Bananas About Penguin

Two friendly mothers who are (Singapore Mom) bloggers gave me the opportunity to bake for their children. I always look forward to baking for kids partly because I have 2 of my own and I know how a cake can light up their world!

My friend Eve (thebottomsupblog.com) recommended Motherkao (motherkao.com) to me to create a penguin cake for her little girl who turns 2. She gave me ample notice (thank you) and we discussed about how the cake should be – not too sweet, healthy for young children and must have a penguin! So we went with a banana cake with cream cheese frosting. 

We tried to stay away from fondant, so definitely no 3D cakes with upright penguin ala "Cake Boss" style. Instead, it was to be a easy to serve cake for school hence a sensible square cake with a 2D penguin design.

I really thought I could keep it simple, but those images of cute penguins made it easy to get carried away. PLUS, I had the willing hands of my good friend Dawn from Shanghai who is in town this month so she came by to help me with the cake. Dawn is amazing with cake designs and runs her own home business in Shanghai (lucky me and lucky you who ordered).

So we got to work and decided that it was necessary to use fondant, not too much but enough to create a penguin that we can place on the square cake. 

Making of a penguin

I baked a large square cake that is 12" by 12" and covered it in rich mascarpone cream cheese frosting. The banana cake is such a wholesome cake for kids as it is naturally sweetened by ripe bananas so it needs only about two-thirds of the sugar that is required by the recipe. Bananas is also high in potassium and dietary fibre. The cream cheese covering is also great as it's got calcium for strong bones and requires a whole lot less sugar that buttercream! 

Dawn also contributed something special to the cake by showing me how to do chocolate transfers! So we made some snowflakes using white chocolate that could be used as accents for the cake (even though it was an unbearable 32 degrees today).

Each is unique and painstakingly piped

Here's a peek at the penguin...

Penguin pretty in pink

The completed cake

Dawn and I got a bit obsessed with embellishing the cake and had to stop ourselves as we were running out of time to meet the delivery! But the result just made us smile. I was particularly pleased as it was definitely more than what I had set out to do for the cake.

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

I was told the kids enjoyed the cake and the birthday girl loved her penguin. This is exactly why I love to bake, happiness ; )

Oh and one last thing. So where is my hubby's contribution to this cake you might ask? As the fondant covered penguin was quite heavy, we were afraid it might sink into the base cake creating a dent, so B came up with an ingenious idea. Usually, dowel sticks are used as support for cake upon cake but for this, we inserted oreo cookies in an upright position to hold the penguin up, and it worked! Motherkao, if you're wondering why there are oreo cookies in this banana cake, well now you know ;p

Courtesy of B the cake builder

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Piggies and Cream

Everybody has a favourite animal, well everyone should. I for one, love dogs (and cats too) and I have a very soft spot for beagles. My son loves elephants, lions, giraffes and monkeys!

My good friend's mum loves pigs and had requested for me to make a cake for her 65th birthday! Well, the lady is not exactly a girl (though she is a picture of youth) so I didn't think it would be appropriate to make a cutesy cake. But as it turned out, the piggies just can't help being cute. 

I was asked to include "Happy Birthday Por Por" (grandma) as she has two adorable grandsons who keep her really busy so this is what I thought would really make her day...

Grandma piggy with her piglets

I made a healthy double layer Hummingbird cake and frosted it entirely with cream cheese roses. It  immediately gave the cake some elegance, which is what I wanted for grandma's birthday.

A Hummingbird cake inside

Personally, there is nothing I love more than cream cheese frosting. It pipes beautifully and tastes amazing! If you're wondering what's a Hummingbird cake, it's essentially a cinnamon banana cake with pineapples and walnuts! You'll be reminded of a carrot cake but this is tons better!

Piggies among the roses

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A Gooner's Surprise

I'm not a big English football fan (and neither is the hubby) but I come from a family of ardent Liverpool supporters (ok, it's split down the middle with Manchester United). So when I got the call to create a cake for an Arsenal fan, I was admittedly a bit lost.

I knew there was a gun involved somewhere, but little did I know, it is actually a cannon (doh!) - the emblem for the North London club. Arsenal fans are known as 'Gooners' and I was making a birthday cake for a Gooner who was turning 50! My dear friend Phi had asked me to replicate the design of the Arsenal football jersey for her boyfriend's dad. I did a bit of research and took up the challenge much to the chagrin of my Liverpool-loving siblings.

So the planning started...

Paper cutout of the jersey

I was told of the new jersey design so I had to incorporate it into the cake as well. The blue bits are new to the Arsenal jersey. But the real work is in the logo...

The Gunner logo

This is jerseylicious...

On a plushy grass turf

And it's done! A Gooner's surprise birthday cake...

Happy Birthday Gooner

Of course if you've been following my blog, you would know the hubby contributes to all my cakes. For this one, he made a Gunner football...

Check out the football geometry 

I was delighted to hear that the cake made the birthday boy one happy Gooner.

You know what this means, I'll have to start working on a liver bird next ;p

Come Aboard the James Train

My elder boy is a HUGE Thomas the Tank Engine fan, this means my younger boy is expose to the funny-face trains a lot earlier than I would like. We celebrated James' 1st Birthday over the weekend, and it was quite obvious what sort of cake I would have to bake for the occasion – a James train cake.

You see, my James has an affinity for the little red engine of the same name. He would flail his arms in excitement whenever he sees the bright red train on TV! He often plays with his brother's extensive train collection and always ends up with the James train in hand. I was sure a James train cake would make him light up so I pored over lots of examples of cakes with the Thomas and Friends theme and specially researched on how to craft a James train with fondant.

It was a big task with lots of expectations, mainly of myself. I was going to make a tiered cake (for the first time) and construct the train topper with fondant.

Here's my James train topper...

Notice how I went for the cartoon look, simply because it was cuter and admittedly less exacting and more forgiving to make! Then the hubby comes along and thought he'd give a go at it. Here is B's James train...

I may be the baker at home, but B is the crafter. He took the train to a whole new level, check out the form and features! Naturally, we went with his topper.

Here are the three main characters...

Percy, James and Thomas

I love the colours of the trains. They look fantastic against a baby blue fondant cake. My elder boy can tell you which colour belongs to which train and the number at the side of each car. I have a feeling I would be making a Thomas train cake again come November when he turns 3!

Hooray James is 1

The cake was a hit with the kids, and the birthday boy (even though he couldn't quite say it yet). They all wanted to a piece of the trains, the rolling hills, and the clouds and of course the moist chocolate cake inside. It's worth the many hours I spent working on it, but now, what do we do with the James topper?

Happy Birthday James

What I didn't know about Pokemon

I made a Pokemon cake over the weekend together with the recipient of the cake - a very vivacious 12-year-old girl who taught me everything there's to know about Pokemon. Needless to say, she's a huge fan of the Japanese video game franchise.

Did you know there are altogether 648 characters in the Pokemon series? 

Her mummy was so sweet, she arranged the fondant-making session as a birthday surprise. So I baked the cake, covered it in a pretty blue fondant, and waited for them to come by to make those zany Pokemon characters.

S went straight to work and rolled out a Pikachu in record time - 10 minutes! She was quite nifty with the fondant too. It may not be polished work but it was all creative fun! Her mum made the indispensable Pokeball, it was so nice, she made it twice!

Did you know the Pokeball is used to catch and store Pikachu?

Check out the mother and daughter effort ; )

We cut out stars to dress the cake... one for every subject that S will be taking for her PSLE exams this year! Good luck girl ; )

And Happy Birthday! 

Spiderman, Spiderman

I've yet to watch the new Amazing Spiderman starring Andrew Garfield, and already, I've made my first Spiderman cake. Hunny, if you're reading this, I think it's time for date night at the movies soon!

An ex-colleague had asked me to bake a cake for her son's birthday. Her little boy who turns 6 is a Spiderman fan. She provided a design for me to replicate, including cake toppers of Spidey in his famous pose and a large spider web!

To be honest, I was a little relieved to see the cake toppers as modelling these figurines out of fondant will be no small feat. I could try, but I'm no where near the standard of some bakers I know who are at the top of their fondant craft! I'm working on it people... so for now, thank god for toppers ;p

What I do enjoy is the baking - this is a moist chocolate cake that's generously covered in luscious chocolate ganache. I've also cut out the shape of a building using fondant, at the top of which Spiderman could perch. I had quite a bit of fun piping the spiderweb too. There's something about white icing on a dark cake... it really stands out nicely!

This cake measures 12" by 12" (30cm). It's good for 25-36 servings, which is great for school parties! The birthday boy will be sharing this cake with his classmates.

I also made the icing for the borders. I finally tried Wilton's meringue powder and I'm suitably impressed! It produces a fluffy, velvety icing that is so white it makes for easy tinting of colours. With the meringue powder, I no longer have to separate eggs or worry about using raw egg whites :( And not to mention, wonder what to do with all those egg yolks! It taste great too and uses a lot less sugar than traditional buttercream, I'm so happy with this recipe.

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Barbie's Wardrobe Malfunction

The Barbie Doll cake was quite popular at one time. I remember my first encounter with the doll cake 5 years ago when my friend's boyfriend ordered one as a surprise for her birthday. She was turning 31. Who could resist a pretty-looking doll, not even the guys I suspect.

Anyway, a friend emailed me asking if I could make a Barbie Doll cake for her niece's 8th birthday and though I've never made one before, I was eager for the opportunity. So I did a bit of research and went down to my baking supply store where I went a little crazy buying embellishments like pearls, lace and flower sprinkles. And there's Barbie herself - for the purpose of baking - she is only doll on top and a toothpick from waist down - a bit freaky but very convenient.

I baked chocolate cake and stacked it up to create a dome shape for the skirt, then covered it in pink fondant. Then came the fun part, playing dress up! I wrapped a sweetheart bustier around Barbie with floral ribbon for cross-back straps. This is not baking, this is playtime!

Here she is, all ready for the party...

A look at the details of her dress...

Unfortunately, my moist chocolate cake was probably not 'stiff' enough to hold her upright for the night as she awaited her pick up in the morning... she started to lean forward and to my horror, cracks started to appear on her fondant dress! All that effort... I was devastated! Then I called my friend and told her, "We have a wardrobe malfunction!" Good thing she's got a sense of humour and just said, "Tell Barbie to walk and not run!" ;p

In the end, I salvaged it with pretty pink floral cutouts and this is what the birthday girl received...

Lesson learned... foundation is everything!