Rating: ★★★★☆

(1) Twinkle Baker Décor 

Address: Room 282, 2/F, Houston Centre, 63 Mody Road, T.S.T. East, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Telephone: 2369 8068

Email: info@twinkle-bd.com

https://www.facebook.com/TwinkleBaker

(2) Caffe HABITU – Coffee Academy & Roasting Studio

Address: 128 – 138 Leighton Rd, Hong Kong Causeway Bay

Telephone: 3104 0075

Email: coffeeclass@caffehabitu.com

www.caffehabitu.com

我平日很愛喝咖啡，而且一直很想試試自己拉咖啡花，最近終於上了Caffe HABITU Coffee Academy & Roasting Studio與 Twinkle Baker Décor合辦的曲奇裝飾 x 咖啡拉花工作坊。Coffee Academy的氣氛很輕鬆，室內很寬敞，有皮梳化和木枱，好像去了寫意的咖啡店一樣。Coffee Academy的導師每個都來頭不小，是香港頂尖的專業咖啡師，而我們當日的導師便是Caffe Habitu的專業導師 Arol和 Carol。咖啡拉花不易掌握，所以這工作坊其實只是一個基本課程，想認真學習拉花的話應報讀正式的Master Latte Art課程。工作坊可不便宜，三小時每位$768 + 10%，但真的很好玩!

Have you ever seen cupcakes with beautifully crafted frostings and wish that you’d make some yourself? Have you ever wondered how patterns of hearts, leaves, swans or bears in your cup of latte are made? I attended a 3-hour Cookie Decoration x Latte Art Workshop at Caffe HABITU Coffee Academy & Roasting Studio one Saturday morning, and managed to try making both of these gorgeous edible creations! The workshop lasted 3 hours and cost $768 + 10% person; there were around 12-18 participants. The prices weren’t pretty, but everything else at the workshop was!

Centrally located in Causeway Bay, the interior of Caffe HABITU Coffee Academy & Roasting Studio is bright and spacious; sofas, leather armchairs, marble and wooden tables and an open kitchen complete a homely and laid-back set-up. Coffee Academy is currently the largest coffee education institute in Hong Kong, and offers a range of courses in relation to specific coffee skills, such as coffee roasting, advanced latte art or coffee tasting classes. It is an approved centre of City & Guilds, an internationally-recognised qualification in barista skills; in fact, I am currently also attending the City & Guildes Barista Course at Coffee Academy ($5,500 for Training + Certificate) – so stay tuned for my review!

The class was divided into two parts – the first 1.5 hour was a Cookie Decoration session, and the second 1.5 hour was the Latte Art session.  The Cookie Decoration session was in collaboration with Twinkle Baker Décor, an establishment that manufactures cake decoration materials (such as frosting, edible marker and shimmering powder), does event catering (e.g. cookies, cupcakes, cookies and cake pops) and holds cupcake decorating workshops in their K11 outlet.

We decorated 4 butter cookies during the session, using pink and green fondant and some edible beads. The equipment were neatly laid out on our communal table and the cookies were already baked for us.

We used pink fondant to make the flowers and green fondant to make the base. As the fondant would be softened by the heat of our hands, we had to remember not to roll the fondant with our palms for too long, otherwise it would become too soft and sticky for shaping. Another thing to note was that the fondant should be rolled out very evenly for it to look pretty on the cookie!

After covering our cookie with the fondant, we then decorated it with some edible beads using tweezers. Here is a photo of my first cookie done! Even though we only had two colours of fondant, we still managed to make a variety of different patterns; it was so much fun to see everyone at the workshop creating their own elegant patterns!

After we have finished decorating the cookies (and gorging on some extra butter cookies that the organisers kindly baked for us), we put our cookies on a plate to let the frosting dry and moved on to the latter art session.

Coffee Academy boasts many top baristas in Hong Kong, including Ben Lam, 2nd Runner Up of Hong Kong Barista Championship, Bruno Koo, Sensory Judge of Hong Kong Barista Championship and Alvin Hui, Co-founder of Hong Kong Professional Coffee Association. The trainers at Coffee Academy are all top-qualified baristas, and our latte art workshop that day was taught by Carol Wong, District Coffee Trainer of Caffe HABITU and Arol Yip, Coffee Trainer of caffe HABITU.

Carol and Arol – yes, very similar names indeed! – started off with a demonstration and explanation of the theory behind making latte art patterns.

We were told that there are are two types of latte art – free hand and etching.

Free hand means creating patterns by pouring milk into the coffee without doing anything further to it, such as this leaf pattern below which is made by subtle movements of the wrist.

Etching means that you use a stick (e.g. a toothpick, a stirrer etc.) to draw patterns on the foam after pouring in the milk; you could also use some chocolate sauce for additional colour. This adorable kitten below is made by etching.

Making latte art patterns involves deft movement of the wrist, and this workshop is merely an introduction for beginners, so don’t expect to be able to make intricate patterns after 1.5 hour! With the help of the trainers, I made this circle pattern below, which I would then use to shape into a bear.

I gave the bear some facial features, and used some chocolate sauce to make the eyes and a heart shape. Even though I have been blogging for a while now and have gotten used to taking photos before I eat or drink something, when I saw this cup of latte with an absolutely gorgeous (to me at least!) bear pattern on it, I had a very strong urge to drink it instantly without taking any photos at all!

Coffee Academy will be hosting other classes soon, such as the “Sweet Treats in Heaven” ($688 per person), which is a chocolate truffle-making and coffee blending workshop. Chocolate and coffee are some of my favourite things in this world, so the workshop does sound very “heavenly” to me indeed! Check out Caffe HABITU‘s website for more!