Lightning McQueen

The little boy who introduced Thomas the Train to my Jake has a new toy interest - Lightning McQueen from Disney's Cars. Jake's cousin, Justin turns 4 and luckily for his mum, she did not have to endure another year of Thomas birthday party. So Aunty Debbie was tasked with baking a Lightning McQueen cake!

Before I started work, I contacted my baker friend Dawn who made a Lightning McQueen cake some months back. Now if you remember, Dawn is my fellow baker mum who helped me on the Penguin cake last year. Dawn's cake decoration skills is easily the very best that I've seen anywhere. Pure perfection. I had hoped some tips from her would help me along the way. She sent me a step-by-step via WhatsApp from Shanghai where she is based, thank you so much Dawn. Here's a peek at her amazing work... check out the contours!

A perfect Lightning McQueen by Dawn

So I went about building this cake. The baking part was easy - a moist chocolate cake with Oreo cream cheese filing. I had to stop myself from eating the bits that were carved out while making this cake! 

Yummy undercarriage

Rough outline of McQueen covered in fudge

I tried so hard to follow the tips and advice given for this cake. It was a challenge carving a car out of a block of cake, which was recommended. I found myself piecing together the car for the contours instead. So between meeting the requirements of a moist cake and the details required for the car to take shape, this was my best effort.

Lightning McQueen!

Adding in the details was the real fun part especially the round disc on the bonnet. I used it to imprint the birthday boy's name! 

Here's looking at you kid

Ok so it's not really an accurate shape of Lightning McQueen, mine is more like a family saloon than a sports car but the signature windscreen eyes and engine grille smile did the trick. And not forgetting the lightning stripes on the door!

Vroom!

A Lightning McQueen that he can eat

It made the birthday boy's day and that's all that really matters. Happy Birthday Justin!

Hello Kitty #2

Adding to my Hello Kitty cakes is a decked high creation featuring Kitty at the top! I bought a special Hello Kitty bakeware for this and was really excited to use it.

Makes cute little Hello Kitty cakes

An ex-colleague from my days at Sony contacted me for a cake for her daughter's birthday celebration at school and I was told it must be a rainbow cake and a Hello Kitty one at that. Since it's hard to make a layered cake that's irregular shaped simply because I usually only have one of such pans (with the exception of round ones),  I suggested a regular round rainbow cake that's topped off with a fondant covered Hello Kitty. 

I made my regular Vanilla Butter batter, divided it into 5 portions for colouring with some left to fill the Hello Kitty pan. The pan is such a perfect size, it's great for mini cakes or a topper for part of a bigger cake and the grooves makes it an easy guide to add on Hello Kitty's features. I only have one complain, it was somewhat difficult to remove the baked cake. I had carefully loosened the sides but the cake was not coming off easily. I was careful not to lose any bits since Hello Kitty's face was at the bottom of the pan but alas, bits of the cake stuck to the base :( And yes, I did oil the pan generously! I hope a few more bakes will season the pan. More Hello Kitty cakes anyone?

So while the shape of Hello Kitty is perfect, the surface was a bit rough. I rectified it with 2 layers of fondant or I could have been more generous with the cream frosting. The result was not too bad.

Hello Kitty on top

Little bow and colourful M&Ms for the border

Happy Birthday Ning!

The birthday girl shared the cake with her classmates and the rainbow cake made the children smile but it was hard work for the adults to cut up and serve. So the next thing on my agenda is coming up with a simple guide on how best to cut and serve a rainbow cake that is 15cm tall. Look out for it!

Hello Kitty #1 (and counting)

How do you love Hello Kitty? Let me count the ways...

I've made a few Hello Kitty cakes last year and I am so sure she will be in my lineup again this year that I invested in some more Hello Kitty bakeware and cutters!

My first Hello Kitty cake for 2013 is a pink and pretty affair. A friend referred a mummy to me who wanted a Kitty cake she saw online and asked if I could replicate it. Doing a copy is both easy and hard to do... it's simple since you don't really have to think much about the design as it is there for you, but it also means if you do a poor replica, it's easy to make a comparison.

Well, I set out to follow the colours and details as closely as I could but at some point, I made some variations (I just can't help it!) But thank goodness, it's well received ; )

Here's what's involved...

Round cake with a pink bow

Lots of little sparkly flowers

Hello Kitty

And here's the finished product for a birthday girl who shares her birthday with her grandma.

Happy Birthday Tata

And Happy Birthday Grandma

For those of you who may be curious to see the cake that this design is based on, click here for a peek ; )

Setting the Stage

If my first cake of 2013 is anything to go by, it's going to be an interesting year ahead!

I was contacted by a Betty Boop fan for a cake of her favourite character but I only had 2 days to deliver so I suggested a simple flat fondant cutout of the burlesque flapper girl on the cake. She really wanted the character in 3D so she had an idea - have one of her Betty Boop porcelain figurines placed on the cake! I was a bit apprehensive at first but there is absolutely nothing wrong with a porcelain cake topper as long as you're very careful.

She went on to send me a few images of her Betty Boop figurine collection - she has many! and they are gorgeous ; ) I was also quite sure I'd have had a hard time replicating it as perfectly in fondant. I decided to pick one of Betty Boop kneeling on a star with the caption You're a Star

So essentially, I'm just setting the stage (in this case, one made of cake) for Betty Boop to step up on. The colour scheme is of course black and red and my client had wanted a rainbow cake. I thought it would be more stunning if she could cut into alternating layers of black and red cake instead! So I suggested layers of dark chocolate cake and red vanilla butter cake with cream cheese frosting.

The best of both worlds

It's a tall cake. I had it covered in white fondant and embellished with red and black hearts and floral cutouts. Then I had a plastic dowel support inserted into the centre of the cake and topped it off with a round plastic disc on which the figurine would sit without ruining the cake.

I also wanted to incorporate a design with stars as it would really look like a stage if there's a splay of stars around the figurine. I had some fondant stars cut out and attached them to springy wires so it could be the background for Betty Boop.

Centre stage

Just add figurine

With this order, I realise that as adults we hardly indulge ourselves when it comes to birthday cakes. If you have children, it's all about what they like and their birthday cakes are the highlight of the year. In this case, my client is finally getting a birthday cake and one she's always wanted.

Happy Birthday Evelyn

Hello 2013

Happy New Year everyone!

The start of 2013 sets a new reality for me...
1. I won't be going back to work
2. I will bake more
3. I will start running again
4. I may make Jakarta my second home

That's a lot to accomplish in 12 months. But I am looking forward to come what may.

So what's in store in the kitchen for 2013?
Already I've made 3 rainbow cakes with more to come so I have a good feeling it's a year where I'll be making lots of rainbows. Lovely. And hopefully, I'll find my pot of gold at the end of it all ; )

Also, I hope to move beyond baking. I have a favourite roast chicken recipe from Thomas Keller that's a real winner. A friend first taught me the tricks to the Bouchon roaster, which is now my party mainstay. I'm also on track to learn more Cantonese soups for the hubby, who comes home over weekends from Jakarta.

In 2013, I'm looking to three ladies who inspire me in the kitchen - Ina, Nigella and Martha. I will be trying out a few of their recipes and putting a spin of my own. Who knows, I may start a new blog for this. Stay tuned!