I Do

You know you've reached a milestone of sorts when you get to make a wedding cake for someone. That someone is a former colleague who truly believes in my baking and has no qualms that I never made a wedding cake ever! God bless her sweet soul.

This is a very special project for me for many reasons. I'm a hopeless romantic; a wedding cake symbolises the commitment to love in a very edible way. Marriage is a wonderful journey that I'm lucky to have embarked on with a kindred spirit - we are five years into ours - and I'm always happy to see friends making that lifelong promise to someone they love.

When the bride requested for me to bake her wedding cake, a million ideas raced through my mind. I was lucky to be given total creative autonomy. I told myself, keep it simple, focus on a few details and make those really stand out. So I proposed fresh flowers on a white fondant covered cake. She said yes!

Wedding cakes may seem simple enough, as compared to say a boy castle cake with towers and turrets, but in reality, it requires more finesse for that flawless finish. I prepped 2 dozen red and pink roses to go between the two-tiered cake. It's the first time I'm working with fresh flowers, it's totally stunning on a stark white fondant cake...makes me wonder why it's not more popular than sugarpaste flowers.  

Here's the first tier with flowers...

Red Velvet Cake + Roses

This is a red velvet cake covered in Wilton white fondant. The roses are nipped from the stalk and inserted with floral wires and assembled into a styrofoam disc about 5" smaller than the base cake. When that is done, the top tier is gently placed on top of the styrofoam disc. I topped the cake with 2 roses to represent the happy couple.

For Annie and George

While putting this cake together, I became slightly obsessed with ribbons! There are some wedding cakes that are embellished with nothing but ribbons and it's just too pretty! Some of the best examples I've seen of wedding cakes have nothing more than clever use of ribbons and a simple flower feature. I especially like this Singapore-based wedding cake boutique - Crummb - check out the website

All the best Annie & George!

Love is patient, love is kind. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Terrific Toppers

So there were a few more cakes that were put together quickly, thanks to the terrific toppers that were provided by mummies for their little one's special day.

Sophia the First
Lauren (who also got a My Little Pony cake) got to celebrate her birthday in school with Sophia the First! I love that new Disney princess series, even my two boys enjoy it when it comes on Disney Junior. Since they will never request for a Princess Sophia cake, I'm glad Mummy K asked me to help her with one. She managed to get the toppers, not an easy task since the series is so new. I just had to bake the cake and set the scene for the toppers.

Happy Birthday Lauren

Chugginton
Isaac (who also got Peppa Pig) received his new Chuggington toy atop a chocolate cake. I got this idea online - I especially loved how the shrubbery was created using the scallop cutters and layering the pieces together. I did that all along one side of the cake. Then made a little railway and just one prop, a street lamp. Choo-choo-chugga-chugga!

Happy Birthday Isaac

Lion King
This request for a Lion King cake got me researching for safari-inspired cakes! There were some beautiful examples of cakes online with the African landscape, including some painted ones of Serengeti sunsets...amazing. For this cake, I made a simple rectangle cake and a rock mount that we can perch Simba on. I used floral wires for the fondant leaves so they could stand upright to break up the flat green cake surface. These toppers are some of the best I've seen anywhere, the quality is excellent. Mummy A had them ordered online from US.

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn

Did you know The Lion King is 20 years old? The feature film debut in 1994...an oldie but a goodie!

Ty-saurus Rex

I seem to be getting an opportunity to have another go at cakes I've made earlier in the year. This time round is another dinosaur cake and cupcakes with dino toppers. I made the exact same order in February for a 3-year-old dinosaur enthusiast, this time it's for a T-Rex-loving one-year-old.

Mummy R sent me her invitations and party favours for a feel of the theme and colour. She also sent some cake ideas but when I finally showed her my first dino cake, she was more or less sold. She liked the 2D design and wanted a speech bubble that said "Rawrr"!

I made some variations on the dinosaur. I decided to replicate what she had on the invitation - a forest green T-Rex showcasing some serious serrated chompers. But before I embarked on the cake, Mummy K asked me to make a quick draft of how the cake would look like. To be honest, I always get a bit embarrassed about having to draw anything. I really can't draw to save my life... I can't explain why I can then create the stuff I do with fondant. It's one of the mysteries in my life.

Still, I made an attempt to draw T-Rex going "Rawrr", with the caveat that the cake will be a LOT better than the draft ;p

My piece de resistance

I think we all had a good laugh upon seeing the draft. Well, it didn't deter Mummy R from going ahead with the order (brave Mama).

Here's Tyler's invite...

Tyler's T-Rex Party

And here's the cake...

Rawrr!

I used the same embellishments as the last time, which is the chocolate wafer sticks for the wooded forest look, but I made it a little different by interspersing it with fondant leaves and green grass frosting.

Happy Birthday Tyler

Mummy R also asked me a question a lot of mummies enquire about - can my one-year-old eat the chocolate cake? Well I'm not the authority on kids' nutrition, but I do think a bit of cake on your bub's 1st birthday is kosher unless your little one has dairy allergies or gluten intolerance. Just give the cake minus the ganache. Personally, I think if your child has not had any sweets before, then chocolate is a good option as an introduction as compared to candy.

Peppa Pig

I love children's literature, it's such a great fodder for cute cake ideas. I've done a few including Dear Zoo and Hungry Caterpillar, now adding to the library is Peppa Pig!

A friendly neighbour who has 2 little boys just like me requested for a Peppa Pig cake for her elder boy who turns 3. She had already actively researched for ideas online for the cake and wanted a 2D design fondant cake. Peppa Pig is a simple enough character as they are drawn in basic shapes with simple details. Still, it was hard deciding on a design. My son's library has a great Peppa Pig book but in the end, I couldn't resist this design that Mummy C shared...

Peppa Pig and Family

It's a neat cake with all the signature Peppa Pig narrative - sunny day, playing in the mud, Peppa with her family - little brother George, Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig.

So off I went replicating it the best I could...

Character development

Story board

From screen to cake

2D cakes are truly tons of fun to make. With the fondant cutout, it looks almost like a page out of the story book. I added a few little details like a ladybug and a simple trail of trains that can hold the candles.

Peppa Pig!

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Birthdays @ Home

As we enter into the last month of the year, I always get a bit contemplative. What have I put into 2013 and what did I get out of it? Well, there sure was quite a bit of travelling, mainly shuttling between S'pore and Jakarta. But mostly, it's a year of adjustment for our whole family. I think we did well and I was still able to bake and even squeeze in some freelance work!

The recent birthday celebration at home pretty much sums up our 2013 - making home in 2 places. We got back just in time from JKT (like a day before) to hold a simple party at home with friends and family, I managed to bake two cakes for my favourite boys. 

Remember that rainbow cheesecake with the colourful concentric circles? Well, I made a monochrome one for the hubby. He loves the colour blue and I made him a cheesecake in 6 hues of blue. While I was making this B, who is pedantic about colours, gave me some insights into how shading works. So it seems if I made this monochrome cake with the outer rings from dark to light, it would have a tunnel with light at the end effect. In this case, he wanted a bulls-eye effect - so outer rings from light to dark. 

Blue Cheesecake

Happy Birthday B

And here's what my 4 year-old big boy got...

Cake on Fire!

Happy Birthday Jake

So our little guy has a new obsession - Hot Wheels! Where I used to have a gazillion Thomas the Train toys strewn all over the house, it's now little die cast cars. This cake allowed him to add 4 more Hot Wheels cars to his collection, needless to say it's the best birthday ever! Till next year, I say :)

Building Castles in a Cake

In the beginning of the year, I made a boy castle cake and met with some construction challenges. So when another request for a castle came along, I was ready to roll my sleeves up and try again!

Mummy E got in touch with a very straight forward brief - a castle cake with turrets, and cobblestone-textured walls for the castle exterior. Her boy is a big fan of dragon-slaying knights and they have an awesome collection of toys that could be used for a birthday cake, now all that's needed is a castle.

There are many places to draw inspiration from. Mummy E sent me some examples of what she envisioned for the cake. I also looked to my boys' toy corner and actually found this Melissa & Doug castle that had just the right turret design.

Melissa & Doug Castle

I was going to make a square base and stack it up 3 times, with turret towers. I usually turn to ice cream cones when it comes to building castles but Mummy E didn't want the conical type castle so she suggested using paper towel rolls to construct the height of the turret - excellent idea!

The one important tool in this cake project is the embossing mat for the cobblestone texture. I wanted to buy it online as I was out of town while planning this cake with Mummy E. In the end, it was available at Kitchen Capers in Singapore, they have a good one because it comes in a large sheet. For those of you interested here's the link. Mummy E very kindly bought it and left it with me.

I made the turrets 2 days in advance so it would dry out nicely. It was a bit tricky to make fondant adhere to cardboard but with some careful moulding it was doable.

A lot of grey fondant was used, there was little need for any other colour. But having said that, I applied a technique I learnt at a fondant figurine class - shading!

Here's the castle before I applied shading...

Castle Grey

Closer look at the embossed texture

And here's the castle after shading...

Shady Castle

Elijah's Castle

Now with Elijah's knights and dragon characters, it all comes to live!

Happy Birthday Elijah!

Tayo and the Traffic Lights

I had the pleasure of making yet another Tayo cake but this one had a very special request. The little boy who is celebrating his 5th birthday has a thing for traffic lights. I totally get that because my two rascals are equally enthusiastic about traffic lights. My younger one may have just turned 2 but he is able to say "Red means STOP! Green means GO Mama Go Go GO!" So when Mummy L requested for traffic lights including the overhead kind, I totally understand :)

Mummy L was also very proactive in working on the design with me. She wanted a zebra crossing as well. I didn't know before but in the Tayo cartoon, little chicks would cross the road so she requested for those to be part of the cake. Just to be clear, she even helped me to envision the design with a powerpoint draft!

Mummy L's draft

The main challenge for me was the overhead traffic light. Gum paste may do the trick but the weight would make it unstable since the structure would be cantilevered... where is the Hubby when you need him. Then I looked around my supplies and came across simple black straws - Eureka! The straw could be bent and that was where I added on the traffic light detail with art paper.  The other two traffic lights were made out of gum paste and supported by lollipop sticks.

The birthday boy was very observant, he told his mummy that I got the overhead traffic light sequence wrong! It should be green on the inside then amber and red. Good spot Isaac! You really know your lights ; )

A scene from Tayo the Little Bus

I had the most fun making that zebra crossing. There is something about black fondant, I really love working with it. Any details that is set upon the black pops out and the contrast looks fantastic. When I positioned those 3 little chicks on the zebra crossing, I was so pleased with how it all turned out.

Pedestrian chicks

 Happy Birthday Isaac!

My Little Pony Mania

October was the month of My Little Pony cakes! It seemed like every mummy who got in touch with me requested for the pretty ponies for their little ones. I think the rainbow coloured ponies must be enjoying some kind of resurgence in popularity because even McDonald's is packaging their Happy Meals with My Little Pony toys.

I was very happy to make these MLP cakes again as I really enjoyed my first effort for a friend's daughter some time back. I made a total of 4 MLP cakes, with one special order for sisters who were celebrating their birthdays together so I made two cakes with a connecting rainbow! A bit of fondant engineering challenge there.

Here are the 4 cakes...

1. Giselle's 1st Birthday

Simple and Sweet

This cake ordered by Mummy V is a bit of a rehash of my first MLP cake. She didn't want 3D fondant nor toppers so I went with this 2D version of 'Sweetie Belle'. I love make the My Little Pony this way as it stands out enough to make an impact on the cake. I especially love the flowing mane! This was a simple orange sponge cake for a small party.


2. Matilda's 1st Birthday

Field of ponies

A friend wanted the MLP theme for her daughter's first birthday. They had the party decorated with all things pony from the banners to the goodie bags, piñata and even labels the drink bottles! Naturally, a MLP cake would complete the celebration. Mummy M is a busy busy lady so she picked up some toppers and came by to discuss the cake with me. We decided on a rectangular cake - always good for cutting and serving up with a standing rainbow. A couple of days before the party, I went by to McDonald's to get a drink and saw the Happy Meal giving away My Little Pony figurines. It was my first Happy Meal in ages.


3. Kaira's 6th Birthday

Just add ponies

Kaira was going to have a pool party for her birthday so her mummy was a bit hesitant about a fondant cake being out in the open for some hours. Hence, they requested for a cream cake instead. Now having made fondant cakes for most orders, I was suddenly a bit lost as to how to make a standard cream cake. As you all know I don't do buttercream because I don't use shortening and butter alone won't hold in our weather, so I turned to cream cheese. This is a chocolate cake where the sides are frosted and the border piped with sweetened cream cheese that is coloured. I left the 'lane' exposed as chocolate with some green grass frosting on either side. Ask me for this if you'd like a fondant alternative.

4. Lauren and Shauna's Birthday

Little twin cakes

This cake combo is for two sisters whose birthdays are quite close so Mummy K thought to combine the celebration. Big sister Lauren gets a rainbow cake with a stream running through it, while Shauna meimei gets a elevated cloud cake. The two cakes are connected by a gum paste rainbow that straddles both cakes. The challenge here is that Mummy K had to do the assembling herself. For ease of transporting the cakes, the rainbow was not inserted and the cakes had to be assembled on site. I provided all the necessary 'tools' and here's the result of Mummy K's handiwork. Well done!

Rainbow Cheesecake

After having made more rainbow cakes than I care to count, I am now adding another spectrum to my multi layer colour baking - the Rainbow Cheesecake.

I'm not sure how many of you saw it on your Facebook feed but there was a post that was making its rounds on social media on how to make a rainbow cheesecake. It looked absolutely delicious! My sister-in-law J was the first to post the tutorial on my timeline with a message - "Make this please!"

It was a matter of time that the rainbow starts to invade all sorts of baked goods. There was no better time to try this than for my hubby's cousin's 16th birthday. Her dad had contacted me to bake something for her Sweet 16, and being family who have been recipients of my cakes on almost all occasions, I was happy to try something new for once.

I didn't care for the recipe in the tutorial. Every baker has their own cheesecake recipe - if it works, don't try to mess things up. I figured the only additional step would be adding in the food colours into the cheesecake batter.

So here goes...

Technicolor Cheesecake

The coloured batter spread like a dream. I think the next time I try this, I will make more batter to get one or two more colours in. The hubby also suggested that I could do a monochrome ombre cheesecake - Hunny, consider it done! :)

Anyway, the birthday girl was totally surprised when she saw the cake (even I couldn't stop looking at the cake after taking it out of the oven). She loves cheesecake and this was the ultimate birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Christel

O Canada!

For a country that's half way around the world from Singapore, I have to say Canada has made some impressions in my life. Well for a start, I've had family there over the years so every now and then I'll hear about aunts, uncles and cousins who have set up home in the great white north. Then when I was at RD, one of my bosses who played a significant role in my journalism career is Canadian. He was a bear of a guy who wrote with his heart. There was Canuck jokes you don't always get but there's something 'aboot' him that's salt of the earth. I wrote some of my best pieces with him.

When I got married, my husband wanted me to experience premiere skiing for our honeymoon. We headed to Whistler, British Columbia. I'm all for skiing except the green slopes in Whistler were more like intermediate blue slopes everywhere else in the world. Plus it registered -25 degrees that year. I nearly died but it was one hell of a memorable trip.

One of my favourite confection to make when I first started baking was a no-bake three-layer bar of chocolate crumb base, followed by a layer of buttercream custard and topped with a rich dark chocolate ganache. It's called a Nanaimo bar, apparently a popular Canadian dessert that is named after the city of Nanaimo in British Columbia.

Nanaimo Squares

So when I got a call to make a batch of brownies with little Canadian flags as toppers, I was chuffed. I don't usually get orders for brownies. The lady who ordered these was one of the recipients of Daniel's cupcakes. She really liked the toppers and enjoyed the cupcake, so she got in touch for some customised brownies. I have a trusty recipe that yields a rich dense brownie with a shiny cracked top that is crumbly. I had forgotten how much I enjoy making these.

Canadian Chocolate Bar

The flags were handmade. Little red maple leaves printed, cut and then pasted on red art card and affixed on toothpicks. Each flag adorned the brownies that's topped with a swirl of ganache. Check out how I made those flags.

Stick it

Paste it

Flag it

Dear Daniel

Dear Daniel,

When your Mum and I were young, we were each other's favourite playmates. Family gatherings saw us like peas & carrots and we especially loved playing 'house'. Someone was always making a meal, we pretended to 'work' and of course there was the occasional domestic squabble but our kinship and friendship weathered it all.

Then we grew up and went from playing to partying. Too many nights were spent queuing at clubs, drinking till the bar closed and then, still reluctant to head home, we would eat our first meal of the day at Adam Road hawker centre till the sun beckoned.

Well well, look at us now. Our main preoccupation, making sure you kids are fed, cleaned and entertained. We queue at supermarkets, stay up till you are done drinking (milk) and still reluctant to head to bed, we try to cram in some me-time online till we hear your next cry.

It's been a month now since we were blessed with your arrival and every day, you are a joy to all who are in your life. Every time I look at you, I think of how very far we have all come. We couldn't imagine it before, but Daniel... you and your cousins Jake, James and Clare are everything we ever wanted and more.

Love,
Aunty Debbie

ps: In case you're wondering... your Papa is a HUGE Liverpool supporter, which explains why your full month cupcakes have those little red football jerseys with your name and day / month of birth ('39') on it. They were lovingly handmade by your Mummy and I, even though we don't watch football. But you should know the family is divided into Liverpool and Man United supporters, I'm sure your Uncle Ravi and Uncle Andrew will be having a chat with you the minute you can kick a ball.

Happy 1st Month Danny boy

An Education in VW Kombi

I can't believe it's October already! I haven't had much time to update the blog on the cakes I've been busy with. In the past weeks, I had the pleasure of repeating some fun designs like the Fire Engine and Honeybee cupcakes, as well as some cheery Sunflower cupcakes for my niece's 17th birthday, but the one cake I have to share with you is the VW Kombi cake!

I was contacted by some Kombi enthusiasts for a series of Kombi van cakes. While I do recognise the iconic camper van, I can't say I know the vehicle in great detail. I have also underestimated what it meant to make a cake for enthusiasts (of any subject). You just could not afford to be too casual about details. My first brief was for a rainbow-coloured Kombi with peace sign in place of the VW logo. As the van needed to look like it's painted, that's just what I did. I painted on the rainbow colours on the body of the van (with edible paints and gin). It was my first time painting on fondant but some tips online really helped out. 

I baked blocks of chocolate cake and carved out the shape of the Kombi, had it covered in fondant and laid the paintwork. Yes I did feel a bit like a mechanic for car body kit. Here's the Kombi taking a test drive...

Front View 

Back View

Unfortunately, this Kombi never made it beyond a test drive. I was told flat out that the recipient of the cake was rejecting it! It's a first for me and boy did it hurt :(

To begin with, I didn't get the shape of the Kombi right, the slope in the front was way too exaggerated. Then the sides looked somewhat saggy, which could be due to the double layer fondant I applied (I also realise my cake could have been a bit too moist, causing the internal structure to buckle). But finally, the reason it was not road worthy was that while the cake waited for the day of the party (1.5 days) in it's air-conditioned 'garage', it finally had a meltdown. I recommended it didn't go into refrigeration for fear of the colours weeping but looks like air-conditioning didn't do the trick.

Lesson learnt, fondant cakes wait for no man. Bake it, eat it.

I was quite wrecked from the experience (mostly from the rejection and feeling bad for the whole situation). While I'll take the rep for the many things that went wrong, it was still good cake and an honest effort. In the end, I had another chance to make it right. This time I was given many pictures of the Kombi to study, and boy did I look long and hard. The cake I had to replicate is this very adorable Kombi called 'Blue'.

'Blue'

And this time, I nailed it. 

Thanks for the opportunity. 

Kombi rocks!