“When you have patience and passion, nothing is impossible.” - Choffles Wedding Cake Studio

Editing by : Sook Chiung / Reuben
Photography by : Reuben
Published : 15th May 2008
Venue : Bandar Sunway, Subang Jaya
DE : Design Enterprise
C : Choffles

DE : How did Choffles come about? Can you give us a short introduction about it?
C : An ordinary bakery wasn’t my cake as there were too many competitions already during that time, so I asked myself why isn’t anyone producing specially designed wedding cakes for people here in Malaysia. The opportunity came when I participated in a Bridal Fair in 1997, held at The Mines. I placed my dummy cakes there and to my amazement, 10 thousand reservations were waiting in front of me. I wasn’t expecting that much, but this was how it all began.

Choffles Wedding Cake Studio specializes in designing cakes using sugar-made decorations. It is the 1st in Malaysia’s market and has a history of 6-7 years. Alongside wedding cakes, Choffles also design cakes for various occasions ranging from birthdays to anniversaries. Choffles also challenges itself constantly to novelty designs such as the latest cartoons, the latest trends and more. This proves their commitment towards their profession and guarantees a sweet memory that will last for a very long time.

DE : How many years have you been in this industry?
C : I have been in the confectionary industry for about 18 years. I went to Singapore to study and work right after my SPM. Having spent 8 years there, I decided to go to France in order to strengthen my art in confectionary and to get myself exposed to western culture as well. I was inspired by their designs and technology, followed by their sense of perfection in what they do, especially in the confectionary industry. I worked in hotels for many years and decided to try something different after all these years.
DE : Tell us more about the cakes found here.
C : The cakes here are designed for special occasions and the decorations on the cakes are made from 100% icing sugar. Therefore, it doesn’t crack and can be designed into any form. The reasons sugar is used for the decorations are that it is oily and it hardens when it cools which preserves the shape to our liking. The more sugar used, the smoother the decorations will be. We only use the best and finest ingredients for all of our cakes. Provided we do not use any preservation in our cakes at all.

DE : What do customers request for in their cakes on a regular basis?
C : Well, customers defer from each other. For example, 50% of my customers are ethnic Malays, whereby they usually prefer traditional designs, with floral motifs and classical decorations surrounding their cakes, provided they mostly love the colours gold & silver. For ethnic Chinese customers, a number of them prefer western designs, which involves more creativity skills and newer references.

DE : Normally, how much does a cake cost?
C : It depends on what cake consists of, for example, colours used, sugar used, weight of the cake and more. A 2kg cake would cost approximately RM180. The more design or work involved in the cake, it would cost more.

DE : What was your biggest challenge so far and how much did it cost?
C : There was this customer who wanted us to produce a pirate ship cake for charity. The cake was 6 feet long and it took us about 2 whole weeks to finish it. We had to divide the cake into a few sections due to the limitations of facilities. For example for 100kg of sugar, we had to divide the sugar into ten sections, because our machines can only hold 10kg of sugar at a time. We had to take into account many things such as the consistency of colours in every section of that cake, the freshness of the cake, the thickness of the cake, and more. The end product costs around thousands Ringgit and we were really proud of it.

DE : Is there any customers who aren’t satisfied with their cake and how would you handle it?
C : Yes, there were customers who weren’t satisfied with the colours used for their cake. We would sometimes give a small discount to them or maybe a free cake on their next order depending on the seriousness of the case. As we all know, there are no guarantees in hand-made items and customers are always right.

DE : Nowadays, people are quite health conscious and sugar is an issue to them. How would you handle this?
C : Well, if the customer wants a cake with less sugar, we would consult them on the issues that will affect the cake’s final outcome. We would either suggest them to reduce the ingredients used because the amount of sugar affects the texture on the cake. Depending on the issue, we would sometimes suggest to add some flavours to the cake like mint to reduce the sweetness of the cake. If, sugar is necessarily required to be reduced, we would do so too, but there is a limitation of reduction in conjunction with the cake’s size.

DE : Have you participated in any competitions or exhibitions before?
C : I have participated in the exhibition called Food & Hotel Malaysia which is held once in every two years. I’ve also exhibited in Food & Hotel Asia, which was a larger version, was held in Singapore. It allows me to gain even more experience and exposure. This has helped me tremendously in my designs and skills.

DE : Are there any future plans for Choffles?
C : I plan to open a college that specializes in confectionary design. For example, candies, marshmallows, cake, etc. Sugar is known widely in general, but what sugar does is still unknown to many people as it can produce unlimited things and it is a form of art too.

DE : Thank you for your time.

CHOFFLES Wedding Cake Studio has it’s own website. You can always visit http://www.choffles.com/ for more beautiful cakes. We hope that you will enjoy our interview with CHOFFLES. Beautiful cakes that we usually see online are actually available in Malaysia! There are always many passionate people around us doing great design. Don’t you think so?

“When you have patience and passion, nothing is impossible.”