The Doodle Cake

Hey readers, I was on the road for a while but I'm glad to finally settle down to some baking this month and one of the cakes I'm totally excited to share with you is the Doodle Cake - also known as Dolly's Birthday Cake.

I have to admit it's not my brainchild, I had taken the inspiration from Sweetpolita's Rainbow Doodle Cake, but I'm so glad I made it for my sister's birthday. It's a tribute to her creative streak as she's an artist at heart, even though her day job couldn't be further from the world of colours and creativity. The wonderful thing about this cake is everyone celebrating with you gets a chance to personalise it with a message! One of the beauties of fondant, the smooth surface makes it such a perfect canvas for doodling. Of course you'll have to use edible pens.

The kids and adults enjoyed inscribing their well wishes, and my sister commented it's quite like when you have a plaster of paris cast on haha. But you get the point, everyone loves you, they tell you so on a cake instead of a card. Then after the candles are blown, we eat it all up.

Dolly's Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday my dear sister

Edible pens for cake doodling

Now you can get your hands on one of these cakes. They come in your favourite flavours. My sister particularly loves chocolate cake, but I wanted the same fun colours as the doodling so I added a special rainbow frosting between the layers.

Inverted Rainbow Cake

The Doodle Cake is perfect for any occasion - anniversary, graduation, or just for fun! The cake will come with a box of edible colour markers for your work of cake art! Get in touch with me for more details :)

Velvetin

February was an exciting month for me and I'm especially proud to have launched a long-awaited project - Velvetin Cake - my little adventure in red velvet cakes.

There is no other cake I love more than the luscious red velvet. I first fell in love with the crimson cake when I spotted it on joyofbaking.com. The red layers separated by cream cheese frosting made my eyes hungry. My first few attempts at making this cake resulted in a cake that was a bit dry, as with a lot of red velvet cakes I've tasted at cafes and cake shops, and depended way too much on red food colouring. After experimenting with a few recipes and ingredients, I was finally happy with a red velvet that is moist, flavourful and didn't require a whole lot of red food colouring.

Classic Red Velvet

I took the Velvetin brand to Loewen Farmer's Market at Dempsey on Valentine's Day and it was a sell out! Admittedly it wouldn't have been such a success if not for the love of my family and friends. You guys made it a whole lot of fun! I'm now looking for the next popup stall to peddle my red velvet so please do stay tuned. Go to Velvetin's Facebook page for updates.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to order a red velvet cake, Velvetin has them in 3 ways - The Classic (cream cheese), Red Velvet Fudge, Kitty Kat (signature KitKat red velvet) - you can do so at velvetincake.com

Ultimate Gummy Bear Cake

This has got to be one of the most outrages and memorable cakes I've made this year, and it's only February! I got the order for a gummy bear encrusted cake. Sounds simple enough except it had to be colour sorted and arranged in rainbow layers. One thing you don't realise is how many gummy bears it takes to cover a 11" round cake that is 8" high. Like a lot!

More Gummy Bears Than You Can Count

Assembling this cake was thoroughly therapeutic, though I realised this is one of those OCD nightmare situation - not a colour out of place, no alignment issues and no missing spots please. When I was finally done, it was nothing short of a bejeweled armour - a squishy, chewy, fruity one.

Bejeweled Blitz

The cake is a 4-layer moist chocolate cake covered in a satiny Swiss Meringue Buttercream. It was Mummy E who suggested a dark cake inside to contrast the colourful bright outside. The result was stunning. The kids went wild, of course.

Chocolate Surprise

If you were at the Candylicious boutique over the weekend and wondered where all the gummy bears went, well, now you know.

What! It's 2015!!!

Did I completely miss a Christmas post to round up 2014?
Well, here's a Merry Christmas, Farewell 2014 and Happy New Year to one and all :)

Now because 2014 came and went - a year that dissipated into the cosmos before I could see any of my resolutions through or keep up with the many postings I should have done - I'm embracing this January to start over again. As we all must. Here's my list....

1. Launch something new.

Yup that's it.

There's only one item on my blog this year. I'm not going to set myself up for failure by charting up a list of ideals. I'll save that for my personal diary (remember those things we wrote in with a pen in an age where personal thoughts were, well private...ok, sorry I digress).

No matter what did or did not take off for me in 2014, I'm still extremely thankful for a year where my loved ones thrived and we wanted for nothing. Going forward, feeling blessed.

Cake Challenge Accepted

Before November comes to an end, I had better update my much-neglected blog. Last year this time, I had well over 40 entries, this year's been a bit slow with too many distractions. Having said that, the baking hasn't stop and I've had the lovely opportunity to work on some amazing cakes. The last two months in particular posed some cake challenges that I was more than happy to accept.

The Lego Cake
This is a special request from my boy who turned 5. He made the leap from Duplo to big boy Lego some months back under the enthusiastic tutelage of his father. Once he got the hang of it, his appetite for Lego building became insatiable. He was eagerly fixing up sets that were for well beyond his years. Papa B has competition now and the house has become Legoland.

So Mama was summoned to make a Lego cake for his birthday and he wanted this specific one he saw online. I was nervous that if I didn't construct it right, I'll have a house of Lego junkies on my case.

Happy Birthday Jake

Still Can't Let It Go
Apparently the fascination with Elsa, Anna, Olaf and all things Frozen has yet to thaw. I still get a good number of request for Frozen cakes. This one in particular really pushed me to extend my construction skill. The castle is the piece de resistance on this two-tier cake. Made from foam core, cardboard and sugar gum paste, I managed to save the day when the Frozen cake toppers were all out of stock!

Happy Birthday Tricia

The 80th Birthday Cake
I was asked to design a cake for a sweet dame turning 80. Usually for older ladies, I would play it safe and go with flowers or simple piping designs. This time, I was given a picture of the celebrant in her most favourite spot - in a recliner in front of the telly. Life is good at 80.

Happy 80th Birthday

Christmas is round the corner and 2014 will soon be a wrap. I started out the year so strong with so many plans, but with only a month to go, I'm sad to say I've yet to achieve what I set out to do. Ah well, I can plan and hope again in 2015. Stay tuned won't you.

Sofia the First

Wow! I made some Sofia the First cupcakes recently and had it posted on my Facebook page. Overnight, the post reach surpassed all my previous posting with a healthy number of likes and kind comments. Thanks so much guys. The petite princess in purple offered so many wonderful design elements  to work on that it was simple pleasure to make.

This also made me realised how many of you actually like Sofia the First! I know her because it's on Disney Jr. and it's one of few princess cartoons my boys would watch, if not the only. It is also easy to like Sofia, she's kind and spirited but not cloyingly sweet, just enough to make some awesome cupcakes. Heh.

Here are a few emblems that brings out the essence of Princess Sophia...

Her purple amulet

Clover pattern on her dress

Every princess needs a tiara

It's an extremely purply affair, a sort of powdery lavender that is most fitting for Disney's latest bug eyed princess. Here's Sofia herself in cupcake (literally).

Sofia the First 

I made little printouts of Sofia, had them cut out and mounted on toothpicks, then stuck it atop the cupcake and used the fondant ruffle technique for the skirt. Little round discs of fondant were ruffled piece by piece with a ball tool - something I have to confess that's strangely therapeutic to do - and arranged it all around each cupcake.

HRH Cupcakes

I've had wonderful feedback and was told Mummy H who ordered this was totally pleased as was the birthday girl. From the response I've been getting all around, I think Sofia has just gained a few more fans.

Peppa the Popular Piggy

You always know what's hot with the kids by the cakes that get requested and the one that is getting keeps popping up is Peppa Pig!

The cute little pink piggy is famous for adventures around her neighbourhood with her little brother George and extended family and friends. There are many other little characters in this British preschool animated series, which includes rabbits, sheep, cats, dogs and elephants. It's truly great fodder for fondant characters.

The most famous image of Peppa and her family is where Mama pig, Papa pig, Peppa and George are enjoying a stomp around in a muddy puddle, typical piggy activity!

I made my first Peppa pig cake in Dec last year and in 2014, it's easily already one of the most requested cakes. Check out all the Peppa cakes I've done so far...

Peppa and friends (extended version)

Peppa and family

Peppa herself

This was a special request to feature the main star herself - Peppa. This cake is carved out, and covered in meringue frosting. Fondant is used only for the outline, so that minimises the sweet stuff. 

Peppa is popular

Always a joy to make, I'm almost eager to see another request for this.