The Monkey King, the Great Sage of Qitian, with his foot on the lotus platform, wearing colorful golden armour and holding a golden hoop, would have been hard to associate this lifelike sculpture with the food cake if it were not for the English introduction marked below. Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that the team of "SK Tang Wang Zhou Yi" from China recently won 3 gold medals and 2 bronze medals at the World Cake Conference held in Britain. Contestant Zhou Yi told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that one of the cakes was made after seven days and nights, and the characters on the other cake were redone seven or eight times just by hand.
"the Monkey King Cake" costs 10,000 yuan.
For people who like dessert, one of the hardest things to accept is that you can’t bear to eat a beautiful cake when there is one in front of you. Recently, many netizens in Weibo were "amazed" by a group of photos of cakes. Weibo netizen "sk Sugar King Zhou Yi" posted a group of photos on Weibo. In the photos, cakes made with "sugar-turning" technology were made, some of which were made into the image of the Monkey King, the great sage of Qitian, and another cake was a woman costume dressed in green, with pictures and screens around him that were lifelike.
Zhou Yi, the founder of the cake, introduced in Weibo that the cakes in these photos were the works of his team participating in the international cake competition held in the UK recently, and five cakes finally won three gold medals and two bronze medals. Award-winning cakes with the shapes of "the Monkey King" and "Wu Zetian" triggered a heated discussion among many netizens. Some netizens commented that these cakes were "too beautiful to eat", while others said that "I didn’t expect a cake to contain craftsman spirit".
According to the official website of the International Cake Competition, it is the largest cake competition in the world and is considered as an arena of cake making technology and creativity.
In an interview with the reporter of Beiqing Daily, Zhou Yi said that the five cakes won this time were made by four members of his team. Although the characters made were like sculptures, their raw materials were mainly sugar and flour, which were edible. "Can make such a vivid effect, mainly using a cake decoration called ‘ Fancy sugar ’ Technology and materials. "
It is understood that Zhou Yi has opened a fondant cake training school in Suzhou. According to Ji Jinjun, who is in charge of the brand operation of the training school, fondant cake is made of sugar, water and glucose, which belongs to the cake industry, and its shape is completely made by hand. Although it is mainly decorative, all parts are edible. The materials used to make fondant cakes are almost the same as those of ordinary cakes, but it takes about a week to make a fondant cake, and the labor cost is much higher than that of ordinary cakes. The reporter of Beiqing Daily learned that the predetermined price of this kind of fondant cake, which can participate in international competitions, reaches 10,000 yuan.
In addition, the fondant cake has been preserved for a long time, and a fondant cake in Britain has even been preserved for a hundred years. As long as it is not in direct contact with water, oil and humid air, fondant cakes can always survive. If you want to eat it for a long time, you can keep it by freezing it. "The fondant cake is completely edible. But the cakes we usually make during training will not be used for eating, but will be placed outside the classroom as a souvenir. Now, there is a row of cakes outside our classroom. " Ji Jinjun said.
Ji Jinjun told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that Zhou Yi is good at making fondant cake dolls, and his style prefers China ancient style. In this British International Cake Competition, Zhou Yi teamed up with friends and apprentices to participate. In the end, Zhou Yi’s "Wu Zetian" won the gold medal, and "Drunk and Forgetting the Worries" won the bronze medal.
Seven days and nights of "fighting against Buddha"
Zhou Yi said that the cake in this competition was first made into a cake-shaped large structure in China, and then brought to the UK, and some details of the work were supplemented three days before the competition. In particular, some fragile things, such as very small wine glasses and belts, were brought to Britain to be reassembled, and the big frames were basically completed in China.
"Usually we all have our own things. For example, I am busy taking care of my own company. Many of the works this time are made by everyone." Zhou Yi took the the Monkey King cake "Fighting over Buddha", which was hotly discussed by many netizens, as an example. "The golden armor and golden hoop on this cake are very fine, which was made by the author after seven nights." In order to participate in the competition, they used a lot of raw materials. "At present, these entries use about 60 kilograms of sugar alone."
Du Chaojing, the author of Fight Against Buddha, told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that in order to express the Monkey King’s solemnity, cleverness and ferocity with her works, she looked through a large number of stills of six-year-old children and finally decided to adopt the shape of Fight Against Buddha. "Fight against Buddha has a high realm. He is a Buddha, with both the ferocity of monkeys and the solemnity of Buddha." After determining the design blueprint, Du Chaojing started to make the doll’s head, and it took three days to make the hair on the Monkey King’s head alone.
In order to show the best effect of the cake in the competition, a detail in the shape may be overturned many times. In Zhou Yi’s work "Drunken Sleeping and Forgetting Worries", a beautiful woman dressed in China’s ancient costume was prone on the ground. "I made this beautiful woman many times, and I was particularly tired. The first time I made her head small, the second time she made it big, which was out of proportion to the figure’s body. Later, the proportion was right, and I felt that there was something wrong with her expression, so I still had to do it again. Including this beautiful woman’s hand, when I started to do it, my finger was broken several times and I had to stick it again, but later I felt that there should still be no traces of adhesion, so I cut off my hand and did it again, and I did it seven or eight times with one hand. "
Attentive netizens noticed that there was a bunch of flowers in the prone beauty’s hair, which was composed of dozens of small flowers. The detailed pictures that Zhou Yi showed to the reporters of Beiqing Daily showed that subtle lines could be seen on the flowers. Zhou Yi said that the total length of the cake "Sleeping Drunk and Forgetting Worry" is only over 40 centimeters, and the flowers on the beautiful women’s heads are only a few millimeters in size, and they are made one by one when they are made.
I used to learn from dough modeling and sugar blower technology.
Du Chaojing, another contestant, is a certified cake baking trainer in Britain. She has a fondant cake training room in Beijing. This time, she went to Britain with her good friend Zhou Yi. In the competition, Du Chaojing’s work "Fighting over Buddha" won the gold medal.
On the afternoon of November 5, Du Chaojing, who just attended the award ceremony, told the reporter of Beiqing Daily: "The British International Cake Competition is the biggest competition in the cake industry and belongs to an international competition. I was really happy to win the gold medal for the first time, and I didn’t waste my time creating works day and night. "
Zhou Yi said that China’s traditional food arts and crafts such as dough sculpture and sugar blower provided him with a lot of inspiration in creating fondant cakes: "For example, the palace lanterns in Wu Zetian were blown out by sugar blowers, and these effects surprised many foreign counterparts."
Du Chaojing told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that she and Zhou Yi are developing fondant cakes that suit the taste of China people.
Text/reporter Qu Chang Zhang Xi