foo.
Delicious cakes without proper presentation would be a shame. So Foo doesn’t just bake and deliver the cakes, she makes sure they get noticed, too.
“I get upset when caterers do not have proper tables to display the cakes. So now I bring my own tablecloth and table just in case,” adds Foo.
Passionate about her craft: ‘The more difficult the cake design, the better for me,’ says Esther Foo. She buys cookbooks to keep abreast of the latest techniques in baking and cake decorating. To date she has more than 200 cookbooks. Her customers get to flip through her cookbooks and make their pick before she proceeds to make their dream cakes.
A year ago, her daughter, Michelle Melissa Foo, 24, a final-year business administration student, started taking an interest in cake decoration and is learning from her.
In her younger days, Foo would help her mother with the baking. “My mum would place her cake tin in a huge pot with sand that would be heated by firewood underneath. The pot would be covered by a lid and topped with hot coals (for top heat).
“The cakes all turned out very nicely,” says Foo who is married to a Chinese. Her late father hailed from Madras, south India, and her late mother from Sri Lanka.
The second youngest in a family of 10 children (five boys and five girls), Foo moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1977. Her four sisters are all good cooks and she learns from them, too.
Foo has self-published two cookbooks containing an assortment of recipes: Simply Delightful in 2000, and Heritage Cookbook last year. Her second cookbook is selling like hot cakes. A developer recently bought 100 autographed copies to give to house buyers.
“I came out with the cookbooks to preserve family recipes that have been handed down the generations,” says Foo.
She also included recipes from her parents: Papa’s Unique Dodol, a sticky cake made from black pulut flour, coconut milk, ghee and cashew nuts, and Mama’s Toffee, a sweet treat for Christmas made with evaporated milk, castor sugar, butter and cashew nuts. Foo also included recipes which won her prizes in cooking competitions.
Esther Foo can be reached at 017-887 3177.
