Meet Wenping
Pastry Chef
Chef Wenping is a professional pastry Chef, specialized in flower cake pastries. She owns a bakery shop, "Lynn & Ann Cake Parlour" in Jakarta, Indonesia.
- Tell us about your professional background and your career path. Why did you decide to become a pastry chef?
- “Being a hospitality graduate and a person who enjoys dessert very much, I am always constanly drawn in patisserie. It all started when my brother wanted to celebrate his first son's 1st month old and he wanted some cupcakes as a thank-you gifts for those who has come to the party. With excitement, I hastily bought the ingredients and googled some cupcakes recipes. After several trial and errors, I successfully baked my first batch of beautifully decorated cupcakes, and I couldn't be more proud of myself. Few days later, some of the guests start to call me and wanted to order, and one month to another, I just kept getting more orders and I saw a business opportunity and the fuel to my fire. Ever since then, I have dedicated my life as a full time baker and cake decorator and I would have never been more proud than ever.”
- What are your favorite ingredients and your favorite pastry cake? Who are the chefs who influenced you the most ?
- “For my favourites, I can't choose one between cream cheese and fruit purée! I love cream cheese as it balances the sweetness of the cake. And there's nothing better than getting a plate of cake infused with fresh berries during the summer time! Just to be clear, Indonesia is always hot, so it is always the perfect time to have berries-infused cake.
I admire a lot of pastry chefs. I admired Pierre Herme since my freshman year for their crispy and soft macaroons and the Parisian designs. When I first started my business, I looked up to Debbie Brown and had bought almost all of her books available in Indonesia. As social media started to grow, I started to see beautiful talents across the world. Cakes by Cliff from Australia with the amazing colour combination and chocolate shards, Dinara Kasko from Ukraine with her 3D printed moulds and Kim & Cake from Korea with her realistic flower buttercream. They all go on top of my list for inspiration and creativity, but no matter how good you are at baking and decorating, nobody could ever copy your style. Just like fashion, style involves your personal touch, and every chef have their own unique way of decorating a cake.” - What are your links with Elle & Vire Professionnel ?
What are your favorite Elle & Vire Professionnel products and why ? - “I used most of Elle & Vire Professionnel products for my cake and decorations. My favorite one is the Butter, the Original American Cream Cheese and also the Excellence Whipping Cream. Those three are the essentials ingredients in most of my cake creation. They smelled very mild but yet tasted so delicate in very outcome of cake creation especially in buttercream.”
- More and more pastry chefs prepare flower cakes pastries, could you tell us the origin of this trend and when it started (for you)?
- “I assume there is no specific country of origin for the flower buttercream but it started to gain its popularity in Korea that makes it so popular. The change came when artists and teachers such as Kang, decided to take things up a notch.
As for me, it started 2 months after I gave birth to my third baby (December 2014). I had been creating and decorating Sugar Paste decorations for 8 years and so thrilled to create something new which is out from my comfort zone. It took months of getting the good consistency of the buttercream and months of practicing and creating the flowers. I tried to make the flower cake more delicate and beautiful by not only depicting the shapes of flowers, but also flower buds and berries, very realistically.” - What are your tips to make a flower cake?
- “Think of it as real flowers. Observe how delicate they are. This is just the same way on how you should create flowers from buttercream. Always be light handed and delicate. To help you with this, use quality butter, they usually help you to create better textures and thus, create more realistic flowers. And never stop practicing. It took me a whole three month to be able to create the perfect rose from buttercream! So don't give up if you couldn't nail it the first try.”