Penang Chronicles: Gingerbread man making class at Straits Quay

Last weekend was the second part of Straits Quay Mall's cooking classes. The first one was the chapati cooking class last month in celebration of the Indian Festival of the Lights, Deepavali. For Christmas, they had a gingerbread man making class. Both classes were geared for kids ages 5-12 year olds, with a RM10 registration fee.

The chapati cooking class was much better organized. Each kid at the chapati class was provided with individual cooking accessories - disposable apron and hand gloves and rolling pins. Atta flour was provided for each participant for kneading and rolling. A half cup of water and a teaspoon of oil were the only things that were not provided on hand; the Indian chef had to go from one kid to another to drop the water and oil into the flour mix. The only waiting time was during the actual cooking of the chapati, each kid had to wait for their turn to use the flat pan. There were two sessions for this class, ensuring enough time and materials for each child.

At the gingerbread man making class, twenty kids had to share just a few baking accessories - 2 rolling pins, 2 gingerbread man cookie cutter and about 6 icing bags. I counted whatever I saw, there could be more but it surely was not enough to accommodate the number of kids.

In the end, there were lots of waiting time! Then there were a few eager beaver kids (and mothers!) who hoarded the icing bags and were decorating their gingerbread man for quite some time. At some point, we had to ask them to let us use the icing bags.

I'm sure the children didn't mind all these observations but it's something to feedback to the organizers, which I will surely do.

Sarah's friends, Raine and Saif, were also there to make their gingerbread man. Seated beside each other, they whiled away the waiting time chatting and goofing around. The stage moms were busy chatting as well and taking photos of our little bakers :)