3 months back I was at the Academy of Pastry Arts, PJ, where I dabbled in some Modern French Pastry making session. Yea, it was sometime ago, but no worries, the Academy of Pastry Arts is still there, and there has been some interesting classes going on lately from what I read online!
For my session, I got some hands-on experience with French pastry & French desserts. As we know, french desserts will never run far off from the likes or croissant & macarons. And true enough, we had croissants & danish pastries that day.
Croissant! Awesomely buttery, fragrant & flaky croissants!
It is said that croissants are the pride of French baking, and Lejeune Guillaume, the Director of APAM, has been trained under some of the great Pastry Chefs ( M.O.F) of France.
No wonder all the pastries we worked on that day were gorgeously delicate & tasted absolutely heavenly. Not kind on the hips at all we know, but who cares! 
This is the Ninja Cake (Pistachio chocolate cake).
Lovely pistachio cream & plenty of pistachio nuts with rich chocolate centre.
Macarons. I did say it was a French pastry/confectionery class didn’t I?
As usual I find the macarons sweeter than necessary but texture & shape – wise it was near perfect; smooth, domed top with ruffled skirting all around. The strawberry, coconut & raspberry macarons are as below.
But my favourite that day was the caramel ginger and peanut bar. It was a perfect combination of sweetness with the zing from the ginger, saltiness from the peanuts & richness from the chocolate.
A whole tray of this is baked, then “torched” at the sides of the pan to dislodge it, & then cut into bars before decorated with some Chantilly cream.
The ginger flavor was in the caramel, effectively cutting through the sweetness with some lovely ginger “spiciness”.
Both the layers of chocolate ganache & caramel was smooth, almost soft pannacotta -like while the bottom layer was nutty with a non-oily digestive cookies base, giving different textures in one mouthful. I LOVE THIS!!!
And oh, check out my customised Chocolate Tarts! Guess what’s the ‘R’ for??
The ever patient Chef Lejeune Guillaume helping the noobie baker me.
The same attentive focus goes to all his students at the Academy of course. Lucky students of his really, must have been a marvellous environment to learn the trade!
The Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia is located in Wisma Thrifty, right opposite Hilton PJ. The wide expanse of space in the workroom ensured a comfortable working environment. All equipments were clean, well maintained, functional & most importantly, there are enough tools for everyone!
The entire workspace is air -conditioned (thank God ;p ) and there is a separate room for baking, thus there’s no uncomfortable heat circulating in the work area that’s separated from the baking room.
Beautiful golden baked goods.. *drools * !
The administrative office & student waiting area were spacious & comfortable too.
Below were the danish pastries we helped to eat to prepare & heaped on loads of toppings that day.
We got to experience how is it like to be “in the life of a pastry student”. It was a lot of hands-on training & via plenty of trial & error while trying to get their trade right.
I feasted my eyes on these amazing sculptures of art too. Other than the usual pastry/baking/decorating classes, Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia offers sugar art & cake design courses too, among others like bakery & artisan breads; European breakfast pastries; ice cream/ gelato/ sorbet/frozen desserts courses, chocolate pralines and candies as well as periodic guest chefs coming in for speciality courses like Chocolate Master Class.
Finally, after all that hard work, it’s time to EAT!!
Thank you Jade for the invite! *burps*
Visit APAM website for schedules & details.
Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia
Lot 2-A, 2nd Floor,
Wisma Thrifty
No. 19, Jalan Barat,
46200 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Daruk Ehsan,
Malaysia
H/P: +60173252395
Tel: +603 7960 3846 / +603 7960 3848
Some upcoming classes:
Opera, Cream puffs & macarons – 16th July ( RM 250 )
SugarArt & cupcakes – 16th & 17th July (RM 500)
Chocolate Master Class by Chef Auboine – 18th to 23rd July ( RM2000 )
Croissant & Danish – 30th July (RM 250)
All pictures are:
thanks becca =) appreciate the posting.
thanks for highlighting the classes as well! would it be ok if you could replace the website: http://www.pastry.com.my to http://www.academyofpastryartsmalaysia.com (the one at the bottom with the addresses). they recently revamped that version =) thanks!
-jade-
No problem! Amendments made!
oooh, this reminds me of your baking ambitions a few years ago! but glad to see you got to enjoy some hands-on experience here 😀
The ambition is still there! But haizzz.. how laaa.. too many things ;p
I have the mind to learn how to bake. And I would think that it is slightly hard to learn how to make it, especially the progression, need tons of effort. Hehe.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Ohh awesome! I think you should, it’s always hard at first, but once you start, you’ll be hooked if you are really passionate abt it you know!
I can’t bake for shit. Those look really nice.
U can’t?? But u cook so well!
Hi, are there still classes now adays?
Hi do you have any macaroon classes between 17th dec – 3rd jan? I’m
From Maldives and il be visiting malaysia in dec.