"Spread Your Love" Baking Workshop with Mary Quant

Baking Workshop anyone?

Sometimes when you're the type that is a busy bee like me, you tend to overlook the time spent with your family. 

My parents in this case are very special to me, specifically because they have always been there for my ups and downs and through those special family moments and occasions that we share.

Me and my beloved mum

This Mother's Day, I received a very special invite from Manoah and Mary Quant to celebrate the message of  'Spread Your Love' with my mother through a lovely baking session that Mary Quant had prepared.

The facilities at 19 Culinary Studio

Needless to say I was excited and when I relayed the message to my mother, you could say the feeling was mutual. You see, on a typical day I hardly get to bond with my mother over events so when this opportunity came up, I was delighted. Plus it was a baking workshop which got my mum excited even more.

The Baking Station

Held at 19 Culinary Studio, Damansara Heights, this workshop was also open to those interested in spending time with their beloved mothers as well. A small fee of RM50 would be charge and this was fully redeemable against Mary Quant products plus in addition you would also receive a goodie bag worth RM270. A pretty sweet deal don't you think?

Remember to #maryquantmalaysia!

I remember mentioning to her that it was a good thing that we left an hour early before the event could start because we did get a little lost on the way (thanks Waze) but thankfully despite that we manage to make our way safely to our destination within a 20 minute time-frame.

Our Ingredients

When we entered the culinary studio, each of us were given a station which had our basic ingredients to make our shortbread cookies.

250g High Ration Flour
50g Unsalted Butter
3g Salt
100g Icing Sugar
5g Baking Powder
15g Whipping Cream
3g Vanilla Essence

Group Photo before we began

Suraya was our teacher for the day and she was such a fun person to be with. She taught us how to mix the batter as well as making sure that the consistency of the dough was just right.

Our teacher of the day, Suraya

On an average, the ingredients given could make up to 24 cookies so as we had four people in each station, we were able to make up to six cookies each.

Baking with care

There was also a competition going on where you had to creatively decorate four cookies with your mother. Only the gingerbread shape and the signature Mary Quant flower cookie could qualify.

Shaping our shortbread cookies

I have to say that shaping the cookies were definitely not an easy task but after a few bumps along the road, we managed it quite well.

Steps:

1. Cream the butter together with the salt and icing sugar on high speed for 10 minutes until fluffy.

2. Combine the baking powder into the high ratio flour and stiff them together into a bowl.

3. Add vanilla essence into the whipping cream

4. Pre-heat the oven to 365 degree Celcious.

5. Wait until No.1 becomes fluffy and then add No.2 and No.3 little by little then mix well continuously. (Do not over mix.)

6. Take out the dough and roll it into 1/2 inch of thickness. Then shape and bake it for 15 minutes.

7. After 15 minutes, take them out from the oven and let it cool completely.

8. Decorate the cookies with the butter cream for better presentation.

Placing them on our designated trays

15 minutes baking time

After placing our cookies in the oven and waiting for it to be baked, we were led into a room where a mini workshop was conducted on Mary Quant products.

Mary Quant products beautifully displayed on the table

The workshop was held by Ms. NobukoTakaki who came all the way from Japan. She had an extremely bubbly personality and was very willing to share her makeup tips on how to use the Mary Quant products.

Swatching and trying on the Mary Quant products

One thing that I will definately say about Mary Quant is that their range of colors never fail to impress me. Even trying on the colors from the palettes, I have to say that their color swatches are extremely pigmented.


I remember that my mum use to use Mary Quant products when I was a child so I could see that even while we were trying on the shadows and shades of lip colors, the hype was still there for her. She even fell in love with a beautiful shade of red lipstick so I decided  to go ahead and make a purchase specially for her.

Our batch is finally ready!

After we were done with our workshop, we were told that our cookies were finally ready. Don't they just look so brown and delicious? Honestly if I could I would have eaten them right then and there.

Our cookie design

However we were given five butter cream icing colors in the shades of black, green, red, white and yellow to amp our patterns on our cookies. I was a little shaky with my hand so the decorating did not come so easily to me. I did the little aztech pattern on the flower and the gingerbread shape on top of it.  So technically the ones on the right were my designs and the one of the left was my mum's.


My mum does a lot of drawing and baking back home so as you can imagine her hand is extremely steady when it comes to this sort of creativity. Still I was amazed at how swiftly she was doing it while encouraging me to do my best at the same time.

Well placed in a row

After we were done, we laid out our cookies for the final judging. And surprise surprise, mum won! I think she blinked a few times in disbelief but yay mum!

Mum won the challenge! Well done!
(Mum and I with Ms. NobukoTakaki. )

I have to say that I was extremely proud of her for having the winning design but she told me that it was a team effort that made it possible. Aww mum.


Still, I am a newbie when it comes to baking so hats off to my mum for being an incredible teacher. And if not for Manoah and Mary Quant I would not be able to attend this lovely workshop and spend time with her, so thank you very much for this lovely Mother's Day treat.

Final Picture

So for those of you who are looking to "Spread Your Love" with your own mother this coming Mother's Day, do try something hands on like this. I assure you that it would be something that your mum would never expect and the best part is that the time spent would be a memorable one that only both of you will be able to share.

So for more updates do head on over to Mary Quant Malaysia at:

Mary Quant Malaysia Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MaryQuantMalaysia

Happy Mother's Day in advance everyone!


Xx!